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God’s administration on the earth is very much related to the church’s administration. If we are going to see God’s administration on the earth, we have to see the administration of the church. To study this matter, we must go back to the very beginning of God’s move among man in the Old Testament.
In the book of Genesis from the fall of Adam, God moved on the earth among His chosen people. Through His move in the book of Genesis, God gained some important persons, and eventually, He gained the house of Israel. The crucial persons whom He gained were Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with Joseph. Through Jacob with Joseph, God gained the house of Israel as a small group of people, but in that house we cannot see much of God’s administration. We cannot see much of God’s administration until we come to the time of Moses as recorded in Exodus.
In Exodus 19 at Mount Sinai the Lord told the children of Israel that He wanted them to be a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation” (v. 6). The nation of Israel had probably over two million people by that time. The children of Israel were not saved from Egypt individually. They were saved corporately as an entire race of people. They did not come out of Egypt one by one as individuals, but they came out as a corporate people, even as a nation and a kingdom. When they came to Sinai, God called them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. In this kingdom at Mount Sinai, God’s administration among His people on this earth began.
God’s administration was neither an autocracy by a dictator nor a democracy of the people. God’s administration among the children of Israel was a theocracy, indicating that God Himself came to govern, to rule, to administrate, the people of God directly yet through some agents. Among the children of Israel these agents were the priests and the elders working together for God’s theocracy. The priests were the ones who received God’s word, God’s speaking, God’s instructions. God’s speaking, His constant and instant speaking, was the living constitution of the children of Israel. Until the law was given, there was no constant speaking of God, but there was always His instant speaking. The law was the constant speaking of God. The law, like the United States Constitution, may be considered as the first written constitution of God’s people written by God Himself. The Old Testament, however, shows us that the written constitution of God by itself was not adequate. There was still the need of God’s instant constitution, His instant speaking. God’s instant speaking always goes along with His written word. The theocracy among the nation of Israel was a government according to God’s constant speaking as written in the law or God’s instant speaking as revealed through the breastplate of the high priest by means of the Urim and the Thummim (Exo. 28:30; Lev. 8:8; Num. 27:21; Deut. 33:8; 1 Sam. 28:6; Ezra 2:63; Neh. 7:65).
The very crucial part in God’s government was God’s instant speaking through the Urim and the Thummim on the breastplate of the high priest. Among the people of Israel there were the elders on the one hand and the priests on the other hand. Although the Scriptures do not clearly indicate how the elders were produced, they do tell us how the priests were produced. God chose the entire nation of Israel to be a kingdom of priests. He intended for every male Israelite to be a priest. But the children of Israel fell and failed to arrive at God’s purpose. Thus, God turned His choosing of the entire nation of Israel as priests to a family, the house of Aaron. The house of Aaron became a house of priests to replace the nation of priests. Aaron as the father was appointed by God to be the high priest, and all his sons became the priests (Exo. 28:1). This was the way the priests were produced in the Old Testament.
Among the priests was the high priest with his priestly garments. The most important part of these garments was the breastplate on the ephod (vv. 15-30). On the breastplate were twelve precious stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel (vv. 17-21). I read an article years ago concerning the Urim and the Thummim written by a Hebrew scholar. According to this article, the twelve names of the twelve tribes of Israel were composed of eighteen of the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The remaining four letters were put on a piece called the Thummim. The word Thummim indicates perfection or completion. Thus, on the breastplate with the additional piece called the Thummim, all twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet could be found.
Furthermore, according to this article, the Urim, which means “light,” was an illuminator inserted into the breastplate underneath the twelve stones. Normally, the twelve stones of the breastplate were under the shining of the Urim. When the priest went into God’s presence with the breastplate, suddenly a stone inscribed with a certain name became dark. This darkening of a particular stone was God’s instant speaking. It was in this way that letter by letter the high priest was able to spell out a word, then a sentence, then a paragraph, until the full judgment of God was determined. It was necessary to have the complete Hebrew alphabet of twenty-two letters so that any word could be made.
