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Scripture Reading: Phil. 1:20-21a; John 21:15-17; Rev. 2:4; Phil. 3:12; 1 Cor. 1:9; Col. 1:12, 18b; 1 Tim. 4:6; Eph. 4:3-4, 12, 16; 2, 3:8-10; Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11; John 17:21-23; Rev. 1:12, 20b; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; 1 Cor. 4:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Cor. 14:1-5, 12, 31, 40; Col. 3:10-11
In chapters 1 and 2, we saw the divine economy and the satanic chaos in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Then in chapter 3 we saw the overcomers. We all should say, “If I am a man, I have to be a Christian. If I am a Christian, I have to be an overcomer. If I am an overcomer, I have to prophesy, to speak for the Lord. If I prophesy, I have to open up my mouth. If I open up my mouth, I have to exercise my spirit. If I open up my mouth and exercise my spirit, I speak forth Christ.” To speak forth Christ is to exhibit Christ. We all need to fan into flame the gift of God which is within us (2 Tim. 1:6) to be those who speak for the Lord. We should not be those who are hot for only a short time. We need to be burning in spirit all the time (Rom. 12:11). Our burning should be eternal. In order to be the overcomers, we need to cooperate with the Lord to speak Him forth for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 14:4b).
After seeing the revelation concerning the overcomers, we saw the truth concerning God’s economy in chapter 4. In this chapter we want to see the church life in God’s economy. The preceding chapters in this book are all directed toward this goal—the church life in God’s economy.
Many have opposed us because of our stand for the truth that there should be only one church in a locality (Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11) as a local expression of the one Body in the universe (Eph. 4:4). There are many so-called churches today, and it seems that people feel the freedom to start a church in the same way that someone would feel the freedom to open a restaurant. But we need to practice the church life according to God’s way as revealed in the New Testament. Acts 8:1 speaks of the church in Jerusalem. At that time there were thousands of believers in Jerusalem. On the day of Pentecost, three thousand were added to the church there (2:41). Later, five thousand more were added (4:4). Eventually, James told Paul that there were tens of thousands of believers in the city of Jerusalem (21:20). According to Acts 8:1, these myriads of believers were the one church in Jerusalem. Regardless of how many believers there are in a city, they are still the one church in that city. When the church life spread to Antioch, the believers there met as the church in Antioch (13:1).
Revelation 1:11 says, “What you see write in a scroll and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” John was told to send what he wrote to the seven churches. To the seven churches equals to seven cities—to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. The first to, to the seven churches, equals the seven tos, to the seven cities. This indicates that a church in a certain city should be equal to that city. The practice of the church life in the early days was the practice of having one church for one city, one city with only one church.
When we say that we are the church in a certain locality, such as the church in Los Angeles, this is not a name but a description of a fact. We are just the church. The church does not have a name, just as the moon does not have a name. Once in the Far East, someone was so impressed with the United States that he said even the moon was bigger there. But there is no such thing as an American moon or a Chinese moon. Just as there is one moon, there is only one church. When the moon appears in London, it is the moon in London; when it appears in Los Angeles, it is the moon in Los Angeles. Regardless of where the moon appears, it is still the same moon. Just as there is the moon in Los Angeles and the moon in London, there is the church in Los Angeles and the church in London. There is one church, and this church is manifested or expressed in different localities.
In the degraded situation today, however, there are many so-called churches. There are churches denominated according to race, such as Chinese churches and Korean churches. There is an Anglican church, an Episcopalian church, in Anaheim, and there are churches representing Taiwan in Anaheim. There are also churches named after the street on which they meet. This shows us the situation of division and confusion today. Even the unbelievers wonder why there are so many divisions among Christians. They may ask, “Since you all have the same Christ and read the same Bible, why are there so many different denominations?”
I grew up in a city called Chefoo in mainland China. I was educated there and worked there. At a certain point I gave up my job to serve the Lord full time. Within a short period of time, the Lord used me to gain a number of people, and I spoke the truth to them concerning the church. There were a number of missionaries in Chefoo at that time, and they were surprised that my preaching was attracting so many people. They were also concerned about my speaking regarding the church being one and the denominations being divisions. I used the illustration of the moon as I did above, pointing out that there is only one church, one Body, expressed in different cities.
