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Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:23; 1:20; Matt. 18:15-20; Rom. 12:3-11; Eph. 4:11-13, 15-16
I am full of joy regarding the atmosphere of this conference. The Lord has not only revealed to us His vision of the building but has also begun a marvelous work in our hearts.
A few days ago we reached such a high peak in our spirit through the message that we all fervently responded to this glorious vision. I felt within that I should lead us all to come before God to make a specific indication of our response, that is, to formally and solemnly commit ourselves into the Lord’s hand in the church. Thank the Lord that we have realized that with such a vision in front of us, we need to consecrate ourselves. This indicates that our hearts have definitely been moved by the Holy Spirit to such an extent that we are willing to commit ourselves into the Lord’s hand to meet the need of the glorious building. I deeply believe that the Lord will accept our consecration.
In this chapter, standing on the ground of consecration, I would like to go on further and speak a more specific word to those who have consecrated themselves.
If we do not have the vision of the Lord in our reading of the Bible, then we will not be able to see its wonderful points, nor will we be able to see its emphasis. For example, in an earlier chapter we saw how the first two chapters of Genesis correspond with the last two chapters of Revelation. I believe that a great number of us had not seen such a vision in the past, even though we may have read through the Bible several times. However, now through God’s enlightenment and revelation we have discovered the hidden treasures of the Bible. When I was young and newly saved, I read through Revelation once and felt that it was a very difficult book because there were many places that I did not understand. Later, someone told me that this book consists of prophecies concerning the things that will take place throughout the ages. This greatly stirred up my interest. Thus, I tried my best to collect commentaries on Revelation for my reference. Nearly all these books merely explained the meanings of the seven seals, the seven bowls, and the seven trumpets. Some of the interpretations were almost nonsensical. Some said that the locusts in Revelation are today’s airplanes and that the frogs are tanks on the earth. If you read those expositions of the Bible, you will find that such strange explanations are innumerable. If you lack the light of the truth and do not know the principles of interpreting the Bible, then you may think that these kinds of expositions are very meaningful and may even be moved by them. In the end, however, you will not know where you are.
By the Lord’s mercy we have gradually received some revelation and knowledge concerning God’s eternal purpose. Therefore, we have begun to realize that God’s intention is to come into us through His Son to be our life and to mingle with us as one entity for His expression. Furthermore, His desire is to build us who have received God as life into a glorious vessel to be His dwelling place and the Body of His Son, which is also the bride of the Lamb. When we see this vision, it becomes a yardstick, a standard, and a great light in our reading of the Bible. Thus, when we come to the Bible to study the prophecies, we can know precisely what they mean, and we no longer have to look at them according to the common interpretations of theology. When we see this vision, we become more and more clear in our understanding of the book of Revelation.
If we compare the beginning and the end of Revelation, just as we compared the beginning and the end of the Bible, we will discover new light. At the end of Revelation there is a holy city. This holy city is not a two-dimensional plane but a cube. It does not have two dimensions only—the length and the breadth, but it has a third dimension as well—the height. Moreover, its length, breadth, and height are equal, each measuring approximately one thousand three hundred sixty-four miles. Another special feature of the city is that it needs no artificial light or natural light because it is illuminated by the glory of God. God Himself is the light of the city. (In His nature, God is love and light. Love denotes the nature of God’s essence, and light denotes the nature of God’s expression. God in Himself is love, and when He is expressed, He is light.) In the holy city, New Jerusalem, this light, which is God, shines out through the lamp, which is Christ the Lamb. If we read Revelation 21 carefully, we will find that the throne of God and of the Lamb is at the center of the city on a high peak. Therefore, this city, which is a cube, is like a huge lampstand. The walls around the city are clear as crystal, like a great glass lampshade, diffusing and shining forth the light of the city. The nations around the city walk in this light. Thus, this city, the New Jerusalem, is a huge lampstand in the midst of the surrounding nations. This lampstand has Christ as its lamp and God as the light in the lamp.
