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Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 17:8 (NASB)
In this chapter we want to see the traditional way to meet and to serve. Although the fellowship in this chapter is concerning a negative and degraded situation, it is very necessary. Especially to us in the Lord’s recovery, it is extremely crucial. The Scripture Reading for this chapter is only the first half of 2 Kings 17:8 according to the New American Standard Bible, which tells us that the children of Israel sinned against the Lord by walking “in the customs of the nations.”
The Lord’s recovery has been among us for sixty-five years since 1922, but today some part of the traditional way to meet and to serve still remains among us. This traditional way remains in our cells and in our blood because it has been existing on this earth for over nineteen centuries. In chapter 2 we saw that we needed to meet according to the way ordained by the apostle in 1 Corinthians 14:26. Whenever we come together each one has something—either a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. We have studied church history and the practices of the denominations, but we could not find anyone who entered into the full reality and experience of 1 Corinthians 14:26. In the nineteenth century the Brethren were raised up by the Lord in England to recover many of the truths in the Bible. They were famous for knowing the Bible and for practicing according to the Bible, yet even they did not recover the full practice of 1 Corinthians 14:26 or Hebrews 10:25.
The biblical way to meet and to serve, the way ordained by God and declared by the apostle Paul, is difficult to practice because it is against our natural man. According to this way, whenever we Christians come together, we must come with something. Everyone should have something of the Lord or for the Lord to minister, to present, to the meeting for the mutual enjoyment of the attendants. I minister something for your enjoyment, and you offer something for my enjoyment. We all minister something for each other to enjoy with God. This is like the Feast of Tabernacles in ancient times, to which each of the Israelites brought something. They were commanded not to come to the feast empty-handed (Deut. 16:16). Everyone was required to have something, so they brought all the surplus of the rich produce of the good land to the feast, and there they enjoyed these riches with each other. At the same time their mutual enjoyment was also with God, and their enjoyment with God and before God was the real worship.
In chapter 1 we illustrated that the Christian meeting is like the birthday of a great father with hundreds of descendants. Suppose that on his birthday all of his children would kneel down before him for twenty minutes. Surely that would shock him. He might say, “I don’t like to see you kneeling down like this. I like to see you all enjoying my provision.” To enjoy this great father’s provision is the real “worship” to him. In John 4 the Samaritan woman brought up the subject of worship, and the Lord told her that the proper worship is the exercise of our spirit to contact God the Spirit (v. 24). To contact God the Spirit with our spirit is to drink of the living water (vv. 10, 14), and to drink of the living water is the proper and real worship of God.
I was born into organized Christianity, and from my youth I attended the Sunday morning services and other weekday meetings. The ones who attended those meetings were so silent. According to their feeling, those silent services were the best worship that Christians could render to God. If we look at these kinds of meetings in the Lord’s light, we have to believe that God is not happy with them. In one of these meetings the Lord might say, “Is your silence a worship to Me? I don’t like this. I like everybody speaking something about Me, about My being, and about My doings. I would even like to hear you making a joyful noise in talking about this. You don’t need to speak in order. All that matters is that everyone speaks.” If all of us would speak forth the riches of the processed Triune God in our meetings, God would be happy, and that would be the best worship we could render to our Father.
The traditional way of Christianity is the opposite of this scriptural way. When I attended my mother’s church service in her denomination, I never prepared myself because I realized that I did not need to do anything and that nearly everything would be done by our pastor. Fifty years ago in 1937, Brother Watchman Nee began to see that the traditional Sunday morning meeting is absolutely of the Gentiles. He pointed us to 2 Kings 17:8 and said that the traditional way of meeting was according to the customs of the nations, the Gentiles. The Gentile way of worship is to be silent. But the Psalms tell us to make a joyful noise to God, Jehovah (66:1; 81:1; 95:1-2; 98:4, 6; 100:1).