The writer of this article said that it was through the Urim and the Thummim that the sin of Achan was discovered in Joshua 7. By the Urim and the Thummim the Israelites knew that the one who sinned belonged to the tribe of Judah. Eventually, the family and the person were found out (vv. 16-18). The breastplate of the high priest was called the breastplate of judgment in Exodus 28:30 because it spoke for God instantly. Whenever there was a problem that could not be decided or resolved by the written law, the high priest brought the breastplate into the presence of God to wait on God and to read the letters. Then he received the speaking of God. This was the way to receive God’s instant revelation concerning His administration. Furthermore, this is why some scholars have called this divine administration in the Old Testament a theocracy.
After the high priest received the instant speaking from God, he did not directly execute or carry out what God spoke. Instead, he passed on the word he had received to the elders, and the elders became the direct administrators among God’s people. Joshua could be considered as the leading elder among God’s people at his time. The high priest accompanying Joshua was Eleazar, a descendant of Aaron. God asked Moses to tell Joshua that if he wanted to know God’s will or leading, he had to go to Eleazar the priest, who would “inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before Jehovah” (Num. 27:21). These two persons went on in God’s move together. One bore the responsibility to go into God’s presence to receive God’s instant speaking, and the other received the divine speaking to administrate among God’s people. In principle, the administration of God was always carried out by the elders according to the divine speaking received through the Urim and the Thummim. When the priests became weak, such as at the time of Eli (1 Sam. 1:12; 3:12-14), the prophets were raised up to strengthen God’s speaking (vv. 20-21). God’s instant speaking through the priests was by the Urim and the Thummim, but God’s instant speaking through the prophets was by the Spirit of God coming upon certain persons to enable them to speak God’s word.
Later in the Old Testament, the children of Israel followed the worldly way to have a king. That offended God (1 Sam. 8:4-7). Their desire for a king displeased God because they wanted a man to reign over them rather than God. God allowed them to have a king, but they suffered as a result (vv. 10-18). Following this king, Saul, God established a man as king who was according to His heart, a man named David (Acts 13:21-22). Even with David there was still the need of the ephod (1 Sam. 23:9-12; 30:7-8; 2 Sam. 6:14; 1 Chron. 15:27).
When the kingship became weak, the prophets were raised up. When David sinned, Nathan came to rebuke him and to help him in God’s administration (2 Sam. 12:1-25). All the prophets from the time of David through the time of Malachi (Mal. 1:1) were people used by God to speak His instant word to His people in order to help the administrators, the kings, carry out God’s administration among His people.
Whatever happened in the Old Testament is a type of the New Testament government. If we are going to understand God’s administration in His move in the New Testament today, we have to go back to the Old Testament to receive the full understanding of the practice of God’s administration. God’s administration is a direct ruling and governing by God Himself. This direct divine ruling is a theocracy. We must see the principle of God’s divine government among His people. His government is by His instant speaking plus the constant written Word. The instant speaking was either through the priests or the prophets, but neither the priests nor the prophets were the direct administrators. The direct administrators were either the elders, the judges, or the kings.
Now we come to the New Testament. In the Old Testament we are not able to find out how the first group of elders was produced. There is also not a direct word in the New Testament to tell us how the first group of elders in the New Testament church was produced. Both Peter and John were elders in the church in Jerusalem (1 Pet. 5:1; 2 John 1; 3 John 1). James was also an elder there (Gal. 2:9; Acts 12:17; 15:2, 13; 21:18). He was a flesh brother of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 1:19; Matt. 13:55) and was not saved before the Lord’s death (John 7:3, 5). Either through seeing the Lord’s death or through the appearing of the Lord to him in His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:7), James believed in the Lord. Thus, the time from his salvation to his becoming an elder was very short. Eventually, he became the leading elder in the church in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem is represented by the name James in Galatians 2:12, and in the book of Acts James is the prominent one among the elders in Jerusalem (12:17; 15:13; 21:18). How were James, Peter, and John produced as elders? The Bible does not directly tell us.
When the apostle Paul was raised up by the Lord and sent out by the Holy Spirit, the Lord used him to establish new churches. Acts 14:23 tells us that Paul returned to appoint elders in each of these new local churches probably within the same year. The appointment of the elders is recorded clearly in this verse. The elders were established among the saints by the apostles who had preached the gospel to them and had formed them into a local church. Titus 1:5 tells us that the apostles who established the churches had the position and the right to send a representative to appoint elders. This was the case with Titus. Titus was representing the apostle Paul to appoint elders in every city of the island of Crete. These verses show us that the elders were properly produced in the New Testament through appointment by those who preached the gospel to them, who taught them the truth, and who formed them with the saints into a local church. These apostles should be the ones who appoint the elders to carry out God’s administration in every local church.
