Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:3-6; Acts 2:42a; 8:1; 13:1; 1 John 1:3; John 17:11b, 20-23; Rev. 1:11; Rom. 14:1-6; 15:1-7, 16; 16:1, 16b-17; 2 John 7-11; 1 Cor. 1:2; 5:9-13; 10:17; 11:29-30; 2 Cor. 2:5-11; Titus 3:10
In this supplementary word I am burdened to share with you, first, concerning the fellowship of the churches in the Lord’s recovery. Today we need to have a complete, thorough knowledge concerning the fellowship of the Body of Christ and also concerning the fellowship of the local churches.
As we have seen in this book, the Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the divine revelation concerning eight basic and major items: God, Christ, the Spirit, the eternal life, the believers, the church, the proper ground of the church, and the practice of the local churches. Among these items the recovery of the proper ground of the church touches a major practical problem that we are facing today. The recovery today is very practically the recovery of the proper ground of the church. All the divisions and confusions among Christians today have come from this one source: the fact that most Christians are destitute of the knowledge of the proper ground of the church. Today all of Christianity is full of divisions. Division eventually leads to confusion; these two are actually two sides of one thing. In the past three years we have been facing a real problem among us, a problem that may be termed a rebellion, a turmoil, or a division. This problem has been due not to the lack of knowledge concerning the proper ground of the church but to the fact that those responsible for the problem would not practice the truth concerning the proper ground of the church. They would not keep the proper ground of the church. In addition to the knowledge concerning the ground of the church, for the proper practice of the local churches, the adequate knowledge of the fellowship of the Body of Christ is needed.
We need to see in a brief way the fellowship of the Body of Christ. In our physical body there is a current of blood, which we may call the circulation of the blood. This current, or this circulation, is going on continuously in our physical body. If this circulation, or this current, of blood were to stop for only a few minutes, we would die. Thus, it is the circulation of our blood that keeps us alive. The health of our body depends on the circulation of our blood. We may say that this circulation is the fellowship of our body.
The fellowship of the Body of Christ is very similar to the circulation of the blood in our body. We have been enlightened to see that Christ has a Body and that we are members of His Body, that is, members of Christ Himself. Just as our physical body has many members, Christ’s Body also has many members. And just as a man has only one body — this is a principle ordained in God’s creation — Christ also has only one Body. If we do not understand the church as the Body of Christ, we should simply look at our own body. We can understand Christ’s Body by knowing our own body. I have learned a great deal concerning the Body of Christ by learning to know my own body. If we learn to know our body, we will know the Body of Christ.
The circulation of the blood is the fellowship of our body. The fellowship of Christ’s Body is also a kind of circulation. In our physical body we have the circulation of the blood, but Christ’s mystical Body does not have blood. The fellowship in Christ’s Body, then, is the circulation of the Spirit. The Spirit today is the “blood” in Christ’s Body. If there were no blood in our body, our body would be dried up and would be dead. Likewise, if Christ’s Body did not have the Spirit, it would be like a corpse. Thus, the fellowship of the Body of Christ is simply the circulation, the current, of the Spirit — not the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God but the Spirit. In the New Testament the Spirit denotes the consummated Spirit, the Spirit who has been consummated, compounded, and mingled and who is now dispensing. In this Spirit there is divinity, that is, God’s divine nature, and there is humanity, that is, man’s human nature. There is also Christ’s person, Christ’s wonderful, all-inclusive death, and Christ’s empowering resurrection with His ascension. All these elements have been compounded into this one Spirit. When this one Spirit is circulating within the Body of Christ, divinity, humanity, Christ’s person, Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection are all circulating. How wonderful this is!
