We must realize that we Christians are a meeting people. A Christian is a meeting person. Without meeting, there is no Christian life and no church life. It is rather difficult for any Christian to grow without attending the meetings. There is no way for any Christian to serve God without meetings, and it is impossible for Christians to express Christ if there are no meetings. The church life is a meeting life. When we read the first chapters of the book of Acts, we see that in the early days, in the first local church, the Church in Jerusalem, the saints were meeting daily. Every day they met together; so they were a sound and strong church. It was not like the situation of today’s Christianity with little more than an eleven o’clock meeting on Sunday morning. We must meet all the time if possible. Hebrews 10:25 tells us that we must build up a habit and not lose that habit. We should not cease to meet together “as the habit of some is.” That is a wrong kind of habit. We should not build up a habit of not meeting, but a habit of meeting all the time.
The tremendous importance of the meetings is exceedingly clear to us. I do not believe we need to stress this further. But how to meet—this is the real problem. If we were to go to all the Christian leaders, the Bible teachers, and even the most spiritual people and ask them, “What is the right way for Christians to meet?” I do not believe there is a person or ever has been a person on this earth who could tell us.
In the entire New Testament the first place that mentions something regarding the meetings of believers is Matthew 18. The Lord Jesus told us in Matthew 18:20 that where two or three are gathered together in His name, He will be in their midst. This is the unique instance of the Lord Jesus speaking something concerning Christian meetings. In all the past years Christians have been using this verse very much in regard to the matter of meeting. But whenever this verse is used, just one thing, howbeit the main thing, is pointed out—that is, the matter of meeting in the Lord’s name. No doubt the matter of the name in this verse is an important point. We will see in a coming chapter what it really means to meet in the Lord’s name—this is most significant. But at the present time we want to consider the context of this verse. In what kind of situation did the Lord speak the words recorded in Matthew 18:20? In other words, what is the background of this verse? To discover this we must look into the context, starting from verse 15. If you read carefully, from verse 15 through verse 20, you will see why and how the Lord spoke the word in verse 20. Let us look into these verses.
The Lord said in verse 15 that if a brother offend you, you must go to him and do whatever you can to recover him. If he will not listen to you, then you must bring with you one or two others to convince him—perhaps by two or three the brother will be gained. But suppose he will not listen to these two or three; then you must bring the case to the church (v. 17). We know that this must be the local church. It must be the church on this earth, the church in a place, the church in the locality where you are. And it must be there at the time when you are there. Surely this is not a church in the heavens nor a church in the coming age—how could you go there to tell the church? It must be the church where you can go and bring your case in a practical way. You may say that the church in Matthew 16 is the universal church, but the church mentioned in chapter eighteen is undoubtedly the local church, the church in the place where you live. Suppose then that this offending brother neglects to listen to the church. What is the result? I tell you, it is not a small thing, for he will be considered by the church a heathen man and a publican.
Here we must pause to see a tremendously important matter. Brothers and sisters, have you seen the seriousness of this verse? This verse tells us that we need the church, and we need to be in the church. If we neglect to hear the church, we become a heathen. I may consider myself so spiritual, so heavenly, but if I neglect to hear the church, in the eyes of God I simply become a heathen man. It is quite serious. Look at today’s situation. Thousands of Christians are here and there, but who are really in the church? Before you came to the local church, you were Christians. In a sense you loved the Lord, and in another sense you even sought the Lord, but at that time you were not in the church; you missed the church. In another sense, to some extent, you did neglect to hear the church, and in another more serious sense you may have criticized the local church and rebelled against it. Yet you still considered yourself spiritual. We all must see that in the eyes of the Lord, if we neglect to listen to the church, we become just as the heathen. What is a heathen man? A heathen man is a man of this world, a man on this earth who is not built into the church. God has chosen us, His people, to be in the church. God has no intention of choosing a myriad of individuals. His intention is to choose a people, a collective people, a corporate people as the Body of Christ, the church. If you are not built into the church, you may be a part of the church in nature, but in position you are still as a heathen. Because you have been born again, because you have the life of God within you, because you have a divine and heavenly nature, you are a part of the church in nature, but in position you are outside of the church. Regardless of whether you have the heavenly nature or not, in position you are still the same as a heathen. This is an exceedingly serious matter. It is a serious thing not to be in the church; it is also a serious thing to miss the church; and it is even more serious to neglect to listen to the church.
Some dear saints who would not listen to the church, who considered that they were better than the church, that they were right and the church was wrong, eventually became miserable, not only spiritually but even physically. It is not a small matter. This is not something of an organization or anything under someone’s control. Who could control such a thing? No one. This is something of the sovereignty of the Lord. When the church says “no,” you must also say “no.” When the church says that you must go along, then you must go along. For the past thirty years, not only here in America, but also on the mainland of China and in Taiwan (Formosa), I have been watching and observing. Without exception, I have seen the same thing. In all these years, those who have criticized and rebelled against the church have ended in a miserable condition. But the Lord Jesus did not speak in this passage of rebelling against the church, He only spoke of neglecting to hear the church. That alone is sufficient for a person to be considered as a heathen and a publican. Regardless of how spiritual you consider yourself, as long as you neglect to hear the church, in the eyes of God you are just as a heathen.