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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:11-16; Acts 20:17-20, 31
Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your mercy, for Your love, and for Your grace. We thank You for Your rich provision. Lord, You have given us Your blood, Your Spirit, and Your Word. Lord, we trust in all of Your provisions. Have mercy on us again. We treasure Your love, and we thank You for Your grace. Lord, we want to exercise our spirit to touch You. Grant us Your rich anointing in the speaking of Your word. Lord, under the precious blood, we thank You that You are the victorious One and that we are overcoming the world, sin, and our self in You, with You, and by You. Lord, be our help at this hour. Grant us to be one spirit with You in the speaking of Your word. Lord, vindicate Your way, and speak to us. Make our speaking divine speaking. Lord, we thank You and worship You again. Amen.
We saw in the previous chapter that 1 Corinthians is on Christ as our portion for our enjoyment. In the past I pointed out that there are at least twenty items of Christ as our portion in 1 Corinthians (see footnote 92 in 1 Cor. 1, Recovery Version). Paul first says that Christ is our portion. He is “theirs and ours” (1:2). The concluding aspect of Christ in 1 Corinthians is that He, as the last Adam, became a life-giving Spirit (15:45). If we are going to enjoy Christ as our portion, we have to realize that this portion today is the Spirit. All the items of Christ in 1 Corinthians, such as Him being our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1:24, 30), are included in the life-giving Spirit. Without being the life-giving Spirit, how could Christ be our wisdom? Without being the life-giving Spirit, how could the objective Christ, who is sitting on the throne in the heavens, be our spiritual food and spiritual drink (10:3-4)? It would be impossible. He had to go through a process to become the life-giving Spirit so that we could eat and drink Him.
If someone put a big cow in front of me, I would have no way to eat it. The cow would have to go through a process to become steaks to make it eatable. The “raw” God could not be our portion. Because God has been processed, “cooked,” we can enjoy Him as our portion. The Word, who is God, became the last Adam in His incarnation. God became a man. Through death and resurrection this man became the Spirit. John 1:14 and 1 Corinthians 15:45b tell us of these two “becames.” The Word became flesh, and the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Our God went through these two major processes. Thus, the “raw” God became the “cooked” God, and the “cooked” God today is the life-giving Spirit.
This truth is not according to today’s traditional theology that says the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not only distinct but also separate. The Bible, however, tells us that God is one. He is one God, yet He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He is three-one. W. Griffith Thomas, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, said that we may borrow the word persons to describe the three of the Godhead, but if we press this too far it will lead to the heresy of tritheism, the teaching of three Gods. According to the truth of the Scriptures, the three of the Godhead are distinct, but They are not separate. Our portion, who is God embodied in Christ (Col. 2:9), went to the cross as the last Adam in the flesh to die. He then resurrected, and in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit.
If we enjoy such a Christ, we will surely grow in life. In the previous chapter we saw that the growth in life issues in the development of the gifts. We also have to realize that according to 1 Corinthians 3, the growth in life first issues in the precious materials for the building up of the church (vv. 6-7, 12). For us to be transformed into gold, silver, and precious stones is not for individual spirituality. As the materials, we must be precious because we are for God’s building. The growth in life first issues in the precious materials for God’s building and then in the development of the gifts. To build any kind of building, first you need the materials. Then you need the skills to build it. The materials and the skills are the issues of the growth in life by our enjoyment of the all-inclusive, processed Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God, as the life-giving Spirit. The ultimate consummation of the enjoyment of Christ for the growth in life is the church built with the materials and by the skills.
In chapter 13 Paul tells us that love is above prophesying. Verse 8 says that love never falls away, but prophecies will be rendered useless. In the first verse of chapter 14, Paul says, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” In chapter 13 Paul made love higher than all the gifts, but in chapter 14 he made prophesying more desirable. We may say that Paul was promoting prophesying in chapter 14. In Philippians 3 Paul promoted one thing — Christ. Christ was promoted to the top by Paul in that chapter. He annulled and belittled everything else to the extent that everything other than Christ was refuse (v. 8). In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul also promoted prophesying to the uttermost.
