If we would be attuned in the same opinion, we need to have a vision of the place of Christ in God’s economy. I am burdened that all the saints would see Christ and know Him. When you have seen the all-inclusive Christ and have learned the secret of enjoying Him, your way of thinking and speaking will be changed. Then you will become pure and simple. Instead of expressing your own opinions, you will care only to enjoy Christ and speak of Him. Having become a person who does not know anything except Christ, you will be faithful to the Lord’s recovery.
Today the Lord is seeking a people who care only for Him. Collectively, here and there, these people will be lampstands. Among them, there will be no preferences or opinions—only Christ. May we all learn this secret.
Suppose you come into the meeting hall and the chairs are arranged in a very unusual way, altogether contrary to your preference. It should not make any difference to us how the chairs are arranged. As long as we can meet together to read the Word and speak of Christ, we should be satisfied. If you complain about the arrangement of the chairs and are distracted by it, this proves that you have not seen the vision concerning Christ. Divine diamonds are available to you in the meeting of the church, but you are distracted from the diamonds by the arrangement of the chairs. Does this not indicate that you do not realize the preciousness of the diamonds? As long as you can receive more diamonds from the Lord, you should not care how the chairs are arranged. If you know the preciousness of diamonds, you will not have the heart to care for anything else. You will not care for the arrangement of the chairs, for you will come to the meetings for Christ and Christ alone.
In the Lord’s recovery we care only for Christ. In the recovery the Lord is not recovering anything other than Christ Himself in our experience. Only by focusing on Christ can we be saved from division.
By nature we all are divisive. We were born with a divisive element. The only way to be rescued from this divisiveness is to see the all-inclusive Christ and learn the secret of enjoying Him. Please be impressed that the only way to avoid division is to see Christ, receive Christ, and enjoy Christ. This and only this will cause us to be attuned in the same opinion. Then there will be real harmony among us.
If you visit another locality, do not seek to know things about the church there. Do not ask about the elders or about the young people. Instead, care only for the harmony which comes from the enjoyment of Christ. When I visit any church, I care only to behold such harmony. If this harmony is not present in a particular church, I realize that the saints in that place have not been enjoying Christ adequately. But if we enjoy Christ continually, there will be harmony among us.
Sometimes I have been disappointed when saints tell me of what they have seen during their visit to churches and different places. What disappointed me was not the news they related, but the very fact that they spoke of things other than the enjoyment of Christ. Their conversation indicates that they did not have a proper view and that they have not been fully rescued from their divisive nature. Instead of caring for Christ, they are interested in the way the elders manage the church or in the way the young people are going on. To care for such things instead of Christ is divisive. Whenever you visit another local church, you should seek to be blind and not see anything other than Christ. Then you will be one who has learned the secret, who speaks the same thing, and who has the same mind and the same opinion.
Let us learn not to have any choice, preference, or taste other than Christ. The all-inclusive Christ is our unique choice, preference, taste, and enjoyment. This will preserve us in the church in the Lord’s recovery until He comes back. Otherwise, eventually we shall be disappointed or distracted and forsake the Lord’s recovery.
In verse 13 Paul asks, “Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?” Christ is unique and not divided. This unique and undivided Christ, taken as the unique center among all the believers, should be the termination of all divisions.
Christ, not any other person, was crucified for us. The One who was crucified for us should be the One to whom all the believers belong. This surely is Christ, not anyone else. All believers were baptized into the name, that is, into the Person, of the crucified and resurrected Christ. This issues in an organic union with Him. His unique name and unique Person cannot be replaced by the name and person of any of His servants.
After speaking in verses 14 through 16 of those baptized by him, Paul says in verse 17, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.” Paul was not sent to baptize people in a formal way, but to preach the gospel, ministering Christ to others for the producing of the church as an expression of Christ.