Since the church is the Body of Christ, the church is Christ Himself. Christ is the embodiment of God, and He is God becoming flesh, taking the likeness of a man, and living the life of a man. Anything that relies upon man’s ability, organization, and way of doing things cannot reach this goal. Whenever we touch the matter of the church, we need to stop our whole being. When people touch the matter of the church, all of the Is, like “I think,” “I view,” “I want,” and “I will,” begin to come out. We need to stop them. We should not say, “Baptism is indeed according to the Bible, but I think...” This should not be our response.
In the past there was an older sister in a certain locality. She was very educated, bold, and eloquent; furthermore, she loved the Lord very much. One day she came to me and asked, “Why does 1 Corinthians 14 forbid women from speaking?” When I heard this word, I replied in a calm way because I sensed that something was not right: “I only know that this is clearly recorded in 1 Corinthians 14, but just like you, I do not know the reason.” Then I asked, “Although neither of us knows the reason, is 1 Corinthians 14:34 the commandment of the Bible? If it is not the commandment of the Bible, it can be removed, but if it is the commandment of the Bible, what can we say?” Then she said, “But I think...” I responded, “You do not need to think. Who needs you to think? If we need to think, there would be no Bible.” These words truly shocked her, but is our view worth anything? Do we have the position to give an opinion? If we had the position to give an opinion, we could abandon the Bible. We must all learn the lesson of stopping our reasonings and simply saying Amen to God’s Word without anything else.
Often those who ask why do not want to submit, and usually those who ask why are proud and arrogant. This kind of person will say, “I think,” “I view,” “I thought,” “I want,” “I decide,” and “I want to do this.” This kind of attitude is not from the heavenly Jerusalem but from Babylon, the abyss. Those who fear God will not say anything before His Word, and they know that only what God says counts. We may not understand the reason, but we must still bow and confess that He is the Lord, that we are His servants, and that our attitude is simply to receive.
Whenever we touch the matter of the church, we should prostrate our whole being, because if man is present, there is no church, and in order for there to be the church, there cannot be man. If we are, there is no church, and if there is the church, we cannot be. The Bible is a strong, outward requirement; however, there is something stronger within us—the Holy Spirit and life. The requirement within us is more subjective and personal, and it touches us more. In the case of the older sister spoken of earlier, I used the Bible to calm her down, but I also asked her, “Sister, does the feeling within you agree with me or does it agree with your words?” She replied that her inward sense was not in agreement with her view and that its demand was for her to accept 1 Corinthians 14 even though her outer man did not want to accept it. This shows that although I used the Bible to deal with this matter, the life within her was dealing with it as well.
Concerning the church, the Bible is the standard, and life is the demand. Often people argue with us about the matter of the church, but as they argue with us in their mind, the feeling in them agrees with us and speaks for us. Consequently, we sometimes need only to point out certain things and then let their inward feeling continue to speak to them. If we want to touch the matter of the church, we need to drop everything of the world and everything of human relationships, organizations, methods, views, and opinions. We should not give these things any ground, because neither the Bible nor the Holy Spirit gives them any ground. The Holy Spirit has only the demand of life.
We do not need to argue concerning the matter of the church; instead, we need only to discern. Discernment requires an inner feeling. If we fear God and pursue the Lord, we should use the Bible as the outward standard, and we should use the taste of life within as the inward demand. If we want to meet the Holy Spirit’s requirements, we must walk according to the truth of the church. If we do not want to pay the price and if we care about human relationships, positions, or the acceptance of the world, trying to maintain ourselves in Christian organizations, we can only look to the Lord for His mercy. May the Lord be gracious to us so that our hearts would remain clean, our spirits would remain open, and we would keep following life and taking the proper way of the church.