In this supplementary word, I am burdened to share with you, first, concerning the fellowship of the churches in the Lord's recovery. Today we need to have a complete, thorough knowledge concerning the fellowship of the Body of Christ, and also concerning the fellowship of the local churches.
As we have seen in this book, the Lord's recovery is the recovery of the divine revelation concerning eight basic and major items: God, Christ, the Spirit, the eternal life, the believers, the church, the proper ground of the church, and the practice of the local churches. Among these items, the recovery of the proper ground of the church touches a major practical problem that we are facing today. The recovery today is very practically the recovery of the proper ground of the church. All the divisions and confusions among Christians today have come from this one source: the fact that most Christians are destitute of the knowledge of the proper ground of the church. Today all of Christianity is full of divisions. Division eventually leads to confusion; these two are actually two sides of one thing. In the past three years we have been facing a real problem among us, a problem that may be termed a rebellion, a turmoil, or a division. This problem has been due not to the lack of knowledge concerning the proper ground of the church, but to the fact that those responsible for the problem would not practice the truth concerning the proper ground of the church. They would not keep the proper ground of the church. In addition to the knowledge concerning the ground of the church, for the proper practice of the local churches, the adequate knowledge of the fellowship of the Body of Christ is needed.
We need to see in a brief way the fellowship of the Body of Christ. In our physical body there is a current of blood, which we may call the circulation of the blood. This current, or this circulation, is going on continuously in our physical body. If this circulation, or this current of blood, were to stop for only a few minutes, we would die. Thus, it is the circulation of our blood that keeps us alive. The health of our body depends on the circulation of our blood. We may say that this circulation is the fellowship of our body.