In short, we should all the more spread the truth and not neglect it. Here is a big problem, to which we all must pay attention. In our propagation we cannot be blind and limit ourselves to only one way. For example, some homes want to cover Life Lessons, some want to cover Truth Lessons, and some want to cover the life-studies. We have no way to unify all these different situations, and we do not need to unify them. Every household eats rice, but each one is different; some eat fried rice, while some eat rice soup. I hope we will all be clear about this. When we go out, we must learn to broaden our view and not limit ourselves.
In order to spread and propagate, we must not limit ourselves to one way. Neither should we anxiously expect a person to improve or a family to change. This is not necessary. We need to learn to accept different ways and different conditions. If some homes love the life-studies, let them read the life-studies. If other homes love Truth Lessons, let them use Truth Lessons. Let them decide on their own and do it on their own. Then they will be perfected and edified.
In this way the church life in the future will have not a few but many aspects and directions. This requires us to have a comprehensive view in handling the church life. According to the practical situation, no one person can handle that many different situations. This requires all of us to bear them together. However, although the situations may be different, we must be absolutely one in believing in the Bible, the Triune God, Jesus Christ, the need to receive Him as the crucified and resurrected Lord, the uniqueness of the Body of Christ, and the oneness of the expression of the Body in the different local churches. These are the things we all must absolutely hold. In matters other than these, however, our view needs to be enlarged.
We may observe the situation of the churches in the book of Acts. After Acts, from Romans to Revelation, the situations of the churches in the Epistles were not the same, but their faith was absolutely one. On God’s side, the faith is related to the Bible as the Word of God, the revelation of God, the Triune God, and Jesus being God and the Son of God who died and resurrected for us. On man’s side, the faith is the belief that we must be saved by the forgiveness of sins and regenerated to have God’s life, that Christ has only one Body, and that the expression of this one Body in every locality is also one. This is our faith. Concerning items other than these, whether regarding the breaking of bread or the other practices in the church life, we do not insist on anything.
We may compare the churches to the faces that God created for man. Not any two faces are the same. Everyone has his own face, which is different from all other faces. We can tell the difference between the faces of identical twins. There are also differences in complexion and color; some faces are black, while others are white, red, or brown. The colors may all be different, but in general, the faces are still the same. Similarly, in the church life every home may have a different appearance, but the principle in each one is the same. Each home still has “two eyes, two ears, two lips, and one nose.”
It is also the same with eating. People from different countries, and sometimes people even from the same country, do not all eat the same thing. Some like milk and sandwiches, some like soymilk and fried buns, and some like porridge and vegetables. We cannot impose the same foods on everyone. In the church life, some like Truth Lessons, some like Life Lessons, and some like the life-studies. What we eat may be different, but the “vitamins” in them are all just as nutritious.
Today those in the younger generation are the representatives of the Lord’s recovery. They are the “core” members, the successors in the recovery. I hope that when they rise up to take the burden of the recovery, their view will not be narrow but as wide as the universe. They must allow their view to be enlarged to the uttermost.
It is not a small matter to be able to have the Lord’s table in every home and for every home to say amen to our coming. Concerning the future prospect of the church in the Lord’s recovery, the truth is absolutely unchangeable, but the outward practices will greatly change. The age of the ox cart has gone, and the age of the 747 has arrived. Similarly, in three to five years we will see that the situation in the church will be significantly different, although the truth will remain absolutely unchanged. Regardless of how meals change over time, the food created by God with its nutritious elements and essences remains unchanged. May we all see this.
We need to reach the point that the home meetings, big meetings, small meetings, and every kind of meeting all have the same principle, which is to announce Christ. We announce Him in all wisdom, not only with Truth Lessons or with Life Lessons, but in all wisdom and every kind of wisdom. We not only announce Him, but we even admonish and teach every man that we may present every man full-grown, complete, and perfect in Christ to God. This is the goal of our home meetings.
(A message given on May 26, 1987 in Taipei, Taiwan)