Quarrels and opinions in a local church are the issue of human relationships and the flesh. However, a church that is lively and in full harmony yet does not give others the sense of God’s dominion and ruling may also contain only the element of man and the things of man. It may not have the element of God. It is proper to love, but love must be with authority. Love without authority is either leaven or honey; it does not come from God or from God’s authority. Real love is neither leaven nor honey but salt.
When the saints in a local church love one another in God, others can sense God’s authority. This can be compared to salt in the meal offering. The salt in the meal offering is something of God and of the cross; it is something eternal. It is neither leaven, which is corruption, nor honey, which is of the emotion. Behind real love is authority. Whoever touches such love touches authority; wherever this kind of love is, there is God’s authority.
The brothers and sisters may say, “We all love one another, and the church is full of love.” However, if everybody is happy and loose, this kind of love may simply be of the emotion. The love that is of the spirit and that comes out of the Lord’s love is the embodiment of authority; love is the embodiment of authority. Any proper expression in the church should also be the embodiment of authority.
Whether a church is normal or meets God’s requirement can be tested by authority; it can be tested by the presence of God’s authority and ruling in the church. When people touch the church, do they touch God’s authority and sense that God is ruling and enthroned? Or do they sense the ruling of the will of man and the things of the world? This is a test to the church. Many times man’s zeal, excitement, or even man’s working for the Lord is “enthroned.” In the church life we often touch these things instead of touching God’s dominion. It is only when we are enlightened before God that we can truly see that the church is entrusted with God’s ruling.
We should allow God to rule in our work, in our love for the brothers and sisters, and in our zealousness for the church life. There is something within us that flows out from the throne in the heavens; this flow brings God’s authority into us and among us. When people touch us, they should touch God’s ruling. May we all see that this is the church; this is the proper condition of the Body of Christ on earth. In this condition we have God’s glory and image, and we can also sense God’s presence.
However, people may not sense God’s presence when they touch zeal. For example, we may touch people who work fervently and serve diligently in the church life, yet we may not sense God’s presence with them. I believe we all have had this experience. However, whenever we touch God’s authority, we immediately bow our heads and worship the Lord, saying, “Lord, I worship You because You are here.” When we touch authority, we touch the Lord Himself. Zeal cannot represent the Lord, neither is it the Lord. We should all be clear that authority not only represents the Lord, it is the Lord Himself. The normal expression of a church involves the presence of authority.
Some responsible brothers may say, “We are the authority in the church.” This word should not be spoken lightly; those who speak in this way need to be dealt with and disciplined because they are speaking nonsense. According to the revelation of the Bible, the responsible brothers in themselves are not the authority. When they allow God to reign in them, the God who is expressed through them is the authority. When they and the church in which they serve allow God to reign, the expression of God’s authority is among them. This is the authority in the church.
Authority is nothing other than God expressed among us. Any local church that does not have the expression of God does not have authority. The exercise of man’s authority by organization, arrangement, or having a name or position is shameful and hypocritical. The real authority comes when a group of God’s children submit themselves under God’s lordship and allow God to reign. When God is enthroned in our midst, there is authority among us. The responsible ones in the church are deputy authorities established by the Lord, but if the Lord cannot sit on the throne and reign in a church, that church will have no authority. There may be responsible ones, but there will not be any authority. The real authority of the church is in God’s having the position to reign in the church. Then authority will automatically be expressed in the church.
May the Lord give us grace so that we do not think that we have obtained the light after simply reading a message on authority or listening to a message on the Body of Christ. May we be inwardly touched by the Lord’s grace and enlightened to see our real condition. How much of God’s authority is truly being expressed among us? How much of God’s authority is in our meetings? God is asking these questions, and we also should ask ourselves these questions. We must see this basic principle—God’s authority is not expressed in an individual man but in a corporate man; this man is the Body, the church. We must not remain in Genesis 1; we must proceed to the Gospel of Matthew to see that authority is expressed in the church. There must be a group of people who are saved by God to become the church entrusted with His authority. In other words, only a group of people who are built up as the Body of Christ can express God’s authority. The requirement of authority is on the church.