At the very beginning of the Lord’s recovery in mainland China, we adopted at least eighty percent of the Brethren’s practice. By 1935 we realized that we could not fully follow them because of their serious mistake in the matter of the church practice. The light that Brother Nee received during that time is in the book entitled The Assembly Life. Those messages were first given by him in 1934.
When Brother Nee began to see the light concerning the scriptural practice of the church life, he was still somewhat held by our humility. He said, “Today we are the unofficial apostles, yet the unofficial apostles still have the unofficial right to appoint the unofficial elders.” We were very humble. We did not feel good about recognizing that we were the apostles at that time. But we did say, “If we are not the apostles today, at least we are the unofficial apostles. Otherwise, where did the churches come from?” No doubt, all the churches in China came out of Brother Nee’s teaching. If he was not an apostle, at least he was an unofficial apostle.
After a short time another book was published in Chinese by Brother Nee entitled The Normal Christian Church Life. In this book Brother Nee became bold. He said that if those of us who preach the gospel, teach the truth, and establish and form churches are not apostles, then who are? He became very strong in this matter. He dropped the prefix un from the word official and said that we were official apostles and that the elders set up by us were official elders. Therefore, all of us meeting together here are not unofficial elders. We are official elders. I realize that some of us are still young, but compared with the elders appointed by Paul in Acts 14:23, you are not so young. Those elders were appointed by Paul within the same year that their churches were established.
We have seen that in the Old Testament the law could be considered as the written constitution of God’s people. In the New Testament, what replaced the law for God’s administration among His people? We know that Christ replaced the law, but we are referring to the aspect and sense of replacing the law in God’s administration. In the New Testament the teaching of the apostles replaced the law. Acts 2:42 says, “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.” Immediately after the three thousand were saved on the day of Pentecost, they began to continue steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles. In the Old Testament kingdom of God the constitution was the law, and in the New Testament kingdom of God the constitution is the teaching of the apostles.
The teaching of the apostles is the complete New Testament. It comprises, first, the teaching of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels. The first group of apostles were charged by the Lord Jesus to teach the new believers what the Lord had taught them. This is clearly recorded in Matthew 28:19-20. The teaching of the apostles also includes what is recorded in the Acts, the Epistles, and the book of Revelation. At the conclusion of the book of Revelation, John tells us that no one should add anything or take away anything from the divine revelation (22:18-19). This means that with the book of Revelation, the teaching of the apostles has been completed. From that time onward no one is allowed to add or deduct anything. If you add something, you will suffer the plagues, and if you deduct something, you will suffer the loss of the divine blessing. The entire New Testament, which is the complete teaching of the apostles, must be considered as the constitution of God’s New Testament kingdom.
Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, made this matter of God’s administration in the New Testament very clear. He charged the brothers in Corinth to remove a certain sinful man from the fellowship of the church (5:13), which is also the fellowship of the apostles and of the saints. His desire was that this evil person would be removed from the church, but he would not do it by himself because he was not the direct administrator. Therefore, he charged the ones who were the direct administrators in the church. By the New Testament teaching and example we can realize that some elders had been established in the church in Corinth. Paul gave such a charge to the brothers, but he did not carry out the administration. The elders were the direct administrators of the church there. The written constitution of the New Testament kingdom of God is the teaching of the apostles, the complete New Testament, and the direct administrators in this kingdom are the elders.
Furthermore, in the New Testament age there is still some instant speaking. In the New Testament we have the reality of the high priest and the priests. In the Old Testament the priests are one group, and the elders are another group. But in the New Testament these two groups are one. All the believers in Christ are priests to God (1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 1:6), including the elders. All the elders are priests, and Christ is the High Priest (Heb. 3:1). Where is Christ? We know that He is seated at the right hand of God in the heavens (Rom. 8:34), but we must see that for God’s movement among us on this earth, our High Priest, Christ, is in us (v. 10). All the elders need to declare that Christ, the High Priest, is in them. We have such a High Priest (Heb. 8:1). The elders, who are also the priests, should be the ones who administrate the church in God’s government. If there is a problem in the church under the administration of the elders, how shall they solve it? In the Old Testament it was necessary to study the law to find out what to do to solve the problem. If there is a problem in the church, we have to study our New Testament constitution.
