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In this message we shall continue to consider the different categories of the gathering, and then we shall go on to see the way of gathering.
In addition to the gathering for the Lord’s table and the gathering for prayer, there is the gathering for edification by exercising the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:26-35). In this kind of gathering, a meeting for mutual building up, there is not one special person doing a specific thing, but everyone is exercising the spiritual gifts. Each one may participate with the goal of building up and edifying others.
First Corinthians 14:26 indicates that the gathering for edification by exercising the spiritual gifts is a gathering in mutuality. “What is it then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” “Has,” used five times in this verse, is the translation of the Greek word echo, a word widely used, with many meanings, three of which are the main ones: (1) to hold, to possess, to keep a certain thing; (2) to have a certain thing for enjoyment; (3) to have the means or power to do a thing. The first two meanings should be applied to the first three of the five things listed in this verse — a psalm, a teaching, a revelation — and the third meaning to the last two — a tongue and an interpretation of a tongue. This indicates that when we come to the church meeting, we should have something of the Lord to share with others, whether a psalm to praise the Lord, a teaching (of the teacher) to minister the riches of Christ to edify and nourish others, a revelation (of the prophet, v. 30) to give visions of God’s eternal purpose concerning Christ as God’s mystery and the church as Christ’s mystery, a tongue as a sign to the unbelievers (v. 22) that they may know and accept Christ, or an interpretation to make a tongue concerning Christ and His Body understandable. Before coming to the meeting, we should prepare ourselves for the meeting with things like these from the Lord and of the Lord, either through our experience of Him or through our enjoyment of His word and fellowship with Him in prayer. After coming into the meeting, we should not wait for inspiration; there is no need to wait. We should exercise our spirit and use our trained mind to function in presenting what we have been prepared with to the Lord for His glory and satisfaction and to the saints for their benefit — enlightening, nourishing, and building up.
This meeting in mutuality may be compared to the feast of tabernacles in ancient times. In that feast the children of Israel brought the produce of the good land, which they reaped from their labor on the land, to the feast and offered it to the Lord for His enjoyment and for mutual participation in fellowship with the Lord and with one another. We must labor on Christ, our good land, that we may reap some produce of His riches to bring to the church meeting to offer. Thus, the church meeting will be an exhibition of Christ in His riches and a mutual enjoyment of Christ shared by all the attendants with one another before God and with God for the building up of the saints and the church.
In every meeting of the church we should keep the principle of mutuality. According to the New Testament, the church meeting is altogether a meeting in mutuality. In 1 Corinthians 14:26 one has a psalm, another has a teaching, another has a revelation, another has a tongue, and another has an interpretation. All these are in mutuality. There is not simply one or a few who function; on the contrary, all function in mutuality. Hebrews 10:25 encourages us not to stay away from the meetings but to be “exhorting one another.” This indicates that the church meetings should be in mutuality. Mutuality is a basic principle of the church meetings. A church meeting that does not involve mutuality is wrong. In our meeting the speaking of the divine Word should be mutual, not individual. Mutuality, not individuality, should be prevailing.
We exercise the spiritual gifts for edification by our speaking (1 Cor. 14:26-31). A proper church meeting, therefore, must be unique in two things — in mutuality and in speaking, a speaking that is genuine, positive, nourishing, and edifying. This means that whenever we come together, we should have speaking in mutuality, not the speaking of only one or two. Every saint should have the equal right and opportunity to speak concerning Christ, to speak for Christ, and to speak forth Christ. Relying on others to speak, to pray, and to call hymns is a tradition that kills the church life, for it annuls the function of the members of the Body of Christ. Instead of following the traditional practice, we should function in the church meetings in the way of mutuality. This will edify, improve, and develop the functioning ability of all the attendants of the church meetings.
The way to meet by mutuality in speaking is the way God invented and ordained. This is God’s created way, and no one can improve it. Therefore, we must turn away from the traditional practice of having only one or a few speakers and recover the Lord’s ordained way of speaking in mutuality. We need to fully come back to the God-invented and God-ordained way to meet.
Even when the whole church meets together we should practice mutuality in speaking. First Corinthians 14:26 indicates that when the whole church comes together in one place, we should practice mutuality. Mutuality in speaking is clearly revealed in 1 Corinthians 14. There is not a hint in the New Testament that in a church meeting there should be just one or two persons speaking. The church meeting must be open to all attendants that all may function.
