Third, if we are going to realize the Body life, we must seriously and heartily learn always to keep the harmony. This does not mean that in doing something wrong we are in harmony to be wrong, and it does not mean that we never have disagreements or discussions. We may even have arguments, but we must argue in harmony. It is possible to argue in harmony. Many brothers and sisters have a beautiful marriage life of arguing in harmony. A couple may invite someone to their home for a love feast and fellowship. The brother may want to serve Cantonese food, but the sister may want to prepare American food. In this way they may argue, but they still argue in harmony, happiness, and joy. This is a beautiful life and a beautiful argument. When someone comes to their home, he can sense the beauty and see how beautifully the couple argues in harmony. Of course, we must learn the lesson to be careful in arguments. Many times it is easy to be in the flesh and in the self in arguments. Yet we can still discuss many things and even argue many things for the Lord’s sake and for His testimony, interest, kingdom, and Body, but we argue in harmony. If we can keep the harmony, we can continue to argue, but if we cannot keep the harmony, we must stop the argument. Learn the lessons of keeping the harmony.
Harmony is the real expression of the oneness among the Lord’s children. There is a difference between oneness and harmony. We may say that we are one, and we may even be one, but we may not have harmony. All the parts of a piano are one, but when we play the piano, it may not have harmony. A piano must be tuned to have harmony. We may have oneness without harmony, but to be sure, if we have harmony, we have oneness because harmony is something more than oneness. The real expression of the oneness of the Body is harmony.
I have seen the beautiful harmony. When we have harmony in the church, we realize the Lord’s presence very much, and we automatically and spontaneously realize all His riches for the church. There is no need to ask for and seek the spiritual things such as spiritual infilling, outpouring, and gifts. If we simply have the harmony, all these things will come. I know what I am speaking about because I have seen this. Learn the lesson to keep the harmony.
Harmony is a very tender and deep matter. It controls and regulates us very much. If we truly have a sincere heart to keep the harmony among the Lord’s children, we will be very regulated and ruled by the heavenly reality. We will be governed, controlled, and directed by the inner life, the inner anointing, and the inner presence of the Lord. We will be controlled in acting, speaking, and even thinking, and we will be very fine in many matters. We will be very tender in order to keep the harmony. Then we can argue with one another, yet in a very tender and fine way and very much in harmony.
Fourth, we must always keep in mind that nothing is more important than the Lord Christ Himself and His Body. Always remember that all things are secondary; only the Lord Himself and His Body are primary. All things are not for themselves but for the Lord Christ and for His Body, the church. Sometimes we may do or speak something and make it more important than Christ and the church. However, all things, even teachings, doctrines, truths, and experiences, are for the church and for the Head, the Lord. We should not do anything or insist on anything in a way of damaging the church life even a little.
When I speak of the kingdom truths or other truths, I have no intention to force anyone to believe what I believe or to take the same way I take. That is absolutely not my intention. My intention is that these truths will help others to love the Lord, seek Him more, realize the proper spiritual life, and practice the church life more and more. As long as one loves the Lord, seeks Him, experiences Him, lives by Him, and comes together with the saints to exalt and exhibit Him more and more, I am happy. I will be happy even if someone fully differs from me in certain truths. We do not have the truths for their own sake; rather, they are all for Christ and the church.
On the other hand, if someone receives these truths and agrees with them, he must not argue with others or try to convince them. We are not preaching truths; we are preaching Christ. Our intention, commission, and burden is not to preach doctrines but to preach Christ and minister Him to others. Of course, sometimes we need doctrines and truths as the means to help people to know Christ more, but the truths are not for the truths; the truths must be for Christ, the church, and the proper spiritual life. As long as people receive Christ, experience Christ, and love the Lord more and more, we are happy and praise the Lord, regardless of the truths concerning the kingdom, the rapture, or other matters. We do not care for those matters; we care for the Lord Himself and His Body. Do not go to preach these truths and argue with people about them. If we do this, we have completely failed the Lord. We must realize that the aim, the goal, is Christ and the church, the Lord and His Body.
We must keep the above four matters. We need to reject our self, give up our independence, always do the best to keep the harmony, and always keep in mind that nothing is as important as Christ and His church. When we do this, we are in the reality of the Body life. I simply present this to you in a brief way with few words. Let us try to learn these lessons. Then we will realize how practical they are, yet how much of a test they are. These are testing lessons, lessons that always test and check us. The self, the independence, the disharmony, and the overemphasis of matters other than Christ and His church damage and kill the church life.
Let us learn the lessons along this line and toward this goal. Learn the lessons to give up our self, to forget our independence, and to keep the sweet, fine, and tender harmony among the saints. Moreover, always remember that we are here for nothing but our dear Lord and His Body; this is our commission, our business. If we do this, I am assured that in a very short time we will all be in the reality of the Body life. Then there will be the real building up of the church. We can be assured that all the riches of Christ for His church will be with us and will be realized by us, and we will see a wonderful and beautiful situation. There is no need for us to seek other spiritual things. We simply need to go along with the Lord in these lessons.
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