The United States is a good example of a country ruled by its Constitution. The highest power in the United States is neither the president nor the Congress. It is the Constitution. Because of the power of the United States Constitution, President Nixon was forced to resign from office. Eventually, the Constitution is more powerful than the president. We must admit that today the highest power in the church is the teaching of the apostles. If there is a problem in the church, we have to come to the New Testament to see what it says about this particular problem. We should not say that we are for or against something until we go to the New Testament constitution to see what it has to say. When any problem arises, we must learn to be silent and go to the written word of God, the New Testament constitution, without any opinion. We have a complete constitution with many more details than the United States Constitution.
If we cannot find anything in our written constitution directly concerning a certain problem or if we can find something and are not clear how to apply it, we need an instant speaking. The time and the way to carry out the written constitution still need the Lord’s instant speaking. How can we have the Lord’s instant speaking? We have to get into the presence of the Lord, stay in His presence, and wait on Him, asking Him to show us what to do. Then we have to read the breastplate with all its letters. The stones on the breastplate with the letters refer to the saints, God’s people. We have to read the people of the church. By reading the people of the church in the presence of the Lord, with the Lord, and with His loving capacity, typified by the breast, we will receive some instruction as to when and how to carry out what is in the written constitution. This is to receive the instant speaking according to the written teaching of the apostles. Of course, we should not do anything that is against the teaching of the apostles. In the Old Testament no one was to do anything against the law, but to carry out the law, there was also the need of the instant speaking of God Himself. When we have His instant speaking, we are not speaking our own word. What we speak is not something of democracy or of autocracy, but it is of theocracy since God Himself is speaking instantly according to His written constitution to govern and rule His people.
All the elders of the church need to realize that they are the real priests. They are the elders and the priests. As an elder, you have the High Priest within you, and you can share in His loving capacity as symbolized by His breast. You love the saints with Christ’s love and go into His presence with such a loving capacity, waiting on Him and reading the letters on the stones of the breastplate, that is, reading all the members of the church. By reading the members of the church, taking the members as the letters of a divine typewriter, a word, a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph, and even a chapter will come to you, telling you what to do and how to do it.
We must also remember the principle of the eldership. The elders are always in plurality. Because the elders are in plurality, there is the need of much fellowship. The genuine fellowship must be in the presence of the Lord. If any fellowship among the elders is not in the presence of the Lord, that is not genuine fellowship. Thus, all the elders should exercise the practice of being in the presence of the Lord in the fellowship. In this kind of fellowship surely the “Urim” and the “Thummim” in Christ’s loving capacity would speak. Then the elders would know what is on the heart of the Lord concerning His people and what He desires to administrate in their locality for the church there. The elders are both the priests to receive the instant word from God and the administrators to administrate what they have received from the Lord. The principle in the Old Testament regarding God’s administration is the same in the New Testament.
Besides the elders as the priests and as the administrators, there are the prophets and teachers, as illustrated in Acts 13:1-4. In Acts 13 in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers. These prophets and teachers are the ones who can help in the priesthood and in the eldership. They are like the Old Testament prophets who helped the elders, the kings, and the priests. Today in God’s administration on this earth, the principle is the same. Besides the ones who are priests to receive the revelation from the Lord directly and the administrators to carry out what God speaks, there are the prophets and the teachers to help the eldership and the priesthood.
After the apostles appoint the elders and commit the church into the hands of the elders, what shall the apostles do in the future? Some say that the apostles have nothing to do with the church anymore. According to their feeling, the appointment of the elders by the apostles is the termination of the relationship of the apostles with the churches. They say this by using Brother Nee’s fellowship in The Normal Christian Church Life as a basis. In chapter 3 of this book, Brother Nee says, “Once a church was established, all responsibility was handed over to the local elders, and from that day the apostles exercised no control whatever in its affairs.” In this quotation from Brother Nee’s book, we should notice the phrase in its affairs. Some quote Brother Nee’s words without realizing the significance of this phrase. (Brother Nee in his book entitled Church Affairs, chapters 1 and 9, corrected this misuse of his word.) The apostles were to keep their hands off the administration of the local church in its business affairs, not in its need of the apostles’ teaching, instruction, and charge.
