Second Corinthians 4:1 says, “Therefore having this ministry as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart.” In this verse the subject we is plural, but the object ministry is singular. All the apostles, including Peter, John, James, Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy, had one ministry. First Timothy 1:12 says, “I give thanks to Him who empowers me, Christ Jesus our Lord, that He has counted me faithful, appointing me to the ministry.” The Lord first appointed the twelve apostles to the ministry. Later, the Lord also appointed the apostle Paul to the ministry. Hence, our concept needs to be adjusted. No one should say that we do not accept others’ ministries. Actually, in the New Testament there is only one ministry. If I am serving the Lord properly, I am serving in the one ministry. Brother Nee also served in the one ministry.
There is one ministry, but this does not mean that all the gifted persons speak exactly the same thing. The principle is that there is one ministry with different aspects. This principle is illustrated by the writing of the four Gospels. Although Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote concerning the Lord’s life on the earth, they did not repeat one another’s writing. The writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were different from one another, but their ministry was one. In this sense, they all spoke the same thing.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote biographies of the Lord Jesus from different angles. This was like taking photographs of a person from four different sides. Although each photograph shows something different, all of them show aspects of one person. The four Gospels present four aspects of one person, the Lord Jesus. However, the four writers still spoke the same thing. They spoke of Jesus Christ from different angles. Today in the New Testament economy we all need to speak the same thing, but this does not mean that what we speak is all from the same angle.
Acts and the Epistles each present different aspects of God’s economy. The Epistles of Paul, Peter, John, and Jude all speak the same thing. With the exception of some portions of James, which retain an Old Testament view and flavor, the Epistles speak of different aspects of one thing.
We need to study the Bible. Our concepts concerning the spiritual things are too natural. When we use the term the ministry, we mean the New Testament ministry, but many saints understand that the ministry means the ministry of Brother Lee. In the Lord’s recovery today there is not only my ministry but also Brother Watchman Nee’s ministry. These are not two ministries; they are one ministry and one speaking. In the New Testament age God has raised up many gifted persons with many gifts and functions, but they all belong to the same one ministry. This one ministry ministers Christ for the church. This is the ministry, the unique ministry. When we use the term the ministry, we do not mean a ministry that is only Brother Lee’s ministry. Brother Nee, the apostle Paul, and Martin Luther did not each have a different ministry. They all had one ministry. Martin Luther had a gift, Brother Nee had a gift, and I have a gift, just as Paul, Peter, John, and the other apostles all had different gifts. However, all the gifts constitute one ministry. Therefore, when we use the term the ministry, we mean the unique New Testament ministry, which includes all the apostles in the early church and all the servants used by the Lord since then. They all speak one thing. They do not minister the law or their own concepts, ideas, or opinions; rather, they all minister Christ for the church. Thus, when others speak to us of different ministries, we should point out that there is actually only one ministry.
Hebrews 1:1-2a says, “God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son.” In the Old Testament God spoke in many portions and in many ways in the prophets, but in the New Testament He has not spoken to us in many apostles and prophets. In the New Testament God speaks in only one person, not in Paul and not in Watchman Nee but in the Son.
Verse 2 does not say that God spoke in the apostles; rather, it says that He spoke in the Son, for all the apostles are members of the Son. We too are members of the Son. The Son is the Head, and we are the members of His Body. The fact that Christ is one body with many members (1 Cor. 12:12) proves that in the New Testament age there is only one ministry. There is only one ministry because all those who speak are one in the Son (Gal. 3:27-28). When God spoke through Peter, He was actually speaking in His Son, for Peter had become a member of the Son. This is a strong proof that God has only one speaking in the New Testament. This is different from His speaking in the Old Testament. All the Old Testament writers were separate; they were not in the Son. Moses, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah were not in the Son. However, in the New Testament age the twelve apostles, Paul, Barnabas, Luther, and Brother Nee have all been constituted into the Son. Therefore, today God speaks in the Son. That God speaks only in the Son does not mean that He speaks only in the individual man Jesus Christ. He speaks also in Peter, John, James, Paul, and others, for all these are constituted into the Son. Outwardly, we may see different brothers speaking, but inwardly, it is the Son who is speaking. There are many speakers but one speaking, and there are many gifts with many functions but one ministry.