The circulation of the blood is very important to our physical body. This circulation carries nourishment to every part of our body, and it also causes our body to be cherished. At times we may need to do some physical exercises to improve the circulation in our body. This may cause us to be more healthy. Romans 10:12 says that whenever we call on the name of the Lord, the Lord becomes rich to us. I have discovered that the more we call on the Lord with a loud voice, the more our spirit is released, and the more we are healed and strengthened. Such calling on the Lord will make us very healthy because to call in this way is to exercise. If we are always quiet and shut up within ourselves, we will be very weak. But if we call, “O Lord Jesus! O Lord! O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” for ten minutes, the Lord will become rich to us. We will have joy, and eventually we will have strength. The joy of the Lord will be our strength (Neh. 8:10). I have learned the secret of calling on the name of the Lord. The Lord is rich to all who call on Him. To call is not merely to pray. The Greek word for call means “to cry out,” even loudly. In certain situations it would not be appropriate for us to call on the Lord loudly. However, when we are in a proper situation to do so, we should call loudly, “O Lord Jesus! Amen!” By calling on the Lord in this way, we will enjoy the riches of Christ, and we will be strengthened. This is because our calling on the name of the Lord causes the Spirit to circulate within us. This circulating Spirit is the compound Spirit, who includes divinity, humanity, Christ’s person, Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection. The riches in this compound Spirit are unsearchable. When this Spirit circulates within us, we enjoy all of Christ’s riches. This circulation is the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
The Body of Christ is uniquely one universally (Eph. 4:4-6). Individually, we are members of the Body of Christ, and all the local churches are parts of this one unique Body of Christ. As those who are in the Body, we need to realize that we are one with all the saints in the entire universe. Ephesians 4:4-6 depicts a oneness that is universal: “One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” In these verses we can see that the Triune God is mingled with the Body. The Body mentioned here is not local; rather, it is universal. This is the universal oneness of the Body of Christ.
Since the Body of Christ is uniquely one universally, the fellowship of the Body of Christ also is uniquely one universally.
The fellowship of the Body of Christ is the fellowship of the apostles — the divine fellowship between all the believers and the Triune God. The term the fellowship of the apostles is used in Acts 2:42: “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.” Then 1 John 1:3 tells us that the fellowship of the apostles is not merely with us, the believers, but also with the Father and the Son. Here John did not mention the Spirit directly, because he was speaking in the Spirit. The Spirit was there already. The fellowship of the apostles is the fellowship of the Body of Christ, the divine fellowship between all the believers and the Triune God.
The fellowship of the apostles is based upon the apostles’ teaching. Fellowship always comes after teaching. If there is no teaching, there is no element or realm of the fellowship. Actually, the teaching is the element and the realm of the fellowship. By the Lord’s mercy, today in the Lord’s recovery we are under the apostles’ teaching and in the apostles’ fellowship. The fellowship of the recovery that we are in is the recovered fellowship of the apostles. This fellowship was lost, but it has been recovered. Today we are in the fellowship of the apostles, which is the fellowship of the Lord’s recovery. If you are a Baptist, you are in the fellowship of the Baptists. But the fellowship of the Baptists is narrower than the fellowship of the apostles, so they cannot claim that their fellowship is the fellowship of the apostles. We need to see and have the boldness to say that we are in the fellowship of the recovery, which is the recovered apostles’ fellowship.
We always need to remember that we are in the Lord’s recovery and that His recovery is unique. There is not another recovery, just as there is not another Body of Christ or another New Testament. The fellowship of the apostles is the fellowship for this unique recovery of the Lord. When we see something going on in the recovery that is not so good, we need to have this kind of fellowship and a proper attitude. When a man marries someone, he is bound to her for as long as he lives. If he is unhappy with her, he cannot divorce her. He should try the best to help his wife by fellowshipping to improve the situation in a nice and living way. He should not charge her to improve but help her to improve. This is the right way. When we see something wrong in the recovery or in any of the local churches, we should try the best to help the situation by fellowshipping so that it can be improved and corrected. If there is anything wrong, we can and should fellowship and pray together and seek the Lord’s leading to improve the situation for the benefit of all the saints. This will be a real help to the Lord’s recovery.
We should not have the thought that we can do a particular work according to our way in the recovery. We may be very gifted and have a large capacity to work out something. But what we work out may be the same as worldly people carrying out a certain enterprise. We have to realize that in the Lord’s recovery there is only one work.
When I came into the recovery, I realized what the recovery was and that it was uniquely one. The one who brought the recovery to China among us was Brother Watchman Nee. If I would not have taken the way of the recovery, I could have had a work in northern China, but I gave that up. I fully realized that the Lord has only one Body, one work, one Bible, one revelation, and one current, one flow, in one fellowship. At that time Brother Nee was being used by the Lord. I never tried to speak anything different from his teaching. This does not mean that I did not have any other teachings, but my speaking always followed Brother Nee’s speaking in order to keep the unique fellowship in the Lord’s unique recovery. I felt that it was a glory to participate in the Lord’s recovery in such a subjective way with Brother Nee. I thank the Lord that He had mercy upon me in helping me to have the best choice. In Moses’ blessing in Deuteronomy 33, there is the term the choicest things (vv. 13-16). I realize that the Lord has been giving me the choicest things throughout my years in the recovery. This is due to His mercy in placing me and keeping me all the time in His recovery. As long as we are preserved in the Lord’s way, we are preserved in the oneness in the unique fellowship. There is only one Lord, one Body, one Bible, one divine revelation, one speaking, one recovery, one fellowship, and one way to practice the recovery.