In mainland China we had a time with Brother Nee to study the book Song of Songs in the vicinity of a certain lake where there were many idol temples. I went for a walk at this lake and observed the situation. Each one of these worshippers was dumb. The dumb idols are worthy of dumb worship. These idol worshippers may have been very talkative in their homes, but when they came to the idol temple, everyone had to be dumb. Paul’s thought in 1 Corinthians 12 is that the dumb, voiceless idols make their worshippers dumb and voiceless (v. 2; Psa. 115:4-8), but the living God causes His worshippers to speak in His Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Paul says in verse 2 that when we were Gentiles, we were led away to dumb idols. When we worshipped the idols, we were dumb. But now we are not worshipping a dumb God but a speaking God. All of His speaking is compiled together in the Holy Bible, a great volume of sixty-six books.
It is strange that when the Christians come together in Christianity, they are all made to be silent, dumb. Mainly, only one professional in the meetings of Christianity is talkative, speaking and speaking throughout the year, year after year. There is the feeling that the Christians who are “laymen” do not know what to speak and that they may speak wrongly. Thus, it is better for them not to speak and to let one professional speak. This practice started shortly after the early apostles departed to be with the Lord at the end of the first century.
This traditional way began to exist, and it gradually became very prevailing because this way to worship God without speaking is very natural. It fits our natural habit and taste. When you bring an unbelieving Gentile to the Lord and ask him to speak immediately after his salvation, he may be frightened. He may especially be frightened to speak to a big audience. He may say, “In my entire life, I never spoke to more than fifteen persons at one time, and now you are asking me to speak in a meeting of one hundred and fifty persons. This will compel me to withdraw from Christianity. I don’t want such a speaking religion that forces me to speak.”
If you set up a nice hall with good seats, some singers to either sing solos or to sing in groups, and an eloquent, learned, and polished speaker, everyone will like it. According to their natural thought, people feel that this is the proper way to worship God. They enter quietly into the cathedral or place of worship. Then the choir may sing a song or someone may sing a solo that is pleasant, relaxing, and comforting. A busy banker who has been working hard all week may feel that this place of worship is the best place for him to be relaxed. Even a mother with many children may feel that the cathedral is a calm, silent place where she can escape from the noise and crying at home. After the singing, a certain pastor or reverend would offer a prayer and take care of the Scripture reading in a professional manner. The pastors are the experts, the professionals. Then another pastor may stand up to give a message with much eloquence and much knowledge. This kind of speaking pleases and comforts everyone.
The content of our meetings in the Lord’s recovery is wonderful. But regardless of how wonderful the content is, our way to practice the meetings is somewhat similar to the practice of Christianity. Not many among us pray to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Day morning meeting. The saints may only ask, “Who is going to speak?” When they hear that a certain brother will speak who is a good speaker, they are happy. They do not get themselves prepared because they do not need to do anything. They just come to the meeting to enjoy the speaking. Sometimes the brothers and sisters may criticize the brother who is speaking. They may say, “Who put this man on the podium? His illustrations are not very good, his voice is too low, he is not so eloquent, and he does not know the Bible very well.” If another brother speaks the following week, some may say, “This brother is better than the one last week.”
Surely we received some feeding from this kind of meeting because the word of God was always spoken. We did get some feeding from the word of God. In this kind of meeting, however, there was hardly any exercise on the part of the saints for them to have the development in the divine life. In order to maintain our physical life, we need to eat, but in order to develop properly, we must also exercise. Basically speaking, the children in the United States have grown so big and have been so healthy because of good eating and good exercise. In the traditional way of meeting there may be some eating, but there is hardly any exercise.
About thirty years ago in Manila a group of brothers among us went to visit a person who was sick in the hospital. These brothers all prayed for him in the presence of some of his relatives, who were also Christians. After listening to the brothers’ prayers, they were shocked. They asked them if they were a group of pastors, and the brothers told them they were not. Then they asked the brothers how they could pray so well. They told the brothers that they had been Christians for years, but they did not know how to pray. They did not know how to pray after having been Christians for years because they did not have any practice.
In the traditional way of Christianity there is no need for the “laymen” to pray. The professionals take care of the major parts of the service. They read the holy Word, pray, and speak on the Word. This traditional way annuls the organic function of the living members of Christ. I was born into Christianity, and I was compelled to go to Sunday school every Sunday morning, but no one there taught us the practice of prayer. I never prayed until I was born again at the age of nineteen. Before that time I had been in Christianity for years, but there was no one to help or instruct me to pray. Generally speaking, hardly anyone learns how to pray when they are in the traditional way of meeting and serving.
