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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 12:1-12
First Corinthians 12:1-12 is a portion of the Word that has been misunderstood and even misused throughout the history of the church. To understand any section or any sentence of the holy Word, one needs a complete and overall view of the entire Bible. The twelve verses in the Scripture Reading are one short section of 1 Corinthians, and to understand them we need to see what 1 Corinthians talks about.
In the last century the Brethren taught that 1 Corinthians was a book to solve the problems in the church life. The first of the eleven problems in 1 Corinthians is the problem of division (1:10-17). They considered the portion from chapter 12 through chapter 14 as a section on the problem of the gifts. In particular, the Brethren felt that this section of 1 Corinthians was written to solve the problem of tongue-speaking. Apparently, Paul wrote this letter to solve all the problems, but actually, there was a deeper thought and burden within Paul. Those in Pentecostalism stress very much that 1 Corinthians is the unique book in the New Testament and in the entire Bible that encourages us to speak in tongues. Actually, however, in 1 Corinthians Paul strongly belittles the gift of tongues and exalts the gift of prophecy, because his main concern is the church, not the individual believers. Speaking in tongues, even if it is genuine and proper, edifies only the speaker himself, but prophesying, to speak forth the Lord, builds up the church (14:1-4).
The position of 1 Corinthians in the Bible bears a particular significance. The arrangement of the books of the Bible was under God’s sovereignty. Malachi could not be the first book of the Old Testament, nor could Genesis be the last book. Psalms and Proverbs are properly placed before the prophets and not after. In the New Testament it is significant that Matthew comes first and that Revelation is last. The four Gospels give us a clear view of the completion of Christ. God anointed His Son to be His Christ, yet even His Son, the God-anointed One, needed to be completed, to be equipped, in order that He might have the ability and the qualifications to carry out His commission to accomplish God’s eternal plan. Thus, the four Gospels tell us how God’s Son has been completed to be God’s Christ to carry out God’s New Testament economy. Acts tells us how this completed Christ was propagated. Due to this propagation, many believers came into existence. Thus, we need Romans to tell us what the Christian life is for the church life. Romans shows us the Christian life for the church life, and 1 Corinthians follows to show us how to have the church life.
The practice of today’s Christianity is a destruction of the church life. Unrestricted speaking in tongues is a great destruction to the proper church life, and it destroyed the church life at Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 12—14 Paul dealt with tongue-speaking to save the saints in Corinth from the destruction of the church life. He adjusted the Corinthian believers in many ways so that they might have a proper church life. The proper church life depends absolutely upon the church meetings. If we do not have proper church meetings, we can never have a proper church life. The term church is ekklesia in Greek, which means “the called-out assembly.” This term implies meeting because the church is an assembly. Without the meetings, there is no church. How to have the meetings, however, is a big problem to the church life. Today on the entire earth it is hard to find the proper church life because there are not the proper church meetings.
The Lord’s new way is mainly to bring people into the church and then to form them into meetings so that they may enter into the proper church life for the building up of Christ’s universal Body. The visiting of people’s homes by knocking on their doors is the God-ordained way to spread the gospel. To have meetings set up in the new believers’ homes is also God’s ordained way to begin the church life. After God has done so much to complete Christ and to propagate Christ to produce the church life, we have to see how the church should meet, and the way for the church to meet is by the Divine Trinity’s operation. In every church meeting is the Divine Trinity’s operation. The Christian gathering is for the Divine Trinity to operate for the purpose of carrying out the dispensing of the processed Triune God. The way to continue God’s New Testament economy is to have meetings for the Triune God to operate among us to carry out His dispensing of the processed Trinity. Christianity has lost the view of God’s New Testament economy and has lost the view of God’s ordained way to carry out this economy.
The Lord’s new way is not merely the way to knock on doors or the way to set up meetings in people’s homes. The Lord’s new way is to carry out God’s New Testament economy. God’s New Testament economy is first to complete His Christ and then to propagate, to duplicate, to reproduce, this completed Christ and dispense Him into His chosen and believing people for the producing of the church, which is the organism of the Triune God. This divine organism exists, is maintained, and goes on by being gathered into the Lord’s name (Matt. 18:20), the highest name in the universe. In such a gathering, the Triune God operates. God the Father operates, the Son ministers, and the Spirit distributes all the gifts for the dispensing of the processed Triune God (1 Cor. 12:4-6).
The purpose for us Christians to meet is unique. It is not for teaching, for preaching, for tongue-speaking, for healing, or for miracles. The Christian meeting is for the dispensing of the processed Triune God. Many Bible teachers do not realize that the teaching of the Bible should be for the Triune God to operate so that He can carry out the dispensing of His divine, triune self. Even the gospel preaching is not for gospel preaching but for the Triune God to operate to carry out His divine dispensing of Himself. We are not merely going to recover door-knocking or home meetings. We believe that the Lord has shown us a way to recover the divine dispensing of the Divine Being into our being. The Lord’s new way for His new move is to recover the proper way of gospel preaching and the proper way of Christian meeting so that the Triune God may operate among His chosen people to dispense Himself into their being.
After the completion of God’s Christ, the propagation of the pneumatic Christ, and the producing of the church, the Divine Trinity is looking for and expecting to have a proper opportunity among His chosen people so that He can operate among them and within them to dispense Himself into them. Our past way to meet did not afford God much of an opportunity to dispense Himself into us. In most Christian meetings today God has nearly no way to operate in order to dispense Himself into His chosen people. God needs to recover this way so that He may have in many places around the globe groups of seeking Christians who afford Him the opportunity to operate in them in order that He can dispense Himself into their being.