In verse 12 he says, “Since you are zealous of spirits, seek that you may excel for the building up of the church.” The adjective zealous is actually the noun zealots in Greek. What does Paul mean when he says the Corinthians were zealous of spirits? Galatians 3:14 says that the promised Spirit is the very blessing of God’s salvation. The top blessing in God’s salvation given to us by God is God Himself as the Spirit. Before they were saved, the Corinthians were zealous for demonic spirits, but now that they are saved, they should be zealous for the Holy Spirit. Now that they are believers, they need to seek the excelling Holy Spirit for the excelling gift of prophecy. The word excel may also be translated into “abound.” Because the context of this verse is one of comparison, that is, one of comparing prophecy with speaking in tongues, “excel” is the right translation here. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul is not talking of abundance or scarcity but of being low or excelling. To speak in tongues is too low, whereas to prophesy is to excel. We should seek to excel for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ.
Paul promoted prophesying so highly because this is the top gift that builds up the Body of Christ. On the one hand, Christ was promoted by Paul to the uttermost in Philippians 3. Everything other than Him is refuse. On the other hand, in building up the Body of Christ, nothing is higher than prophesying. In 1 Corinthians 14:4 Paul says, “He who prophesies builds up the church.” First Corinthians 14 is a chapter on prophesying for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. This is the goal of the entire book of 1 Corinthians. First Corinthians is on the enjoyment of Christ for the growth in life, and this growth accomplishes two things. First, it produces the precious materials for the building up of the Body of Christ. Second, it issues in the gifts, which are the skills, the techniques, to build up the church of Christ with the precious materials produced by the growth in life. This book begins with the enjoyment of Christ and consummates with the built-up church.
In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul promoted prophesying, but he did not tell us how to prophesy. In verse 31, though, he says, “You can all prophesy one by one that all may learn.” If we speak something and others learn something, that means that we ourselves had to learn first. To speak in tongues is purely miraculous and does not require any learning, but to prophesy is a miraculous normality. Because the one who hears the prophecy learns, the prophesier has to learn first. Paul charges and urges us to prophesy in 1 Corinthians 14. In a sense, he even requires us to prophesy. As long as we are Christians, members of Christ, we must prophesy. Paul was burdened to perfect the saints to prophesy.
In the book of Ephesians Paul tells us that the gifts — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers — are for the perfecting of the saints (4:11-12). Then Acts 20 shows us how the writer of Ephesians, the apostle Paul, perfected the saints in Ephesus. The book of Ephesians presents the teaching given to the saints in Ephesus, while Acts 20 presents the practice of the writer. The teaching in Ephesians 4 and the practice in Acts 20 are by the same apostle. Paul taught the perfecting of the saints, and he practiced it.
The record of Paul’s practice in Acts 20 opens a window for us to see how to perfect the saints. In Acts 20 Paul says that he did not shrink from declaring to the saints in Ephesus all the counsel of God (v. 27). According to his word in Acts 20, Paul surely taught prophesying to them. If Paul had not taught the Ephesians to prophesy, how could he have said that he declared all the counsel of God to them? According to 1 Corinthians 14, prophecy is a great thing. Prophecy is the excelling gift, the gift above all gifts. Surely Paul taught the Ephesians concerning the excelling gift of prophecy as a part of the entire counsel of God. Furthermore, Paul wrote his first Epistle to the Corinthians from Ephesus (16:8). While Paul was in Ephesus writing to the Corinthians concerning the excelling gift of prophecy, he was surely teaching the Ephesians the same thing.
In Acts 20 he told the elders of the church in Ephesus, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time” (v. 18). Paul was with the saints in Ephesus for three years. He not only taught them publicly in meetings but also taught them from house to house (v. 20). Night and day, he did not cease admonishing each one of the saints with tears (v. 31). This teaches us how to perfect the saints. When Paul was teaching the saints publicly and from house to house in Ephesus, he surely instructed them how to prophesy.
