Search
Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:10; John 13:34-35; 15:16-17
In the previous chapters we saw three things: first, man is the center of the universe; second, Christ is the meaning of human life; and third, the church is the expression of Christ. Now in this chapter our burden is to see the real communal life.
Today not only in the United States but also in many countries on this earth, the young people are desiring to have some kind of communal life. This desire comes out of our natural makeup. In our natural makeup, in our natural life, there is a kind of desire to have a community where we may live together with others.
Suppose you have everything. You have education, money, the best house, and the best car. You have obtained the best of everything. Yet if you were told to go up to the top of a high mountain and live there by yourself, would you do it? None of us would do it because, even though we may have the best things, we would be too lonely by ourselves. We human beings need to be in a community. Hence, this desire to have a communal life is something in our makeup. God created man in this way.
In Genesis 1:26 God first said, “Let Us make man,” and then He said, “Let them have dominion.” Man is singular, but them, the pronoun for man, is plural. Did God make one man or many men? People think it is easy to understand the Bible. Yes, on the one hand, the Bible is simple. But on the other hand, it is really hard for people to understand. Why did God use the singular noun man and then the plural pronoun them? Did He make one man or many men? The answer is: God made many men in one man. Or you can say that God made one man with many men. This simply means that in God’s intention, man is corporate. God did not create an Adam, then an Abraham, then a David, etc. God created a corporate man — one man with all men. In God’s intention, what He did was a corporate thing. So we all have to realize that the desire to have a communal life was something created in the human nature by God.
Every human being in his human nature has a desire to live with others. Consider the children in your neighborhood. If you try to confine each one of them in their houses, you will bring a great suffering to them. They like to go out to make friends. They like to be in a community. God created man with a nature and a desire to have a communal life as a preparation for the church life. The church life is a communal life, a corporate life. The church life is a life of a proper community.
Let me use a little illustration. Many times you feel thirsty. What is thirst? Thirst is a feeling caused by a desire for a drink. Suppose you do not have a desire for any drink, yet I ask you to drink; that would be a punishment to you. You would suffer a lot. But since God created in you a desire to drink so that you have such a thirst, you will be happy to drink without anyone forcing you.
Likewise, in God’s creation God created us with a desire for a communal life. Due to the fall, however, this communal life was spoiled and damaged when the human race came to the time of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9). Babel means “confusion.” At Babel many different languages came in and caused the human race to be divided. Consequently, there came in the hatred, the enmity, between different peoples with different languages.
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus accomplished redemption to bring people back to God’s original purpose. Acts 2 tells us that on the day of Pentecost all the different people of different languages became one (vv. 5-11). They were brought back to the original state of oneness. This was not just a recovery but a re-creation. Ephesians 2:15-16 tells us that Christ on the cross abolished all the ordinances and slew the enmity among people for the purpose of creating a new man.
The Bible tells us that first God created one man, and then Christ created a new man. In the Bible there are two creations: the old creation of God and the new creation of Christ. In His old creation God created a man; in His new creation Christ created a new man.
Brothers and sisters, we have to realize that in the new man created by Christ, we have something in common. First, in the new man we have a common life. In Christ we all have the same life, and with this common life we have a common nature and a common desire. After we are saved, immediately within us there is a desire to contact some genuine Christians for fellowship. This is the desire for a community, a communal life. The church life is the real communal life.
We have to know that if we want to have a certain living, we need a certain life. God created man with a life that desires to be in a community, but that life was damaged and poisoned. Look at the situation of human society today. On the one hand, people like to live together. But on the other hand, people have become very selfish. You want to live in a community, yet you always have problems with those in your neighborhood. You want to have schoolmates, classmates, roommates, and office mates, but eventually you fight with them. You even fight with your own brothers and sisters. Thus, on the one hand, because we have the God-created nature, we have the desire to live with others; on the other hand, because our human life was damaged and spoiled by Satan, in our fallen nature we do not have the proper life for communal living.
But now we have Christ. Christ is wonderful. He is the common factor, the common element, for us to be one in the communal life with love for one another (Rom. 12:10). I do not know the names of all the brothers, but I still love them very much simply because they are brothers in the Lord. There is a common element among all the brothers, and that element is Christ. Christ is the element that causes us to love one another. Also, Christ within us is the life with the ability for us to love one another.
Do you believe that human beings today can really love one another? It is impossible. If you put a large number of people together for even a short period of time, there will be arguing and fighting. But when we Christians come together and realize that we have Christ within us, immediately we have a wonderful love for one another. For Christians to love is easy, but for Christians to hate is rather hard. Generally speaking, young people are always disgusted with old people. But it is hard for a young man as a Christian to hate an older brother in Christ. As an older brother, I love the young brothers and sisters so much. This is because we all have Christ. There is something common within us. Whenever I meet someone and find out that he is a brother, something within me leaps because we have a common element, a common factor. We are able, capable, and qualified to have the communal life.
However, Satan not only damaged the old man in God’s old creation; he also tried and is still trying to damage the new man in Christ. Even to some extent, he has been successful in this matter. Many Christians have been damaged and divided by ordinances. This is why the Lord has brought us into His recovery where we are open to Him and to one another. I am convinced that the Lord is going to recover the proper church life to meet the need of many people. We need to tell the unbelievers that the way to have the proper communal life is to receive Christ and get into the church.
We brothers and sisters here in Los Angeles, in a sense, are communal. But in another sense, we are still short of the communal life. Hence, the Lord has to work deeper in us so that we may have more love for one another. In John 13:34-35 the Lord told the disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” What is the sign of our being Christians, of our being disciples of Christ? The sign is the brotherly love, the love among the brothers for one another. We have to love one another.
Furthermore, in John 15:16-17 the Lord Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit...These things I command you that you may love one another.” The Lord has chosen us and charged us to bear fruit by our loving one another. If we love one another, many people will be brought in. If the young people among us love one another in Christ and with Christ, many young people will be brought in. The best way to have the gospel outreach is to love one another. The best way to bear fruit is to love one another. The best way to bring people in is to love one another.
But how can we love one another? We can love one another only by taking Christ as our person and our life. To say this is simple, but to put this into practice is not so simple. If four brothers come together to live in the same house as roommates, they all need to take Christ as their person. If any of them fails to take Christ as his person, he will become the biggest problem to the other brothers. As long as you take Christ as your person, you will be so lovable. Then there will be no problem. Do not put a demand on others. You have to put the demand on yourself and take Christ as your person and your life.
Brothers and sisters, from now on, the Lord is going to do a new thing to release Himself from the confinement of fallen Christianity and to release His church from all kinds of ordinances. Furthermore, He will do a new thing in causing us to love one another even to the extent that we will be one in our living. Then people will say, “These are the disciples of Christ. This is what I have been looking for.” This is what God is after, and this is also what human beings are after. This is the church life as the real communal life.
