Whether or not a local church is a genuine church is not a matter of condition. Do not think that if a certain church is healthy, it is the church, but that it is no longer the church if its condition becomes unhealthy. Brother So-and-so is the same person whether he is strong or weak, healthy or sick. Likewise, even if the condition of the church is poor and very unhealthy, it is still the church. If we see the church in the Lord’s recovery in this way and care only for Christ as our unique center, we shall not have any divisions.
For a person to be able to leave the recovery means that he has never seen what the recovery is. If you are able to give up the church life, this proves that you have never seen the church. Whether the church is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, living or dead, it is still the church. If we realize this, it indicates that we have seen that Christ is God’s unique center.
If you were a Christian living in Corinth, would you have met with the church there? I believe that most of us, bothered by such a confused and divided church, would prefer to move to another locality for the church life. Although such an attitude may not seem divisive, it actually is divisive. No matter what may be the condition of the church in our locality, we should not make our choice, have our own preference, or seek an opportunity for ourselves. On the contrary, we should let the wind of the Spirit blow freely. At the present time we are in a certain locality by God’s ordination. We should not move elsewhere according to our preference. But if the wind blows us to another city, this is God’s ordination, not our choice or preference.
Do not take for granted that because you are now in the Lord’s recovery, you are secure in the recovery and that it is not possible for you ever to be divisive. Whether or not we are secure in the recovery and protected from divisiveness depends on the vision we have seen. If we have seen that Christ is the unique center, we shall be secure. No matter what may take place in the recovery, we shall remain in the church life. We shall have the assurance within us that we are in the Lord’s recovery.
Whenever we visit another locality or have fellowship with saints from another locality, we are tempted to ask about the church in their place. This kind of question can open the door for many negative things to come in. We must learn to care for Christ and not be curious about the condition of the churches elsewhere.
In 1942 there was great turmoil in Shanghai, mainly caused by opposition against Brother Nee. This turmoil spread to other places. At that time I was in Chefoo, in north China. The leading ones made a strong decision before the Lord that whoever came from Shanghai should be told not to talk about the situation of the church there. We said, “Do not talk about the church in Shanghai. We here are the church in Chefoo. Let us talk of the Lord Jesus Christ and the church here.” This saved Chefoo from being involved in that turmoil.
It is crucial for us all to learn the secret not to know anything except Christ and Him crucified. However, it is actually quite difficult to practice this. It is not easy for us to speak the same thing. Nevertheless, we need to learn to speak the same thing—Christ and Him crucified.
In verse 10 Paul also tells the Corinthians to be “attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion.” The Greek word rendered attuned here is the same word that is translated mending in Matthew 4:21. It means to repair, to restore, to adjust, to mend, making a broken thing thoroughly complete, joined perfectly together. The Corinthian believers as a whole were divided; their oneness was broken. They needed mending to join them perfectly together that they might be in harmony, having the same mind and the same opinion to speak the same thing, that is, Christ and His cross.
The testimony of the church in Corinth had been severely damaged, and Paul wrote this Epistle to mend this situation. This mending was also an attuning. The word attune is a musical term. Among the saints in Corinth there was no harmony. In writing this Epistle Paul was seeking to restore the harmony, to attune them so that they might be attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion.
The problem among the Corinthians was not with their spirit. They had been regenerated, and the Lord Jesus dwelt in their spirit. Their problems were with the mind and their opinions. There is a difference between mind and opinion. Thinking takes place in the mind; opinions are thoughts expressed in words. If we only think about a matter, that is an activity in the mind. But when our thinking is turned into speaking, it becomes opinion. It is difficult to be attuned in the same way of thinking, that is, in the same mind, and in the same way of speaking, that is, in the same opinion. To be attuned to the same opinion actually means to speak the same thing. When we all speak the same thing, we are in the same opinion.