In this chapter we want to see the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. Acts 2:42 says, “And they were continuing steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” In this verse Luke uses the preposition “in” twice. The new ones who were saved on the day of Pentecost continued in two groups of things: in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles and in the breaking of bread and the prayers. Four items are divided into two groups. The teaching and the fellowship are related to the apostles, while the breaking of bread and the prayers are not related to the apostles. This means that a person who prays does not need to pray in something related to the apostles. If saints break bread, they do not need to break bread in something related to the apostles. But no one has the freedom in the divine economy to teach whatever he likes to teach. Our teaching must be restricted by the limit and by the sphere of the apostles’ teaching. Furthermore, a fellowship outside the fellowship of the apostles is divisive. Our fellowship must be inside the fellowship of the apostles. The apostles’ teaching is unique, and the apostles’ fellowship is also unique. But the breaking of bread and prayer are not limited in the sphere of the apostles.
In the previous chapter we saw that we should have one way for one goal. The one way for the one goal is altogether in the limit, in the sphere, of the apostles’ teaching. All the problems, divisions, and confusion among the Christians today are due to one thing—not caring for the apostles’ teaching. Many Christians teach something different from the apostles’ teaching. They have not been limited, restricted, and kept strictly in the sphere of the apostles’ teaching. The deciding factor of the one way for one goal is the apostles’ teaching.
Many things are taught in Christendom that do not belong to or are not in the sphere of the apostles’ teaching. Baptism by immersion is taught by some as the unique term and condition for receiving the saints. Although baptism by immersion is scripturally correct, to make it a term by which one receives the believers is altogether sectarian. Denominations are the result of different teachings other than the apostles’ teaching. A denomination is a denominated sect, a sect with a name. When the Lord showed us the truth of the one Body of Christ and of divisions being of the flesh, we began to condemn the word denomination. A denomination is a sect that takes a name other than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lutheran, Wesleyan, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Episcopalian are names adopted by groups of Christians other than the unique name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Baptism by immersion, which shows the real significance of being buried together with Christ (Rom. 6:4), is altogether scriptural, but to make this practice the unique condition for receiving the believers is absolutely sectarian. The presbytery, which is an anglicized Greek word referring to the body of elders or the eldership in a local church (1 Tim. 4:14), is a biblical truth. A local church is under the management and oversight of the elders. But to use the truth concerning the presbytery to denominate a group of believers, thus separating them from other believers, is a different and wrong teaching which causes division.
The Episcopal denomination gets its name from the Greek word episkopos, which means overseer, or bishop. An overseer in a local church is an elder (Acts 20:17, 28). But it was Ignatius in the second century who taught that an overseer, a bishop, is higher than an elder. From this erroneous teaching came the hierarchy of bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and the pope. This teaching is also the source of the episcopal system of ecclesiastical government. This episcopal system of government and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church are unscriptural and abominable in the eyes of God. But even to use a certain practice which is scriptural to denominate a certain group is to make a division, to form a named, official sect. Denominations are absolutely wrong.
Christianity has many ways because of the many teachings outside the limit of the apostles’ teaching. Anything other than the apostles’ teaching should not be taught among Christians. What we should teach is only the teachings within the limit of the apostles’ teaching. I once met a dear saint who asked me whether we in the churches practiced footwashing every time we had the Lord’s table. I told this brother that we know footwashing is in the Bible and that we have practiced it, but not in a formal or legal way. He then said that our Lord’s table was wrong because we did not practice footwashing when we had it. This brother’s group taught footwashing as a term or a condition for taking the Lord’s table. A teaching outside of the limit of the apostles’ teaching always creates division. Even if today’s tongue-speaking were proper, it still should not be a term or condition for us to fellowship with one another and to receive the saints. We should not make anything, even if that thing is scriptural, a term or a condition of fellowship with other saints. To practice in this way is to be sectarian. We can take one way only by keeping the apostles’ teaching. Otherwise, we cannot have the one way.
When Paul told Timothy to charge certain ones not to teach differently he was referring to the teaching of myths, unending genealogies (1 Tim. 1:4), and the law (vv. 7-8). At Paul’s time some Judaistic believers still taught others the genealogies and the law in the Old Testament. The law was the teaching of Moses, not the teaching of the Lord Jesus or the teaching of the apostles. If we teach anything which has never been taught by the Lord Jesus or the apostles, we are teaching something other than God’s economy, something outside the apostles’ teaching. A teaching other than the apostles’ teaching will issue in division. We can have one way only by restricting our teaching to be within the limit of the apostles’ teaching.
The apostles’ teaching is the teaching concerning Christ’s person and redemptive work (2 John 9-11). It is also the teaching concerning God’s economy in faith (1 Tim. 1:3-4). God’s economy is not to have a mission field for preaching the gospel or to have a Bible school to teach the truths. God’s economy is to dispense or impart the Triune God into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and everything that they might be regenerated and transformed into the proper material for the building up of the Body of Christ that God may have a corporate expression on the earth in many localities in this age with a view to the building up of the coming New Jerusalem for His eternal expression. If we limit ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, the teaching concerning God’s economy, we will be kept in oneness and will have one way for one goal. We must have a clear vision concerning God’s economy; then we will never be misled. We will keep ourselves going toward the unique goal in the unique way.
The apostles’ teaching is the believers’ faith, belief, that is, what the believers believe in (Jude 3; Eph. 4:13). We believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, becoming the Son of Man. We believe in such a God-man as our life and Savior. We believe in His death for our sins and in His resurrection for us to have His divine life. We believe in His ascension, and we believe that today He is the life-giving Spirit, indwelling us to live in us that we may live Him. These items are the believers’ faith, which is the teaching of the apostles. All doctrines other than this teaching of the apostles cause divisions among the believers (1 Cor. 1:10).