At the beginning of Revelation the matter of the lampstand is also mentioned. However, at the beginning there are several lampstands, seven in all, and they are small, not big. These seven lampstands are the lampstands in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. At the end of Revelation there is only one great lampstand—the city of the New Jerusalem. With regard to time, the seven lampstands at the beginning exist in the present age, whereas the one at the end exists in eternity. With regard to location, the seven small lampstands at the beginning are found in different localities, whereas the great one at the end is found in the new heaven and new earth. The lampstands at the beginning and the end may be different in size, but regardless of whether they are great or small, they all have Christ as the lamp and God as the light within the lamp.
Some Bible readers have an inaccurate understanding of this matter. They think that each local church is a shining lamp. However, this is somewhat different from what the Bible says. Strictly speaking, each local church is a lampstand, and only Christ Himself can be the lamp upon it. Unlike us who hang our lamps from the ceiling, the Jewish people in ancient times set their lamps on lampstands. The Bible likens the church to a lampstand. This signifies that Christ has put Himself into the church and that God, who dwells in Christ and who passes through Christ, shines forth through the church. Furthermore, a lamp is mainly used during the dark night. The cities and localities on the earth are full of darkness, but God as the light is in Christ, Christ as the lamp is in the church, and the church has become the lampstand shining forth the light, which is God in Christ. This is what God desires to do in this age in locality after locality.
We must be clear about the two kinds of lampstands at the beginning and at the end of Revelation. At the beginning the lampstands are small, but at the end the lampstand is large, and at the beginning the lampstands are numerous, whereas at the end the lampstand is unique. However, in principle, all the lampstands have Christ as the lamp and God as the light within the lamp. Furthermore, the existence and formation of all the lampstands, whether small or great, are due to the fact that they have passed through trials. The great lampstand, the New Jerusalem, is constructed with precious stones, which are produced through heat and pressure, and the seven small lampstands were produced from gold that had been burned and beaten.
What we have mentioned above are the similarities of the lampstands. All the lampstands have Christ as the lamp and God as the light within and are produced out of the divine life and divine nature through burning heat, heavy pressure, beating, and testing. However, there are also differences. First, they are different in measure. The seven lampstands are small, but the unique lampstand is large. Second, they are different in time. The one large lampstand will exist in eternity future, but the seven small ones exist in the present age. The third difference is in location. The great lampstand will be in the new heaven and new earth, but the seven small ones are located in different cities and localities. The fourth difference is in their constituents. The great lampstand comprises not only the saints in the New Testament church, represented by the twelve apostles, but also the Old Testament saved ones, represented by the twelve tribes of Israel. It is built with all the saved ones throughout the generations in both the Old Testament and the New Testament who have passed through trials and have been built into this great lampstand. The seven small lampstands refer only to the saved ones in various cities and localities in the New Testament age. Therefore, the two kinds of lampstands are the same in nature and principle but different in measure, time, location, and constituents. I believe that we all have been deeply impressed with these two pictures of the small lampstands and the great lampstand.
Now I would like to raise a question. We have pointed out many times that the great lampstand, the New Jerusalem, is the issue of God’s work throughout the ages. After the creation of the heavens and the earth, God began the work of building. God has only two kinds of work in the universe—the first kind is creation, and the second is building. After doing a work of creation, God began to do His work of building, first in the Old Testament age and then in the New Testament age. He will continuously build until the fullness of the times, which is when He will produce a great lampstand, the holy city, New Jerusalem, to be His eternal habitation and also Christ’s bride and counterpart. This is the ultimate goal of God’s work. The small lampstands are merely the result of God’s building work in different localities in the present age. Then into which lampstand should we who have received grace and are living in this age be built? Should we be built into the great lampstand, or should we be built into the small lampstands?