Our problem today is related to the matter of fellowship. We are in the fellowship of the recovery, but do we fellowship? For example, do the brothers in Sacramento fellowship with the brothers in Chicago, Cleveland, or Wichita? Among the churches in the Lord’s recovery there is not much fellowship. We have seen that the problems between Barnabas and Saul were probably due to a lack of proper and adequate fellowship. If we are not in fellowship, problems can come in among us.
The circulation of blood in our physical body is a good picture of the fellowship, the flow of the divine life, in the Body of Christ. If our blood circulation is not proper, this can cause much sickness to our body. The proper blood circulation swallows up all kinds of germs. I was in Taipei for about five years beginning in late 1984. After about three of those years, trouble came in among the churches. The trouble in the churches today is due to the shortage of the fellowship, the circulation of the blood. This lack of fellowship gave the enemy an opportunity to come in.
We are even very short of fellowship with the churches who are close to us geographically. There is very little circulation. If my shoulder were not participating adequately in the blood circulation of my body, it would be sick. No part of my physical body can be separate from the other parts since all the parts must participate in the one blood circulation. Some may think that they are wise to keep themselves separate. But if any part of the Body of Christ is separate, that part will eventually die. The best way to stay healthy is to “receive more blood and to give more blood,” that is, to stay in the fellowship, the circulation of life. Then we will save ourselves and promote the healing of the Body. In some places there has been no peace because of a lack of fellowship. The more fellowship we have, the more peace we have.
The reason many people are weak physically is that they sit too much. They do not move. It is the same spiritually. We are sick and weak because we remain with ourselves, in ourselves, and for ourselves. We are sick because we are so much in ourselves. We need to get out of ourselves by fellowshipping with the other churches. If we want to get helped, the secret is to go to see some brothers in another locality. The brothers in Texas should not have traffic among themselves only. They need to go to Chicago, Cleveland, and Seattle and break the boundary of Texas.
I would like to make a proposal to the leading brothers. Perhaps ten days from today, fifty brothers from fifty cities can go to a certain church to be in their Lord’s Day morning meeting at 10 A.M. I can assure you that you will receive the help and that the church will be helped. Today there are many opinions among the churches concerning the churches. Other churches have opinions concerning the church in Cleveland and the church in Anaheim. The church in a certain city may have many opinions about other localities. Each local church may have some opinions about other local churches. All these opinions need to be thrown away. How can they be thrown away? They can be thrown away by the circulation, the fellowship. If the waste in our physical body is not discharged regularly, we will die. The circulation of blood within our body is like a river that always carries away the waste in our being so that it can be discharged. In like manner, the fellowship in the Body carries away all the negative things.
Some brothers may be afraid for others to come and visit them. But what we need today among the churches is more divine circulation, more fellowship. There are about fifty churches in California, but there is not much fellowship among them. This is where our shortcoming is, and this is why we are weak. The circulation helps us and helps others. It helps everyone in the Body. We need the fellowship. This fellowship is the fellowship of the apostles, which is today the fellowship of the recovery. The fellowship today among us is the recovered apostles’ fellowship.
All the churches around the globe are part of the one recovery of the Lord. There should not be any boundaries of separation among the churches. Some co-workers in the past did have the feeling that a certain area was their territory. But we need to see that it is not healthy or profitable in the Lord’s recovery for anyone to have a boundary for his work. The only boundary is the boundary of the recovery. We should not say, “That’s my church. That’s the work in my territory.” We have only one work. That work is the work of the recovery based upon the teaching of the apostles. The remedy to the problem of so-called boundaries and territories among the churches is the fellowship. We should not have the thought that others coming to our place may disturb our work. We do not need to defend our work. Our work is the Lord’s work, which is the recovery’s work. We need the adequate fellowship among all the churches in all the nations, and we need a clear vision concerning the apostles’ teaching and the apostles’ fellowship.