The gathering for edification by exercising the spiritual gifts in mutuality and by speaking should be kept in peace. This means that the meeting should be carried on in a good order. For this reason, in 1 Corinthians 14:33 Paul says, “God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.” This indicates that the church meeting should be kept in a peaceful and becoming order according to what God Himself is.
In the church meetings the sisters should be silent in giving teachings. First Corinthians 14:33b-35 says, “As in all the churches of the saints, let the women be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but let them be subject, as the law also says. But if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church.” The phrase “in the churches” means in the meetings of the church. According to 11:5, women can prophesy (of course, in public) with their head covered, and Acts 2:17 and 18 and 21:9 confirm that there were women prophesying. But in 1 Timothy 2:12 women are not permitted to teach, that is, to teach as an authority (there teaching is related to the exercising of authority), defining doctrine. Hence, according to the New Testament principle, for women not to be permitted to speak in the church meetings means that women are not permitted to teach with authority concerning the defining of doctrine. In this sense they should be kept silent in the church meetings. They are not permitted to speak because they should be subject to man. This is related to the matter of authority ordained by God in His government. In God’s governmental ordination women are not permitted to speak with authority over man. They may pray and prophesy, that is, mainly to speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord. However, they must do this under the covering of the brothers because they are charged to be subject (1 Tim. 2:11).
First Corinthians 14:34 should not be understood in isolation from the rest of the Bible. According to the teaching of the entire New Testament, sisters may prophesy, but they do not have the authority to define doctrines. This must be left to the brothers. Furthermore, it is a fact of history that some of the most serious heresies have come in through women. On the one hand, the sisters should not be prohibited from giving testimonies or edifications in the meetings. On the other hand, the sisters should be careful to stay within the boundary and not presume to teach in the sense of defining doctrine.
In 1 Timothy 2:11 Paul says, “Let a woman learn in quietness in all subjection.” Quietness here means silence. For a sister to learn in silence and in all subjection is to realize her position as a woman. This safeguards the sisters from the presumption of overstepping their position in the local assembly.
In 2:12 Paul goes on to say, “But I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness.” To teach here means to teach with authority, to define and decide the meaning of doctrines concerning divine truth. For a woman to teach in this way or to exercise authority over a man is to leave her position. In God’s creation man was ordained to be the head, and woman was to be in subjection to man (1 Cor. 11:3). This ordination should be kept in the church.
“Having gathered the multitude together, they handed them the letter. And when they read it, they rejoiced at the consolation” (Acts 15:30-31). These verses tell us that when Paul and his companions arrived in Antioch, they gathered the saints together to read to them the letter written by the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem under the leading of the Holy Spirit. This indicates that we also may need to meet together occasionally to read the word of God in the Bible.
In Colossians 4:16 Paul says, “When this letter is read among you, cause that it may be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you also read the one from Laodicia.” This verse also refers to a gathering for reading the Word of God.
In the church we also may gather together for listening to messages. According to the record in Acts, this kind of gathering is not frequent. One verse that refers to such a gathering is Acts 20:7. “When we gathered together...Paul discoursed with them, about to go forth on the next day.” On that day, the believers in Troas met together to listen to Paul discoursing with them concerning the spiritual things of God so that they might be edified and established. This indicates that sometimes we also should meet to listen to spiritual messages spoken for God by the Lord’s minister of the word that we may be edified and established.
Another kind of gathering is the gathering for preaching the gospel. Acts 5:42 refers to this kind of gathering. “Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and bringing the good news of Jesus as the Christ.” Here we see that the apostles preached the gospel in the temple and in the houses of the believers. Today we should follow this practice of gathering to preach the gospel from house to house.
Finally, there is the gathering for fellowship regarding God’s move. Acts 14:27 says, “Having arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and that He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” Here we see that after Paul’s first journey of ministry, he came back to Antioch, called the church together, and related to the church what God had done through his ministry, telling them of God’s move. This indicates that we may sometimes gather together to have fellowship regarding God’s move.
We have covered seven categories of the gatherings of the church: the gathering for the Lord’s table, the gathering for prayer, the gathering for edification by exercising the spiritual gifts, the gathering for reading the Word of God, the gathering for listening to messages, the gathering for preaching the gospel, and the gathering for fellowship regarding God’s move. These are the only kinds of gatherings of the church mentioned in the New Testament.