If you ask me how to perfect the saints, I will tell you to read Acts 20. The way is there. First, we need to be with the saints. If I have the burden to perfect the saints in a certain locality, I need to go there, following Paul’s pattern to stay there for three years. Paul even went to Ephesus and stayed there without being asked or invited by the brothers. He volunteered to stay with the Ephesians for three years. Second, we have to teach the saints everything we know concerning the counsel of God. We need to be like Paul, who did not shrink from declaring to the saints all the counsel of God (v. 27). While we are staying with the saints, we have to open up all the things concerning God’s New Testament economy, His eternal plan. We would share how, according to His economy, He became a man, acquiring humanity in addition to His divinity, and how He died on the cross in a sevenfold way to solve all the problems in the universe. We would also teach many other things concerning His economy.
In addition to teaching the saints, Paul also admonished them. As an illustration of what it means to admonish, let us consider a father speaking to his son about his need to study diligently. The father might say, “I have taught you to study hard, but you are still so sloppy in doing your schoolwork. As your father, I admonish you with tears to study hard. If you do not get a degree, you will have no future. If you want to live a better life, you must study, son.” This is not to teach but to admonish. Paul was so concerned for the saints in Ephesus that his admonishing was with tears. In verse 19 Paul says that he served the Lord with tears, and in verse 31 he says that he admonished each saint with tears.
As we have pointed out, Paul should have definitely taught prophesying to the saints in Ephesus, since he did not shrink from declaring to them all the counsel of God. I also believe that Paul taught the Corinthians about prophesying before he wrote 1 Corinthians. We know that Paul had contact with them before he wrote 1 Corinthians because he referred to a previous letter that he wrote them (5:9). Before writing 1 Corinthians to them, he must have definitely taught them to prophesy — to speak for Christ, to speak forth Christ, and to speak Christ into others in their meeting. If he had never taught them this matter in the past, he could not have referred them to it. In 14:1 he can say, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” If he had not taught them prior to that time, the Corinthians would not have even known the term prophesy. How could Paul have charged them to prophesy if he had not taught them something about it and if they had no knowledge of it? First Corinthians 14 indicates that prophesying was taught beforehand to the Corinthians by the apostle Paul. Therefore, in writing this Epistle, he can refer them to prophesying. Paul was perfecting them to prophesy. Based upon Ephesians 4 and Acts 20 it is clear that the saints need to be perfected to prophesy.
The gifted members were given to the Body for the perfecting of the saints. Acts 5:42 says, “Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.” We need to ask who “they” are. In Acts 2 the three thousand new disciples met from house to house, but in 5:42 they refers to the apostles mentioned in verses 40 and 41. The apostles did not cease in two things: teaching and announcing the gospel. They did this in two places: in the temple and from house to house. I believe that they were preaching in the temple and teaching in the houses. The first group of apostles taught from house to house to perfect the three thousand new ones who were saved on the day of Pentecost and those who were saved afterward. On the one hand, the apostles preached the gospel to the public in the temple, and on the other hand, when people were saved, the apostles went to the people’s homes to teach them. To teach is to perfect. This is the great lack among us.
In the past we may have baptized some new ones, but not many of them remained because we left them as orphans. Who went to their homes again and again to teach them? To bring people into the Lord’s salvation and then to leave them without perfecting them is a traditional poison that we have inherited from Christianity. In Christianity there are big gospel campaigns in which thousands may be saved, but eventually, these saved ones become orphans with no one to care for them. Very few pastors or preachers in Christianity still go out to visit people in their homes. In the old way we preached the gospel in our meeting halls and invited the new ones to come to us. If some did believe and get baptized, very few picked up the burden to take care of them. This old way has to be condemned and abandoned. If we do not abandon the old way, we will not receive the divine blessing. We need to pick up the burden to go out to visit people with the gospel by knocking on their doors. When some believe and are baptized, we need to go back to their homes again and again to teach them. Some have asked, “We baptized many, but where are they today?” When I hear this, I would ask, “Where are the ones to go back to their homes to teach them day after day?” If a mother delivers a child and does not give any care to the child afterward, the child will die.