Let me give the background behind this question. In the past several decades we have been paying particular attention to the matter of the church among God’s children. Because of this, we have frequently encountered questions and arguments from many brothers and sisters outside the recovery. These ones are quite zealous for the Lord. They love the Lord, preach the gospel, help others, teach the Scriptures, and lead people to be spiritual, yet they greatly neglect the matter of the church. We consider every spiritual work in all their different aspects to be good, but they must be for the church. These friends of ours in the Lord argue with us, saying, “When we preach the gospel, is it not for the church? When we lead the believers to be spiritual, is it not also for the church? Those who are saved through our preaching of the gospel will be a part of the New Jerusalem, and those who are saved through your preaching of the gospel will likewise have a part in the New Jerusalem. Therefore, are we not doing the same work?” This kind of argument sounds very reasonable, but it is here that a problem arises. Today many of God’s children speak with the same tone, saying, “The reality of the church is in the future, so there is no need to take care of the matter of the church today. To care about the matter of the church is too troublesome. We only need to diligently preach the gospel and lead people to be saved, to be zealous, and to love the Lord. This is good enough, because we will all end up in the New Jerusalem in the future. It does not matter where we meet today. When two or three meet at a home in one accord, zealously loving the Lord, praying, and reading the Scriptures, this is also the building. It is not necessary to build the church in a certain locality. Such outward building in a locality is not important. Since we are all going to be in the New Jerusalem, why do we need to look for trouble by paying attention to the matter of the building of the church today?”
Once someone personally said to me, “Thank the Lord that He has raised up a group in China such as yours. Your preaching of the gospel is very good, and your ministering of the word is also excellent. We have read the books published by your bookroom, and we even use some of them to preach in our church. There is only one matter that is not so good.” I immediately understood what he meant, but I still asked him, “What is it that is not so good?” He said, “It is the matter of the church. If you would simply not talk about the church, everything would be fine. Whenever you bring up the matter of the church, there are problems.”
I admit that he was absolutely right. I can give an example as a confirmation. The Christians who do not meet with us will buy the books that we publish as long as the books are on being spiritual. They will not buy any book that has the word church in its title. Previously, we had published a book whose original title had been Being Holy and without Blemish, and many copies were sold. Christians everywhere bought that book. Later, we thought that the title of this book did not fit its content very well, so we changed its title to The Glorious Church. It was the same book, and the content was unchanged. Only the title had been changed. Strangely, however, very few people bought it. We can see that today God’s children like to be spiritual, but they avoid talking about the church.
When I went abroad recently, I came in contact with quite a few Western friends. One day I had an honest conversation with one of them. He said, “Brother Lee, in recent years quite a few Western missionaries have gone to China. Many of them have come back to the West and testified that we have to thank the Lord for raising up your work in China in the East. Your work is truly wonderful, but...” When he said the word but, he had a sorrowful expression on his face. I immediately said to him, “Dear friend, I know what you were going to say. You were going to say that our work is wonderful except for our speaking on the matter of the church.” In the eyes of those missionaries our work was like a fragrant ointment. Everything in our work was good, whether it was our gospel preaching, our messages for edification, our spiritual pursuit, or the light that we brought forth in our biblical expositions. The only thing that annoyed them was the matter of the church, which was like a dead fly in the sweet ointment. Whenever I encountered this kind of questioning, I had no way to answer them.
Today many of God’s children are not willing to talk about the church, even those who work for the Lord. They think that it is enough to lead people to be saved and to be spiritual and that the matter of the church can wait until the New Jerusalem is manifested. Today Christians think that they can establish churches anywhere. They think that one can set up a church in his home, and another can set up a church in a factory. A university professor can gather a few students to meet together and to form a church. Some Christians may even come together to be a “non-church” church. These are all theories conceived by the human mind and are not according to God’s plan. The eternal plan of God is to obtain a group of people in this age and in every locality who have been redeemed and saved by His grace to be built together in His life in order to become a golden lampstand so that Christ may be the lamp upon it to shine forth God as the light within. God wants to build His church today, not in the future. According to man’s concept, to have the church is very inconvenient. However, according to God’s economy, having the church is very convenient. Man says that avoiding the matter of the church saves us from problems. God says, however, that without the church, problems will abound. Only when there is the church can the problems be solved.