This fellowship is to keep the universal oneness of the Body of Christ (John 17:11b, 20-23; Eph. 4:3-6). Ephesians 4:3 charges us to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit. We can keep this oneness because it is our possession already. We have this oneness; thus, we only need to keep it. Regardless of how weak we may be, we still have this oneness. This is because we still have the circulation of the “blood,” the circulation of the Spirit. If we did not have this circulation, we would be spiritually dead. As long as we have life, regardless of how weak we may be, we have this oneness. It is the possession of every believer. What we need, then, is just to keep this oneness. When we keep this oneness, we are in the unique fellowship of the Lord’s recovery.
Now we come to another aspect of the fellowship, that is, the fellowship of the local churches. It seems that there is no problem with the universal fellowship of the Body of Christ; however, when we put this fellowship into practice, immediately it becomes a local fellowship, the fellowship of the local churches.
The local churches are many in different localities (Rev. 1:11). The Body of Christ as the church, the unique universal church, is expressed through the local churches. It is impossible for the Body of Christ to be expressed without the local churches. The local churches, which are the expressions of the unique Body of Christ, are scattered on this earth in the localities where the local churches exist to express the Body of Christ.
The local churches are locally kept away from one another by their being in different localities. I do not say that they are separated from one another; the word separated may carry the connotation of division. I have used the term kept away because to be kept away is not to be divided. The churches are kept away from one another only by their localities, not by anything else. However, they are not divided universally.
The local churches should fellowship with all the genuine local churches on the whole earth to keep the universal fellowship of the Body of Christ. Any local church that does not keep this universal fellowship of the Body of Christ is divisive and becomes a local sect. Some so-called local churches are not genuine and have become divisions; we do not need to fellowship with such “churches.” But we should have fellowship with all the genuine local churches on the whole earth to keep the universal fellowship of the Body of Christ. If not, we are no longer a church but a sect. A church is one that remains in the Body; a sect is a group of believers who divide themselves from the Body. When my arm remains in the body, it is a part of my living body. If it is cut off and separated from the body, it becomes a dead thing.
Every local church should receive all kinds of genuine believers in Christ (Rom. 14:1-6; 15:1-7). We have no right to give up any believer, unless he is divisive. When a believer becomes divisive, he is divided from the church already. But as long as a believer is not divisive, we should not give him up. If a believer prefers to keep the Sabbath whereas we keep the Lord’s Day, or if he eats only vegetables whereas we eat every kind of food, we still must receive him. We must receive him because God has received him (14:3) and because Christ has received him (15:7). We must receive every believer in Christ according to Christ (v. 5).
We should not receive the believers according to their diet or according to our preference. Whether we like a particular believer or not, we have no choice but to receive him. Suppose you were born into a family of twelve brothers. You might like only yourself and one of your brothers and not like the rest. However, the fact that the other ten are in the same family is not up to you; it is up to your parents. They begot those peculiar ones. Therefore, you have no choice but to receive them as your brothers. Likewise, in the church a particular brother may have certain characteristics that are offensive to us. But we need to realize that our Father has begotten him and has received him. If we give up this brother, we would give up our Father. Thus, we must receive all kinds of genuine believers, not according to anything of ourselves but according to Christ. We must receive them because they have Christ; Christ is in them. If a church does not receive all kinds of genuine believers, it is divisive and becomes a sect.
A believer can be kept away from the fellowship of a local church, that is, the fellowship of the Body of Christ, because of only three things.
The first thing is being divisive, making divisions and causes of stumbling contrary to the apostles’ teaching (16:17). In Romans 14 Paul says that we must receive all kinds of genuine believers, whether they keep certain days or consider every day alike, whether they eat vegetables or eat meat (vv. 1-6). Then, in chapter 15 Paul says that we must receive genuine believers according to Christ (vv. 5-7). In these portions of the Word, Paul is very broad-minded, very generous, and, in a sense, very liberal. But at the end of chapter 16 Paul says, “I exhort you, brothers, to mark those who make divisions and causes of stumbling contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and turn away from them” (v. 17). These two things — the making of divisions and causes of stumbling — have been and still are going on among us. Thus, we need to mark those who make divisions and causes of stumbling contrary to what we have learned of the apostles, and we must turn away from them.
In dealing with the divisive ones, we must also take Paul’s word in Titus 3:10: “A factious man, after a first and second admonition, refuse.” A factious person is a divisive and sectarian person. According to Paul’s word in Romans 16:17 and in Titus 3:10, after a first and second admonition, we must reject such persons and turn away from them. To do this is to quarantine such persons. To quarantine a person does not mean that we hate that person. If one member in a family became ill with a contagious disease, the rest of the family would need to quarantine him for the safety of the whole family. Otherwise, the entire family would be affected. Likewise, to practice Paul’s word in Romans 16:17 and in Titus 3:10 is to quarantine the divisive members in the Body of Christ. This is not my teaching; it is my presentation of the holy Word to you.
The second thing for which a believer can be kept away from the fellowship of the church is being heretical, denying that Christ came in the flesh (2 John 7-11). This implies the denying of Christ’s redemptive work, which was accomplished by Christ in His flesh (Rom. 8:3; Col. 1:22). Teaching heresy is not merely a matter of teaching wrongly or differently. In 1 Timothy 1:3 Paul says that he had exhorted Timothy to remain in Ephesus in order that he might charge certain ones not to teach differently. However, in 2 John 7-11 John is not referring to those who teach differently but to those who teach heretically, denying that Christ came in the flesh, that is, denying Christ’s person in His humanity, and denying His redemptive work. They do not believe that Christ is both God and man who came in the flesh to accomplish redemption for us, the sinners. The apostle John says that if such a one comes to us, we should not receive him into our home, and we should not even greet him. Then John says that if we greet him, saying to him, Rejoice, we will share in his evil works. This is not my word but the word of the apostle John.
Thus far, among us there is no one who is teaching heretically. However, there are some who are making divisions and causes of stumbling.
The third thing for which a believer can be kept away from the fellowship of a local church is the committing of gross sins and living in these sins, not being willing to repent of them and forsake them (1 Cor. 5:9-13). A person who commits gross sins in this way should be removed from the fellowship of the church. But once such a one would repent and forsake his sins, the church should forgive him and receive him into the fellowship of the church, that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan (2 Cor. 2:5-11). In his first Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul charged the church in Corinth to remove a sinful brother from the fellowship of the church. Later, this one repented, and the news came to Paul. Immediately, Paul wrote the second Epistle, charging the church to forgive this one and to receive him back. If we do not do this, we may be taken advantage of by Satan in that he might devour such a repentant one.
In dealing with the divisions that have separated themselves from the genuine local churches and have broken the unique fellowship of the Body of Christ, I would like to present to you my proposal, and I believe that this is according to the holy Word.
First, we should consider these divisions as divisive sects, like the denominations, not according to their condition but according to their standing, their ground. If you were to go to a meeting of the divisive ones, as a pretense they might behave in a very spiritual way. This kind of behavior is a matter of their condition. In this book I have used the illustration of marriage. Marriage is based upon the chastity of the wife, not upon her niceness. A wife may be very nice, but if her husband is Mr. Smith and she begins to call herself Mrs. Jones, regardless of how nice, humble, and submissive she may be toward her husband, the base of her marriage will be annulled. The base of a marriage is not the wife’s condition but her chastity. If a wife is chaste, even though at times she may not treat her husband nicely, that is, even though her condition may be somewhat poor, she still has the proper standing as a wife. Concerning today’s situation among us, we need to exercise the proper discernment. We must discern whether a certain group of believers is a genuine church or a division, not according to their condition but according to their standing, their ground. Regarding one’s condition, it is possible to pretend, but concerning the ground on which one stands, no one can pretend. We are either on the proper ground or we are not. Just as a woman cannot pretend to have one unique husband, we cannot pretend to be on the proper ground of the church in the unique fellowship.
Second, we should not recommend any believer in the local churches to have any share in the meetings and activities of the divisions. Nevertheless, there may be some who attend the Lord’s table meeting in a local church and, after taking the table, they leave to go to a meeting of the divisive ones to listen to a message. If any believer in the local churches would attend the meetings and share in the activities of those divisions, the local churches should not put him away from the fellowship of the church, as long as he is not infected by and does not promote anything that is divisive. Our dealing with such a person depends on whether or not he has been infected by the “germs” of division and whether or not he is passing on those germs to others. If he does pass on those germs, we must advise him not to do this. We cannot tolerate any germs of division.
If any believer who is meeting with any of these sectarian divisions would attend the meetings of the local churches or contact the believers meeting in the local churches, he should not be rejected, as long as he does not promote anything divisive.
