Date:October 1948Place:Brother Nee's home, Foochow
In the Shanghai Concession (the area ceded to foreign powers) and in Hong Kong (a British colony), a foreign man can be deported for committing certain crimes. If a Chinese commits the same crime on Chinese soil, he cannot be treated the same way because he is standing on different ground. No matter where he is sent, he will still be on Chinese soil. A preacher once spoke sternly, "Look at your co-workers! What kind of persons they are!" Our attitude should take God's attitude as its standard. We cannot reject what God accepts, and we cannot accept what God rejects. We may have sloppy and underqualified brothers, but we must ask, "Is he a brother?" If he is, we cannot "deport" him, unless he has committed excommunicable sins. We can excommunicate a student from a school, but we cannot excommunicate and reject a brother from a family. If anyone thinks that he can choose between brothers, I can exercise a choice as well. But a brother is a brother. We cannot cut off our relationship with him. The basic principle of the church is recovery, not excommunication.
When I was at White Teeth Lake, I once argued with Miss Barber. She said she wanted to gather a group of overcomers together. I said, "This is wrong. If you do, you are making yourself a sect." We believe in the truth concerning the overcomers, but we cannot choose a group of overcomers to form an overcomers' group. I knew about a certain situation concerning a brother. A few years later, others knew about it as well. When they found this out, they asked why I tolerated him for such a long time. I thought in my heart, "A sect can choose whom it likes, but we cannot exercise such a choice among God's children; we cannot choose whom we like in the church." Of course, when a man chooses to leave of his own accord, that is a different story.
The same principle applies to the work. All of God's servants are our co-workers. Our pathway is not one of exercising our choice but one of bringing the brothers and sisters to a proper condition. All workers, and indeed all leaders, should not choose only brothers and sisters whom they think are useful. A worker is produced through leading, not through choice. In the church in Corinth, Cephas, Apollos, and Paul did not exercise preference or choice over any brother or sister. Yet some among them wanted to create a sect. They declared their allegiance to certain ones. What would have happened if Cephas or Apollos or Paul exercised their preference as well? In leading others, it is not enough for us to know and judge others' condition. Our heart must be broad, and we must be broad. One of Hudson Taylor's virtues was that he was genuinely interested in every worker. A worker must spend all his energy and pay the greatest price to help the useless ones to become useful. A good foreman is one who is able to lead others. In the four Gospels the Lord Jesus dispensed what He had to the twelve disciples, and at least eleven of them were gained.
As you set out for your work and as you work with other co-workers, you may feel that this or that one is terrible. You may write to me to ask for a change of partners, but I do not have that many alternatives for you. One brother said that many of the co-workers on the mountain are actually not qualified to be servants of God, but I can only respond, "I use what the Lord uses. Our responsibility is to lead others. We can only use what God has given us. We cannot use what God has not given us." I have said previously that we should bear in mind whether or not others are above us, and we should readily yield to them when we set out in our work. This is especially true of those who are the leaders of a region. Sister Pearl Wang later told me that it was useless to say such a word because in reality there are no such advanced ones in all the regions. This is right. God only uses men who are already available. We should do the same. We should not sit and wait for the unmanifested "qualified ones" to appear. The Lord used Judas until the night before His crucifixion. Before that night no one knew that he was going to betray the Lord.
We should not use our judgments of men as material for gossip. Our judgments are merely for the purpose of carrying out our authority. It is not an easy thing to be a foreman in the work. The church is here to build, not to tear down. We must not lose sight that we are here to edify others. We should be clear about everything that is going on in the church, but we should not be that clear about the condition of our co-workers. I believe that everyone can be edified. If we do not believe this, there is something wrong with us. Everyone loves and cherishes his own body. There should be the same concern for the spiritual Body of Christ.
We have to be clear in our principle and in our direction. If we realize that the Lord has used a person, even if only once, we have to help him. If a person has rendered the Lord some service, even if only once, we have to lead him on. One of our greatest temptations is to reject men. We should not look at the twelve disciples and say, "They are all like Judas!" Our leadership and guidance in the positive direction must be strong. This is a hard work, and it demands a high price. May I say a word "beside myself" again: If I am given a choice to reject, I am afraid many of the ones I know would have been rejected long ago already! The practice of rejection is contagious. In leading others we must never say, "I have exhausted my patience!" We must have longsuffering. If our patience is unlimited, our edification and recovery will also be unlimited, and the church will be built up. Every mother has her heart pierced by knives repeatedly. Every time her heart is pierced, her heart becomes broadened and expanded. In perfecting others, we should be like mothers cherishing their children.
Consider the doctors in Shanghai. They receive casualties from the police and the Red Cross every day, casualties from traffic accidents. If they consider the condition of the patients to be serious, they amputate immediately. But if a relative or family member pleads for treatment, the doctors spend three or four times the effort to stitch the dismembered parts back to the body. Let me ask, "Is the church in the business of stitching dismembered ones back in or in the business of amputation?" The first choice is to recover the severed members. Amputating a member is always the last choice. As much as possible, we should lead, help, and edify others.
