In considering the exercise and practice of the God-ordained way to preach the gospel, we must include the unit of God’s salvation. Most people, whether Christians or non-Christians, think about God’s salvation as involving individuals. The natural mind thinks of one person as the unit of God’s salvation. This kind of thinking is contrary to God’s economy, God’s plan. God’s ordained way is to gain households, not just individuals. God revealed His unit of salvation even in the Old Testament. God did not save simply Noah and his wife from the flood-He also saved their sons and daughters-in-law (Gen. 7:7). Eight persons were included as a part of Noah’s household (1 Pet. 3:20; Heb. 11:7). That was the first complete type of God’s salvation exercised over people.
In Exodus 12, the Passover lamb was eaten according to households. If a household was too small for the lamb, they were to share their lamb with a neighboring house (vv. 3-4). Furthermore, the blood of the Passover lamb was put on the doorposts and the lintel of the house in which they were instead of upon any individual. To take the Passover as an individual is contrary to God’s economy. Jesus Christ, as the Passover lamb, is not only for individuals; He is for a whole house. If we do not take care of the household as the unit of God’s salvation, we are violating the principle of God’s economy.
When we invite people to come to a meeting of the church, many will come by themselves. If we go to visit people in their homes, we will reach their whole household. From this we can realize that “door-knocking” reaches the household not only one person. When we knock on people’s doors, we are observing the principle of God’s economy. It is a shame if we despise the God-ordained way of reaching people with the gospel. We must take this God-ordained way of preaching the gospel, which is according to the biblical revelation.
If we are really for the Lord’s recovery, we must stand against any teaching that is contrary to the truth. The unit of God’s salvation being a household is according to the truth; therefore, we must stand for this truth. We must realize that we are being sent out by the Lord to reach households, the entire unit of God’s salvation. If we pay attention only to individuals rather than households in preaching the gospel, our God may be offended. Our going out to reach people should include their whole family.
Many of us are still under the influence of erroneous teachings. The Apostle Paul describes such teachings as “every wind of teaching” (Eph. 4:14). If a wind of teaching is wrong in an obvious way, no Christian will listen to it. If someone tells us to worship idols, for example, we will not pay attention to him. Instead, some may say to us, “Well, of course, we should not worship idols, but God is too abstract. We need a picture of Jesus. A picture of Jesus is not an idol.” It is strange that all the “pictures of Jesus” depict such a handsome person. According to history, such pictures have their origin in artwork produced during the Middle Ages. This artwork is totally opposite to Isaiah’s portrayal of the Lord Jesus. Isaiah 53:2 says, “He hath no...comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” He was not handsome according to the natural way of thinking. This proves that the pictures on the walls of some Christian homes are not pictures of Jesus, yet some would even worship these pictures. Such pictures are deceitful, perverted, and even demonic.
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