In John 8:36, Jesus said, “If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” There is another element in the fullness of Christ, which is to set people free. I believe many of us have this kind of experience. When the condition of a local church is normal, when a local church is strong, the meetings will always give people the sense of freedom. We may be inwardly oppressed, bound, troubled, and unable to rise up. But often, our whole being is released, all bondages fall off, and we obtain real freedom even when there is not much speaking in a prayer or bread-breaking meeting.
There is an element in the meeting that causes us to touch freedom and that gives us freedom. This is not the case only for meetings. If the serving and responsible brothers and the saints live in the fullness of Christ and overflow Christ, people will sense freedom when they touch them. As people contact them and converse with them, those people are released inwardly. Some may say that this is merely a psychological effect; however, spiritual matters are more real than anything else. If Christ has the ground in us and He can live out of us, we will know that there is a power in us that can release others. In other words, if we allow Christ to have the ground in us, we can release the spirit of others. On the contrary, if we ourselves are bound, we cannot cause others to be released.
Suppose the elders in a local church are bound, Christ is absent, and the devil has come in. Everyone in that locality will be bound. The elders, deacons, and saints will be bound. Even if they come to the meeting and sing, “Revive Thy work, O Lord” (Hymns, #797), they will not be released. Regardless of how much they sing, the church will not be revived, and there will not be freedom in the meeting. Everyone will feel restrained and bound. Before entering the meeting, a person may feel somewhat released, free, and at ease. But once he sits down and sings “Revive Thy work, O Lord” in such an atmosphere, his whole being will become bound; he will be unable to move. We have experienced such agony. While praying at home, our spirit is free. However, as soon as we enter the meeting, our whole being is bound, and the atmosphere in the meeting is suffocating. When this happens, we should realize that there is a problem in the meeting. The responsible brothers have a problem, and the saints have little or no dealings before the Lord. As a result, the fullness is diminished, and the meetings are bound and lacking in freedom.
Our being broken and living before the Lord, His being built within us, and the church being the expression of Christ’s Body cannot be faked. People can sense this immediately when they meet with us. Similarly, the condition of our locality cannot be faked. It is cold or hot, poor or rich, in the flesh or in Christ. As soon as people touch us, they will touch the inward reality. Nothing is as real as spiritual matters; they cannot be faked at all.
Some people are in Christ, allowing Him to rule in them and to overflow out of them. They are persons who are broken, restricted, and ruled by the Holy Spirit. When we come into their midst, we are released and freed, regardless of how heavy a burden or how difficult a situation may be pressing upon us. As soon as we enter into a meeting with them, our entire being is released and freed. This is because there is freedom in the fullness of Christ. If the Son of God sets us free, we are free indeed. Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. If we live in Him and allow His fullness to be expressed, there will be something in us that sets others free.
Another element of the fullness is glory. The apostle John said, “We beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father” (John 1:14). This glory is the glory of the only Begotten from the Father. In 17:22 the Lord said, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them.” What is this glory? It is difficult to say. We may feel that everything in a meeting is without value and has no weight; everything seems light. Whether it is an announcement given by a responsible brother or an exhortation from another brother, the saints have a feeling of lightness. This is not glory.
In 1942 I was speaking a message in Nanking, fully under the Lord’s authority, and the atmosphere of the meeting was very solemn. After I spoke, a responsible brother stood up and announced a wedding. The announcement was very light, and it did not give the saints a sense of glory. However, sometimes a responsible brother may stand up and give a short announcement that the saints feel is quite weighty and glorious. Once we heard some prayers in a bread-breaking meeting that caused us to sense a glorious atmosphere. It was exceedingly glorious. This glory caused us to sense the greatness of the meeting, and we touched the Lord Himself in that glory.
What is glory? Glory is God manifested before man. Whenever man touches God, he senses glory; whenever man is before the light of God’s presence, he senses glory. Glory is God expressed before men. When God can pass through a church, tear it down, and build Himself into it, He can come out from within man. Then regardless of who comes in contact with the church, he will sense glory. Whenever God comes out, people sense glory.
We sense glory when a message given by a brother is the coming out of God. However, if a brother displays his flesh when giving a message, we inwardly sense that this is quite base. Although we may not say anything outwardly, we will lower our heads. This is in contrast to the coming out of God, which is glory. Whether a local church expresses the Body, whether it is the expression of Christ’s fullness, is indicated by what people sense when they come into the midst of the saints. Do they sense something base and low? Or do they sense glory? When a person lives before God, even if he only stands up to introduce the brothers and sisters, the introduction will be glorious. We cannot gain this glory by imitation, nor can we fool others. We cannot pretend in any spiritual matters, such as how much God has passed through us, how much we have allowed God to build, how much God is constituted into us, how much we have been broken and built up by God, how much God has been blended into us, and how much we have entered into God. When people touch our person, they will sense either the presence or the absence of glory.
The content of this fullness has another element—love. The Gospel of John does not say that God is love, but this is spoken of in 1 John 4:8. Since the Lord is the incarnated God to express the fullness of God, love must be an element in His fullness. Generally speaking, in regard to love, man’s love and God’s love are two absolutely different things. The love that is in the fullness is not man’s love; it is God’s love. If our love originates only from ourselves, it will cause others to sense only us. If it originates from God, it will cause others to sense God. Love is an element of the fullness; this love does not refer to man’s love but to God’s love. If a local church lives in God, expressing the fullness, people will touch God’s love among them. People will sense warmth, comfort, and sympathy. They will sense that they are at home.
If people come to us, even if it is only to cry, it is a good thing. If no one can cry before us, we should know that not enough God is coming out of us. If God is coming out of us, people will come to us. We should realize that it is not easy to shed tears. When others shed tears before us, this indicates that they are comforted by us, that is, they are cherished and warmed by us.
If a table meeting is full of the Lord’s presence, full of the expression of the fullness, many people will shed tears in the meeting. This is because they touch love, warmth, and sympathy. However, if a table meeting does not have the Lord’s presence and love, it does not have the fullness. While some of the saints are singing and praying, others may be indifferent, looking around and lowering their heads when they notice others looking at them. Does this depict our real condition? In our meetings do people hear singing and prayer but not touch warmth, comfort, and sympathy? Warmth, comfort, and sympathy are symbols of love. If a meeting is an expression of the fullness, there will be love in that fullness; people will receive warmth, comfort, and sympathy. When they touch these items, they will sense the reality of the church as the Body, the fullness.