THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CHURCH
AND THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
THE RESTORATION OF THE CHURCH’S FOUNDATION
WEEK 10 – SUNDAY
Bible Reading: Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5
Read and pray: "But with the voice of thanksgiving I will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!" (Jonah 2:9)
THE LORD’S SPECIAL COMMISSION TO US
We recognize that the Lord has used many forms and many workers to save thousands of people. Not so much through us but through others, God has done much concerning salvation. In reality, we need to learn from others regarding the many ways to lead people to salvation.
God has also done much concerning life through others, and their work has been very good. This is true in the Western world and also in China. The Lord has done much in the East and the West regarding helping people to be spiritual, to consecrate themselves, to love Him, to live in His presence, to fear Him, and to walk with Him.
However, the Lord gave us a special commission concerning one church in one city, concerning the building up and the expression of the Body of Christ. Besides us, no one else has paid attention to these matters. We are the only ones who have, and we have even suffered opposition because of it.
We have been attacked by many outsiders mainly because of these points. They argue that it is enough to save people and help them be spiritual, but there is no need to care about gathering and being built up in each city to be the expression of the Body of Christ.
They claim that if we simply care about salvation and spirituality, there will be no problems related to denominations, the church, and the church’s foundation. They say people can be saved in the Catholic church as well as in the Presbyterian church and can be spiritual in either.
Some believers feel they can be spiritual by themselves; they also feel that since they are spiritual, they can join together to be one in spirit. Some who have felt this way included Mr. Chia, the main pastor of the Presbyterian church, Mr. Kao, the main pastor of the Quaker church, and Cheng, a spiritual Christian worker.
They were all very spiritual. They thought that by being in Christ and in the Holy Spirit, they could join together to form a spiritual group where they would care for the work together. So they published a magazine called The Spiritual Light and invited sister Ruth Lee to be the editor.
In 1925, after understanding the unity of the church and the sin of denominationalism, sister Ruth Lee was no longer willing to serve as editor and decided to resign. However, the pastors did not agree. Later, when the Chinese nationalist government was engaged in fighting against rebellious military leaders, some communist soldiers of the nationalist army burned down church buildings in Nanking and arrested preachers. The office of The Spiritual Light magazine was not spared.
I respected these spiritual people. I can still testify with a pure conscience that they were consecrated Christians who lived in the Lord’s presence. Yet the local ground and the building up of the Body of Christ are not mere matters we minister; they relate to our testimony.
I spoke with Pastor Chia and Pastor Cheng. I could only humbly receive their spiritual instructions, confessing that they were God-fearing, spiritual, experienced brothers who lived in the Lord’s presence. Yet they did not know or understand that God commissioned us with the testimony of the local expression of the Body. They even exhorted me not to insist on this point.
On one occasion, in 1937, I happened to meet Pastor Cheng on the same train. I do not remember the details of the conversation, but I remember well that he exhorted me not to be so insistent.
He told me it was enough to preach the gospel diligently to save souls and to speak of God’s truth to nourish and perfect others. He said this is the height of a Christian. His attitude was sincere, and he really esteemed and admired us.
By our manner of speaking and attitude, he knew we were firm regarding the truth and had a firm foundation. For this reason, Pastor Cheng and even Pastor Chia liked us. We also respected them greatly before the Lord, just as we would respect older, more experienced brothers.
We also maintained fellowship with a pastor named Ting and respected him. He was in his seventies when I was still in my thirties. He was an elderly man who lived in the Lord’s presence. We respected and loved him, as he also loved and esteemed us.
These older brothers considered it precious that young people like us were willing to renounce the future to live for the Lord. They truly held us in high regard. However, they always considered us extreme. On one occasion, they implied we were the most important group among Chinese Christians and that if we changed and became more moderate, we would be the model for the churches in China and the future of the churches in China would depend on us. According to their perspective, we were too radical in our attitude.
However, we realized that the Lord’s testimony is dispensational. These older brothers had a vision in their generation, but it was not part of the Lord’s plan for us to maintain the same testimony as theirs.
The Lord continues to move and desires to advance even further. For this reason, despite respecting the portion they received, we knew God wanted to take a further step in China. The Lord desires more than salvation and the development of personal spirituality; He desires to work the testimony of His Body, the testimony of the church from city to city in order to obtain a corporate vessel to express Himself. This is what the Lord showed us more than twenty years ago.
Enjoy more:
Hymn "The Church – Its General Definition"
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