As a result of my preaching and teaching, a number of people gave up their denominations and came together to meet with me. This bothered many of the pastors and elders of the denominations in Chefoo, especially since I grew up in that city and we knew one another. One day some leading ones from the denominations in Chefoo joined together and invited me to eat with them. After they finished talking to me about what bothered them, I presented the truth concerning the church to them. I asked them, “Would you please tell me how many Christs and how many churches there are in the universe?” They all said, “One.” Then I said, “There is just one church, but each of you represents one denomination, so seven denominations are represented here. Are seven denominations one church?” Of course, they were not one church. I pointed out to them that in 1 Corinthians Paul rebukes the Corinthians for saying, “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ” (1:12). Paul says, “Is Christ divided?” (v. 13). I then asked these few leading ones, “If Paul were here today, would he not rebuke you for meeting in division?” They answered, “Yes.”
Then I said, “All of you know me. I grew up among you. I was working in this city for seven and a half years. But then the Lord touched me to give up my job and serve Him with all of my time. I do not have any organization or person supporting me. I am doing this because I love the Lord. I have given up everything for Him. You all know this.” I asked them, “Don’t you believe I will preach the Lord Jesus to many people and that my preaching will have some result?” Then I asked them, “Where should I put these ones who are saved through my preaching? Should I put them into your denominations?” Then they said, “No, you should not put them into any denomination.” Then I asked where I should put them, and they could not answer.
They had told me earlier that I should not open a building for people to come together to meet with me. Instead, they wanted me to rotate among their denominations and preach there. I told them that I could not accept this, because they were not the church. They were the denominations, and every denomination is a division. To meet in denominations is to divide the church, which is the unique Body of Christ. I asked them how I could put the result, the fruit, I reaped from my preaching into the denominations, into the divisions. I said that this was why I was forced to open up a meeting place. Then I said, “Have you noticed that on our meeting place, we do not have a signboard telling people what kind of church we are? But all of you have a signboard declaring to people what denomination you are. We do not have such a signboard, because we do not like to be denominated. Once we are denominated, we become a division, and division in the Body of Christ is abominable in the eyes of the Lord.” They were all silenced.
Then I said, “I am willing to close the door to our meeting place, if you will do one thing.” I said, “Please go back to your places and take off the signboards that designate your denomination. Then let us all come together to be the one church in Chefoo. If you promise to do this, I will go back directly to close the door of our meeting hall.” Then they said that they surely could not do this. I responded, “Sirs, since you cannot do this, I have to meet in our meeting place. I presented to you my willingness to close the door to our meeting place, but you are not willing to take off your signboards to deny every denomination and recognize one church. You are meeting in division, but we are meeting in oneness as the church.” Soon after my meeting with these leading ones, we increased even more. I hope that this fellowship will help us to answer those who would ask us why we say that we are the church. Just as the moon cannot be designated, the church cannot be designated and thus denominated.
Now that we have seen something concerning our standing as the church according to the divine revelation, we need to see the church life in God’s economy. The unique God has a unique economy, and in this divine economy God produced the church. The church is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23), the organism of the Triune God, and this organism is the expression, the manifestation, of the invisible Triune God. The church is also God’s house (1 Tim. 3:15-16). God’s house is not only His dwelling place but also His family, His folks. This house is also His kingdom, where He administrates and rules (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17).
Today’s Christianity is full of organization, but the church as the living Body of Christ is the organism of the Triune God. According to Revelation 3:1, the church in Sardis as a prefigure of the Protestant church has a name that she is living, but she is dead. Death is more defiling before God than sin (Lev. 11:24-25; Num. 6:6-7, 9). We have to be careful that we do not become like a corpse, with no life and no livingness. A local church should be living and full of life. This is why I encourage all the saints to speak for the Lord. The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees the right of free speech to everyone. In a sense, all the denominations take away the saints’ first civil right because of their clergy-laity system. No one is allowed to speak except the clergy.
