We have come into contact with some people in the West who exceed us in regard to their spirituality, gifts, and abilities. They also have better ones upon whom to labor and a better environment in which to labor. However, their work has had no result. The reason they commend us is that we have worked out many things in practicality. There are obviously many talented ones in the West, and it can be said that they have a good environment, abound in gifts, and far surpass us in many aspects. Compared to them, what are we? What do we have? What do we know? We are far too inferior. However, the results they have in the West are not like the results we have in the East. They lack results because they have neglected and even forsaken the ground of locality. This is why God has had mercy upon us. In many aspects we cannot compare to others, but this point, the ground of locality, is our honor. They say that keeping the ground is our error; however, if we did not pay attention to the ground, how could we obtain the positive results that we have experienced in every place? Apart from this, we have nothing superior to others.
In every locality the Lord has blessed us because of three factors: first, we emphasize spirituality; second, we pay attention to the ground of the church; third, we emphasize coordination. The second item, the ground of the church, entirely upholds the first and the third items. If we were to take away the ground of the church, I am afraid that we would not have any blessing. Without the ground, although we may be spiritual, our spirituality will not serve any practical purpose. Also, without the ground there can be no practical expression of coordination. I would like to ask those who pay much attention to spirituality regarding how much coordination they have in reality. This is the reason that they repeatedly give messages that are accurate and spiritual but do not see much result. This can be likened to a person who draws water from a well but does not have a vessel to contain the water; hence, it continually pours out upon the ground. The reason the water cannot be preserved but ends up on the ground is that there is no vessel to contain it.
People commend us for our success, but the reason for our success is that we have a ground to retain the small amount of blessing God has given us. If we were to break our “teapot,” the “tea” within would completely escape. Why is it that people drink our “tea,” appreciate it, and then, when they have the opportunity, attempt to break our “teapot”? This is entirely unreasonable.
Some have said emphatically that one cannot focus merely on one certain truth. The reason they teach this is that they have seen how much we emphasize the local ground. Of course, their realization is correct, but conversely we also need to tell them that they should never abandon any truth. If the ground of the church is a truth, they should not abandon it but should keep it in a balanced way. For instance, the fullness of Christ is a central truth, but we should not focus merely on the fullness of Christ and give up all other truths. We should not avoid speaking concerning the truth of the ground of the church simply because we fear that people will not understand and may even despise this truth.
The teaching of the New Testament shows that the Lord Jesus and His disciples’ attitude and preaching were definite and clear and that they never avoided speaking something for fear of men’s lack of understanding or disagreement. In the same way, we should vindicate what is right and condemn what is wrong. For example, when Paul saw Peter’s hypocrisy, he was afraid that this would bring confusion into the gospel and thus opposed Peter to his face (Gal. 2:11-14). Our environment is very similar to that of Paul. Because the truth of the ground of the church is not sufficiently clear, there is confusion today. While other people can ignore this truth, we cannot. We have no choice but to disregard the feeling of others, even if it hurts their feelings, in order to speak this truth.
We should never speak ambiguously in order to please people or consider that if they do not understand or accept the truth, we should speak the truth only behind closed doors. We should not be like this. Rather, we need to specifically underscore the truth that believers most urgently need to see today, that is, that the expression of the church is local and that any work apart from the local ground tears down God’s building.
The Lord Jesus preached the word whether or not people understood it, listened to it, were happy about it, or accepted it. In the same principle, the more people misunderstand the truth, the more we should speak it clearly and strongly. Should we sacrifice God’s truth and bury God’s word because of man’s misunderstanding and ignorance? Should we stop speaking of the ground of the church or be ashamed of repeating this truth merely because the Brethren have already touched upon it? Instead, we should ask ourselves: Is the ground of the church the truth? Is it what God’s people need? If it is, we should speak this truth with boldness.
No truth is detached from Christ. Paying attention to the local ground does not detach us from Christ. On the contrary, paying attention to this ground makes Christ as our center a reality. The truth concerning Christ being our center must be matched by the church ground.