If none of us paid attention to the matter of the church, then what would we do after we were saved? How would we meet, pursue the Lord, or preach the gospel? Consider the church in Taipei for example. Often we feel that the church is weak. However, because we are continually standing on the ground of the church and living in the principle of the church, whenever we preach the gospel, several hundred people are baptized. This kind of gospel preaching is much more effective than gospel campaigns carried out by a single individual. Of course, there are some brothers and sisters who are not satisfied with the condition of the church. They criticize the church, saying that the church meetings are too dead, the ministering of the word is too weak, the responsible ones are short of love, the prayer meetings put the saints to sleep, and the Bible studies and times of fellowship among the saints are meaningless. They also complain that it takes two and a half hours of traveling to go to a meeting and that it simply consumes their energy, strength, and time. Therefore, they would rather spare themselves these troubles and stay in their own homes to read the Bible, pray, and draw near to the Lord. To them, this would be far more enjoyable. Since these calculations seem to fit their economic principles, they decide not to go to the meetings anymore. In the beginning it may seem very good. During the first week they may read the Scriptures and pray every day, but after two weeks these practices may begin to decline. Then after two or three months they may stop reading the Bible. They may also consider the practice of kneeling down to pray to be time consuming. Hence, they may merely close their eyes and meditate a little, thinking that this is sufficient. This seems rather convenient and economical. However, this was also the economic principle of Judas, who betrayed the Lord Jesus. I am afraid that these kinds of brothers and sisters who are independent and who do not want the church, after making such calculations, will eventually end up in the movie theaters.
You may feel that you are very strong, and you may criticize the church meetings as being poor, weak, depressing, and tasteless. However, try not attending any meetings for two months and see whether or not you can continue to stand. I cannot believe that such a Christian could be so strong and continue to stand alone. I would cry out loudly, “It is impossible!” I absolutely believe that no matter how poor, weak, and depressing the church meetings are, if you would still come to the meetings regularly, the Lord would preserve and sustain you so that you would be able to stand to the end and not grow cold. This is a marvelous thing and an undeniable fact. Conversely, a person who decides to give up the church will fall into spiritual weakness and death. This kind of person may be quick to criticize the church when he is in a peaceful situation—that is, when his business is prosperous, his children are safe, and his family is happy. He may enjoy listening to music at home, and it may seem that all is well with him. I do not mean to curse such ones, but one day the business will go bankrupt, one of the children will die, he will have a car accident, or his wife will be hospitalized. It will seem that all kinds of hardship are coming upon him. At such a time he will remember the church again. Then when the brothers and sisters visit him to pray and have fellowship, he will be greatly touched and exceedingly happy. When he comes back to the meeting, although the condition of the church will be the same as before, his feeling will be quite different. The place that he previously had thought was cold, tasteless, and boring will become the warmest and sweetest place to him.
Have you ever had this kind of experience? Many times you may feel confused and unclear within, and no matter how much you pray and seek the Lord, you cannot get clear. However, when you come to the meeting and sit there for half an hour, even though your spirit may be closed and down and you may not care for the saints’ prayers and testimonies, mysteriously your inner being will be suddenly opened, and a certain matter that has been unclear to you, though you prayed about it for months, will suddenly become clear after the meeting. It might be a sentence in a brother’s prayer that opens up your understanding, or it might be a sentence in a sister’s testimony that suddenly enlightens you. Such cases are innumerable.
Even a person like me who speaks for God is dependent upon the supply of the saints. Even the messages that I give come from the saints. If I were to keep myself in isolation and not meet with the saints or have frequent contact with them, then I believe that after half a year I would have no messages to give. I frequently attend the meetings in the various halls and homes to listen to the prayers and testimonies of the saints in order to collect material for my speaking. I want to thank you all because the messages that I give are supplied by you. We cannot minister the word apart from the church. Outwardly, it may seem that I am giving messages to the church, but actually, the church is supplying me with the messages. Even your coming here to listen to the messages is a supply to me. If you all declared a strike and left the meeting, leaving me to look at the empty chairs, I would surely be unable to give a message.
We must see this great matter of the church! According to their human economic principles, Christians consider the church to be too troublesome. They do not want to be bothered by the church today. They think that in the future we will all enter the New Jerusalem anyway. However, the divine economy is not like this. God’s intention is that in this age a lampstand for His Son would be built up in every locality, regardless of how many believers are in that locality. As long as there is the building up of the church, the presence, the blessing, and the expression of the abundant grace of God will be there. The supply and the blessing of God are in the church. All the spiritual supply and blessing is brought in through the church.
