In this message we shall continue to consider the different categories of the gathering, and then we shall go on to see the way of gathering.
In addition to the gathering for the Lord’s table and the gathering for prayer, there is the gathering for edification by exercising the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:26-35). In this kind of gathering, a meeting for mutual building up, there is not one special person doing a specific thing, but everyone is exercising the spiritual gifts. Each one may participate with the goal of building up and edifying others.
First Corinthians 14:26 indicates that the gathering for edification by exercising the spiritual gifts is a gathering in mutuality. “What is it then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” “Has,” used five times in this verse, is the translation of the Greek word echo, a word widely used, with many meanings, three of which are the main ones: (1) to hold, to possess, to keep a certain thing; (2) to have a certain thing for enjoyment; (3) to have the means or power to do a thing. The first two meanings should be applied to the first three of the five things listed in this verse-a psalm, a teaching, a revelation-and the third meaning to the last two-a tongue and an interpretation of a tongue. This indicates that when we come to the church meeting, we should have something of the Lord to share with others, whether a psalm to praise the Lord, a teaching (of the teacher) to minister the riches of Christ to edify and nourish others, a revelation (of the prophet, v. 30) to give visions of God’s eternal purpose concerning Christ as God’s mystery and the church as Christ’s mystery, a tongue as a sign to the unbelievers (v. 22) that they may know and accept Christ, or an interpretation to make a tongue concerning Christ and His Body understandable. Before coming to the meeting, we should prepare ourselves for the meeting with things like these from the Lord and of the Lord, either through our experience of Him or through our enjoyment of His word and fellowship with Him in prayer. After coming into the meeting, we should not wait for inspiration; there is no need to wait. We should exercise our spirit and use our trained mind to function in presenting what we have been prepared with to the Lord for His glory and satisfaction and to the saints for their benefit-enlightening, nourishing, and building up.
This meeting in mutuality may be compared to the feast of tabernacles in ancient times. In that feast the children of Israel brought the produce of the good land, which they reaped from their labor on the land, to the feast and offered it to the Lord for His enjoyment and for mutual participation in fellowship with the Lord and with one another. We must labor on Christ, our good land, that we may reap some produce of His riches to bring to the church meeting to offer. Thus, the church meeting will be an exhibition of Christ in His riches and a mutual enjoyment of Christ shared by all the attendants with one another before God and with God for the building up of the saints and the church.
In every meeting of the church we should keep the principle of mutuality. According to the New Testament, the church meeting is altogether a meeting in mutuality. In 1 Corinthians 14:26 one has a psalm, another has a teaching, another has a revelation, another has a tongue, and another has an interpretation. All these are in mutuality. There is not simply one or a few who function; on the contrary, all function in mutuality. Hebrews 10:25 encourages us not to stay away from the meetings but to be “exhorting one another.” This indicates that the church meetings should be in mutuality. Mutuality is a basic principle of the church meetings. A church meeting that does not involve mutuality is wrong. In our meeting the speaking of the divine Word should be mutual, not individual. Mutuality, not individuality, should be prevailing.
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