When we exercise our civil right to speak for the Lord, we should not exercise it in a wild way but in a proper way. In 1 Corinthians 14:40 Paul says that in the church meetings “all things must be done becomingly and in order.” I am happy to see the young people among us excited and released, but their speaking when they are too excited can be like thunder. Suppose that the heavens thundered all the time. No one would be able to live in such an environment. It is all right for the young people to make a joyful noise for a short period of time, but this should not be prolonged. When we shout and speak, we must learn to shout and speak orderly. We all have to learn how to function in a proper way for the building up of the church.
Yes, we all can prophesy, but our prophesying in the meeting should not be disorderly, because Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:31 that we can all prophesy “one by one.” We should not forget that it is “one by one,” not three by five. When someone is speaking in a meeting, we have to wait until he is finished before we speak. We have to keep the principle of “one by one.”
In the church meetings all things should be done becomingly and in order. If you are going to shout in a meeting, you have to learn how to shout becomingly and in order. Even in an athletic contest, there are some rules that need to be kept. If we are going to be “crazy,” excited, in the meetings, we have to be excited orderly.
We may think that when we are orderly, we cannot be excited and that when we are excited, we cannot be orderly. This shows that there is the need of a proper order in our meetings. We Christians are not rioters. We may be excited, but we are excited in an orderly way. When someone is prophesying, I should wait for him to finish before I speak. To keep the principle of speaking one by one is to be excited becomingly.
Sometimes the young people may be too active and too noisy, whereas the older saints may be too retired. If the young people are functioning too much, the older saints should have the realization that it is now their turn to function. In the church life we need saints of all ages for the Lord’s testimony. When there is a blending of the functioning of the saints of all ages, this is “music.” When the young people function in a very loud and excited way, this is not music. With music there is a variation in sound, that is, in tone, rhythm, speed, and accent. If the young people are functioning in an over-excited way, the older saints should then take the lead to say something for the Lord, to speak forth Christ. Then our meeting will be full of “music.”
The first item in the church life in God’s economy is that we need to be those who live and magnify Christ (Phil. 1:20-21a). If we do not live Christ and magnify Christ in our daily life, we are not practical members of a practical church. We need to live Christ day by day from morning to evening. If people can see only what we are in our natural being, we are not living and magnifying Christ. We must live a life to show people Christ. Christ should be magnified in us by our living Him. Merely to claim that we are the church is not adequate. We must show even the angels, the demons, and the evil spirits that we are a people who live Christ to magnify Him.
To be those who live and magnify Christ we have to love and treasure Christ (Rev. 2:4). After His resurrection, the Lord came back to Peter in a particular way. Not long before this, Peter had denied the Lord to His face three times (John 18:17, 25, 27). I believe that Peter was very ashamed. No doubt, he still remembered his failure. Now the Lord Jesus asked him also three times, “Do you love Me?” Peter said, “Lord, You know that I love You.” Then the Lord charged Peter to feed His lambs, to shepherd His sheep, and to feed His sheep (John 21:15-17). The Lord loves His lambs and His sheep, and He is very concerned for them. If we love Him, we should love them.
In order to live and magnify Christ for the church life in God’s economy, we also need to pursue and gain Christ (Phil. 3:12). To pursue in Greek means “to persecute.” To pursue Christ is to persecute Christ in a positive sense. Before Paul was saved, he persecuted Christ. After he was saved, he pursued Christ to such an extent that he persecuted Christ—but in a positive way. We need to be those who desire to gain Christ to such an extent that we would lay hold of Him, not letting Him get away from us.
We also need to be those who enjoy and partake of Christ. God has called us into the fellowship of His Son that we may enjoy Christ as our God-given portion (1 Cor. 1:9). Christ as the allotted portion of the saints is our divine inheritance for our enjoyment (Col. 1:12).
Finally, we need to exalt and minister Christ (v. 18b; 1 Tim. 4:6). In our meeting life we have to exhibit Christ. But if we do not live Him and magnify Him by loving and treasuring Him, pursuing and gaining Him, enjoying and partaking of Him, and exalting and ministering Him, we cannot exhibit Him in the meetings. To exhibit Him requires a life of living Him that He might be magnified. Living and magnifying Christ are the first condition, first term, first requirement, for us to live the church life in God’s economy.