The last time I went to America, I met many friends on both the East and the West Coast. When we met, we immediately began talking about the matter of the church. They all lamented and said, “Brother Lee, organized Christianity cannot meet God’s need in this age, and the universal church—which transcends time and space, is heavenly and spiritual, and will be manifested as the New Jerusalem in the future—also cannot meet the Lord’s need today. Furthermore, being spiritual in an independent way, no matter how high the degree of spirituality, cannot meet the Lord’s need today.” It is amazing that at the end of our conversations, these Western friends all asked me the same question. The question they asked was, “Brother Lee, how can we have a church today that is truly according to God’s desire?” They had heard that God had raised up a group of brothers in the East who had recovered this matter to some extent and who had also had quite a bit of experience in this matter. Hence, they were very eager to fellowship with me to receive some help. Now there are many brothers and sisters in the West who have this kind of feeling. They long to be able to have a real and practical church in various localities in order to meet the Lord’s need today.
Please remember that when we are speaking of the practical church, we are not referring to the great lampstand at the end of Revelation. Rather, we are referring to the seven small lampstands at the beginning of Revelation. We should thank and praise the Lord that today in nearly every major city or town on the island of Taiwan, from the east to the west and from the south to the north, there is a church, a small lampstand. The total number of churches is over fifty. This is the practical church manifested in various localities. Therefore, we have to clearly see that the Lord is not waiting for the future to build us into the great lampstand. Instead, the Lord is building us into the small lampstands in the localities that we are in today. God’s intention and economy are to have the small lampstands first, and then He will have the great lampstand. First, He will have the small golden lampstands in different localities, and then ultimately, in the New Jerusalem there will be the great lampstand of precious stones. Therefore, we must not vainly talk about matters in the future. We need to talk about the matter of the practical building at the present time. We need to be led to be built together in the local church where we live.
We need to continue learning to be built together in the church in our locality by rejecting our own choices and tastes. I have encountered some brothers and sisters who hope that the church in their locality will go along with them in everything. Otherwise, they will criticize the church or plan to leave. This is not right. We should consider others first and not ask others to consider us. In the church we must repudiate our own feelings. Only then can we have the genuine building. Since you have consecrated yourselves, I would like to speak a few frank words to you. If you want to be built, do not expect to be delicately treated in the church, like a flower, always expecting that everyone and everything is for you alone. Do not expect that the garden, the flowerpot, and even the soil and water are all for you. If the only purpose of the church was to cultivate you as a beautiful flower, then there would never be any genuine building.
We are not flowers to be admired and praised. Instead, we are pieces of material—some being wood and others being stone. Therefore, we should commit ourselves without reservation into the hand of God who is the Craftsman, allowing Him to do the work of breaking first. Sometimes He may cut us with an ax, other times He may shave us with a plane, and still other times He may use a saw on us. If God places us in Keelung, then that is the best place for us. If God puts us in Taipei, where every elder gives us a long face, then that is the best place for us. Perhaps the long faces are the treatment we need. If we truly want to be built, we need to be pressed, even to the point of nearly suffocating, for an extended period of time in the church. While shedding tears, we may pray, “O Lord, I want to be built. Save me from my self and from being natural.” In the church we need to learn not to hold on to our own choices. We should not choose the people with whom we want to be, nor should we choose the place where we want to be. Rather, we should be willing to commit ourselves into the hand of the Craftsman, silently allowing Him to work on us, carve us, deal with us, break us, and thereby perfect us and build us together with others. If every brother and sister was like this, how glorious the church would be! Our glorious Lord would be expressed in the church, and the light of God would shine forth in Christ through the church.
