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Scripture Reading: John 10:10b; 6:57, 63; 21:15; 1 Cor. 3:2, 6; 15:45b; 6:17; Eph. 4:13-15; 2:21; 1 Pet. 2:2-3, 5
In the foregoing chapter we pointed out that God is mainly for four things. First, He cares for Himself, His divine person. Second, He cares for humanity. Man was made by Him in His own image for His expression. Third, God cares for His Christ, His Son Jesus Christ. Finally, God cares for the Body of Christ.
God will not tolerate anything that is a blasphemy or insult to Himself. God refuses any idolatry or anyone who worships idols. He never allows any man to have another God. God also cares so much for the man that He made to express Him. Anything that damages humanity such as fornication, rapaciousness, or things like this, God will never allow. Then anything that insults the person of Christ or the redemptive work of Christ, including His incarnation, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension, His lordship, or His coming back, God will never tolerate. The Body of Christ, the church, is uniquely one; nothing should divide it or damage it. Anything that damages it, God will never allow. This is why the apostle said to admonish a factious man once, at the most twice, but if he will not listen, reject him (Titus 3:10). God is so strong regarding this point because to be factious damages the Body of Christ. God cares for these four things.
Some Christians, however, believe and teach that God cares so much for what they call the “great commission,” that is, to go preach the gospel and then baptize people by immersion. Others believe and teach that God cares so much for the speaking in tongues. Among these people some teach that if you do not speak in tongues, you cannot receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. However, God has reacted to these kinds of teachings. Many good saints have never been baptized by immersion. Also, thousands have been saved who never spoke in tongues. Even so many became spiritual giants. During the last half century, almost no one was as prevailing as Brother Watchman Nee, but he never spoke in tongues. A number of others who were used by the Lord, such as Charles H. Spurgeon, D. L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, and George Müller, did not speak in tongues.
However, this does not mean that tongue-speaking is wrong. Neither does it mean that immersion is wrong. I am for immersion. My point is that God does not care as much for the different teachings and practices as some Christians do.
We all must learn a basic lesson. If a person is an idol worshipper, he could never be used by God. Rather, God refuses anyone who worships an idol. God also refuses a fornicator. He could never use such a one. However, you cannot say that God will refuse someone who does not agree with immersion. You may be through with him, but God is not through with him.
Also, we cannot say that God could use a modernist, one who says that Christ is not the Son of God or says that Christ did not die on the cross for our sins but only suffered martyrdom. Neither can God use one who is factious. God refuses such persons. But you cannot say that if one does not speak in tongues, God is through with him. You may be through with him, but God is not through with him.
God’s primary consideration is that as long as you love and worship Him as your unique God, as long as you love humanity and do nothing to damage it in any manner, such as fornication and rapaciousness, as long as you honor Christ, respect Him, receive Him, follow Him, love Him, and take Him as your Redeemer, as your life, as your Lord, and as your everything, and as long as you love the Body of Christ, the church, and live for it, you will be a person whom God will use very much.
All the other things are minor. If you like to wear a head covering, you can cover your head for the Lord’s sake. If you like foot-washing, you may practice it. If you like to take small pieces of leavened bread for the Lord’s table, do it. If you like to take unleavened bread, prepare some. We should not oppose any teachings and practices like these. However, if I am asked to prepare the bread, I will prepare something unleavened. I do not insist on unleavened bread, yet I practice it. If I were a sister, surely I would wear a head covering. According to my conscience, I would have to cover my head. I would practice these things in this manner, yet I do not insist on any way. God’s basic consideration and caring is only for Himself, for humanity, for Christ, and for the Body of Christ, the church.
Now we come to the last matter, the practicality of the church life. This is also something that we have learned from history. Although we were not able to be in so many things during the past twenty centuries, we have been able to study history, including biographies and autobiographies of many Christians. By reading these books, we have come to know about the different practices among Christians during the last nineteen hundred years. As a result, we realize that today the best thing, the primary thing, the first thing, that we have to take care of in the practicality of the church life is the matter of life.
The history of the Lord’s recovery shows that in the past four or five hundred years almost all the teachings have been recovered. Also, the gifts have been recovered to the uttermost and even to the extreme. However, the matter of life has never been adequately recovered.
In the history of the Lord’s recovery, there is an aspect that has been called the inner-life line. It began with the mystics about three hundred years ago. The epistle to the church in Sardis in Revelation 3 refers prophetically to the church during the time of the Reformation. To the church in Sardis the Lord said, “You have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead. Become watchful and establish the things which remain” (vv. 1-2). This means that what still remains has to be made alive. In the eyes of the Lord, the Reformed church has a name that it is living, but it is dead.
