1. “Not to mingle with anyone who is called a brother, if he is a fornicator or a covetous man or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a rapacious man, with such a one not even to eat” (1 Cor. 5:11).
If a believer commits any of the sins listed in verse 11, he should be removed from the fellowship of the church lest he corrupt the entire church (vv. 1-8).
2. “Those who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh...Everyone who goes beyond and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not say to him, Rejoice! For he who says to him, Rejoice, shares in his evil works” (2 John 7, 9-11).
If a person says that he is a Christian but does not believe Christ is God incarnate, he goes beyond the teaching of Christ and does not abide in it. Today’s so-called modernists who accept this teaching should be removed from the fellowship of the church lest the believers share in their evil works.
With the exception of the gross sins described in 1 Corinthians 5 and the belief that Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh, any failure, weakness, error, or improper opinion concerning the truth that a believer may have does not constitute sufficient reason for removing him from the fellowship of the church. Although the apostle Paul ordered the church in Corinth to remove the person who had committed one of the sins in 1 Corinthians 5, he did not tell the church to remove those who were sectarian (1:11-12; 3:1-4), the one who went to law against another brother (6:1-8), or those who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead (15:12). The fellowship of the church is a fellowship of oneness that includes all believers who are saved by faith and have the Lord’s life and the Holy Spirit. Apart from the reasons listed above, no one should be excluded from participating in this fellowship.
1. “The church which was in Jerusalem”; “The church of God which is in Corinth” (Acts 8:1; 1 Cor. 1:2).
According to the Bible, the essence of the church is one universally, and the expression of the church is one locally. In this age the expression of the church is according to locality. The first expression of the church was in Jerusalem, and later the church was expressed in many localities in Judea and in Gentile regions, such as Antioch, Ephesus, and Corinth. Wherever the church is expressed, it is the church in that locality. Every local expression is a local church. A locality can have only one expression of the church; it cannot have two or more expressions. In the universe the church is essentially one; therefore, in this age the expression of the church should also be one in a locality. In the early days Jerusalem was a very large city with thousands of believers (Acts 21:20), but there was only one expression of the church in that city. The many believers, although meeting in many homes (2:46; 5:42), were the one church in Jerusalem. If the believers had separated into two or more churches in that city, they would have brought division into the church and caused the church to lose its expression of oneness in that locality. The Bible speaks of a city having not more than one expression of the church. When it speaks of churches, it is in reference to a province or region, which includes several cities and thus several churches, such as “the churches of Asia” (1 Cor. 16:19), “the churches of Galatia” (Gal. 1:2), or “the churches” in other provinces and regions (Acts 15:41; Gal. 1:22; Rom. 16:4; 2 Cor. 8:1). In one locality there can be only one expression of the church. The expression of the church cannot be larger than a locality, nor can it be smaller than a locality. If it is larger than a locality, the churches will become a federation, and the churches will lose their purity, which comes from living directly before Christ the Head in one locality. If a church is smaller than a locality by being divided into two or more churches, the church will lose its one expression in that locality. In order to preserve the purity of the local church and the oneness of the church in a locality, there cannot be national, provincial, or regional churches that are larger than a locality, nor can there be street, neighborhood, or house churches that are smaller than a locality. There can only be one church in one locality.
The Bible refers to a church in a believer’s house because the church in that locality was small and met in a believer’s home. Thus, it was referred to as the church in a believer’s house. In this case the church in the house was equivalent to a local church. In other words, even in a locality with a small number of believers, there can only be one church in a house; there cannot be churches in two or more houses. The church that met in the house of Prisca and Aquila in Romans 16:5 was the church in Rome. The church that met in the house of Aquila and Prisca in 1 Corinthians 16:19 was the church in Ephesus, because Prisca and Aquila moved from Rome to Ephesus (Acts 18:2, 18-19). Later, in the Lord’s epistle to the church in Ephesus in Revelation, He spoke of only one church there (2:1), proving the foregoing fact. The church in the house of Nymphas in Colossians 4:15 was the church in Laodicea mentioned in the second half of verse 16. Later, in the Lord’s epistle to the church in Laodicea in Revelation, He also spoke of only one church there (3:14). The church in the house of Philemon mentioned in Philemon 2 was the church in Colossae at that time (Col. 1:2; 4:17, pay attention to Colossae and Archippus). Thus, the churches in the Bible that were in houses were local churches.
There can only be one manifestation of the church in a locality. This is clearly revealed in the New Testament. If there are many believers in one locality, they can be divided into different meetings, but they cannot be divided into different churches. In a locality that has a church, two or three believers can meet in the Lord’s name. However, this does not mean that they alone are the church, because if there are difficulties, they must still tell these matters to the church (Matt. 18:20, 16-17). In one locality there can be only one church.