Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:11-16; Rom. 14:1-3, 5-6; 16:17; 1 Cor. 5:9-11; Titus 3:10; 2 John 1:7, 9-11
God created mankind for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. However, through the fall, mankind was divided and scattered. When Christ died on the cross to accomplish redemption, He slew all the ordinances in order to bring His chosen people back into oneness and to create in Himself one new man. However, the enemy, Satan, has used ordinances to divide the new man Christ has created. The divisions, denominations, and sects in Christianity have their source in these ordinances.
Today the Lord is seeking to recover His church by bringing His people out of the divisions. To be brought out of division is to be brought out of ordinances as the source of division. Therefore, in order to recover the church, the Lord must cause His people to set aside the ordinances that have been the cause of division. If we are not clear about this matter of ordinances, we may bring ordinances into the church life and cause a repetition of the divisiveness that has occurred in the history of Christianity. We do not want the history of Christianity to be repeated among us in the Lord’s recovery.
Certain dear ones who love the Lord’s recovery may not be clear about ordinances. If they insist on practices that correspond to their ordinances, they will cause problems in the churches. Although we may see the ground of the church, we cannot be in the church life in a secure way until we have a thorough understanding of ordinances. It is not sufficient simply to forsake divisions. We also need to recognize that ordinances are the source of division.
As the Lord’s recovery spreads throughout the world, people with different backgrounds will be brought in. Since there is no organization nor human control in the recovery, it is possible in certain places for saints to insist on various practices. If this should happen, the church life would be seriously damaged through division. Therefore, I encourage you all to bring this matter of ordinances to the Lord. Ask Him to make you crystal clear about the seriousness of having ordinances in the church life. No ground whatever can be given to the insistence upon any practice. For the building up of the church we must be willing to drop all ordinances.
We have pointed out that in Ephesians, a book concerned not with personal salvation but with the church in a corporate way, there are at least four categories of things that damage the church life: ordinances, doctrine, the old man, and the spots and wrinkles. After a number of messages concerning ordinances, we come now to the subject of doctrine. Most doctrines are based on ordinances, and ordinances are produced from doctrines. It is difficult to say which comes first, doctrines or ordinances. On the one hand, doctrines produce ordinances, but, on the other hand, ordinances provide the basis for doctrine. Nevertheless, we can be clear that these two matters are intimately related and cannot be separated.
Chapter one of Ephesians speaks of the Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Chapter two speaks of the one new man and concludes with a word about God’s building. For the sake of the new man, God is dispensing Himself into His chosen people, as revealed in chapter three. All Three of the Godhead are involved in this dispensation. We are strengthened by the Spirit into the inner man, so that Christ may make His home in our hearts, with the result that we are filled unto all the fullness of God. In 3:8 Paul speaks of the riches of Christ. If the new man is to be built up as the habitation of God in spirit, surely the riches of Christ need to be dispensed into every part of this new man. In order for such a dispensation to take place, the inner man of all those who make up the one new man must be strengthened by the Spirit. Then Christ with all His riches will be able to make His home in our hearts. Eventually, the new man will be filled unto all the fullness of God. This indicates that the new man will be a God-filled man, a corporate entity mingled with the Triune God.
Chapter three of Ephesians ends with the new man filled unto all the fullness of God. This, however, is not the end of the book. There is still the need for human cooperation. Although Christ has abolished all the ordinances in order to create the new man, the church as the new man still needs to be built up. Christ does not build the church directly. Rather, He uses the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers to perfect the saints to carry out the direct building up of the church. As the Head, Christ presents certain gifts to His Body for the perfecting of the saints. Having been perfected through the ministry of these gifts, the saints build the church directly. Hence, the church is not directly built by Christ or by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers; it is built directly by the perfected saints. This indicates that the building of the church requires the cooperation of God’s people.
Some readers of Ephesians may think that Paul should have stopped at the end of chapter three. According to their opinion, the end of this chapter is the high point and completion of the book. They see only the fact that Christ has accomplished everything. Yes, Christ has been incarnated, has passed through human life, and has died on the cross to accomplish redemption and to deal with all negative things, including ordinances. After His all-inclusive death, He rested in the tomb. This rest was a true Sabbath. Then on the first day of the week He was resurrected from among the dead, and a new age with a new humanity came into being. On God’s side, everything has been accomplished. But in His economy God requires human cooperation. His economy is based on the principle of incarnation, that is, of God and man mingled and working together to accomplish God’s goal. In John 15 the Lord Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (v. 5). However, it is also true that apart from us Christ can do nothing. We can tell the Lord, “Lord Jesus, just as I need You, You also need me. We can do nothing without You, and You can do nothing without us.” If we would speak to the Lord in this way, He would agree. The very fact that Christ was incarnated indicates that God’s economy has both the divine aspect and the human aspect.
This principle applies to the book of Ephesians. The first three chapters emphasize the divine aspect. These chapters reveal that Christ has accomplished everything and that the new man has been filled with the riches of Christ unto all the fullness of God. Then in chapters four through six we see the human aspect, the aspect of our cooperation with the Lord. Hallelujah, we need God, and God needs us! If we fail to cooperate with Him, we cause a serious problem. Therefore, it is crucial that we fulfill our responsibility to cooperate with God in the carrying out of His economy.
Many Christians think that what is mainly needed on the human side is teaching. Yes, in chapter four Paul does mention shepherds and teachers. However, the concept here is altogether different from the religious concept in today’s Christianity. Christianity has become a religion of doctrine. No other religion in the world has as many doctrines as Christianity has. Consider how many books are put out by Christian writers every year. Surely no other religion can equal it in the number of books published annually. Most of these books merely feed the desire for doctrinal talk. Furthermore, most of these books are related to ordinances. Because someone favors a particular practice, he writes a book in order to advocate it.