The first step we need is the step of begetting. To visit people in their homes with the gospel by knocking on their doors is for begetting. We need to do this. We have to admit that we have been very low in our rate of increase. We need to drop all our vain talk and go out once a week to knock on people’s doors. Maybe the first week that we go out, we will not gain anyone, but the second week we may get two baptisms. We should not go out to knock on more doors, because we have to take care of these two new ones. We have to nourish and cherish them. If one of them is not so positive or open, we can go out again to gain some more new ones. If we do not have the assurance that one out of three that we baptize will remain, we had better baptize four, looking to the Lord that we will gain one of these for the church life. If we take this way, we can surely bring at least one into the church life yearly.
If some of us do not have the strength or the heart to go out, we should joyfully support those who do. Since we all love the Lord Jesus, love to preach the gospel, and love to see sinners get saved, we should pray for the saints who go out to visit people in their homes even though we cannot go. We should thank the Lord for so many who are willing to go out, praying for them and looking to the Lord for His blessing upon the church. As long as such an activity is for the gospel of the Lord, we should thank the Lord that He has burdened so many. It is not an easy thing to knock on people’s doors. The ones who go out may get doors slammed in their faces, and they may get rebuked, but they are happy to suffer such a shame for the name of the dear One whom they love.
When I went back to Taiwan in 1984, I realized that the first thing we had to do to revolutionize our practice was to take care of the proper preaching of the gospel. We must get the increase for the building up of the Body of Christ. This is why I paid such a great price to return to Taipei to test out this matter of visiting people by knocking on their doors. The Lord’s blessing on this scriptural, God-ordained way has been proven by the marvelous results.
After my four-year study in Taipei, I have picked up these four crucial points: 1) begetting by gospel preaching; 2) nourishing by home meetings; 3) teaching by small group meetings; and 4) building up the church by church meetings. These four points are the scriptural way we must take for the building up of the Body of Christ. Now is the time for the Lord to recover 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Ephesians 4:11-16. I have the full assurance that the Lord will move today to recover these two portions of the Word. We must admit that the age for these items is here. The tide has come. Sooner or later we will have to go along with this tide. It is not an accident that the Southern Baptists and other denominations and groups realize that they need to have a change in the way that they preach the gospel and serve the Lord. We must abandon the old, traditional way and pick up the new, scriptural way.
We must be advised, however, not to take the new way in a fast way. We have to take it gradually, as I did with the brothers in Taiwan. We spent thirty-seven months to study and to prepare before we completely stopped the old way. We should not take the new way too fast or cause too much loss. We must be careful to go on positively in a gradual way, and we must have a clear view with a definite purpose. We need a clear view that the Lord is finished with the old way. We must have a vision that these two crucial portions of the Word — 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Ephesians 4:11-16 — need to be fully recovered. The Lord desires to build up the organic Body of Christ, not a congregational church. These portions of the Word must be recovered so that the Body of Christ, as the organism of the Triune God, can be built up and prepared to be His bride for His coming again. Our senior co-worker, Brother Nee, stressed this matter twice, beginning over fifty years ago, and we must pick up this burden. We have to believe that this is the time and that we are the right people for the Lord to use to recover these two portions of the Word.
If you do not want to take this way, I am concerned that you will become a dropout. If we see the vision of the new way and practice it gradually to bring the saints under our care into the understanding of such a change, we will not suffer that much loss. Of course, to change anything in practice will always result in some loss, but the profit that will result over the long run makes the change more than worthwhile.
