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Scripture Reading: Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:2-3; 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1; Eph. 4:3-6; 2 John 9-11; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Jude 3; Eph. 4:13; 1 Cor. 1:10
In this chapter we want to see the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. Acts 2:42 says, “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” In this verse Luke uses the preposition in twice. The new ones who were saved on the day of Pentecost continued in two groups of things: in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles and in the breaking of bread and the prayers. Four items are divided into two groups. The teaching and the fellowship are related to the apostles, and the breaking of bread and the prayers are not related to the apostles. This means that a person who prays does not need to pray in something related to the apostles. If saints break bread, they do not need to break bread in something related to the apostles. But no one has the freedom in the divine economy to teach whatever he likes to teach. Our teaching must be restricted by the limit and by the sphere of the apostles’ teaching. Furthermore, a fellowship outside the fellowship of the apostles is divisive. Our fellowship must be inside the fellowship of the apostles. The apostles’ teaching is unique, and the apostles’ fellowship is also unique. But the breaking of bread and prayer are not limited in the sphere of the apostles.
In the previous chapter we saw that we should have one way for one goal. The one way for the one goal is altogether in the limit, in the sphere, of the apostles’ teaching. All the problems, divisions, and confusion among the Christians today are due to one thing — not caring for the apostles’ teaching. Many Christians teach something different from the apostles’ teaching. They have not been limited, restricted, and kept strictly in the sphere of the apostles’ teaching. The deciding factor of the one way for one goal is the apostles’ teaching.
Many things are taught in Christendom that do not belong to or are not in the sphere of the apostles’ teaching. Baptism by immersion is taught by some as the unique term and condition for receiving the saints. Although baptism by immersion is scripturally correct, to make it a term by which one receives the believers is altogether sectarian. Denominations are the result of different teachings other than the apostles’ teaching. A denomination is a denominated sect, a sect with a name. When the Lord showed us the truth of the one Body of Christ and of divisions being of the flesh, we began to condemn the word denomination. A denomination is a sect that takes a name other than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lutheran, Wesleyan, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Episcopalian are names adopted by groups of Christians other than the unique name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Baptism by immersion, which shows the real significance of being buried together with Christ (Rom. 6:4), is altogether scriptural, but to make this practice the unique condition for receiving the believers is absolutely sectarian. The presbytery, which is an anglicized Greek word referring to the body of elders or the eldership in a local church (1 Tim. 4:14), is a biblical truth. A local church is under the management and oversight of the elders. But to use the truth concerning the presbytery to denominate a group of believers, thus separating them from other believers, is a different and wrong teaching, which causes division.
The Episcopal denomination gets its name from the Greek word episkopos, which means “overseer,” or “bishop.” An overseer in a local church is an elder (Acts 20:17, 28). But it was Ignatius in the second century who taught that an overseer, a bishop, is higher than an elder. From this erroneous teaching came the hierarchy of bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and the pope. This teaching is also the source of the episcopal system of ecclesiastical government. This episcopal system of government and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church are unscriptural and abominable in the eyes of God. But even to use a certain practice that is scriptural to denominate a certain group is to make a division, to form a named, official sect. Denominations are absolutely wrong.
Christianity has many ways because of the many teachings outside the limit of the apostles’ teaching. Anything other than the apostles’ teaching should not be taught among Christians. What we should teach is only the teachings within the limit of the apostles’ teaching. I once met a dear saint who asked me whether we in the churches practiced foot-washing every time we had the Lord’s table. I told this brother that we know foot-washing is in the Bible and that we have practiced it but not in a formal or legal way. He then said that our Lord’s table was wrong because we did not practice foot-washing when we had it. This brother’s group taught foot-washing as a term or a condition for taking the Lord’s table. A teaching outside of the limit of the apostles’ teaching always creates division. Even if today’s tongue-speaking were proper, it still should not be a term or condition for us to fellowship with one another and to receive the saints. We should not make anything, even if that thing is scriptural, a term or a condition of fellowship with other saints. To practice in this way is to be sectarian. We can take one way only by keeping the apostles’ teaching. Otherwise, we cannot have the one way.
When Paul told Timothy to charge certain ones not to teach differently, he was referring to the teaching of myths, unending genealogies (1 Tim. 1:4), and the law (vv. 7-8). At Paul’s time some Judaistic believers still taught others the genealogies and the law in the Old Testament. The law was the teaching of Moses, not the teaching of the Lord Jesus or the teaching of the apostles. If we teach anything that has never been taught by the Lord Jesus or the apostles, we are teaching something other than God’s economy, something outside the apostles’ teaching. A teaching other than the apostles’ teaching will issue in division. We can have one way only by restricting our teaching to be within the limit of the apostles’ teaching.