The first aspect of the way of gathering is for us to be gathered into the Lord’s name. In Matthew 18:20 the Lord Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” The predicate here is not in the active voice but in the passive voice, saying that two or three are gathered. Furthermore, the Greek word translated “in” is better rendered “into.” The way of gathering in the church is to be gathered by the Lord into His name for the enjoyment of His presence. We are not gathered into an organization or a teaching or a practice. We are gathered into the name of the Lord Jesus. The name of the Lord always denotes His person. A name denotes a real and practical person, and the person of the Lord Jesus is the Spirit. Jesus Christ today is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.”
We must link Matthew 18:20 with 1 Corinthians 12:3, which says, “No one can say, Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit.” First, to meet together is to be gathered into the name, the person, of the Lord Jesus, and to be gathered into His person means to be gathered into the Spirit. Second, whenever we meet together, no matter how large or small the gathering may be, we must practice calling on the name of the Lord that we may get into the Spirit. When we get into the Spirit, we are in the person of the Lord Jesus. When we are in the person of the Lord Jesus, we are in the reality of the name of the Lord Jesus.
In order to have a proper church meeting, we need to be gathered into the name of the Lord. Before the meeting, however, we may be occupied with other things. Therefore, when the meeting time comes, the Lord Jesus gathers us out of these preoccupations into His name. We turn our heart to the Lord and call upon the name of the Lord from deep within our spirit. As a result, we get into the name, the person, the Spirit, of the Lord. In such a Spirit, under such a condition, we gather together for a church meeting.
The way of gathering is first to meet from house to house (Acts 2:46; 5:42). Acts 2:46 tells us that the believers broke bread “from house to house,” and 5:42 says that “from house to house, they did not cease teaching and bringing the good news of Jesus as the Christ.” The believers first met in homes beginning on the day of Pentecost. Three thousand met from house to house. The Greek indicates that they met according to houses, which means that every house had a meeting. There was a meeting in every new believer’s house.
The Greek words rendered “from house to house” also mean “at home,” in contrast with “in the temple.” The Christian way of meeting together is fitting to God’s New Testament economy, differing from the Judaic way of meeting in the synagogues (Acts 6:9). The Christian way of meeting in homes became a continual and general practice in the churches (cf. Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2).
In the home meetings, according to Acts 2:46 and 5:42, they were preaching the gospel, teaching the truth, breaking bread to remember the Lord, and praying. This should prove to us that meeting in the homes was a custom and became a habit in the early days of the church. Based upon this we can say that the basic way for the believers to meet is in the homes. The church in Jerusalem had a large number of saints. According to Acts 5:14, “believers were all the more being added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and of women.” Surely the basic way for these believers to meet was from house to house.
Meeting in the believers’ homes is for all the members of Christ to function. In a big meeting it is difficult for the saints to function. However, in a small meeting in a home everyone can function.
The church should also have large meetings in a larger place for the whole church to come together. In 1 Corinthians 14:23 Paul speaks of the whole church coming together in one place. Therefore, there should be two kinds of meetings: small meetings in the homes of the believers and large meetings in a larger meeting place. However, these large meetings should not be held often. Holding larger meetings should not be a constant practice. If we practice the large meetings constantly, we shall deaden the situation in the church.
Regarding the church meetings, we need to be balanced and learn to have the two kinds of meetings — meetings from house to house and meetings of the whole church coming together. Just as God’s design of the human body is symmetrical, with two ears, two eyes, two arms, and two legs, so we also should be balanced concerning the two kinds of meetings. On the one hand, we need to meet in the homes; on the other hand, when the need arises, we should hold large meetings in a larger meeting place. But in the larger meeting place, we should not have any definite speaker with all the congregation listening to this speaker. On the contrary, we must meet in the way of mutuality, with all the attendants participating in the building up of the church through their functions. Everyone can and should have something of Christ for the meeting.
Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.” The Greek word translated “custom” may also be rendered “habit.” We should not have the custom, the habit, of forsaking the assembling together. In Hebrews 10:24 Paul speaks of the believers considering “one another for inciting to love and good works.” This indicates that the church meetings can cause us to consider one another for inciting to love and to exhort one another for good works. This causes us to have spiritual fellowship with the saints to receive the life supply from them. Therefore, we should not forsake the meetings, and so much the more as we know that the Lord will soon come back. Our Christian life is not like the life of a butterfly, which does well on its own; our life is like the sheep’s life, requiring that we flock together and live a meeting life. Consequently, we need to meet. The meetings are crucial to us, and we should not forsake them.
