If any saint of the Lord is faithful to all the verses from the Scripture which we are pointing out in this fellowship, he will be in the proper church life. By the Lord's mercy, we have learned the truth of these verses over the past fifty years. The putting together of these verses comes from many years of experience, so I would encourage us to pray-read them again and again until we get into them and they get into us. These verses can be considered as the controlling verses of the ministry over the past thirty years. The Lord's ministry always focuses on Christ and the church.
We have seen that not too long after the church came into existence, the Lord's enemy, the subtle one, brought in three items to damage the church: religion, philosophy, and organization. We have to be on guard against these things creeping into the church because they damage the church to the uttermost. All kinds of evil things go along with religion, philosophy, and human organization.
Throughout all the centuries, there have been so-called puritans who always reacted to the impurities and negative things brought into the church. All the puritans were good in their intention to get into God's reaction to the degradation of the church, but because they were not so clear about the church as God's eternal goal, they made some serious mistakes. The biggest mistake made by them was that their reaction issued in more division. Whenever there was a reaction through the puritans, there was nearly always a division. Actually, nearly every reaction became a division. Reaction after reaction meant division after division. Eventually, God's goal was damaged. This has been the main reason that the Lord has not yet returned. He could not return because there was nothing for Him to come back to. In order for Him to come back, He needs a "stepping stone." This stepping stone is the proper church life that prepares the church as the bride for His coming. Even though there have been thousands and thousands of real believers, there has been a shortage of the proper church life. In all the reactions to the degradation of the church since the second century, there was not much accomplished for fulfilling the Lord's purpose to have the practical expression of the church.