We must be here not caring for anything but Christ and the church. We may have all things: we may have pray-reading, we may have speaking in tongues, we may have head covering, we may have bare feet, we may have all other things that are not sinful. Could you say that bare feet are sinful? They are not sinful. You may say that you do not like bare feet, but the Lord may say that He isn't concerned about that. Some may say, "I simply cannot go along with anyone playing the tambourine in a meeting." For my part, I am not for it or against it; I am just neutral. If someone feels that he should play the tambourine in the meeting, let him play it. What is wrong with that? We do not care for all these things—we just care for Christ. It is this that makes us one.

Some may charge us with being too liberal; they may call us "liberal Christians." But be careful: this term "liberal Christian" refers to the modernists who do not believe that the Bible is the divine revelation, nor that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who accomplished redemption, was resurrected, and ascended to the heavens. They are the liberal ones; we are not. We would die for the Bible. We believe that the Bible is God's divine Word, and we believe that our Lord Jesus is the very God incarnated to be a man, who died on the cross for our sins, and was resurrected physically, spiritually, and literally. We believe furthermore that today He is in the heavens as well as dwelling within us as the life-giving Spirit, and that one day He will return, physically and literally. You cannot call us liberal. We are the most fundamental among the fundamentalists. We believe furthermore that there is one Head and one Body, one Shepherd, one flock, one Christ, one Church, and one local church for one city.

We are not liberal, and neither are we legal. We do not have legality in letters. In all the minor matters of the Scriptures we never press the point in a legal way. We never will compromise, however, on the person and work of Christ. We admit being legal in this matter. We do not care for religion, even a Christian religion; we just care for the living Christ.

Paul tells us in Galatians 1 how much he was involved in religion and how zealously he persecuted the church of God. What is the church? The church is not anything of religion; the church is just the expression of the living Christ. This is exactly why those religionists persecuted the church. The church is Christ in an enlarged way. If you are just for Christ, be ready to suffer persecution, not from the unbelievers, but from the Christians, the religious people.

We have seen how in Acts 10 Peter received a vision and learned that there is no difference today between the Jews and the Gentiles, between the clean creatures and the unclean. It seemed that he learned the lesson well, but look now at his behavior in Galatians 2. When Peter came to Antioch he ate with all the brothers, including the Gentile brothers. But when the Jewish brothers came down from Jerusalem, Peter separated himself from the Gentiles, pretending not to associate with them. Could you imagine that Peter would be such a cowardly person? Peter knew that he should not keep that kind of religion, but he feared the Jewish brothers, and not only he, but also Barnabas. Paul was so bold at that time to stand with Christ versus religion. He resisted Peter to his face. It is so easy to pretend to be religious. You may shout, "Hallelujah, praise the Lord," but when you are in the presence of certain brothers, you will not shout. You will become, not a bold Paul, but a cowardly Peter.

We have seen, however, that even Paul in the latter part of his life was not so bold. In Jerusalem, in that intense atmosphere of religion, Paul was subdued and went along with the religious situation in order to save trouble. Let me tell you, whenever you go along with religion to save trouble, you will have more trouble. We may go along with religion, but the Lord Jesus will never go along with religion. Never try to avoid trouble in following the Lord. The more you boldly face the trouble, the less trouble you will have. If you ever consider being mild and compromising a bit, be sure that you are about to involve yourself in many difficulties. Always beware of acting like Peter and Barnabas in Galatians 2 and the Apostle Paul in Acts 21. Today is a day of confusion. Today is also a day of a battle being waged between Christ and religion.

Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians that if we attempt to keep religion, we will lose Christ and Christ will become of no effect to us. "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace" (Gal. 5:2, 4). If you keep religion, you will lose Christ; and if you keep Christ, you will certainly lose religion. Christ is versus religion; Christ never goes along with religion.

Then Paul tells us in Galatians 6 that it is not a matter of circumcision or uncircumcision, it is not a matter of being a Jew or a Greek; it is a matter of being a new creature in Christ (6:15). He says, "If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk" (5:25). This is all: we just need to walk in the Spirit; we just need to be a new creature, without anything religious.