The apostles’ perfecting work was also carried out by their writing epistles to the churches. Paul’s heart was in the churches. If there was not the possibility for him to visit the churches, he wrote to them. In his writing, he rebuked, corrected, nourished, taught, and admonished the saints (1 Cor. 1:10-13; 3:3-4, 2; 12:31; 4:14). In his Epistle to the Galatians, he unveiled Christ to the saints and labored on them that Christ might be formed in them (1:16a; 4:19). In his Epistles, Paul also ministered Christ and His riches to the saints for the building up of the church to accomplish God’s eternal economy (Eph. 3:8-10). Paul ministered Christ and His unsearchable riches to the saints in his writing, especially in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. In his Epistles, Paul warned and taught the saints to present each of them to God full-grown in Christ (Col. 1:28). Paul also indicated that what he wrote to the churches was to be read by all the saints (Col. 4:16; 1 Cor. 1:2). What an apostle Paul was! He is a pattern of what an apostle should be.
All of us need to be perfected to do what Paul did. We need to be the sent ones. We can go to the homes, visit the new ones, and bring God to them, ministering Christ into them. After some have received the Lord and have been baptized, we can go again to visit them in their homes two times a week, exhorting them with tears. The church can be doubled yearly, if some faithful ones will pick up the burden to visit people in their homes with the gospel and visit the newly saved ones to perfect them and establish them.
The church in Taipei has experienced the Lord’s blessing as a result of their taking this way, the scriptural way of meeting and serving. Every Lord’s Day morning from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., they have one hundred six district meetings, and the total number of regular attendants is four thousand five hundred. About one-third of this number have learned to speak the Lord to one another with short messages of about three minutes. Thus, every Lord’s Day morning about fifteen hundred people speak Christ to one another, to the angels, and to the demons and the Devil. There is a rich exhibition of Christ in the district meetings in Taipei. The churches in Brazil and in the neighboring countries in South America have also experienced the Lord’s blessing as a result of taking the new way, the scriptural way, of meeting and serving. In 1984 there were over eighty churches in Brazil, South America. As a result of taking the new way, there are now two hundred fifty-three churches in South America; over two hundred of them are in Brazil. Recently, the brothers from Brazil and neighboring countries in South America wrote me a letter, inviting me to come to visit them. This letter was signed by two hundred and fifty-five of the leading brothers in these countries. The saints there are very eager to go on with the Lord in His up-to-date move. All of us need to go on with the Lord to be perfected and to perfect others.
The Scriptures also reveal that Paul assigned his co-workers to stay in certain places to perfect the saints, such as his assigning Timothy to stay in Ephesus (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 3:15) and his assigning Titus to stay in Crete (Titus 1:5). In 1 Timothy and Titus, Paul gave many instructions to these dear brothers regarding how to take care of the church and how to teach the church. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:15, “But if I delay, that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.” This indicates that 1 Timothy gives instructions concerning how to take care of a local church. Paul wrote his letter to Timothy that he might know how to behave, how to go out and come in, in the church, which is the house of the living God.
According to Ephesians 4:11 and 12, the apostles teach the saints to do the work of the New Testament ministry, that is, to build up the Body of Christ, as the apostles do. I have the burden to perfect the saints in the churches that the Lord has raised up through my ministry. My expectation is that after the saints receive my perfecting, they will do the same work that I do. I expect that many saints will be perfected to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord even for three minutes in the way of teaching and revelation. Many saints need to be perfected to do what the apostles do to build up the Body of Christ. The professors in a university expect their students to be perfected to do what they do.
I hope that many of the brothers would be perfected and have something to minister in different aspects in the line of God’s New Testament economy. The writers of the New Testament talked about Christ, but they spoke concerning Christ from different angles and not in the same way. Mark did not copy Matthew nor did Matthew copy Luke. These three writers of the synoptic Gospels did not teach the same thing concerning Christ as John did in his Gospel. The Epistles of Paul, Peter, and John speak the same thing from different angles and with new light. God’s speaking in His oracle is with new light.
When I was with Brother Nee in mainland China, I felt glorious to quote his word. I did this hundreds of times, and I mentioned his name many times. However, I have also spoken concerning God’s New Testament economy with new light from the Lord. Many of the saints can testify that I have mentioned other saints in the past who have helped us with the light that they received from God’s Word. I have encouraged the saints to read Brother Andrew Murray’s masterpiece, The Spirit of Christ, and also his book The Holy of Holies, which is his expounding of the book of Hebrews. I have pointed the saints to Mary McDonough’s book God’s Plan of Redemption. I encouraged the saints to read the book Life on the Highest Plane by Ruth Paxon. I have introduced the saints to the writings of Jesse Penn-Lewis, G. H. Pember, Robert Govett, D. M. Panton, Madame Guyon, Father Fenelon, and T. Austin-Sparks. I encouraged the saints to read these writings because I realized that the truth contained in them could perfect the saints. Many of the saints, however, have not been perfected to the extent that they can discern what is true and profitable in the writings of others. If we read spiritual books without the proper discernment, we can be deceived and misled by winds of teaching that are not according to the truth of God’s New Testament economy.
Recently the teaching of autonomy from G. H. Lang’s book The Churches of God has been brought into the Lord’s recovery. It is wrong to teach that each local church is an autonomy in the absolute sense. This is the reason that the Lord gave me the burden to point out that the church as the Body of Christ is an organism that is altogether organic. Lang accused Darby of attempting to federate the local assemblies of the Brethren. Autonomy and federation are political terms, both of which should not be used in reference to the church. The members of our physical body are not each autonomous. The only item that is an autonomy in my physical body is my denture. My denture is an autonomy because it is not of life, and it is not organically related to the rest of my body. Each member of our physical body is organically related to the other members in life. Our physical body also enjoys the unique circulation of one blood. In like manner, the members of the Body of Christ are all organically related to one another in life and enjoy the one fellowship of the Spirit. The Lord’s church as His organic Body, which is an organism, has nothing to do with autonomy or federation. This is because the Lord’s church is not an organization, but an organism that is altogether organic. I pointed out in Cleveland that the church as the Body of Christ is the organism of the Triune God in the organic union of His divine Trinity.
I must warn the saints not to receive the teaching contained in Lang’s book The Churches of God. The teaching of autonomy in the absolute sense is a wind of teaching that will distract the saints away from God’s eternal purpose to have the Body of Christ organically built up for His corporate expression in the way of life. It is dangerous for us to read books that can distract us from God’s central purpose. If we do not have the proper discernment, we can be distracted by the winds of teaching. To read such material will waste our time, our money, and our energy. Furthermore, we may receive a wrong teaching into our being that will create problems among us. We should not allow any teaching to come in among us that is different from God’s New Testament economy. Paul charged Timothy to remain in Ephesus to tell certain ones not to teach differently from God’s economy (1 Tim. 1:3-4). I have a real burden and a duty to warn the saints not to receive any teaching that is different from God’s New Testament economy. The teaching of the gifted persons listed in Ephesians 4:11 must be the teaching according to God’s New Testament economy. These gifted persons teach the saints to do the work of the New Testament ministry, that is, to build up the Body of Christ in the organic way.