This traditional way that has been existing for over nineteen hundred years still, at least in part, remains among us. Brother Nee saw this matter fifty years ago, and he spoke concerning this (see chapter 4 of Church Affairs and chapter 9 of The Normal Christian Church Life. He asked me to share one of his messages on this subject when he was ill. Brother Nee talked with me at length concerning the traditional way of meeting versus the scriptural way. He pointed out that the scriptural way to meet was in 1 Corinthians 14:26, but we did not find a way to carry out what he saw. Brother Nee also pointed out that this traditional way had become a strong habit, a strong custom, deeply rooted in the believers’ hearts.
Whenever a human being would turn to God, they naturally would like to worship God, not by speaking but by coming together to hear something about God. This is according to their natural thought, fits their habit and taste, and does not cost them anything but rather renders them some relaxation, comfort, and enjoyment. In the New Testament, however, especially in 1 Corinthians 14:26, we are charged to worship God by speaking. A psalm is not only for singing but also for speaking. A teaching, a revelation, a tongue, and an interpretation are also by speaking. For 1 Corinthians 14:26 to be realized, everyone needs to speak. It is very hard for anyone to speak in a public place. People’s disposition by nature is not to speak anything publicly. People would rather listen and look than speak publicly.
This traditional way of not speaking is deeply rooted in man’s disposition. It has become a strong habit. The Hebrew word for customs in 2 Kings 17:8 (NASB) is also used in other places in the Old Testament, particularly in Leviticus where it is translated as “statutes” (18:5, 26; 19:19, 37; 20:8, 22; 25:18; 26:3, 15, 43, 46). Brother Nee pointed to 2 Kings 17:8 to say that having a meeting like the Sunday morning service in Christianity was according to “the customs of the nations.” A custom is a kind of habit. When a habit exists for a long time, it becomes a custom that is popular in society. When this custom is practiced for a long period of time, it becomes a written regulation, even a statute. In other words, after a period of time a habit becomes a custom, and after another period of time a custom becomes a statute. We like to quote the New American Standard Bible, which uses the word customs. The traditional way of worship is not only a habit but also a custom.
Most of the unbelievers know how the Christians in Christianity worship God. They know what the edifices of worship look like. They also know that a pastor will be speaking with the audience sitting in pews to listen to him. The people in China say “to listen to the preaching” is “to worship” because this traditional way of meeting is not only the Christians’ habit but also their custom. To have a pastor speak while the rest sit and listen is a very strong custom throughout the world. This kind of realization and understanding of the way to meet has been sown into our blood. It is in the cells of anyone who has been a Christian for a number of years.
Brother Nee said first that this traditional way to meet was a habit, a custom, and second, he said that we do not have anything to replace it. If we took away the Lord’s Day message meeting, with what could we replace it? Even though he saw this matter as early as 1937, there was no attempt to practice the scriptural way of meeting for eleven years. The last chapter of The Normal Christian Church Life, entitled “The Organization of Local Churches,” talks about the church meeting according to the principle of 1 Corinthians 14:26. The English edition of this book was published in 1939. In 1948 Brother Nee had a training for four months at Mount Kuling, China, and during this time he came back again to this matter of the traditional way of meeting versus the scriptural way. The messages on this subject are printed in the book Church Affairs. In this book he strongly points out that the Sunday morning meeting according to the practice of the denominations, the Lord’s Day message meeting, is a waste and is not worthy of maintaining (ch. 4). In 1949, the year after Brother Nee released this word, mainland China was lost into the hands of the Communists. Then Brother Nee was put into prison for twenty years until he died. Thus, there was no time for Brother Nee to do something to bring us into the practice of this vision.