We saw that Paul wrote a letter to the church in Corinth charging them to remove a certain sinful man from the fellowship of the church. The apostle commanded the church to do this: “Remove the evil man from among yourselves” (1 Cor. 5:13). Does this mean that the apostle took the church back under his administration? No, not at all. If this had been the case, he would not have needed to tell others to remove the sinful one. He would have done it directly by himself. In this sense Paul as an apostle kept his hands off of the church administration but not from teaching, instructing, and charging the church.
There is another aspect to the apostles’ relationship with a local church, which Brother Nee talked to us about, in 1 Timothy 5. First Timothy 5:19-20 says, “Against an elder do not receive an accusation, except based upon two or three witnesses. The ones who sin reprove before all that the rest also may have fear.” Timothy was instructed by the apostle Paul on how to receive an accusation against an elder. This indicates that the apostles have authority to deal with the elders even after they have been appointed by the apostles to be elders. If there is a problem among the elders, this case should go to the apostles, and the apostles have to judge. The apostles have the authority to rebuke a sinful elder in front of others. The apostles’ hands should be off of the church in its administration, but this does not mean that the apostles have absolutely nothing to do with a local church after its elders have been established.
The wrong and sinful elders can be accused by the saints, and this accusation should go to the apostles. Eventually, the apostles become a small law court to judge the situation. According to 1 Corinthians 6, even the saints can form a small law court to judge cases among themselves (vv. 1-3). The apostles should make a judgment in cases regarding the alleged wrongdoing of certain elders. It is up to the apostles to justify or condemn them. According to 1 Timothy 5:20, if an elder is judged to be sinful, he can be reproved before the others. A sinning elder should receive public reproof because of his public position. Based upon Paul’s word to Timothy in this matter, how can we say that the apostles, who appointed the elders and handed over the church to them, have nothing to do with the church or the elders once they have been appointed?
The entire book of 1 Corinthians is a “bothering book.” The writing apostle bothered the church in Corinth. The entire book may be considered as a commandment to the local church. First Corinthians 11:34 says, “If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, that you may not come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.” Even after charging the church to take care of so many things, Paul says that he will set in order the rest when he comes. We need to come back to the Word. The Word is our highest authority, our constitution. This verse tells us that some things were not set in order by the apostle Paul. In his Epistle to the church in Corinth, many things were set in order by Paul’s charges, such as the matters of marriage, the eating of sacrifices to idols, head covering, the Lord’s table, etc. Paul charged the Corinthians to deal with at least eleven problems in his fellowship with them. He charged the church to do many things. As the apostle, he did not have the position to administrate the church, but he did have the position, right, and responsibility to charge the elders to do it.
There is another important item from the Word that we have to realize. The churches are surely local in their administration, but they are not absolutely independent. In our history in the Lord’s recovery we were warned by the Brethren practice of autonomy. All the states of the United States have their own administrations and governments, but they are not strictly independent. The states are separate to an extent, but this does not mean that they are absolutely independent. If the states were absolutely independent, the United States would not be one country. It would become fifty countries. The local churches are not absolutely independent. When the apostles kept their hands off of the affairs of the churches, this did not mean that each local church became one independent entity. Nor did it mean that since the churches were under the teaching of the apostles, the churches became a federation.
In 1 Corinthians 4:17 Paul says, “Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every church.” In all the churches the apostle Paul taught the same thing. His teaching was the same universally, not varying in any place. Concerning this matter, we need to look at the seven epistles to the seven local churches in Revelation 2 and 3. The word of the Lord to one church is the word spoken by the Spirit to all the churches (2:1, 7). At the beginning of each epistle, it is the Lord speaking to a specific church (vv. 1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14), but at the end of all the epistles the Word says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). What was said by the Lord to the church in Ephesus was the word that all the churches should hear. Every epistle was a particular word to a certain church, yet this particular word should be heard and taken by all the churches.