Now I would like to remind you of another point. If we want to be built, we must accept the authority in the church. It is regrettable that very few among God’s children have seen this matter, which is clearly revealed in the Word. The Lord said in Matthew 16 that He would build His church (v. 18). Then in Matthew 18 the Lord referred to the fact that in the local church there is the matter of authority. He said, “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go, reprove him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to hear the church also, let him be to you just like the Gentile and the tax collector” (vv. 15-17). We must see that this is a matter of authority. In this situation there was a brother who had sinned and who refused to repent. Finally, the church spoke to him, and when he still would not listen, the church considered him as a Gentile and tax collector. This is the authority in the church.
From reading the Scriptures, we can also see that there is deputy authority in the church. For instance, in Jerusalem there were initially three thousand saints, and then five thousand more were saved. In addition, more people were subsequently saved. Thus, there were probably ten or twenty thousand saints in the church in Jerusalem. Suppose that one day a problem like that described in Matthew 18 occurred, and someone wanted to tell it to the church. How would he do it? Would he do it by gathering the ten or twenty thousand saints together, making a public announcement, and then asking the saints to vote by raising their hands? To do this would be too troublesome. I absolutely believe that it was not done this way. Rather, in the church there were some who were deputy authorities, spiritual leaders in the church. Telling the problem to God’s representative authorities in the church equals telling it to the church.
We can see a hint of this revelation in Matthew 18, but this hint is not clear enough. (This is always the pattern in the Scriptures; when a truth is first mentioned, only a hint is shown, but the second time it is mentioned, it is a little clearer, and the third time it is even more clear. Then finally it is fully revealed.) Acts 7 mentions that the offerings of material goods in the church were committed to the elders. This is proof that the elders are the deputy authorities in the church. They have the authority to handle and decide the affairs of the church. Then in the Epistles the apostles explicitly said that the elders are a group of people who oversee the church. The administrative power in the church is altogether upon them. Therefore, the elders are without a doubt the deputy authorities that God has established in the church.
In the church there are not only elders who are God’s deputy authorities, but there are also many older brothers and sisters who are authorities over us. This is similar to the relationship among the members of the body. Consider my hand for example. Above the five fingers is the palm, which has authority over the fingers. However, above the palm is the lower arm, and above the lower arm is the upper arm, and above the upper arm is still the head. There is authority all the way down the line. If one day my little finger were to say to my palm, “I am not happy with you,” this would be troublesome. If the fingers were to say, “We are good friends with the palm, but we are enemies with the arm,” this would also not be acceptable.
In the church there is authority and also order. Due to Satan’s rebellion the order in the universe has been thrown into confusion. Due to man’s rebellion and sin the earth is also full of confusion. In today’s families, schools, businesses, and factories, in entire societies and nations, and even over the whole globe, there is quarreling and contention. This is because no one is willing to submit to authority, and as a result, no one keeps the order or maintains the arrangement.
As those who have been saved by God and who are living in the church, we need to be the lampstands of Christ and the vessels of God’s glory shining for God on the earth. How could we be like the worldly people, not submitting to authority or keeping the order and always quarreling? Today in the world people talk about being democratic and free, but it must not be so in the church. In the church there should be a peaceful, orderly situation. Whenever the brothers and sisters are together, each one should keep the order and take his proper place, whether he is above or below others or on the right or the left. When such a situation exists, then there will be the church and the expression of Christ, the expression of God.
One time someone told me that a certain worldly organization was unable to successfully hold business meetings. Then some of their leaders came to our service meetings to observe us. They saw that the number of people in our meetings was about the same as the number in theirs but that our meetings were very simple. There was no one shouting and no one maintaining the order. The brothers simply stood up one by one to speak without arguing or contending. The business leaders studied us for a while and then told us, “Now we have learned how to hold a meeting.” I asked them, “What have you learned?” They replied, “First, we will sing two songs, then we will keep silent for two minutes, and then we will start our discussion. In this way we will be the same as you.” I thought to myself, “Go ahead and sing. Even after singing twenty-eight songs, you still will not be the same as us. On the contrary, I am afraid that the more you sing, the more you will quarrel.”