We live and magnify Christ in order to build up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). God has no intention of having individual Christians. God’s intention is to have one corporate Body composed of all the saved ones and constituted with the transformed believers. Some may not like anyone except themselves and the Lord Jesus. They may want to meet with the Lord merely by themselves. But our enjoyment of the Lord by ourselves does not compare with the sweetness and richness of Christ that we enjoy when we meet with the saints. We need the Body. The Lord wants us to love Him by meeting together with all of His lovers.
In order to build up the Body of Christ, we need to keep the universal oneness of the Body (vv. 3-4). We should not only keep the oneness among the saints in our locality, our region, or even merely in the United States. We must also keep the oneness universally with all the saints all over the earth. The Lord’s recovery has even spread to Russia and is beginning to spread to Eastern Europe, including Albania. We can travel through the entire earth and meet with the churches. When we are traveling, we do not necessarily need to stay at hotels or motels. There are always some “churchtels” where we can stay. We enjoy the universal oneness of the Body in the Lord’s recovery. The church life has people of all colors—white, black, yellow, brown, and red. This is because we are the universal one new man, where Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:10-11).
In the recent rebellion some were teaching that a local church should be autonomous. In a sense, we may say that a local church is autonomous in business affairs, but no local church is absolutely autonomous. We can illustrate this by considering the United States. Each state of the United States is autonomous to an extent, but not absolutely autonomous. This is because there is a federal, central government. National defense, currency, the postal system, and the interstate highways are federal matters. If a legal case cannot be decided at the local or state levels, it goes to the Supreme Court at the federal level. If all the states were absolutely autonomous, the United States would no longer be united but divided. In like manner, all the churches around the globe are one Body, and we must keep the universal oneness of the Body.
The Body of Christ is built up by all the members of the Body, perfected in the local churches (Eph. 4:12). Now that we are regenerated, we need to be perfected in order to be renewed, sanctified, and transformed.
The Body is built up by all the members. Some of these members are the joints of the rich supply of Christ (v. 16). These are the gifted ones.
The Body is also built up by the parts of the Body operating in their measure (v. 16). The gifted ones are one kind of member, and the parts are another kind. If we are not the gifted ones, we are the parts who should operate according to our measure for the organic building up of the Body of Christ.
The Body of Christ is built up with the unsearchable riches of Christ (3:8-10).
The organic building up of the Body is with the unsearchable riches of Christ through the divine dispensing (v. 2). While we are speaking Christ, something is moving within us, and this moving is the dispensing. We can illustrate this with electricity. When electrical appliances are operating, electricity is moving within them. The moving of electricity, the current of electricity, is the dispensing of electricity. We also have a divine current within us. When we do not function, the divine current, the moving of the Spirit, stops within us. Then there is no dispensing of the divine electricity, no dispensing of the Spirit. Our not speaking Christ is the stopping of the moving of the Holy Spirit. When we rise up to speak for the Lord, we have the moving of the Spirit within us, and that moving is the dispensing.
This divine dispensing results in our growth in life. If we attend a meeting and do not function, we may feel dissatisfied and empty afterward. But if we exercise our spirit to function in the meeting, we will be filled with the Lord. We grow by the moving of the Spirit within us, and this moving is the dispensing of the divine supply.
In order to practice the church life in God’s economy, we need to meet as a proper local church (Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11). Christians are not like butterflies. Every butterfly is very individualistic and beautiful. We Christians are like bees and like sheep. Bees like to be grouped together. When they move, they move together. Sheep also like to be flocked together. When they follow their shepherd, they are together in a becoming and orderly way. The Lord Jesus called us the little flock (Luke 12:32). Peter exhorted the elders to shepherd the flock of God (1 Pet. 5:2). Paul also exhorted the elders in Ephesus to shepherd the church of God (Acts 20:28). As the flock of God, we must learn to meet regularly. Christians are meeting people.
We need to meet as a proper local church on the genuine ground of the unique oneness of the Body (Eph. 4:3-4; John 17:21-23).
We meet on the ground of the church as the local expression of the universal Body of Christ. Christ does not have many bodies. He has only one Body, but this one Body is expressed in many localities. The local churches standing on the ground of oneness are the local expressions of the unique, universal Body of Christ.