The apostles’ teaching is the teaching concerning Christ’s person and redemptive work (2 John 9-11). It is also the teaching concerning God’s economy in faith (1 Tim. 1:3-4). God’s economy is not to have a mission field for preaching the gospel or to have a Bible school to teach the truths. God’s economy is to dispense, or impart, the Triune God into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and everything that they might be regenerated and transformed into the proper material for the building up of the Body of Christ so that God may have a corporate expression on the earth in many localities in this age with a view to the building up of the coming New Jerusalem for His eternal expression. If we limit ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, the teaching concerning God’s economy, we will be kept in oneness and will have one way for one goal. We must have a clear vision concerning God’s economy; then we will never be misled. We will keep ourselves going toward the unique goal in the unique way.
The apostles’ teaching is the believers’ faith, their belief, that is, what the believers believe in (Jude 3; Eph. 4:13). We believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, becoming the Son of Man. We believe in such a God-man as our life and Savior. We believe in His death for our sins and in His resurrection for us to have His divine life. We believe in His ascension, and we believe that today He is the life-giving Spirit indwelling us to live in us that we may live Him. These items are the believers’ faith, which is the teaching of the apostles. All doctrines other than this teaching of the apostles cause divisions among the believers (1 Cor. 1:10).
Teaching creates fellowship. If I were to teach foot-washing as a condition for receiving the saints, this teaching would immediately produce a particular fellowship. Fellowship comes from the teaching. There should be only one unique teaching — the teaching of the apostles. Furthermore, there should be one unique fellowship that is produced by the apostles’ teaching. What we teach will produce a kind of fellowship. If we teach wrongly and differently from the apostles’ teaching, our teaching will produce a sectarian, divisive fellowship. If I teach baptism by immersion as a condition or a term for receiving the saints, this teaching will produce a Baptist fellowship. Many Baptist denominations will fellowship only with ones who have been baptized by a Baptist preacher in “Baptist water.” If a person has been baptized by someone else, that baptism is not official or does not count. Thus, we can see that wrong teaching produces wrong, divisive fellowship. We can have one way for one goal by keeping ourselves strictly in the limit of the apostles’ teaching and the apostles’ fellowship. There should not be another fellowship besides the apostles’ fellowship.
In our work for the Lord, we must keep ourselves in the apostles’ fellowship. If you have the burden to go to another locality to have the church life, you should do it with adequate fellowship from the church where you are. If you feel that you can raise up the church life in another city without fellowship with the brothers in the church in your locality, you will be raising up something outside the apostles’ fellowship. The apostles’ fellowship is universal in time and space. This fellowship includes all parts of the globe and includes all the centuries. Peter, Paul, and all the saints practicing the proper church life were in this fellowship. Anyone who would go out to another place to raise up the church life must have adequate fellowship with the church he has been meeting with. Otherwise, what he raises up will be something outside the apostles’ fellowship and will cause division.
The principle of fellowship in the New Testament keeps us living the Body life. My hand cannot function in a detached way from the other members of my body. If my hand becomes detached, it is separated from the body. Likewise, as members of the Body of Christ, we should not do things in a detached way. We have to learn to listen to one another. The proper fellowship is that we listen to one another. The hand listens to the arm, and the arm listens to the hand. The church in a locality should not be raised up by us independently without any fellowship with the source we came from. By keeping the principle of fellowship, we listen to one another. To listen to one another is to respect the Body. When the hand listens to the arm, the hand respects the body. To reject a member of the Body with whom you are connected is to reject the Body itself. To disregard the Body and not listen to the Body is wrong.
Matthew 18 shows us that to refuse to hear the church is a very serious matter (v. 17). We must keep ourselves in the one way for the one goal by keeping ourselves in the proper fellowship of the Body of Christ, which is the unique oneness. The church in New York should not say, “We have nothing to do with the church in Los Angeles because all the churches are independent from one another.” The churches are only independent from one another in the area of administration, or management. Besides the matter of management, all the churches should depend upon one another. No church should be independent from the other churches. Once a local church becomes independent, it loses its identity and becomes a local sect. Whether or not a church is a local sect or a local church depends upon what kind of fellowship it keeps.