In order for Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4 concerning the perfecting of the saints to be carried out, we need to follow his practice in Acts 20 and the practice of the apostles in Acts 5:42. Then the saints will be perfected. According to Ephesians 4:16, the saints in the Body of Christ are categorized into two groups: “every joint of the rich supply” and “each one part.” The joints are the gifted persons — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. The Body grows by being joined closely together through the joints and by being knit together through the operation in the measure of each one part. Through the gifted persons’ supply and through all the members’ operation in their measure, all the Body causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. The Body of Christ is built up organically by causing itself to grow through the functions of the gifted persons and through the members who operate in their measure.
For this organic building to be realized, the gifted persons must do their best to perfect every saint. The co-workers and the elders who are taking care of the saints need to go to their homes. If we have a revelation as a new vision, we can call a meeting of the local churches. We can even have a conference with the nearby churches to give a series of messages to cover a particular vision, a particular revelation, which we have received of God. Ordinarily and regularly, however, we do not need to do this. Ordinarily, we need the elders and co-workers to go to visit the saints’ homes to teach them personally and directly, mouth to mouth, year round. There is not such a practice among us so far. Thus far, many of the leading ones in the churches do a routine work.
It is not enough for the elders merely to decide the meeting schedule of the church and come to the meetings in a routine way without any endeavoring. First of all, we ourselves have to dive into the Word to learn how to perfect ourselves. As we are being perfected ourselves, we can go to visit the saints house to house, day and night, in order to nourish them, cherish them, and teach them one by one, sometimes with tears. This will consummate in the perfecting of all the saints. They will all be enabled to speak. Each one part will operate in its own measure. Then all the saints will function, and there will be no clergy or laity among us. All the saints meeting with us will be perfected, equipped, and furnished to speak forth Christ. This will issue in the accomplishment of the Lord’s heart’s desire, the organic building up of the Body of Christ.
The Lord has expected this organic building for almost two thousand years, but what is being practiced in today’s Christianity is the traditional clergy-laity system. The mass of the believers are so-called laymen. Here are two ways for us to choose from — the old way of the clergy and the laity or the new way of the organic building up of the Body of Christ through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part. We all must take the new, scriptural way. For this new way we all have to labor diligently, especially the leading ones and the co-workers. It is not acceptable to prepare a message to speak once a week and then take it easy the rest of the week in order to have leisure time.
Some have said that we should forget about the work and come back to the enjoyment of Christ, but we need to realize that the enjoyment of Christ always has an issue. If a branch of the vine tree is really and richly enjoying the life-juice from the tree, surely the branch will bear fruit (John 15:5). If the branch has not borne fruit for years, it has probably already been cut off (vv. 2a, 6). A person may think that he is enjoying Christ, but actually he may be cut off from the enjoyment of Christ. He may be self-deceived. Have we been enjoying Christ year after year? Where is our fruit? When I returned to Taipei in 1984, they only had three thousand in attendance at the Lord’s table. Today they have five thousand at the table. They also have thousands of new ones that they are caring for in home meetings and small group meetings. The saints and churches who have practiced visiting people in their homes with the gospel have testified of the fruitfulness of this way. Can we give a testimony in a definite way of the fruit that we have borne?
If the way that I have presented to you is ordained by God and is according to the Scriptures, we have to practice it at any cost. Then the Lord will have a way with us to finish His recovery. Otherwise, we may force Him to drop us and go to others. The Lord dropped others in His move and came to us sixty years ago, but where are we today? The gifted ones — the leading ones and the co-workers — need to perfect the needy saints, not by speaking to them as a congregation but by visiting them in their homes. Some of the older co-workers may feel that they have become useless now that we are changing to the new way. Actually, if the older ones pick up the new way, they will become more useful. Their years of experience are needed for the perfecting of the saints. If we do not go along with the tide of the Spirit in this age, however, we will become dropouts. Time does not wait for us. This is why the New Testament tells us to redeem the time (Eph. 5:16). The older ones are more useful, but they have to go along with the present advance of the Lord’s recovery.
