11在马太十六章二十四节主告诉我们，我们若要跟从祂，就必须否认或弃绝己。在我们里面有天然、属魂的生命，圣经称为己，在这己里有撒但的“脚”。撒但在那里。每当你顾到你的己，同情你的己，为你的己作什么，随从你的己，你就在撒但的手下。在这样的情形里不可能有召会生活。这是因为己、魂生命、天然的生命，与召会生活相反。我们必须清楚，召会不是用天然的生命，乃是用属灵的生命建造的，不是用魂，乃是用灵建造的。不但如此，我们所必须否认的己就是魂，因为在二十五节主说，“凡要救自己魂生命〔希腊文，psuche，朴宿克，意，魂〕的，必丧失魂生命；凡为我丧失自己魂生命的，必得着魂生命。”因此，这节里的魂或魂生命，就是二十四节里的己。魂生命就是天然的生命，就是我们这人，我们的己。每当我们照着我们的己作什么或说什么，我们就是与撒但站在一起，并且破坏召会的建造（李常受文集一九六三年第二册，一九○页）。
11The Lord told us that if we would follow Him, we must deny, or renounce, the self (Matt. 16:24). Within us there is a natural, soulish life that the Scriptures call the self, and within this self are the “feet” of Satan. Satan is there. Whenever you take care of your self, sympathize with your self, do something for your self, and go along with your self, you are under the hand of Satan. In such a case it is impossible to have the church life. This is because the self, the soulish life, the natural life, is contrary to the church life. We must be clear that the church is built not with the natural life but with the spiritual life, not by the soul but by the spirit. Furthermore, the self that we must deny is the soul, for in the very next verse the Lord said, “Whoever wants to save his soul-life [Gk. psuche; lit., soul] shall lose it; but whoever loses his soullife for My sake shall find it” (v. 25). Hence, the soul, or the soul-life, in verse 25 is the self in verse 24. The soul-life is the natural life, which is our very being, our self. Whenever we do or say something according to our self, we stand together with Satan and damage the building up of the church. (CWWL, 1963, vol. 2, p. 145)