Why is it that in the proper local churches there is peace and order? We have to admit that first it is because Christ, the Head of the church, is reigning among us. Thus, the Holy Spirit can freely operate among us and fully be with us. Second, it is because of the fact that the deputy authorities, the elders, whom God has established in the local churches are able to administer and lead the congregation in the Holy Spirit. Third, it is because all of God’s children in the churches keep the order. Each one takes his position and submits to one another. No one is proud or conspicuous, nor is anyone self-depreciating or withdrawn. Each one knows what kind of member he is in the Body of Christ, and each one learns in the grace of God to coordinate with others and to be built together. No one acts disorderly or recklessly.
Some might say, “Is this not too authoritarian? Is this not undemocratic?” In God’s house there is never the question of whether this is authoritarian or democratic. In God’s house there is only the question of God’s authority and order. This is the same as the situation in a family. In a family the father and mother are above the children, and the brothers and sisters are in their order, each one knowing his or her position. There is no need for anyone to fight for his or her place. It is not a matter of the elder brother or sister being authoritarian or of the younger siblings losing their freedom. It is altogether not such a matter.
Suppose that the elders in a church decide to study the book of Romans together in the meetings, but a few of the brothers and sisters speak out against it and suggest studying Ephesians instead. On the surface this may seem to be a small matter, but it violates a great principle. It proves that those brothers and sisters have not learned the lesson of submission and have not known authority and order. If all the brothers and sisters were like this, how could there not be contentions in the church? Once there is contention, we lose the presence of the Holy Spirit and fall short of the glory of God. On the contrary, if all the brothers and sisters would learn the lesson of submission and recognize the authority and order in the church, then whether the elders decide to study Romans or any other book or decide to do something else, they would all receive it joyously from the heart. If there were such a harmonious situation, then it would surely bring in the full presence of the Lord, and the glory of God would fill the church.
Do not think that the authority in the church is a small matter. Let me give another example to illustrate this matter. Suppose that the sisters come to the meeting hall to clean and wipe the chairs. The responsible brother previously told the sisters that the paint on the chairs is not waterproof and that they should use dry cloths, not wet cloths, to wipe the chairs. However, one sister who has never been in the cleaning service but who recently became zealous also comes to clean. Because she did not understand the instructions, she uses wet cloths to clean the chairs. The sister who is in charge of cleaning knows that this sister is like a goldfish bowl that looks beautiful but is very fragile and cannot be touched, because once it is touched, it breaks. Therefore, she very carefully and with a gentle voice asks the sister to use dry cloths to wipe the chair instead. Regrettably, after being adjusted, the sister speaks up. She says, “I came to the meeting hall to clean the chairs, so why are you criticizing me? Is it not better to wipe the chairs with a wet cloth? Is the church practicing dictatorship? Is this how you oppress the believers?” Consequently, she does not come to clean the next week and later even stops coming to the meetings because she thought that the church was too undemocratic.
Do you love the Lord with your whole heart? Are you willing to serve the Lord? Do you want to see the church built up soon? Then you must accept the breaking, tearing down, and subduing of the cross. Only in this way can you submit to the deputy authorities in all things, keep the order arranged by the Lord, coordinate in harmony with the saints, and be built in one accord unto the Body of Christ in its full stature.
We must also see that we can learn this practical lesson only in the church. It is not easy to learn this lesson in other settings. If we would seriously learn these lessons, then when we preach the gospel, how powerful we would be! When we open and read the Word of God, how much light there would be! We would see how blessed a place the church is, and whoever comes to this place would definitely meet the true and living Lord. These are the lampstands appearing in various localities. The Christ with all His riches is the light upon the lampstand, and the God of glory is the light within. This is altogether a miniature of the New Jerusalem, manifesting a scene of incomparable glory. This is the work that God wants to recover in this age.
We must consecrate ourselves without any reservation to the Lord. We must offer ourselves wholly for the glorious building work of God in the local church where He has placed us, submitting to the deputy authorities, keeping the order, accepting the limitation of the Body, and coordinating with the saints in one accord until the Body of Christ becomes full-grown for the glorious expression of all the fullness of the Godhead. May God bless every one of us that we may be joined and built together. May He also bless all the local churches that they all may become golden lampstands appearing gloriously in different localities. May the eternal purpose of God be accomplished soon.
