In order to be blended together, we need to confess the sin of individualism and individuality. Our individualism is a kind of principle, a kind of policy, with us. Every one of us has his own policy, his own human logic. Our individualism becomes our logic. The educational system in America educates the young people to be individuals. The logic of being an individual, or the logic of individualism, is a sin in the eyes of God. We need to condemn individualism and individuality. In our church life we may be full of individuality. We may not care for others but may care only for ourselves. Even though we may love others, we may not care for others. In loving others we may still care for ourselves. This is individuality. We need to confess this sin. As long as such germs remain within us, we cannot be one and we cannot be blended.
To be blended by the Lord, we also need to confess all our defects, shortcomings, wrongdoings, mistakes, transgressions, trespasses, outward sins, and inward evils. We need not only to confess these things but also to ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. The New Testament is full of the promise of the Lord’s forgiveness (Acts 2:38; 10:43; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 John 1:9). The Lord is willing to forgive and even to forget (Heb. 8:12), but we need to confess. We should make a thorough confession so that we can be forgiven and justified. Then we can be blended.
We also need to confess our sinful nature, its defilements, its attachment to the contamination of the world, and its oldness, and ask for the Lord’s cleansing with His precious blood. Although we have been regenerated, we still have the old sinful nature with its defilements and its attachment to the contamination of the world. Our inward filthy nature is easily attached to the outward world. The reason that we are so easily attracted to the department stores is that within us something corresponds with the department stores. The department store managers have prepared the merchandise in their stores to correspond with our sinful nature. We all need to experience the death and resurrection of Christ to annul our sinful nature with its defilements and its attachment to the contamination of the world.
We also need to confess the oldness of our sinful nature. As long as we are natural, we are old. We need to confess all this and then ask for the Lord’s cleansing with His precious blood. We need the Lord’s forgiveness, and we also need His cleansing. Forgiveness is to justify us, whereas cleansing is to purify us, to make us clean. Then we can be blended.
We also need to confess our dispositional problems and our peculiarity in our character. We have many problems because of our disposition. All these problems prevent us from being blended together. We also have our peculiarity in our character. In general, a rough person does not have many peculiarities; the more fine a person is, the more peculiarities he has. The peculiar traits in our character also prevent us from being blended with others.
We also need to deny our self, our habit, and our old way of doing things (Matt. 16:24). This will afford us the way to be blended together.
After so much confessing we will have no more confidence in ourselves and no more trust in our natural ability. All these things need to be dealt with; then we can be blended together.
Furthermore, we need to love all the members of our group with an equal love. It is common for us to prefer certain saints over others. This shows that we do not love all the saints with an equal love. Philippians 2:2 says that we should have the same love for all the saints.
To build up the vital groups, we need to keep the oneness of the Spirit, that is, the oneness of the Body, in the one accord according to the Lord’s desire with much and thorough prayer (Eph. 4:3; Acts 1:14; 4:24). Without the one accord we cannot keep the oneness. The one accord is the heart, the kernel, of the oneness.