By 1984 I realized that the situation and the condition of the churches in the Lord’s recovery both in the West and the Far East was nearly at a standstill. There was very little increase and very little spread. The saints migrated to Orange County, California, in 1974, and within ten years, up to 1984, the churches there had very little increase. This situation bothered me and burdened me. After much consideration, I felt that we needed to have a proper start to establish the scriptural way of meeting and serving in the churches. I realized that the right place and even the best place for me to help the saints to have such a new start was in Taiwan. However, a few still prefer to have the kind of meeting in which one speaks and the rest listen. Most agree with the scriptural way, but deep within them they still have a preference for the traditional way of meeting. Despite this, we can declare that the Lord has gained a victory in Taipei. On the Lord’s Day there are over four thousand three hundred saints meeting together in eighty-six places. These meetings are called district meetings (see chapter 7 entitled “District Meetings” in Church Affairs). These saints are taking the scriptural way and making good progress.
The traditional way to meet and to serve fits man’s natural and fallen condition. When people attend the traditional and natural worship service, there is no need for them to have any preparation. I had a classmate who was a Christian. After our graduation from school, we both went to work. Then the Lord raised me up to establish the church life in my hometown, and we had the Lord’s table in my home. My classmate felt that since we had the Lord’s table in my home, he could do the same thing in his home. The table in his home that they used for the Lord’s table was used for three purposes. On Sunday they used that table to eat breakfast and lunch. In between breakfast and lunch, they used the same table to have the Lord’s table. Then in the afternoon they used that table to play mah-jongg. So that one table was used for three purposes: for dining, for having the Lord’s table, and for gambling. This way of meeting fit their fallen condition.
In the Sunday morning meeting of today’s Christianity, there may be many persons in attendance who are living in a sinful condition. They may come to the Sunday morning worship service in peace despite having quarreled with their spouse or having done some evil things the previous night. Some might have even gained some money in an unrighteous way, and they would give some of it to the church as a gift. They could worship God in the traditional way in their fallen condition. There is no need of any kind of change in the attendants’ lives for the traditional way of meeting. But if we Christians are going to take the biblical way as seen in 1 Corinthians 14:26, we all have to get ourselves prepared. We have to confess our sins and pray to receive the infilling of the Spirit. We have to accumulate some experiences from enjoying the Lord through the Word. Otherwise, when we come to the meeting, we will not be able to speak, because our conscience will bother us. Even if our conscience does not bother us, we still will not have anything to speak if we do not get ourselves properly prepared.
To have Christian meetings according to the biblical way requires a revival. We have to live a victorious life. Some of the saints often may not function in the meetings because they quarreled with their spouse at home. A brother’s small quarrel with his wife is good enough to kill his functioning spirit. If a brother quarrels with his wife without confessing to the Lord and to her concerning his sin, his conscience will condemn him, and he will not be able to utter anything of Christ. He will not have the peace, the joy, and the anointing within him that gives him the boldness to say something for the Lord. He may have something to say about the Lord, but he will not have the peace within until he makes a thorough confession. After this confession he will be released. He will have the peace, the joy, the anointing through the cleansing of the blood, and thus the freedom in the Spirit to speak. To meet in a natural way does not require us to repent or be filled with the Spirit; we do not need the blood, the anointing, the word, or even the Lord. But if we want to worship God in the biblical way, we have to be dealt with, cleansed, washed, forgiven, and filled with the heavenly wine.
The traditional way to meet and to serve does not require man to be living and in the spirit. A person can be dormant and dull and still come to a traditional meeting. But to come to a biblical meeting, which is the very Holy of Holies, requires us to be living and in the spirit. We need to be forgiven, cleansed, and washed. We need to make a thorough confession to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. We need to accumulate the experience of the enjoyment of the Lord through His holy Word. We have to accumulate this experience day after day; then we will have a storage of the riches of Christ that we can speak in the meetings. The natural way to meet does not require anything. A person could steal during the week and still come to a natural worship service on Sunday.
The natural way of meeting and serving is also religious. I was in Jerusalem in 1958, and I saw the Muslims worshipping at the great mosque built on the site of the old temple. They seemed so godly. They prostrated themselves on the ground and remained there for a while. They were very silent. Many were worshipping God in that way in orderly rows. Because that mosque was a holy place to them, they were required to take off their shoes. Their worship was absolutely natural. As long as it is natural, it is also religious. No Spirit, no life, no experience of Christ, no salvation, no redemption, and no blood are needed. Such natural, religious worship is highly appraised by the Muslims. Many Christians today are still taking the natural way to worship God religiously.
