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We must realize that we Christians are a meeting people. A Christian is a meeting person. Without meeting, there is no Christian life and no church life. It is rather difficult for any Christian to grow without attending the meetings. There is no way for any Christian to serve God without meetings, and it is impossible for Christians to express Christ if there are no meetings. The church life is a meeting life. When we read the first chapters of the book of Acts, we see that in the early days, in the first local church, the church in Jerusalem, the saints were meeting daily. Every day they met together, so they were a sound and strong church. It was not like the situation of today’s Christianity with little more than an eleven o’clock meeting on Sunday morning. We must meet all the time if possible. Hebrews 10:25 tells us that we must build up a custom and not lose that custom. We should not cease to meet together “as the custom with some is.” That is a wrong kind of custom. We should not build up a custom of not meeting, but a custom of meeting all the time.
The tremendous importance of the meetings is exceedingly clear to us. I do not believe that we need to stress this further. But how to meet — this is the real problem. If we were to go to all the Christian leaders, the Bible teachers, and even the most spiritual people and ask them, “What is the right way for Christians to meet?” I do not believe there is a person or ever has been a person on this earth who could tell us.
In the entire New Testament the first place that mentions something regarding the meetings of believers is Matthew 18. The Lord Jesus told us in Matthew 18:20 that where two or three are gathered together into His name, He will be in their midst. This is the unique instance of the Lord Jesus speaking something concerning Christian meetings. In all the past years Christians have been using this verse very much in regard to the matter of meeting. But whenever this verse is used, just one thing, although it is the main thing, is pointed out — that is, the matter of meeting in the Lord’s name. No doubt the matter of the name in this verse is an important point. We will see in a coming chapter what it really means to meet in the Lord’s name — this is most significant. But at the present time we want to consider the context of this verse. In what kind of situation did the Lord speak the words recorded in Matthew 18:20? In other words, what is the background of this verse? To discover this we must look into the context, starting from verse 15. If you read carefully, from verse 15 through verse 20, you will see why and how the Lord spoke these words in verse 20. Let us look into these verses.
The Lord said in verse 15 that if a brother sins against you, you must go to him and do whatever you can to recover him. If he will not listen to you, then you must bring with you one or two others to convince him — perhaps by two or three the brother will be gained. But suppose he will not listen to these two or three; then you must bring the case to the church (v. 17). We know that this must be the local church. It must be the church on this earth, the church in a place, the church in the locality where you are. And it must be there at the time when you are there. Surely this is not a church in the heavens or a church in the coming age — how could you go there to tell the church? It must be the church where you can go and bring your case in a practical way. You may say that the church in Matthew 16 is the universal church, but the church mentioned in chapter 18 is undoubtedly the local church, the church in the place where you live. Suppose then that this offending brother neglects to listen to the church. What is the result? I tell you, it is not a small thing, for he will be considered by the church like a Gentile and a tax collector.
Here we must pause to see a tremendously important matter. Brothers and sisters, have you seen the seriousness of this verse? This verse tells us that we need the church, and we need to be in the church. If we neglect to hear the church, we become like a Gentile. I may consider myself so spiritual, so heavenly, but if I neglect to hear the church, in the eyes of God I simply become like a Gentile. It is quite serious. Look at today’s situation. Thousands of Christians are here and there, but who are really in the church? Before you came to the local church, you were Christians. In a sense you loved the Lord, and in another sense you even sought the Lord, but at that time you were not in the church; you missed the church. In another sense, to some extent, you neglected to hear the church, and in another more serious sense you may have criticized the local church and rebelled against it. Yet you still considered yourself spiritual. We all must see that in the eyes of the Lord, if we neglect to listen to the church, we become just like a Gentile. What is a Gentile? A Gentile is a man of this world, a man on this earth who is not built into the church. God has chosen us, His people, to be in the church. God has no intention of choosing a myriad of individuals. His intention is to choose a people, a collective people, a corporate people as the Body of Christ, the church. If you are not built into the church, you may be a part of the church in nature, but in position you are still like a Gentile. Because you have been born again, because you have the life of God within you, because you have a divine and heavenly nature, you are a part of the church in nature, but in position you are outside of the church. Regardless of whether you have the heavenly nature or not, in position you are still the same as a Gentile. This is an exceedingly serious matter. It is a serious thing not to be in the church; it is also a serious thing to miss the church; and it is even more serious to neglect to listen to the church.
Some dear saints who would not listen to the church, who considered that they were better than the church, that they were right and the church was wrong, eventually became miserable, not only spiritually but even physically. It is not a small matter. This is not something of an organization or anything under someone’s control. Who could control such a thing? No one. This is something of the sovereignty of the Lord. When the church says no, you must also say no. When the church says that you must go along, then you must go along. For the past thirty years, not only here in America but also on the mainland of China and in Taiwan, I have been watching and observing. Without exception, I have seen the same thing. In all these years those who have criticized and rebelled against the church have ended in a miserable condition. But the Lord Jesus did not speak in this passage of rebelling against the church; He only spoke of refusing to hear the church. That alone is sufficient for a person to be considered like a Gentile and a tax collector. Regardless of how spiritual you consider yourself, as long as you refuse to hear the church, in the eyes of God you are just like a Gentile.
