The authority God gave man in His creation in Genesis 1 is manifested through the church in the Gospel of Matthew; the image God gave man in His creation is expressed through the church in the book of Ephesians. This shows that authority and image are manifested in the church. God’s image and authority are both expressed through the church. We should never consider that an individual or a small number of people can express God’s image or authority; God needs the church to express His authority, and He needs the church to express His image.
First Timothy 3:15-16 uses a very particular expression to help us know the church: “That you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. And...great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh.” These verses speak of the church being a house. In Chinese, English, and Greek, house refers to a dwelling place and can refer also to the members of a family. Although house in 1 Timothy 3 has these two meanings, more of the emphasis is on the second meaning because, spiritually speaking, the house in which God dwells is His household, His family.
When the Bible speaks of the New Jerusalem, it is referring to a group of people; God dwells in the New Jerusalem, and the twelve apostles are the twelve foundation stones in the New Jerusalem. In the church age, the church is the house of God; in the coming age of eternity when God’s purpose is completely fulfilled, the New Jerusalem will be an enlarged city. The house in 1 Timothy 3:15 is the temple in Ephesians 2:21. This temple will be enlarged in the future to be the eternal city. Therefore, whether it is the house, the temple, or the eternal city, God’s dwelling place is a group of people, and this group of people becomes the place where God dwells.
First Timothy 3:15-16 says that the church is a house of mystery, the house of the living God. Here, the living God indicates that God has a particular work. He is not an objective God; He is a subjective God. He dwells and lives in this house; He is neither a dead God nor a dead doctrine. The living God who lives in the church, the house of mystery, is a living and subjective God; He is not a doctrinal and objective God. He moves and works within us. In a normal condition, the church is the place in which God lives and moves.
The house of the living God is also the pillar and base of the truth. We must properly understand the meaning of this word. The understanding that God has entrusted all the truth to the church for her to spread and to uphold is too objective and does not touch the thought of the Holy Spirit. We need to understand what truth refers to when we say that the living God lives in the church, the pillar and base of the truth. Truth and doctrine are different in meaning. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word.” The term used in the Chinese Union Version for Word can be understood as doctrine, but the Word is the expression of God; the Word is God Himself. God expressed is the Word—this is marvelous! The emphasis on doctrine is teaching, not God; the emphasis on the Word is God Himself. The word truth in 1 Timothy 3 is God manifested. John 1:17 says that truth—reality—came through Jesus Christ, and in 14:6 the Lord said that He is the truth, the reality. The Word is the manifestation of God; truth is the manifested God, the reality manifested by the Word. Something concrete is manifested by the Word for us to receive, and this is God Himself, who is truth.
In 1 Timothy 3:15 truth does not refer to doctrine or theory. Rather, it refers to the reality of the manifestation of God, the manifested God. In the same way that God received by man is grace, God manifested and touched by man is truth, reality. Therefore, the church being the pillar and base of the truth does not mean that the church contains a large number of doctrines but that the church upholds God Himself as the truth. God rests on the church.
Every building is supported by pillars. Our large meeting hall is also upheld by pillars, or we can say that it rests on pillars. A large roof must be supported by pillars in order for it to withstand the test of storms and even earthquakes. In the same way, God is great and weighty; nevertheless, He rests on the church. The church is the pillar of God as the truth. Although the covering of the church is great and heavy, the pillar is thin and small; this is the true condition of what the church is to God.
The weight and the greatness of God are infinite and far surpass our imagination, but it is wonderful that this infinite God rests on the church. The God who rests on the church is the truth. Everything in the universe will pass away, because it is not real. Only God Himself is real. God Himself will exist even if heaven and earth pass away. Everything is false, vain, and empty; only God is real. The building we are in today may not exist tomorrow because this building is not real. In the universe only God is real. Everything is changeable; only God exists forever and is forever unchangeable. He is true and real. God manifested to be touched by man is truth, and this truth rests on the church. The testimony that the church bears is not doctrines that are preached and taught by the church; rather, it is God who rests on the church.
The church can still preach the Word when she is in an abnormal condition. However, people will receive only doctrine, not God. History shows that the more abnormal the condition of the church, the more doctrines she has; when the church is in confusion, she has the most doctrine. When the church is normal, people touch truth, not doctrine; they touch God Himself. If a person hears only doctrine in a locality, the church has deviated from the mark. As long as there is doctrine, there is opinion; we who serve the Lord must not dispute with others concerning doctrine. Debating with others concerning doctrine proves that our condition before the Lord is not proper. God does not give doctrines to the church; rather, He gives Himself as the living and true One to the church. If the church is in a normal condition, when people touch the church, they touch the truth, God Himself. In a normal condition a person may not sense that the saints are clear in doctrine when he contacts them, but he will sense that God is in their midst. He will be inspired to worship God; he will bow his head and say, “God, I praise You.” This is the church as the pillar of the truth; this is the manifestation of the church upholding God before man.
God is abstract to man because He is Spirit. He is abstract, just as radio waves are abstract. However, the church as the pillar is the concrete expression of the abstract God. In the universe God can certainly be found in the church. God is in the church; God rests on the church as His expression. The church is God expressed in the universe; people have reality only when they touch the church.
Paul spoke of the church not only as the pillar of the truth but also as the base of the truth. The top portion of a building is upheld by pillars, and underneath a building is a foundation as its base. A building needs to be upheld by pillars, and it also needs to be firmly placed and built upon a base. The church is not merely the pillar that upholds God; she is also a base upon which God places and builds Himself. The church is the foundation, the groundwork, the base, on which God can fully place Himself. In a building the base upholds the pillars, and the pillars uphold the entire structure; this is what the church is to God. May we all see that the church is the pillar on which God rests and the base on which God is placed. This is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh.