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Scripture Reading: John 15:16; 21:15; 1 Pet. 2:2
In this chapter we will continue to fellowship concerning the home meetings. I am burdened that we would all have a proper understanding of what we mean by the term the home meetings. When we say “the home meetings,” we are referring to our meetings with the newly baptized ones in their own homes. When we baptize new believers, we should immediately begin to visit them in their homes to have meetings with them. This is what we call the home meetings.
By reading church history and biographies, we can see that a number of outstanding believers were saved in homes. For instance, when George Müller was about twenty, he was brought to the home of a Christian brother to attend a small meeting. Although he was not a religious or ethical person, through that meeting he was deeply touched by the Lord and was saved. Eventually, he became one of the outstanding believers of the past century.
There are many examples in history of unbelievers having good salvation experiences in the saints’ homes. However, when we speak of the home meetings in the context of the new way, the God-ordained way, we are not referring to this kind of meeting in the homes of the saints. We are referring specifically to having home meetings with the newly saved and baptized ones in their own homes. Sometimes we confuse the home meetings with the small group meetings. The home meeting is a meeting with the newly baptized ones in their homes. Occasionally, some others may attend a home meeting, yet the intention is not to have a group meeting but only to meet with that family in their home because they have recently been saved. The small group meetings are different from the home meetings. After we have helped a number of new ones in their homes for several months, we should gather them together to form a group meeting. We may consider the home meeting as a kind of spiritual kindergarten and the small group meeting as the elementary, junior high, and even high school. To understand the home meetings and the small group meetings in this way will be very helpful in the future because we will share more messages concerning these two kinds of meetings.
The title of this chapter — “Feeding the Newborn Babes with Baby Food” — may seem somewhat childish, but it is based upon much experience. We must realize that it is not easy to carry out the home meetings. After we have baptized some new ones, we must go back to meet with them within one or two days. The first requirement for us to have a proper home meeting with these newly baptized ones is that regardless of how old they are in the physical life, how high a position they may hold, or how high an education they may have received, we have to consider them as babes.
If you bring an older man to the Lord and baptize him, you must go back in a few days to meet with him. If he is over seventy years old and well-educated, yet you are only twenty-nine, you may feel uncomfortable in dealing with him. You should respect his age because this is the proper humanity, but you must realize that because he has been saved for only a few days, he is very young in the Lord. Your purpose in meeting with him should be to feed him, not to teach him. You must have the realization that he is a newborn babe and feed him with baby food.
You must consider whatever he might say to you as babyish talk. He may be a retired college professor and talk to you about science or computers, but you should not forget that he is a babe in Christ. This does not mean that you should despise him. You still have to respect him, but within you must realize that he is a babe. You should not be carried away by his talking because, spiritually speaking, he is a babe and knows nearly nothing about the Lord.
You must try to treat these newly baptized ones as nursing mothers treat their babes. This is one of the secrets of how to practice the God-ordained way, but it is a hard lesson to learn. You must learn to always have a subjective realization concerning every new believer, considering that they are babes. If you teach kindergarten, you realize that these students are little children, and you treat them accordingly. If you teach graduate school, you realize that these students are all college graduates. To treat them like little children would be wrong. You must have a proper psychological understanding.
The primary point, the prerequisite, is that you consider a newly baptized one as a babe in Christ. A new one may ask, “What is the Bible?” This may not sound like a babyish question, but you must answer as you would answer a baby; you must have this kind of concept. You must say the right words, and your attitude and tone must also be right. A new one may ask many questions, yet you must always have the concept that you are dealing with a babe in Christ. If you can learn this secret, you will be welcomed by every new one. They would like to hear your talk. In this way you can open the way to feed them. Sometimes after a meeting, I went over to see how the saints were talking to the newcomers. Many times the saints’ expression and tone were wrong in talking with these ones. You must speak something that will help a new one to open to you. He will open by saying something. Right away, you may realize that he has been newly saved. Then you have to talk to him by considering him as a babe. If you have learned this secret, after only two or three sentences you will be warmly welcomed by him. He will open himself up to you, listen to you, and take your word. He will become very interested in whatever you say.
When I was young, I was told that no human power can save a person and that we must fast and pray to receive the power from on high. In my hometown there was a Pentecostal denomination that met not far from our meeting hall. They continually cried out for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and eventually they claimed that they had all received it. However, for many years we saw very few persons saved through them, yet in our hall the new ones were added nearly every day. Besides this, we studied the fruit of the new ones. The new ones who were saved in that Pentecostal denomination did not have a daily walk that glorified the Father. But among us a good number, right after being saved, were brought into the environment of the church’s edifying. Because of this, they could have a proper living. The principle is this — in the New Testament age God will not do anything by Himself directly, especially concerning the matter of the gospel. God must keep the principle of incarnation. God is ready to save persons, but we may not be ready; we may not have been trained.
