It is very important to realize that if we hold such an attitude because of differences in the soul, this will cause our experience of Christ to be limited. We shall not be able to experience Him to the full extent. Rather, our experience of Christ will be limited to what we experience in our fellowship with Him in the spirit. We shall be hindered from going further to experience Christ in the Body. Because of the differences of our emotion, understanding, or decision regarding certain matters, we are different in soul. Such differences keep us from the full experience of Christ, the experience of Him in the Body. If we do not experience Christ in the Body, we do not experience Him in full. Only by experiencing Christ in the Body do we experience Him to the fullest extent.
In order to experience Christ in the Body, our experience needs to be corporate. Furthermore, to have a corporate experience of Christ we need to be like-souled with others. It is vitally important that we learn to be like-souled. An elder must learn to be like-souled with other elders, and all the members of a local church need to learn to be like-souled with the other saints.
Throughout the years we have seen a number of saints who have been held back from full participation in the church life because they were not like-souled. For example, some have not been willing to give themselves to the church service in a positive, aggressive way. They could excuse their lack of involvement by saying they do not want to cause trouble, but want to keep the situation calm. However, the true reason for their holding back is that they are not like-souled and are not willing to risk their souls in the church life. We know some brothers who have truly behaved like gentlemen in their involvement with the church. They have been honest and good and have not caused turmoil. Nevertheless, because of their difference of opinion, because of not being like-souled, they eventually forsook the Lord’s recovery. When these brothers gave up the church life, they did not criticize us. They simply went their own way. The underlying reason for leaving the church life was holding on to the differences in their souls. As we have pointed out, the divisions among Christians originate mainly from such differences in soul.
Other saints who are not like-souled have chosen to remain in the recovery. But toward the church life in general and toward the church service in particular, they have a negative attitude. Instead of offending others or causing trouble, they withdraw and become cold. On the one hand, they do not leave the Lord’s recovery; on the other hand, they do not go on with the church in a strong, positive, aggressive way.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he had a number of co-workers. Nevertheless, Paul said that, apart from Timothy, he had no one like-souled who would genuinely care for what concerned the believers in Philippi. Paul’s situation with respect to the co-workers was quite difficult. On the one hand, there were a number of co-workers. But, when Paul was thinking of sending a brother to learn of the situation among the Philippian saints, he knew that he had only one, Timothy, who was like-souled with him. For this reason, Timothy was the only co-worker Paul could send to Philippi to care for the things concerning the saints.
Any co-worker who could not be sent by Paul with such a concern for the Body of Christ could not experience Christ to the same degree Paul did. Because Timothy was like-souled with Paul, he was in a position to experience Christ to the uttermost in the Body, just as Paul was experiencing Him. But those who were different in soul from Paul could not experience Christ to this high degree. Their experience of Christ was restricted by the differences in soul.
In Philippians, Paul speaks not only of being like-souled, but also of risking our soul-life. He says of Epaphroditus that he risked his life, his soul, in order to fill up the lack of the Philippians’ service toward Paul. When we speak of Epaphroditus risking his soul, some may say that Paul’s meaning here is that Epaphroditus did not love his physical life, but was willing to give it up for the sake of the Body of Christ. It is certainly true to say that Epaphroditus risked his physical life for the sake of the Body. However, this implies that he risked his soul.