However, anyone who is aggressive for and promotes the sectarian divisions should be considered divisive and should be rejected after a first and second admonition (Titus 3:10). I believe that this is the fair and scriptural way to deal with the divisions that have separated themselves from the genuine local churches and have broken the unique fellowship of the Body of Christ. Anyhow, according to the apostles’ teaching in the New Testament, anyone who makes the division, who is divisive and bears the “germs” of division, that is, who is factious, sectarian, we should refuse him (Titus 3:10) and turn away from him (Rom. 16:17).
In this supplementary word we will consider, second, the nature, ground, and condition of a local church.
Concerning the nature of a local church, first, we must realize that the church is the church of God (1 Cor. 1:2). A local church must be a church of God, possessing the divine nature of God. The title the church of God denotes not only that the church belongs to God but also that the church must have the nature of God.
Second, the churches are the churches of Christ (Rom. 16:16b). A local church must be a church of Christ, being in the element of Christ. Every element has a nature, and the nature is the essence of the element. Christ is the element of the church, and God is the nature of the church. God is in Christ; this indicates that the nature is in the element. A local church must possess the divine nature of God and be in the element of Christ.
The ground of a local church is the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ, that is, the oneness of the Spirit. Ephesians 4:3 charges us to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit. The oneness of the Spirit is the oneness of the Body of Christ, which is the basic element of the unique ground of a local church.
The genuine oneness of the Body of Christ must be practiced with the unique ground of locality within the limit of the boundary and jurisdiction of the locality in which a church exists, that is, on the ground of locality, as with the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), the church in Antioch (13:1), the church in Cenchrea (Rom. 16:1), the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2), and the seven churches in the seven cities in Asia (Rev. 1:11). All these churches were on the local ground, the ground of locality.
The condition of a local church may fluctuate and may differ from that of all the other local churches, just as the conditions of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 differed from one another. The church in Ephesus was in one condition, and the church in Smyrna was in another condition. All the seven churches were different in their conditions. However, although the conditions of the churches may differ, the ground of the local churches remains the same. Because the condition of a church may fluctuate, our recognizing of a local church should be based upon its nature and ground and not upon its condition.
A local church is preserved from being divided by its ground, not by its condition. The unique ground — the unique oneness of the Body of Christ, plus the unique ground of locality — preserves a church from being divided. The condition of a certain church may be good, but that does not assure that the ground of that church is right. A local church may be low in its condition, yet it is still a genuine local church as long as it keeps the genuine ground of the oneness of the Body. On the other hand, a local church may be high in its condition, but it is a division, a local sect, as long as it does not care for the genuine ground of the oneness of the Body of Christ expressed in its locality. We may use marriage as an illustration of this principle. The ground of a marriage is the chastity of the wife. As long as a wife is chaste, she has a proper standing, even though her character may be rough. She may not be loving or kind — this is her condition — but this does not annul the ground of her marriage. However, if her husband’s name is Smith, and she begins to call herself Mrs. Jones, even if she is loving, kind, humble, and submissive toward her husband, her calling herself Mrs. Jones annuls the ground of her marriage. A wife’s base in her marriage is her chastity. In Revelation 3:8 the Lord praised the church in Philadelphia for not denying His name. It is a terrible thing for a wife to deny her husband’s name. That annuls the base of their marriage. Regardless of how good a wife may be in character or in daily life, if she denies her husband’s name, she has lost her base in the marriage life. The ground of a local church is the very base upon which we recognize that church. We recognize a church not because its condition is according to our preference. Our recognizing of a church depends upon its ground, and this ground is composed of two things: the oneness of the Body and the locality in which the church exists. Concerning the ground of locality, the principle in the New Testament is “one city, one church.” In a particular city there should not be more than one church. The condition of a local church can change, and sometimes it does change; but the ground of a local church should remain unchanged permanently.
In the past two years some have left the genuine local churches and have begun to meet in a divisive way. They may say that they are not a division but are simply a group meeting of the church. However, these are not genuine group meetings but sectarian divisions, because they do not care for the oneness of the Body or for the ground of locality.
In this supplementary word my third burden is to show you the factors of a denomination. A denomination is a sect. However, there is a difference between a denomination and a sect: a sect is not a denomination if it does not denominate itself. The divisions that have been produced among us in recent years have not yet denominated themselves. Hence, they are not yet denominations, but they are surely sects.
