The three foregoing matters are for our fanning people into flame, causing them to be burning in spirit. However, when we are zealous, it is easy to be frivolous. The Bible tells us that we need to be soberminded. Those who serve the Lord should not be frivolous. When we go to perfect a home meeting, although we should not be rigid, neither should we be playful. Rather, we should be dignified. The term soberminded is difficult to explain. In Titus 1:8 the Chinese Union Version translates this phrase as “grave,” while the Recovery Version translates it as “of a sober mind,” meaning having a mind of soberness, being sober and self-disciplined. A person who is muddled cannot be grave. If a person is casual and muddled, laughing when he should not laugh and crying when he should not cry, he is frivolous and not soberminded. We need to be clear in our mind and of a sober mind.
We may illustrate sobermindedness in the following way. If you are in your own room, you can lie on your bed. However, when you come to someone else’s living room, you may find the couch comfortable and lie down. Then when he comes and sees you, you may still not get up. Rather, you may say, “Brother, I am so joyful that the grace of the Lord is sufficient.” Acting in this way will surely make others think you are abnormal. If we are dignified and of a sober mind, we will behave properly and sobermindedly, having a proper expression in every aspect. Hence, the term soberminded has the meaning of soberness, self-control, and self-discipline. When we are alone in our room, whether or not we have self-control may not be apparent, but when we are in someone’s living room, we should behave in a soberminded way.
After speaking of being soberminded, Titus 1:8 says, “Righteous, holy, self-controlled.” In actuality, all these matters are related to being “of a sober mind.” For us to have righteousness, holiness, and self-control, we must be people of a sober mind who can control ourselves, restrain ourselves, and give ourselves no ground to be loose. This should be so not only in big matters but even in small matters. To scratch our feet carelessly while we speak in a home meeting is to not behave out of a sober mind. A person of a sober mind should have righteousness, holiness, and self-control. A person who is soberminded and grave is a person who is not frivolous.
Not only so, a person who is grave and soberminded is clear in his mind and sharp in his vision. He perceives when he should laugh and when he should cry. He contacts elderly people in one way and young people in another way. He has one way towards men and another way towards women. When sisters go out to contact people and the host of a house turns out to be a man, they should keep a certain separation when they shake his hand. They should shake hands with a person of the same sex in one way and shake hands with a person of the opposite sex in another. This is to be grave. If someone contacts everyone in the same way with no difference at all, he is frivolous, not discerning the actual situation.
In your practice you should not pretend to be grave simply for the sake of a home meeting. Rather, you should exercise to be grave in your daily living. You should not pretend or be a muddled person. Instead, you should have a clear view, a sober mind, and a proper measure. To be of a sober mind means to have self-discipline, to be self-restrained, and to have self-control in everything. However, this is not to put on a lofty appearance, making people feel that we who serve the Lord are special. This is absolutely not true. We have to be weighty people who do not speak thoughtlessly, express our opinion casually, or convey our attitude lightly. Rather, we are fresh, living, and spontaneous. We stay within our limit and measure, our manner is appropriate, and our speaking and behavior are grave and fitting.
In practicing the new way, the breaking of bread is also an important issue. In the matter of bread-breaking, we have always been very cautious. In the past few decades, we never would hastily begin to break the bread in any place. However, because of the rigidity in certain areas of our former practice, the function of many saints has been annulled. Hence, we do not want to entirely follow our former old practice. Instead, we want to follow what the Bible says, allowing the church life to be practically carried out and built up in the homes of the newly saved ones. This will then bring in the breaking of bread, because bread-breaking is the most basic practice in the church life.
We still should be cautious in establishing the meeting for breaking bread. First, we should not be hasty to break bread in the home of a newly saved one. We must have much fellowship with him to understand his living, his environment, and his relationships with his relatives, friends, and neighbors. In this way we will know whether or not he has evil companions, such as companions in gambling, or whether he has other relationships which are unclean in his family life or with his neighbors, relatives, friends, and colleagues. A person may be saved and baptized, but his old living may not be cleared up, and there may be many matters which are wrong not only in the eyes of Christians but also in the eyes of the world. Before we have this kind of understanding, it is too hasty and absolutely not appropriate to establish a bread-breaking meeting in his home. We must know a person’s situation and go to have fellowship with him week by week, leading him in a spontaneous way so that he can have the opportunity to clear up his old living.