On the one hand, the elders of the churches have the right and the position to carry out the local administration of the churches independently. On the other hand, all the churches should listen to the word that the apostles have received of God, which is the teaching of the New Testament. On the one hand, the churches are local separately. On the other hand, all the local churches are still the one Body of Christ, which is an organism, not a federation, which is an organization. We need to meet as local churches separately according to what the New Testament says, but all the local churches are still the one Body of Christ.
By the way, I would add a little word. In our fellowship many of us are used to saying, “Brother Lee says...” I beg you, from now on, not to say, “Brother Lee says...” Instead, we should say, “First Timothy says...” or “First Corinthians says...” From the very beginning of the Lord’s recovery in the United States, I have passed on the Lord’s word to you. You may have received the Lord’s word through my speaking, through my teaching, but what I spoke was His word. We all need to come back to the pure Word of God and discern accurately what His pure Word says.
In 1986 we had an elders’ training on the one accord (see Elders’ Training, Book 7: One Accord for the Lord’s Move). During that time I talked about the leading of the apostles and the leadership in the Lord’s ministry, but I do not feel that what I said was accurately understood by some. Because of this misunderstanding, I gave the last two messages in the summer training of 1987 on this matter (see chs. 18 and 19 of The God-ordained Way to Practice the New Testament Economy). In those messages I pointed out that the leadership in the New Testament ministry in actuality is not the leadership of one controlling person. Instead, we have the leadership of one controlling revelation in the one ministry through those who bring in the revelation of the ministry. The New Testament leadership is in the teaching of the apostles.
In the four Gospels the leadership was with the Lord Jesus. That was the leadership in a person. The Lord Jesus was the Leader who had the leadership. In the four Gospels the Lord Jesus sent His disciples to certain places. His disciples were to obey whatever He said. In the Acts and the Epistles, Peter and Paul were supposed to be the leaders, but for the most part they did not send anyone anywhere to do the work. All the going-out workers were sent by the Holy Spirit. Acts 13 tells us that Barnabas and Saul were “sent out by the Holy Spirit” (v. 4) from Antioch to the Gentiles. Of course, Paul did charge some of the younger brothers who were closely related to him, such as Timothy and Titus, to go to certain places and to do certain things (1 Cor. 4:17; Titus 1:5). He charged both Timothy and Titus to come to him, and they received these orders (2 Tim. 4:9; Titus 3:12). But there is at least one case referred to in 1 Corinthians 16:12 that we must see: “Concerning our brother Apollos, I urged him many times to come to you with the brothers; yet it was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has opportunity.” Paul was very burdened to help the Corinthians solve their problems, and their problems involved him and Apollos. This is why Paul expected that Apollos would go to see the Corinthians personally. Paul does not say that he charged Apollos. Paul says, “I urged him.” To urge someone to do something is much different from charging him. Paul says, “I urged him many times...yet it was not at all his desire.” Although Paul urged him, Apollos still had the liberty, the freedom, not to do it. And he did not do what Paul wanted. Apollos said that he would come when he had opportunity. This may seem like a small verse, but it is very important to the truth concerning the leadership. This verse is very strong to prove that Paul did not exercise any control over the work for the Lord.
Paul was not the leader in the New Testament move of God in the sense of commanding the co-workers to do things. Peter and Paul were not strict in this matter of the movement of the co-workers. If they urged a worker to do something and he felt not to do it, there was no problem. But all the apostles were very strict in the teaching of the apostles. In 1 Timothy 1:3-4 Paul exhorted Timothy to remain in Ephesus to charge certain ones not to teach different things from God’s New Testament economy. The apostles would not tolerate any teaching that was different from God’s New Testament economy. The aged apostle John, in his second Epistle, told the saints not to receive anyone who brings a teaching other than the teaching of Christ (vv. 9-10). John said that these ones went beyond the teaching of Christ. This means that they went beyond the teaching concerning Christ, which is the basic teaching of the New Testament, the teaching of the apostles. John was strict to the extent that he even charged the saints not to greet such ones. In the matter of the teaching of the apostles, the apostles were very strict. This proves that the teaching of the apostles is actually the real leadership in the New Testament.