A proper local church is a local golden lampstand (Rev. 1:12, 20b). Gold signifies the divine nature. This shows that the churches as the golden lampstands are constituted with the divine nature.
The truth is the Triune God, taking Christ as His center and His circumference, so that the church as the Body of Christ, as the organism of the Triune God, can be produced. The church is the pillar to support such a truth and the base to hold such a truth. In our daily life we should live Christ. In our meetings we should exhibit Christ. Christ should be everything to us for the Body to express Him as the organism of the Triune God. This is our truth.
Outside the Lord’s recovery this truth cannot be heard. Some may talk about marriage and family life. Others may speak the gospel in a fundamental way, telling people that they are sinners but that God loves them, Christ died for them, and if they believe in Him, they will be forgiven and go to heaven. Then they may go further to tell people that after they are saved, they should conduct themselves in an upright way to glorify the Father. But who speaks concerning the church as the pillar and base of the truth? According to the divine revelation, the truth is the Triune God, taking Christ the Son as the embodiment and as the centrality and universality of His divine economy to have a church to express Him as His organism.
First Timothy 3:15-16a says, “If I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness.” The truth is the great mystery of godliness, which is the manifestation of God in the flesh.
For the church life in God’s economy, we need to meet and serve in mutuality according to the God-ordained way. Our meetings should be in mutuality with all the saints of different ages functioning for the building up of the church. A meeting in mutuality is “music.”
To meet and serve according to God’s ordained way is first to fulfill the New Testament gospel priesthood for begetting (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; 1 Cor. 4:15). Our preaching of the gospel is not merely for winning souls. It is for begetting sinners to make them the sons of God, the brothers of Christ, and the members of Christ to constitute Christ’s Body. This Body is the house of God and the kingdom of God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
The new believers who have been begotten through our preaching of the gospel need to be nourished and cherished in home meetings (John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2). We should not gather them into our home. Instead, we need to go to their homes and bring them “food to go.” When we go to people’s homes, we should not go in a formal, ritualistic, and religious way. If we do this, we spontaneously become the clergy. We need to start the home meetings in a rejoicing, singing way. As we are approaching the door of the new ones’ homes, we should be singing. The new ones will hear our singing, and they will respond to this. If we are going to care for the new believers, we cannot take our natural way. This is why we need to learn and be instructed and trained to practice the God-ordained way.
The God-ordained way also includes perfecting the saints in group meetings that they may be able to do the work of the ministry, that is, to build up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12; Heb. 10:24-25). In addition to feeding the new ones in their homes, we should gather them together for group meetings. The group meetings should not be formal but very spontaneous and living.
Finally, we need to prophesy in the church meetings for the building up of the Body of Christ through the local churches (1 Cor. 14:1-5, 12, 31). We need to learn to prophesy, that is, to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord in order to minister Christ to people. If we all exercise our spirit in the meetings to prophesy, we will have living, fresh, uplifted, and rich meetings. Then the universal Body of Christ will be built up through the local churches.
To meet as a proper local church, we need to have the adequate and proper leadership for the keeping of a good order (v. 40) with the all-inclusive Christ as the center and the processed Triune God as the manifestation (Col. 3:10-11; 1 Tim. 3:15-16). In every church we should have the proper leadership, and this leadership is the deputy authority, the authority representing God in His administration.
According to the principles ordained in God’s government, deputy authority is everywhere on earth. In a family there are the parents, in a school there are the teachers and the principal, and in a city there are the mayor and the police with the law courts. Without the proper government and the police, a city would not be in the proper order. It would become riotous without any deputy authority.
In the church life we need to keep a good order by taking, receiving, and accepting the proper leadership. Among the saints there are always some who can take the leadership according to the apostles’ teaching. Actually, the proper leadership is the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42), the teaching of the New Testament. The apostles’ teaching is our leadership. This is similar to saying that the Constitution of the United States is our country’s leadership, the highest authority. The president takes the lead according to the Constitution. If the president is mistaken in anything, he will be corrected by the Constitution. Our constitution in the Lord’s recovery is the apostles’ teaching, the teaching of the New Testament. The teaching of the New Testament is our leadership. When we have the adequate and proper leadership in the churches, we can have a becoming and orderly church life to exhibit Christ and to glorify the Father.