All of us have the freedom to knock on people’s doors and set up home meetings. Out of the home meetings we can raise up a local church. But if we do this independently without any relationship to any church, what we raise up will be an independent sect. A proper local church is related to other churches. We must remember that there are churches on the earth that are already in existence. The existence of a new church must be related to the churches that are preexisting. To have fellowship with the churches keeps us in the proper fellowship of the apostles, which means that we will be kept in the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ. To preach the gospel, to baptize people, and to set up home meetings are not related to the apostles’ fellowship. But to turn those home meetings into a local church in a certain locality is related to the apostles’ fellowship. To have an independent fellowship in a locality is divisive. On the other hand, the leading brothers in the church should not control the saints. They should not have the attitude that the saints need to get their permission to raise up the church life in a certain place. For the leading brothers to ask the saints to get their permission is to exercise control over the saints. To practice this is not to keep the oneness of the fellowship of the apostles.
With the leading ones there should be no control, and with all the believers there should be no independence. We need the balance of no control and no independence. If the saints have the burden to go to raise up the church life, the leading ones should encourage them to do this and help them by giving them warning, advice, and instruction. The believers, on the other hand, should behave and have their entire being kept in fellowship with the existing church to keep them in the unique fellowship of the apostles. As we go out to knock on people’s doors, baptize people, and set up home meetings, we must practice this fellowship. Otherwise, divisions will result. We must learn not to exercise control over anyone and not to practice being independent. In our physical body there is no independence among the members. Likewise, in the Body of Christ independence cannot be practiced. Once we practice independence, we get ourselves into the dangerous state of being detached or separated from the Body.
The apostles’ fellowship is with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3) and is also the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14), which the apostles participated in and ministered to the believers through the preaching of the divine life (1 John 1:2-3). Preaching produces fellowship, and fellowship must be of the divine life. The blood circulation in our physical body is crucial to our staying alive. This blood circulation is the fellowship of our physical life. If this fellowship is stopped, disease or death can result. Cancer cells are cells that are outside the “fellowship” of the physical body. Today in the church we must realize that if we are going to keep the proper fellowship, we must learn to live by the divine life. When we live by the divine life, we are in the circulation of the divine life, the fellowship.
Perhaps a certain brother has the burden to raise up the church life in another locality. The leading brothers may come to this brother to tell him that they need more fellowship. This brother then may respond, “What is wrong with my going to another city? Why do you have to come to check on me?” If this brother responds to the leading ones in this way, he is speaking by his natural life and not by the divine life. He needs a change of attitude. He should respond to the leading brothers from his spirit by the divine life by saying, “Brothers, I am happy that you want to have more fellowship with me. I also want to have more fellowship with you to receive your help.” When this brother responds in such a way, he is speaking in the spirit by the divine life and conversing with the leading ones in the fellowship of the apostles. To say things and behave by our own life is to get out of the fellowship of the apostles. As long as we do things apart from the spirit and not with the divine life but with our natural life, we are outside of the fellowship of the apostles.
We need a vision of the apostles’ teaching and fellowship to guide us, control us, and restrict us. “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint” (Prov. 29:18). Without such a vision our work could issue in division. We should be in the teaching of the apostles and in the fellowship of the apostles. To keep ourselves in the fellowship of the apostles, we must live and behave in the divine life. All that we say and do must be the right thing in the right spirit with the right life, which is the divine life, not our human life. Our human life may be ethical, moral, and proper, but it is still our natural life. If we walk in our natural life, we are outside of the fellowship of the apostles. Then we may set up another fellowship that will create a division. To keep the one way for the one goal and to stay in the fellowship of the apostles, we must live and behave in the divine life. When we live and behave in the divine life, we keep ourselves in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, and in this fellowship we will have one way for one goal. Then we will keep the oneness in the Lord’s Body.
The apostles’ fellowship is the fellowship in which the believers enjoy the divine life and through which they fellowship with one another in the spirit (Phil. 2:1; Acts 2:42). In the fellowship of the apostles, there is the enjoyment of the divine life. This fellowship is altogether a matter of the divine life in the mingled spirit. We need to do everything in our spirit with the divine life. This unique fellowship is the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ as the unique ground for the believers to be kept one in Christ (Eph. 4:3-6). You may go to another locality and say, “We are going to take the standing of the church.” You may want to take the ground of the church, but by what life do you take the church ground? If you take the church ground by your natural life for your own standing, the ground on which you stand is the ground of division. The ground of the church must be the ground of oneness, and this oneness can be kept only by our being in the spirit with the divine life.