Paul’s concept in Ephesians 4 is absolutely different from the concept in today’s Christianity. The basic concept in this chapter is that of growth until we all arrive at a full-grown man. As all mothers know, growth of children comes by feeding, not mainly by teaching. When we all arrive at a full-grown man, we shall no longer be children spiritually. On the human side the main need is not doctrine; it is growth. We need to grow until we arrive at a full-grown man.
We need to become a full-grown man so that “we may be no longer babes tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a system of error” (4:14). Notice that here Paul does not speak of every wind of heresy or false doctrine, but of every wind of teaching. Such teaching may include sound, fundamental, scriptural doctrine. However, even this kind of doctrine may be used by the sleight of men in craftiness with a view to a system of error. Any teaching, even a scriptural one, that distracts believers from Christ and the church is a wind that carries them away from God’s central purpose. Teachings that distract us from God’s economy are instigated by Satan in his subtlety with the sleight of men, in order to frustrate the building up of the Body of Christ. The teachings systematized by Satan cause serious error and thus damage the practical oneness of the Body life. If this matter were not serious, Paul would not use so many strong terms to describe it.
Doctrine may be likened to a baited hook used to catch fish. Ignorant of the hook, the fish go for the bait and are caught. In like manner, many Christians have been lured by the “bait” of doctrine, only to be caught on the “hook” concealed within it. Because many of the Lord’s people are ignorant of the “hook” inside an enticing doctrine, they have been systematized by the enemy in a very subtle way.
In verse 15 Paul goes on to say, “But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, Who is the Head, Christ.” Paul does not say that we shall grow up into the knowledge of Bible doctrine. On the contrary, he says that we shall grow up into Christ as the Head. This indicates that what is needed on the human side for the fulfillment of God’s economy is growth. Only by growth shall we be no longer children who are carried about by every wind of teaching.
Growth comes through feeding and through eating and drinking. Apart from this process, it is impossible for anyone to grow. Therefore, what we need today is not the mere teaching of doctrine; it is the feeding with processed spiritual food. We need to feed others with the riches of Christ that we have “cooked” and processed in our experience. In this way others will receive nourishment and be able to grow. According to the religious concept, the members of the church need to be regulated through teaching. But the concept in God’s economy is that God’s people mainly need to be fed by having the riches of Christ ministered to them.
Daily my wife serves me nourishing food. For this reason, I am strong, healthy, and full of energy. I do not need my wife to teach me; I need her to feed me. It is the same in the church life. What we need is not more teaching, but more of the riches of Christ dispensed into us. I can testify that throughout the years the saints have grown through being fed.
Growth takes time. Change produced through regulation, on the contrary, comes very quickly. For example, a new believer may be taught how he should dress or cut his hair. This, however, would produce mere outward change, change without any growth in life. The change produced by genuine growth needs time. For example, you can make an artificial flower in an hour, but it takes months to grow a real flower. What the church needs is the feeding that produces the genuine growth in life. Such feeding does not come from mere doctrine.
We have pointed out that Christianity is a religion of doctrine. The so-called Sunday morning services in Christianity are filled with the teaching of doctrine. The meetings in the Lord’s recovery must be completely different. Instead of teaching doctrine, we need to minister nourishment to the saints. We need to feed them with the riches of Christ. In this way the saints will gradually grow in life.
I thank the Lord for all the feeding that has taken place in the church in Los Angeles. Only in a few instances have certain ones become preoccupied with doctrine. This preoccupation has caused great loss both to them and to others. Most of the saints have not been interested in acquiring mere doctrinal knowledge. Instead, they have appreciated the feeding which has nourished them and made them strong. In all the churches in the Lord’s recovery we need more feeding with the riches of Christ and less teaching of doctrine.
I can testify that I have no interest in doctrinal discussion and no appetite for it. When some ask me questions about things such as absolute grace, eternal security, the mode of baptism, speaking in tongues, or various views of the rapture, I simply have no desire to talk about these things in a doctrinal way. My only desire is to minister the riches of Christ to the saints so that they may grow in Him.
Have you ever noticed that in the book of Revelation there is no emphasis on doctrine? By contrast, this book speaks of the sevenfold, intensified Spirit, that is, of the seven Spirits burning before the throne of God. Revelation also speaks of the seven stars, the seven lampstands, the tree of life, and the river of water of life. There is nothing about absolute grace or eternal security. Actually, the Bible as a whole is not primarily a book of doctrine; it is a book of life. We should come to the Scriptures not primarily to learn doctrine, but mainly to be nourished by the living bread. We need to be like the prophet Jeremiah who said, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them” (Jer. 15:16). Let us drop the doctrines and the ordinances and concentrate on nourishment. If we do this, we shall eventually arrive at a full-grown man and no longer be those carried about by winds of teaching. If someone comes to you with doctrinal questions, perhaps you should read him Ephesians 4:14. Those who want to discuss doctrine under the guise of having fellowship may be influenced by the cunning craftiness of Satan. Remember to beware of the “hook” concealed within the “bait.”
We should try our best not to become involved in discussions over doctrine, especially as we contact new ones or visit Christian meetings in other places. Furthermore, we should certainly not criticize others according to a doctrinal standard. Instead of talking about doctrine, we should enjoy Christ and minister Christ to others. This is the Lord’s way in His recovery. In the recovery what we need is not doctrine, but the proper nourishment that leads to genuine growth. Let us beware of Satan’s subtle use of doctrine to distract us from God’s economy, and let us pay attention to feeding, nourishment, and growth. This is the need in the Lord’s recovery today.
