The second step is the feeding, the nourishing, of the new ones. This is much harder than gaining the sinners. To bring forth a child is hard but not as hard as raising a child. Day and night the mother and father would sacrifice everything for that child. However, among the Christians, very few would do this work. Sometimes we brought someone to the Lord, but after two months they died prematurely because they received no care. The New Testament is full of this matter of feeding. In the following messages, we will see how Paul did the nourishing, the feeding. Paul says that he cared for the believers as a nursing mother would cherish her own children and that he entreated and consoled them as a father his own children (1 Thes. 2:7, 11).
We must learn to feed, to nourish, the new ones whom we have brought to the Lord. They are just like newborn babes that need the feeding, the nourishing. In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus talked to Peter about the feeding of the small lambs (21:15). Most students and teachers of this Gospel concentrate their teaching and fellowship directly on the matter of life. However, after John seemed to conclude his Gospel in chapter twenty, he added one more chapter. In this additional chapter, the Lord checked with Peter: “Peter, do you love Me? If you say you love Me, you have to do one thing-feed My lambs.” All the mothers know that to feed or to nourish a little child is not a simple thing. When we look at the situation today, among the believers who are not pastors and preachers, who is doing this kind of feeding work? You cannot feed the lambs occasionally. You have to do it regularly, just like nourishing a little baby. You have to do it, not only daily, but many times a day and at certain times. Then the babe will be nourished; otherwise, it may die.
Even among ourselves today, we cannot see much feeding. Therefore, we are not serving the Lord according to the Scriptures. Do you believe that the word of the Lord, “Feed My lambs,” is spoken only to Peter but not to you? I do not believe so. Peter stood there before the Lord representing all of us. Whatever the Lord spoke to him is the same to us. Therefore, we must learn and endeavor to get into the practice of feeding the lambs. Regardless of who we are, as long as we are a believer, we are charged by the Lord to feed His lambs. One day, we will all stand before the Lord at His judgment seat to give account of ourselves in this matter (Rom. 14:10, 12).
The third step, after the matter of feeding, is the perfecting of the saints. There is nearly no perfecting work being done on the believers today according to the truth of Ephesians 4:12. The last main step is to prophesy for the church, the Body of Christ, to be built up. Generally speaking, this practice does not exist today.
By all that we have talked about above, we can see that both Christianity and we ourselves are not practicing these four steps. The way we are taking to preach the gospel is not so scriptural. The feeding of the lambs is nearly absent. The perfecting of the saints has been neglected-nearly no one has been perfected. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as the prophesying for the building up of the church, the Body of Christ, as an organism. Most of the Christians are building up a congregation for a facade, a show. Where is the organic building of the organism of the Triune God, the Body of Christ? This organic building could only be done by all the saints endeavoring to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, in the church meetings. But today, there is not such a thing.
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