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He had Peter, John, James, and the other disciples with Him for three and a half years. The four Gospels do not tell us in detail what the Lord did with Peter for three and a half years, but I do not believe that Peter was merely traveling with the Lord. Surely Peter received much training under the Lord’s care. In John 15:16 Peter was charged, and we all are charged by the Lord, to bear fruit: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” The Lord set us for three things: that we should go forth, that we should bear fruit, and that our fruit should remain. In the past we may have gone forth and borne fruit, but of the fruit that we bore, not much remained.
We all must go forth, bear fruit, and our fruit should remain. How do we preserve our fruit so that it will remain? The answer is in John 21:15: “Feed My lambs.” If we love the Lord, we are charged to feed His lambs. Every proper mother knows how to feed her newborn babe. Peter was charged by the Lord in John 21 to feed the lambs. Then later, in chapter 2 of his first Epistle, he wrote to all the new ones: “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word” (v. 2). Newborn babes cannot feed themselves; they need a nursing mother to feed them. We must be the feeding ones. We can bear fruit and have our fruit remain by learning to feed.
In the past we may have baptized many, but few of them remained. This is because, although we had the bearing of fruit, we did not have the feeding. It is easy to get someone saved, but to keep him, to bring him into the Body of Christ so that he can participate in God’s economy for the Lord’s recovery, is difficult because we do not know how to practice the feeding. If we are going to bear children, we must be prepared to feed them for many years. Even three years of feeding may not be adequate to assure that a new one will remain. Do not expect that the Lord will give you a particular burden to care for certain ones. That is being too spiritual. The Lord may never give you this kind of burden. Then what will you do? When a mother delivers a child, she does not receive a particular burden from the Lord to feed her child, yet she is forced to feed it for many years. Regrettably, few among us would be willing to labor in this way, to pay this kind of price. Out of so many baptisms, nearly no one is left because few have been feeding the lambs.
It is much easier to knock on doors to bring people to the Lord and baptize them than to feed them in the home meetings. In our experience we may know how to visit people for the preaching of the gospel, but when we go to hold a home meeting with the newly baptized ones, we may not know what to do. It is hard to carry out a successful home meeting. It is also hard for me to teach this kind of practice. We have to spend much time to learn how to have the home meetings.
You all have to learn the secret to be the proper feeders. When you go out to hold home meetings, you must treat the new ones as babes. Then you have to learn how to talk to these babes. If a new one asks a question concerning science, you must talk to him as you would talk to a babe. If you talk in a natural way, saying, “Sir, I am sorry. I do not know anything about science,” you are talking as to a man and not as to a babe. You have to realize that even if he is a professor, spiritually speaking, he is a babe. Therefore, you should not treat him as a professor but as a babe in Christ. This is not easy to learn. In your attitude, in your tone, and in every way, you must be as one who is talking to a babe.
Sometimes a new one would not open himself to you; he would not say anything. He would welcome you into his home and would sit with you until you speak something, but he would not say anything. What should you do? Again, you must try to talk to him as to a babe. You may ask, “Shall we sing a song?” Surely he would be very agreeable to this. You may ask, “Do you have a song?” He might have one. This is a start, and this is to talk as to a little babe. Never forget that the new one is a spiritual babe. According to Peter, the newborn babes need milk, yet they do not know how to drink. The way to help a babe who does not know how to drink, is to feed him. When you go to hold a home meeting with the little babes, you must have the proper attitude. You must have the attitude that you are coming to “play” with these little babes. You must learn this. You may even sing a simple children’s song with them. You must learn that regardless of the new ones’ age, position, or social status, they are babes.
There are some very difficult situations that you will eventually encounter in preaching the gospel and caring for the newly saved ones. The first of these is the matter of idols. A certain man may have been saved through your preaching three days ago. When you go back to his home to hold a home meeting with him, he may immediately ask you, “What are idols?” You have to learn how to “play” with him, that is, to answer him as you would talk to a babe. You must learn to have this kind of attitude and tone. You may say, “What do you mean, idols? Are you talking about some images?” This is the way to “play” with this babe. Then he may answer you by pointing out certain things that he considers might be idols and may say, “Isn’t this thing an idol?” Then you can pick up his feeling and answer, “Yes, this is an idol. What else?”