Then immediately following, in verse 18, the Lord Jesus said something about the exercise of the authority of the church. He said, “Whatever you [that means the church] bind on the earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” This is the authority the Lord gave to Peter in chapter 16. The Roman Catholic Church says that this authority was given only to Peter; so today only “the successor of Peter,” the pope, has it. But they neglect to see that in chapter 18 the same authority has been given to the church, to the whole church. The church has the authority to bind. To bind whom? To bind the one who refuses to hear the church. Read the context again, and you will see that this is the meaning. The church has the authority to bind him who refuses to hear the church.
How could this decision be carried out? By what way could the church execute this decision? By verses 19 and 20, that is, by the saints meeting together to pray concerning this matter. Read the context, and you will see that this is the meaning. You see the Lord said something regarding the meeting, because to exercise the authority of the church, to bind the dissenting one is not an individual matter, but a matter of the church, the corporate Body. The Body must execute the decision. By what way? By the way of prayer. The saints must come together to pray that the church may execute what the church decides. By this we see that the meetings of the believers must be something belonging to the church.
People today pluck out verse 20 and say, “Look, the Lord Jesus said that where two or three are meeting together in His name, there He will be in their midst.” They use this verse to justify any meeting where two or three are gathered in His name. But they simply neglect the context of this verse. The context tells us that the meetings of the believers must be something of the church, must be something which takes the stand of the church. They should not be isolated from the church; they should be connected and belonging to the church. Today Christians misapply verse 20. They take verse 20 as a ground for their meeting, but they never stand with the church. They do not have the church standing; they just meet by themselves without the church. They have the meeting, but they do not have the church; their meeting has no ground of the church, and their meeting is not taking the stand with the church.
How then should we meet? First, if we would meet properly, our meeting must be related to the church, and our meeting must belong to the church. Our meeting must be standing with the church and be a part of the church. The purpose of our meeting must be to execute the decision of the church.
I am very sorry for the situation of today’s Christianity. All the free groups take Matthew 18:20 as the justification, the basis, for their meeting. If you inquire of them regarding the church, they answer that they do not understand anything concerning the church; they say that they just meet together upon the scriptural ground of Matthew 18:20. I can assure you that this is true not only in the Western world but also in the Far East. So many Christians are meeting together, but they simply do not know that when they meet together, they need the standing of the church. The meeting of believers, the meeting of Christians, must be a part of the church, must take the stand of the church, and must be for the purpose of executing the church’s decision.
Perhaps there are some who are reading this book who still have such a concept. They feel that as long as they meet in the name of the Lord Jesus, that is sufficient. But according to the context of Matthew 18:20, that is not sufficient. You must have the church. If your meeting is taking the stand with the church, if your meeting is part of the church and belongs to the church, if your meeting is for the execution of the church’s decision, that is sufficient. If it is not, your meeting is wrong. That is not a proper meeting; that is a divisive meeting. That is not the meeting of the church; that is a meeting of division. I say again, the proper meeting of believers must be a part of the church, must stand with the church, and must execute the church’s decision.
To take a verse out of context is exceedingly dangerous and utterly wrong. We should not cut verse 20 out of this chapter; we must care for the context. I know a number of brothers whose first name is John, but if I care only for the first name without bothering about the last, I will find myself in a mess. I must not cut off the first name from the last. Likewise, if I cut off verse 20 from verses 15 through 19, I will miss the point and intention of the passage. We need verses 15 through 19 to substantiate us in the proper use of verse 20. According to the context, the Christian meeting is something which is absolutely related to the church, the local church.
For example, suppose that six or seven brothers feel unhappy with the local church. For whatever reason they may have to be unhappy, they begin a meeting in one of their homes, declaring and even claiming Matthew 18:20 as their scriptural ground. They can say to others, “It is perfectly all right for us to meet in this way; we are more than two or three, and we are meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus.” But if they spoke in this way to me, I would ask them, “Brothers, do you consider your meeting a part of the local church in the city where you live? Is your meeting taking the stand of the church? Is your meeting executing what the church has decided to do?” If those brothers would not listen to the church in that place, they become divisive. They must go back. They need the assurance that their meeting is just a part of the local church. It is so clear.
Suppose that you and others in the city where you live are fed up with Christianity, so you start to meet together separately in the Lord’s name. You say, “We give up Christianity; we have had enough of the old system of religion; now we are just meeting by ourselves in the name of the Lord Jesus, assured according to Matthew 18:20 that we have His presence.” We would simply ask you, Is your meeting taking the stand with the true local church in your city? Or is your meeting some isolated thing, something without the church as a standing? If so, your meeting is divisive and not a proper meeting. Do not isolate Matthew 18:20 — it must be understood by the context. Read the context, and you will see the right meaning of meeting in the name of the Lord.