The Lord reacted to this deadness by raising up a group of believers who were still within Catholicism. They started what is now called mysticism and never left the Roman Catholic Church. Some of the persons were Madame Guyon, Father Fenelon, and Brother Lawrence. Even though this group of seeking ones was within the Catholic Church, they were very much for the inner life. Many who care for the inner life have received help from these mystics. Later, William Law, a British brother, adopted mysticism and improved it. Then Andrew Murray received help from William Law and became a giant in the inner-life line.
However, most Christians do not pay adequate attention to this matter. Teachings are apparent, and gifts are visible; however, the inner life is something mysterious. It is easy for us to talk about our clothing, including our shoes, socks, pants, and shirt. It is also easy for us to talk about our physical body—our hands, feet, nose, eyes, and ears. But it is hard to talk about our physical life, because life is mysterious. We need clothing and we need our body, but without the physical life we simply become a well-dressed person with a beautified body lying in the mortuary. If we do not have the physical life, we are a corpse. Today the situation of Christianity is almost like this: dressing people up and beautifying them yet being short of life.
Some Christians even speak about life, but most of them do not know what they are talking about. They do not know what is life, they do not know who is life, and they do not know how to grow in life. They only have the term life. Nearly all preachers, ministers, and speakers know how to quote John 14:6 and John 10:10, which say, “I am the way and the reality and the life,” and “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” But if you check with them, asking what is life and how can we grow in life, most would answer that they do not know.
In the practice of the church life, the primary thing to be emphasized is life. Sometimes we are asked by others to tell them what is wrong in their place, but we should never do it. If a person is dead, what is the profit to tell him that he is wrong in this matter or that matter? Even if he could realize, he could not change. But still some try to help the dead ones to have a change. Thirty years ago I did this in my ministry, but not today. At that time I told some people that they were wrong in this and wrong in that and also that they had to have a change. After telling them, I even helped them to have a change, but not today. I have learned that it is of no profit. Our need is to be made alive. When we have life, it takes care of everything. Life will cause people to realize that they need a turn. Then in life they turn by themselves.
In the Lord’s recovery of the church life in a certain place, there may be a genuine local church. But without the practicality of life, it will be dead. It may be right in every aspect, but it is dead. The dead body in the mortuary was a real person, but it is now a dead person. Thus, the primary thing in the practicality of the church life is life. We can never be too much for the matter of life. Other things can be overemphasized, but the matter of life can never be overemphasized.
The most significant thing with life is growth. If there is no growth, it means that either there is no life, or there is something wrong. We need to grow in life. In John 6:57 the Lord Jesus said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” Do you think that one lives without growing? Look at the young people: they are not only living but also growing. While one lives, he grows. We must not only live by the Lord but also grow by Him.
The Lord Jesus also told us in John 21:15 that we have to feed the lambs. Put these three verses together from the book of John. It is quite meaningful. “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly...He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me...Feed My lambs.” We grow by what we eat, and we also feed others with what we eat. We eat Jesus, so we feed people Jesus. Jesus is food. He is the green pasture, the tender grass for His lambs. We serve His lambs Jesus, not with a mere teaching or doctrine about Jesus. Mere teachings never feed people. We feed the lambs with the element, the ingredient, of Jesus.
This is why we do not like to teach people so much and why we like to ask them to call on the name of the Lord. Mothers do not feed their children with teachings. They do not teach them to grow, but they help them to grow by feeding them. Day by day, three to five times a day, they feed the little ones. Then as a result of being fed, the children get something for their growth. They grow by what they eat. In the church life it is the same. This is not our Christian faith; however, for the proper and adequate practice of the church life, we must have the growth in life.
If there are some problems among the saints in a local church, the best way to solve the problems is to turn their attention to the matter of feeding, to the matter of growth in life. Medical doctors know that the best medicine is food. If one eats properly and sufficiently, the nourishment from the food will take care of all kinds of disease and weakness. If the saints feed on the Lord Jesus properly, after a certain time all the deadness will be swallowed up by life. Do not ever try to solve a problem by your maneuvering. In politics that might be fine but not in the church. In the church the more one plays politics, the more he will be deadened. He will first deaden himself and then deaden others. Be honest. Be frank. Be sincere. And never play politics. The only thing that works is the growth in life. Learn to help people grow.
Sometimes strong persons try to influence others. This also should never be done. If you have learned something of the Lord, if you have some measure of growth in life, the Spirit of life will surely honor it and impress people with what you have learned. There is no need for anyone to try to exercise any influence upon others. Eventually, this kind of behavior will create a mess. Learn to be so simple, just living in the spirit and ministering life.