When I first came to minister in the United States in 1962, my messages were focused on the human spirit. Some among us who had been missionaries and pastors and were theological school graduates thanked me for what I shared with them concerning the human spirit. They said that they never knew that they had a human spirit. No one had ever told them that they had a human spirit for the purpose of worshipping God. For worshipping God we have a spirit. The Lord Jesus said that God is Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship in spirit (John 4:24). Before coming into the Lord’s recovery, many of us did not know that we had a human spirit, an organ created by God for His worship. If we do not know that we have a spirit, how can we worship God properly? If we want to walk, we must know that we have two feet with two legs with which to practice walking.
In the beginning of my ministry in the United States, I also stressed the worship of God in a proper way by the exercise of our spirit. Many came to me and said that they did not know how to exercise their spirit. I asked them how they exercised their legs, and they said by walking, running, and jumping. Then I told them that to exercise our spirit we need to pray and call on the name of the Lord. We can exercise our spirit by calling “O Lord Jesus.” Due to my age, I cannot run too fast or jump too high, but I can exercise by walking. I try to walk every day for an hour, and this exercise is very healthy. In like manner, it is not necessary for us to call “O Lord Jesus” in a thunderous way to exercise our spirit. We can say, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, I love You. Lord, I love Your church. Lord, I love to contact You. I love to dwell on Your Word. I love to enjoy You, and I want to enjoy You right now.” After praying by calling on the Lord for twenty minutes, we will have a strong spirit. If we would pray for a longer time every day, our spirit would be very strong.
The unique way to exercise your spirit, to make your spirit so living and strong, is to pray. Nothing can replace your prayer. If you are weak in your spirit, it is because you are short of prayer. Some may feel that they do not know how to pray or what to pray for. If you do not know how to pray, just say “O Lord Jesus.” If you say “O Lord Jesus” twenty times, the Lord will have a way to set you on fire, to make you burning in spirit (Rom. 12:11).
After reading the fellowship in this book, a brother should not tell the elders in his locality to immediately stop the kind of meeting where one speaks and the rest listen and establish a meeting in which everyone speaks. It would be correct for the elders to respond, “Dear brother, if we stop that kind of meeting, we will not know how to meet.” You have to listen to your elders in this matter. Do not go too fast. You have to be patient. Go along with the elders, but try to help the situation. The elders in the churches want to practice the new way, but they need some time to pick up the new way themselves and to learn how to help the saints practice the new way.
I have been in Taipei for the last three years. It was not until recently that we directed the church in Taipei into the full practice of the new way. We realized that we had to help all the saints to practice the new way until they reached a certain level where the new way could fully replace the old way. When this level was reached, we dropped the old way. While you are learning a new way of cooking, you will still not fully know how to cook in this new way. If you stop your old way of cooking at this juncture, the people for whom you cook will go hungry. At this time the churches should keep the old way. The old way is still needed for some time. Use the old way to serve the saints. Meanwhile, the leading ones should do their best to teach, to train, and to help all the saints to practice the new way. Gradually they will learn the new way to the extent that they will have something to replace the old way. That will be the time for the church to practice the new way in full.
One local church closed the meeting hall on the Lord’s Day morning and sent the saints to meet in small groups in the homes. Most of the saints sat in these small groups without knowing what to say or do. I fellowshipped with the leading brothers to let the saints come back to the hall. It is not easy to change an old habit and to replace it with something new. This takes time. A transitory period of three or more years may be needed for the churches to fully enter into the new way. We all have to exercise our wisdom and patience with the church in our locality. Do not impose something on others who have not yet practiced the truth concerning the scriptural way to meet and to serve.
We need to pray for the full recovery of 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Hebrews 10:25. The leading ones need to do their best to help the church by teaching and training the saints so that they can be fully brought into the new way. The old way is the traditional way, the natural way, and the Gentile way. The new way is biblical, and this way is a way of life and a way in the spirit.