Now let us go from Matthew to the book of Acts. We are told in Acts 2, in the early days of the church, that the believers in Jerusalem met in houses. They broke bread from house to house (v. 46) because they had such a large number. In one day they suddenly had an increase of three thousand (v. 41), and in another day five thousand (4:4), making a total of over eight thousand believers. It was really difficult for them all to come together in one place. Obviously, it was more convenient for them to meet in their homes. But we must realize that all these home meetings were part of the one church in Jerusalem. What they were doing in their meetings was simply carrying out what the church in Jerusalem intended and decided. They were not isolated from the church; they were not meeting without the church in the locality as their background and standing. This actual and practical situation exactly fits the Lord’s words in Matthew 18. Here and there, in this house and in so many other houses, they were members of that one church, not meeting isolatedly, not meeting separately from the church, but meeting in full relationship with the local church in Jerusalem. All these home meetings were not independent meetings; they were meetings of that one local church. They met in their homes for the Lord’s table (2:46), for preaching the gospel (5:42), and for praying (12:12). When Peter was released from prison, he went to Mary’s house, where many were gathered together praying. That meeting was not the church, but that meeting was a part of the church in Jerusalem. That meeting stood with the church in Jerusalem, and that meeting where the saints were praying was carrying out the decision of that church. It was not an isolated meeting. This is the proper way to meet.
Acts 8:1 tells us that though there were so many meetings in Jerusalem, yet there was but one church, the church in Jerusalem. Then in chapter 21 of Acts we see something more. Verse 20 of that chapter says that the number of believers in Jerusalem by that time was in the tens of thousands. There were not only eight, nine, or ten thousand, but tens of thousands. We do not know how many, but have you noticed, in verse 18 of that same chapter, that there was only one eldership there? This verse tells us that James was one of the elders and that all the elders were present. In all Jerusalem with so many tens of thousands of believers, there was but one church with one eldership. There were myriads of brothers and sisters with many home meetings, yet one church and one eldership.
I received a letter recently from a saint who asked how there could possibly be only one church in a very large city with many saints. I also saw a letter written by a famous preacher who wrote that he would not agree with this matter of one eldership in one city. Brothers and sisters, we do not care what people say; we just care what the Bible says. Have you noted all these verses from the book of Acts? There were myriads of believers, and they were meeting in many houses in Jerusalem, but they were still under one group of elders. If you read the book of Acts, you will see that whatever decision was made by this one group of elders was taken by all the believers, because they were all one church. Acts 8:1 says, “The church which was in Jerusalem.” Why do I stress this matter so much? Because it is so basic to the matter of meeting. The first thing we must care for in the matter of meeting is that our meeting must be a part of the local church. We must meet by taking the stand of the church and by carrying out what the church intends to do. We may have scores of home meetings. I would like to see in the city of Los Angeles more than one hundred home meetings, yet all one church under one eldership.
In the city of Taipei, on the island of Taiwan, there is an actual example of this at the present time. In that city there is one church, the church in Taipei, with thousands of believers and more than sixty home meetings, yet all under one eldership. All those home meetings are not isolated and independent meetings; they are in full relationship one to another and to the one church there. The first thing we must care for in regard to our meetings is that we meet in this way. By being related to the local church, we are right. This is a basic matter.
From the book of Acts we go on now to 1 Corinthians. If the church has a very large number of believers, it is rather difficult, of course, for the whole church to come together. In that case we need more than one meeting place. But 1 Corinthians 14:23 says, “If therefore the whole church comes together in one place.” In some places the number of brothers and sisters in the church may not be so large. They may have a place where the whole church can come together. Then this kind of meeting, a meeting of the whole church, is the church. Why? Because verse 23 says that “the whole church comes together,” and verse 33 says, “As in all churches.” When the whole church comes together, that is the meeting, and that is also the church — the meeting is the church. That meeting is not only part of the church; that meeting is the church. Brothers and sisters, the proper way to meet is to meet either as a part of the church or as the church; otherwise, our meetings are wrong. The matter of meeting must be absolutely related to the church. If the whole church comes together, then we meet as the church. If it is not possible for the entire church to come together, we must meet in different places, but all the different meetings are just parts of that one church. All the meetings in one city should be constituents of the unique local church in that city. This is the proper way to meet. If our meeting is not definitely and positively related to the church, we are not qualified to meet, and we are not in a proper position to meet; we are wrong.
This matter has very much to do with the oneness of the Body. If a few brothers meet here and there in the Lord’s name without caring for the church, the Body of Christ is divided. We must all meet with a proper and positive relationship to the local church. Then our meeting will not be a divisive meeting; it will be a meeting that stands with the church and executes the church’s will. We cannot begin any meeting carelessly. We cannot start any meeting without taking care of the church. Whenever we begin to meet, we must meet for the church: either we meet as the church or as a part of the church. That means that we are absolutely one with the church and that there can be no divisions. It is in this way that our meetings will be kept in the church in oneness. The Lord be merciful to us.