Exercising influence over others is one thing, and ministering life to others is another. To exercise influence over others is still something of man’s doing. Let me illustrate in the following way. Suppose I have the experience of life in doing things and have learned to do them all the time in the spirit. All that I should do is simply fellowship with you about this, presenting what I have learned and what I have experienced. Perhaps I can, from the Word, minister something based upon my experience of walking in the spirit. However, if I have the intention to do something with a kind of plan, step by step, this is wrong. I may be able to convince others about this matter. It may even sound quite nice. Some may be convinced that they have to walk in the spirit, but they only pick up the teaching, not the genuine experience of walking in the spirit. If so, I am not ministering life; I am only exercising the influence of my experience upon them. Eventually, this will become a kind of movement. Everybody will talk about how we must walk in life, in the spirit, but it is only talk. There is almost no real walk in the spirit. In the local churches we need to have the genuine growth in life, without any politics and without anyone exercising any influence over others. Our need is that only life would be ministered to others.
Why do I say that the growth in life is the primary thing in the practicality of the church life? I will refer you to 1 Corinthians. People misuse this book very much. The main thing the Brethren picked up from 1 Corinthians was the teachings. To pick up only the teachings is an inadequate application of the book of 1 Corinthians. The main thing the Pentecostal people picked up from 1 Corinthians was the gifts. This is also a misuse of 1 Corinthians.
Paul says, “I gave you milk to drink” (3:2). Is this teaching? Is this gifts? He also says in 1 Corinthians 13:1, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love [the expression of life], I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal [something that gives sound, but is without life].” Paul says further that when he came to Corinth, he did not come with persuasive words of wisdom, eloquent teaching, but in demonstration of the Spirit (2:4). Then in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians he says that when he comes to them again, if he comes speaking in tongues, what will he profit them (v. 6). Also, he says that he would rather speak five clear words than ten thousand words in a tongue (v. 19). These verses show us clearly that Paul did not appreciate the teachings or the gifts very much.
However, Paul did appreciate life. In 1 Corinthians after Paul says, “I gave you milk to drink,” he says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” (3:6). He also declares that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (15:45) and that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (6:17). These verses relate altogether to the matter of life and growth in life. They clearly reveal that the primary practice in the local church is feeding, planting, watering, and growing, with the realization that today Christ is not only a Giver of gifts but a life-giving Spirit. Life is the real practicality. Teachings are for this, and even the gifts are for this. But today most Christians have divorced all the teachings and gifts from life. They care only for teachings or gifts but not life. The normal, proper thing is that we need all the teachings and also the gifts, but we need them for the growth in life.
Life and growth in life are not our Christian faith, but they are necessities in our practice. If we pay our attention only to teachings and gifts, we are still a local church, but I assure you, either we will be a dead one or a dissenting one. First, we will become dissenting among ourselves, and then we will have a split. We will be deadened, and then we will have a division. Only life and growth in life can keep us alive and keep us in oneness all the time.
When we all turn to our spirit, realizing the need for life and the growth in life and calling on the name of the Lord, love, the uniting power, is there. All the ingredients and elements of Christ will be sweet and nourishing to us. We all will grow together, and none will care to dispute over teachings or impose gifts on others. This is the way for the practice of the church life.
Paul, in the book of Ephesians, says, “Until we all arrive at...a full-grown man” (4:13)—not a highly-educated man but a full-grown man. Then Paul continues, “That we may be no longer little children...but...may grow up into Him in all things” (vv. 14-15). This book also reveals that life and the growth in life are all we need. The teachings and gifts are at best the means for ministering the nourishing element to people, but they are not the nourishing element itself. For cooking, there are certain utensils, but we do not serve people the utensils. We serve the nourishing element. Gifts and teachings have their place, but the nourishing elements are Christ, the Spirit, and the living word.
If we practice this, we all will grow until we arrive at maturity, at a full-grown man, and no one among us will still be a little child. We will grow up into Him in all things. Even as Ephesians 2:21 says, we will all grow into a temple, into a real building. This is not accomplished by teaching or by the exercise of gifts but altogether by life and the growth in life.
Peter says that as newborn babes we all have to long for the milk of the word that by it we may grow (1 Pet. 2:2). We will grow by the milk of the word, and then we will become living stones being built up as a spiritual house (v. 5).
I hope that we all will realize that in the normal church life, the proper practice is to pay our full attention to the matter of life and the growth in life. Otherwise, we may be a genuine local church, yet we will be a dead one full of problems. May the Lord be merciful to us. We stand on our Christian faith, but we practice life and the growth in life. This is the first item of the practicality in the local church.
