The most important, visible problem of recent days is perhaps the unity of the church. Today we must see the way of unity and how to walk in unity.
According to my knowledge, there are four kinds of unity. From among these four different kinds of unity, we must seek one in which to walk as the children of God. We must be clear which one is in accordance with God’s will, which one is scriptural, which one is the proper way for the church, and which one we must take. We must learn to reject the rest. When we see one that is of God, we must reject the ones that are not of God.
What are these four ways? First, there is the unity of Roman Catholicism; second, “spiritual” unity; third, the unity of the church in the locality; and fourth, the unity of the independent congregations. Let us consider these one by one.
During the apostles’ time, the churches were separated according to localities. I think this matter is very clear. The church in Rome, the church in Corinth, the church in Ephesus, the church in Philippi, the church in Laodicea, and the church in Colossae were all separated according to locality. The church in every locality had its own independent administration. Therefore, in the Bible, Acts 14:23 tells us “they had appointed elders for them in every church,” and Titus 1:5 tells us that elders were appointed “in every city.” The elders are for the church and the church is in a city. Thus, the elders are for the church in a city. The church takes the city as the unit; otherwise, elders in a city would take care of several churches or elders in a church would take care of several cities. The boundary of a city, therefore, equals the boundary of the church, and the boundary of the church equals the boundary of the elders’ administration. This is very clear.
The churches in the early days were not formed into a larger, united church. During the apostles’ time, the Scriptures acknowledge the existence of “churches” on this earth, but does not unite these churches into “one church.” There were “churches,” but not a uniting together as one church in the singular number. This is the reason Paul writes to the Corinthians: “Neither the churches of God” (1 Cor. 11:16). Today when God’s children speak about the church, they always speak of the “church of God,” not about the “churches of God.” In our concept, we always consolidate the churches into one church; therefore, we speak of “the church” rather than “the churches.” But in the minds of the apostles, there were individual churches; therefore, they spoke of “the churches of God.” The apostles did not unite the churches on earth into one church; otherwise, this phrase “the churches of God” would not have existed. Remember that 1 Corinthians 11 and 14 always speak of “the churches,” which means that the churches of God on earth are local. They did not combine all the churches of God on earth into one church. This was the situation during the time of the apostles.
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