The first factor of a denomination or a sect is a special teaching that differs from the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42) in the entire New Testament, such as baptism by immersion, the presbytery (to administrate the church by the eldership), head covering, the keeping of days, diet, or a particular stress on a certain point of prophecy. All these matters may be scriptural, but we should not make any of these a special teaching. It is right for us to have all our practices according to the Bible. Thus, in our practice we baptize people by immersion and we have the eldership, but we do not make these things particular items that divide us from other believers. Certain Christians divide themselves from other Christians over the matter of baptism by immersion. If a believer desires to be received into their membership, they require him to be baptized by immersion in their baptistery, by their pastor, and in their water. If he is baptized by immersion in another place and by other people, they will not recognize him. This is a special, particular teaching that divides these believers from other Christians, making them a sect and a denomination.
The second factor of a denomination is a special fellowship based upon a special teaching in a realm narrower than that of the fellowship of the apostles (Acts 2:42). The fellowship of the apostles is the fellowship of the entire Body universally, covering all kinds of genuine believers. Romans 14 tells us that we must receive different kinds of genuine believers, regardless of what days they observe or what dietary regulations they keep. Whether they eat vegetables or eat meat, they are genuine believers because they believe in the Lord Jesus. Thus, we must receive them.
The third factor of a denomination is a special name, either according to a special teaching or according to a particular practice, that designates a certain group of believers who are of the same teaching or the same practice. The taking of such a name denominates a particular sect, making it a denomination.
Any of the abovementioned three factors is adequate to divide the believers from others who are different from them in teaching or in practice. Therefore, although we should practice things such as baptism by immersion, the presbytery, and head covering, we should not make these things special items that divide us from others. Furthermore, we should not make them our creed, and we should not designate ourselves by a name, such as Lutheran, Baptist, or Presbyterian, that is according to a particular teaching or practice.
My fourth burden in this supplementary word is the discerning of the one Body. First Corinthians 11:29 says that we need to discern the body. Moreover, it says that if we do not discern the body, we will suffer some kind of discipline by the Lord.
The first item that we need to discern is the bread on the Lord’s table. The bread on the Lord’s table should be a symbol not only of the Lord’s physical body but also of the Lord’s mystical Body, which is universally one (Eph. 4:4). Although we may take the Lord’s table in many different cities around the globe, we all are taking just one bread, because the bread we partake of is a symbol of Christ’s mystical Body, which is universally one. Thus, 1 Corinthians 10:17 says, “We who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.”
Any bread on the Lord’s table that does not signify the Lord’s one universal Body but the body of a certain sect is divisive. The denomination in which I grew up in mainland China had their “communion” at regular intervals of time. Each time they made a strong announcement that whoever was not a member of that denomination had to leave the premises. The bread that they partook of was not a symbol of the Body of Christ; it was a symbol of the sect of that denomination. We should not partake of that kind of bread, that kind of “communion,” or that kind of table. We should not have any share in it; it is a sign of a sect.
If we partake of such a divisive table without discernment, we participate in a division, which is condemned by the apostle (11:29-30). Some who have recently left us to form divisions are taking the Lord’s table. They have told people that they are simply a group meeting that is having the Lord’s table. Should these group meetings be considered as proper and genuine meetings of the local churches? If a proper, genuine group meeting has the Lord’s table, that table will be the table of a local church, with the bread as a symbol of the entire Body of Christ. That is a practice that keeps the oneness of the Body. Suppose, however, that we have a group of believers who originally were meeting with the church, but because of certain reasons, they left the church and keep themselves separate from the church, without having any fellowship with the church. Suppose, further, that these believers have what they call the Lord’s table. Such a table immediately becomes a symbol of division, a symbol of a sect. Hence, 1 Corinthians 11:29 charges us to discern. When we partake of any bread on a table that is called the Lord’s table, we must discern carefully whether that bread signifies the universal Body of Christ, without division, or not. If it does not, we should not partake of it. If we do not discern, and partake of such a thing, this is condemned by the apostle, that is, by the Lord.
Some of the new believers among us may wonder what the difference is between the Lord’s recovery and Christianity. In this book with the supplementary word we have seen, first of all, that we are here for the recovery, and second, that we are here for the oneness of the Body. We are here in the recovery of the Triune God, Christ, the Spirit, life, the believers, the church, the church ground, and the practice of the local churches. In total, we are in the recovery of the oneness of the Body of Christ. Thus, we need to conduct ourselves properly, and we also need to exercise our discernment because of the confusion that is around us. As long as there are divisions, there will be confusion. So we must be careful and look to the Lord that we may be able to discern the situation among us.