Next, if there are still unclean things in his home, such as idols or a mah-jongg table, we need to help him clear those up. It is a terrible thing to establish a meeting for breaking bread in a person’s home without first dealing with these matters. It may be that the table used for breaking the bread in the morning becomes a mah-jongg table in the evening. This would be a great loss to the Lord’s testimony. Therefore, in such cases we need to have a careful observation and lead people to have a thorough clearance. Being influenced by the Ching Dynasty, Chinese people like to have dragons in their homes. In the Bible the dragon signifies Satan, but in Chinese society the dragon is regarded as something good. This is the stratagem of the evil one, and we need to pay attention to this.
After people are saved, they will spontaneously abhor unclean and sinful things because of Christ’s life in them. However, we still must help them gradually to have the proper knowledge concerning a thorough clearance of their living. In this way, we can begin breaking bread in their homes at the appropriate time. If at the beginning the number in a home is too small for bread-breaking, we can combine two to three neighboring homes for this meeting.
Furthermore, before breaking bread, we need to have fellowship with the new ones once or twice on the significance of bread-breaking. The first meaning of bread-breaking is the remembrance of the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 the Lord said, “This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me....This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me.” This clearly indicates the meaning of bread-breaking. It is not a religious ritual; rather, it is wholly for the remembrance of the Lord. Remembrance implies love, because we remember only those whom we love. It is precisely because we love the Lord that we consider Him and remember Him. According to the historical record, in the early days shortly after the Lord died, the believers broke bread on the Lord’s Day every week for the remembrance of the Lord, as Acts 20:7 says, “And on the first day of the week, when we gathered together to break bread.” Likewise, we need to break bread at least once a week for the remembrance of the Lord.
How do we remember the Lord? To speak simply, to remember the Lord is to eat and drink Him. To eat the bread is to eat the Lord, and to drink the cup is to drink the Lord. Whom are we drinking? We are drinking the Lord who has dispensed Himself into us through the cross. How did He dispense Himself into us? He gave His body and shed His blood for us. Shedding His blood was for redeeming us, and giving His body was for dispensing His life so that He could enter into us. Our remembrance of Him today is our reviewing once again how He shed His blood for us so that our sins would be forgiven, and how He gave His body on the cross so that we could gain Him. Now we have Him within us as our life. Our eating the bread and drinking the cup are to review and be reminded of the story of this salvation. We remember Him by eating, drinking, and enjoying Him.
At the same time, this kind of remembrance is the testimony of our daily lives. We testify that there is nothing in our daily lives but eating and drinking the Lord. Our daily lives are lives of enjoying the Lord, the Savior who gave His body and shed His blood for us. Moreover, we live out this One, testifying that for us to live is Christ. On the first day of the week, our coming together to break the bread unto the remembrance of the Lord is a declaration and a testimony in the universe that we belong to Christ. We have the Lord in us, and we enjoy Him every day. Every Lord’s Day our coming together is to have a declaration, a remembrance, a display in the universe, and at the same time we remind ourselves that we love Him, we consider Him, and we are waiting for His coming back. This is the first significance of breaking the bread.
The second significance of bread-breaking is that we break the same bread and drink the same cup, implying that we have fellowship with one another. After being passed around, this one bread and one wine enter into each believer. One portion of the bread enters into me, and another portion enters into another. I take one drink of this cup, and another brother takes another drink. Each attendant partakes of the bread and the cup, taking the bread and wine into him. This proves that we are one and that we have fellowship with one another. We not only remember and enjoy the Lord, but through partaking of the bread and the cup we testify that we are one and that we are in one Body. In the oneness of the Body we have mutual fellowship and enjoyment together.
For this reason, before we remember the Lord and come together for this fellowship, we need to examine ourselves and ask for the Lord’s shining. We need to confess our sins thoroughly, ask for the cleansing of the Lord’s blood for our filthiness, and carefully deal with any hindrance before the Lord so that we have no barriers between us and Him or problems with one another. In this way we can sit at the Lord’s table to eat Him, drink Him, enjoy Him, and have fellowship together.
Before we break bread in a home meeting, we need to lead the meeting gradually. We should not rush; we should make our practice lasting and stable. If a meeting for the breaking of bread cannot be established in three months, this is all right. We can wait until the fourth month, and if it still cannot be established, we can wait until the fifth month. We must always see how the Lord wants to lead the new ones and how they can follow the Lord to go on. If we wait until the situation is ready, we can establish the breaking of bread in one place after another. These are issues we should not ignore. We must never work too fast; rather, we should lead the new ones in life and help them in their living. From the beginning we should help them to have a serious attitude and pay attention to all these things so that they can take the right way and not damage their testimony in the future.
(A message given on March 3, 1987 in Taipei, Taiwan)