The shepherds’ feeding is not only for the growth unto the believers’ daily salvation but also unto their maturity in the divine life which is needed for the God-men to be built up in the Body of Christ (Heb. 5:14; Eph. 4:12-13). After observing the saints for so many years, I wonder how the Body of Christ could be built up. Some elders are too strong, while others are too weak. Both are wrong. If an elder is either too strong or too weak, he is disqualified from the eldership. Only those who are mild, not so strong and not so weak, are qualified to be elders. Some brothers are very good, but they do not like to talk to people. Because they know the Lord and the truth, they should be strong members of the vital groups, but they hardly ever speak. Some are so strong among us and others are so weak. As a result, there is no building. There is no building because we do not live the life of a God-man. The God-man living will make us fit to be built in the Body of Christ. This living is the issue of our feeding on the milk of the word so that we can grow in our daily life unto salvation.
Christ as the Head of the Body nourishes and cherishes us (Eph. 5:29). Christ’s shepherding includes nourishing and cherishing; nourishing is to feed us, and cherishing is to comfort us, to soothe us, to nurture us with tender love, and to foster us with tender care. All of this is to help us grow in the divine life that we may be full-grown and matured in it (Col. 1:28; Eph. 4:13). Cherishing people makes them happy. In the church life, sometimes we have to make people happy in the Lord.
Christ’s feeding is for the believers’ growth in the divine life, and the God-men’s growth in the divine life is for the manifestation of their functions in the Body of Christ.
The believers’ growth in the divine life is by feeding on the word of God, which is also the Spirit of God (Eph. 6:17), and the manifestation of the believers’ functions in the Body of Christ is also by the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:11); hence, the feeding of Christ is related eventually to the Spirit who is altogether for the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4) to consummate the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy. Whatever we do in shepherding and feeding others is related to the Spirit. All of the God-man’s living is related to the Spirit, so we must be men of the Spirit. Only a man of the Spirit can have a proper God-man living.
Such feeding and shepherding of Christ should be the responsibility of the elders for the churches (1 Pet. 5:2; Acts 20:28) and the great part of the function of our today’s vital groups. If someone does not know how to feed and shepherd others, he is not qualified to be an elder. The responsibility of an elder is to feed and to shepherd the saints, and the greater part of the function of today’s vital groups is also feeding and shepherding. Feeding and shepherding takes time and requires patience. We must have patience with endurance to practice the vital groups. We should not expect quick fruit. Quick fruit comes and goes. We have to spend our time to feed and shepherd others. This is what the Lord is doing with us.
Even today, as an old follower of Christ, I need His feeding and shepherding. I realize that very few people understand my suffering related to my age. The only one who knows my suffering is Christ, so I need Him to shepherd and feed me. He is my Chief Shepherd and great Shepherd. All of us need to be under the organic feeding and shepherding of Christ and be one with Him to feed and shepherd others.