In every Christian meeting God should be operating, and this operation is carried out by ministries, which are completed by the different gifts of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 there is a picture of the Triune God that begins with the Spirit, goes through the Lord, and reaches God the Father. With the Spirit is the distribution of the gifts, with the Lord are the ministries, and with God the Father are the operations. God the Father operates, the Lord ministers through different ministries, and the Spirit distributes Himself into the believers as gifts. Thus, all the gifts are accomplishing the ministries, and all the ministries are carrying out God’s operation. The operation of the Divine Trinity is to carry out the divine dispensing of the Divine Being into us, the believers in Christ, so that we may become His organism to express Him in the whole earth. This is the new way for the Lord’s new move.
In the Divine Trinity’s operation, the Spirit moves the believers to say “Lord Jesus” and distributes gifts to the believers (vv. 3-4). In many Christian meetings on this earth, the attendants come in an orderly and quiet way to be seated. They sit there waiting for a pastor to stand up to say something to them. This is the killing way to meet. These believers may have been very living, active, and talkative outside the chapel. But when they came into that chapel, their function and their livingness were killed. Even in the local churches we somewhat practice this way. We may have been quite active outside the meeting hall, but when we came into the meeting hall, we sat down and waited for one of the elders to say something. We need to come into the meeting hall calling “O Lord Jesus!” What a meeting that would be if all of us would function to begin the meeting by calling upon the name of the Lord. In many Christian meetings certain people sing solos. Everyone in the audience keeps quiet to listen to that solo, and their function is killed. Then there may be a quartet, and after their singing the issue is death. We need to reject this dead way of meeting.
When we call “O Lord Jesus,” this will stir all of us up, revive us, and make us alive. The more you say “O Lord Jesus,” the more you will be alive, and the more you will enliven others. When we call “O Lord Jesus,” we not only sense the very presence of the living Christ, but we also have the sensation that Someone is moving and living within us. Some might say that if we all called on the Lord in the meeting, this would make too much noise. But God likes to have noise; He does not like our quietness in the meetings. The Psalms tell us to make a joyful noise unto the Lord (66:1; 81:1; 95:1-2; 98:4, 6; 100:1). The Psalms do not say that we need to have a joyful voice. A voice is something that is in order, but a noise is made when everyone is speaking.
You may feel that others can speak and function but that you have no gift to speak and function. Actually, however, you are not poor. Your poverty comes through your dumbness. Romans 10:12 tells us that the Lord is rich to all who call upon Him. After ten times of calling “O Lord Jesus,” you will have something to say. Calling on the name of the Lord stirs you up from within. When you call upon the Lord, you have the gift, and you want to flow out to others.
The first three verses of 1 Corinthians 12 give us a new start for our meetings. When we come to the meeting and we are all dumb, we will lose our function. We will not know what to say. But after a few times of calling “O Lord Jesus,” we will have a burden to say something. Try calling on the name of the Lord Jesus in a meeting ten times, and see what will come out. After ten times of calling on the Lord’s name, we would not be able to sit down, and we would have to flow out from within. At the same time that we call on the Lord’s name, the Spirit distributes the gift into us. If we want to function in the meeting, the way to get the gift is by calling on the name of the Lord. Everyone among us should try this.
In 1933 I began to work together with Brother Nee. He always stressed that in the meetings one or two brothers should not be the only ones who speak. He stressed that everyone should learn to speak. At that time I wondered how we could help the saints function in the meetings. After many years of study I began to see the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 12: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were Gentiles, you were always being led away to dumb idols, whenever and however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed; and no one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit” (vv. 1-3). From these verses, how do we know that we are speaking in the Spirit of God? It is by calling on the Lord’s name. When we call, that is a sign that the Spirit of God is moving in us. No one can say, “Lord Jesus,” except in the Holy Spirit. To say “Lord Jesus” is the start of the Spirit’s distribution of the gifts in verse 4, which says, “But there are distinctions of gifts, but the same Spirit.” The beginning of distinctions, or the distributions, of the gifts by the Spirit is our calling “Lord Jesus.” The best way to help the saints to function or to speak in the meetings is to charge them, to motivate them, to call on the name of the Lord Jesus.
In the early seventies when we were meeting in Elden hall in Los Angeles, our meetings were always in the heavenlies because there was so much calling on the name of the Lord. The saints were calling on the name of the Lord in their homes and on their way to the meeting hall. Thus, whenever you entered into the meeting place, you had the sensation that you were alive and that everything was living there. All this calling on the name of the Lord ushered in the speaking from all the saints. We did not have enough time in our meetings for everyone to speak. Gradually, however, our calling on the name of the Lord has diminished, has slowed down. Thus, our meetings also have begun to be very slow.
Now the rescue is to call on the name of the Lord. This calling stirs up the distribution of the gifts. Then the gifts perform all kinds of ministries by the Lord, and all these ministries will carry out the operations of the Father. The operations through the ministries by the gifts will dispense the Divine Trinity into our being. In our meetings there should be no formalities or rituals. We need to come in calling on the name of the Lord and begin to speak. To keep the formalities and rituals is to remain in death.
The gathering of God’s people in the old dispensation was with Christ prefigured in all the types but not completed through all the processes. Today we have the real Christ completed through all the processes. The gathering of God’s people in the old dispensation was also with regulations of letters only and no direction and move by the Spirit. Today in the Christian meetings there must not be the regulations of letters but the direction and move by the Spirit. Finally, in the old dispensation the gathering of God’s people had patterns only of things to come and no accomplishments for God’s eternal plan. Today it should be that in every meeting God operates to accomplish something according to His plan.