Do not think that the matter of idols is an easy item to handle. This is a very difficult matter. A number of the newly saved ones have been stumbled by this matter. When you feed them in many other matters, they would accept it, but when you come to the matter of idols, they might not accept your word. This is especially true with the Chinese concerning the worship of their ancestors. Many would not forsake this practice, so it is hard to know how to answer them. Of course, we cannot say that it is all right, yet if we condemn this in the wrong manner, we will lose them. Therefore, you must remember that this one is only a babe. He knows many things, yet he knows nothing concerning the Lord. You must learn to “play” with him in your conversation. While you are talking to him as to a babe, you have to look to the Lord for the wisdom to handle the situation without stumbling him. Eventually, you will be able to convince him, but not like a professor convincing a student. That kind of attitude can never work out anything. You must hold the attitude that you are talking to a babe.
Another difficult item is the matter of making restitution for past transgressions. We all did things that were wrong in the past. We all wronged others. Sometimes we wronged others financially in material things. After a new one has been saved, he will sooner or later encounter this problem. We must be very careful not to bring up this problem too soon. In the New Testament there is no teaching that charges us to tell the newly saved ones to clear their past. To do this is wrong. The Lord’s dynamic salvation will work out this result. Zaccheus was saved, and immediately he told the Lord, “Behold, the half of my possessions, Lord, I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore four times as much” (Luke 19:8). This was a dynamic reaction to the Lord’s dynamic salvation. It was not the result of any teaching.
In Acts 19 many of the Ephesians took their idolatrous books and burned them. They were not taught to do this; it was a spontaneous reaction to the Lord’s salvation. Therefore, when we come to such a problem, we must remember that the new ones are babes. They have come to know something, yet they do not understand it thoroughly. They might be serious about the idols, yet it is better for you to talk to them in a way that is not so serious. Then they will receive your word. You all have to learn this, not only with idols and with the clearance of the past but with many items. Because you have helped them to read the Bible, sooner or later they will bring up these kinds of questions from the Bible. Nearly every time you go back to visit them, they will bring up some questions. In handling these questions, you must always try to talk to them with the attitude and tone that you are talking to a babe. If you learn to do this properly, people will welcome you.
Another difficult question is regarding the matter of marriage. Today on the earth there are a lot of illegal marriages. Young men and young women live together as husband and wife, yet they were never married. Are they husband and wife or not? You may have a new one, a young lady, who was saved in a marvelous way, yet she lives with a young man without being married. They may even have a child. Eventually, this question concerning marriage will be brought up. Are the two of them husband and wife? What would you say? If you say no, you will stumble them, but you cannot tell them that this is not a problem, because this is a big problem.
In China there is the problem of concubines. One day I visited a home. The husband got saved and baptized. His salvation was miraculous. I did not know his situation, but I felt he was very good. Then one day I went to meet with him in his home, and there were four ladies there. Eventually, by talking to them I learned that these ladies were his four wives. All these four wives had been helped by this man to be saved. I can testify from my heart that all five, the man and the four wives, loved the Lord Jesus, and they seemed to love one another. I was afraid that I would not be able to get out of that home without the matter of marriage being brought up. How should one handle such a case? I tried my best to avoid the four wives. I only said, “It is wonderful to see that you all love the Lord.” They all were very happy. Then I talked to them and encouraged them to love the Lord more, and to follow the Spirit. They all said Amen. After quite a long time, I said, “I have to go back home now.” They all agreed with me and sent me off; I got out of that snare. Then I went back to talk to the leading ones about this matter. What should we have done concerning this man and the four wives? This is a hard question, and even today I cannot tell you the best answer.
One secret you have to learn and always remember is that you are dealing with babes. I was there with one husband and four wives; all five were babes. On the one hand, I was “playing” with them, but on the other hand, I was really helping them. My visit did not stumble or damage them. If I had been careless and had been like a preacher, a pastor, or a Bible teacher, I surely would have damaged them. Just by my one visit, all five would have been stumbled. Therefore, learn to hold home meetings always with the realization that you are dealing with babes. This will safeguard you, and this will open the way for you to render the proper help to them. Do not forget that the new ones were deeply fallen sinners, so it is not so easy for us to rescue them out of their fallen situation and condition in a quick way. Some are not so complicated, but many cases are really complicated.
In the United States today it is easy to meet a couple that has not been properly married. They may live together and even have children. Recently, we encountered such a problem. When you go to a home meeting, you may find out strange things. This is why you need to have the home meetings. If you do not hold home meetings, you cannot know the real living situation of these newly saved ones.
Learn to talk to people, treating them as babes all the time. If you keep this one principle and learn this one secret, you will be safeguarded from offending and stumbling people. Otherwise, many times you will unconsciously stumble the new ones. After your visit they would say, “Forget about it. I want nothing to do with Christianity. I cannot take this religion.” They may not say this to your face, but after you leave, they will say it. Learn to talk to new ones as to babes.
