What a mercy it is to be in the church life! Many say that it is impossible to have the oneness today and that it is idealistic to try to have the church life in genuine oneness. Apart from the Lord’s mercy, we cannot be one with others. If the Lord had not been merciful to us in China, we brothers could not have been brought into oneness and kept in oneness. But in His mercy the Lord has opened our eyes and has shown us His way. In order to go on, we must take His way. According to God’s economy, as human beings we must believe in the Lord Jesus and be Christians. If we are not Christians, life is vain. As Christians, we must take the Lord’s way in the church life. If we do not take His way, we shall have no way to go on. We may argue outwardly, but inwardly we shall know that we are off the mark. We shall have no inward rest, no sense that we have found our home.
We all have the element of divisiveness within us. Nevertheless, we should never excuse divisiveness, and we should never take occasion to be divisive. Our destiny is to be one with all genuine Christians. This oneness is also our standing in the Lord’s recovery. Many are offended by our standing because they prefer a different standing. Some Christians even condemn us and accuse us of saying that we alone are the church and that others are not. In response to such an accusation, I have sometimes said, “Suppose a certain woman is married to a man named Jones. As the wife of Mr. Jones, she is Mrs. Jones. But instead of calling herself Mrs. Jones, she calls herself Mrs. Smith. When someone else claims to be Mrs. Jones, she is offended and says, ‘Why do you claim to be Mrs. Jones? How can you say that you are Mrs. Jones and that I am not?’ If she is Mrs. Jones, why does she call herself Mrs. Smith? Actually, we do not say that we alone are the church. However, if you are the church, why do you take such names as Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Episcopalian? If you are the church here, then why do you call yourself something else? Since you call yourselves by these names, how can you be the church in this locality? If we are not the church in this city, then what are we?”
What a divisive spirit is found among believers today! The various denominations and groups are both divided and divisive. Nevertheless, they want others to be one with them. Certain groups, for example, accept only those who have been baptized by them. What divisiveness! Other groups forbid people to call on the name of the Lord Jesus or to praise the Lord with a loud voice. This also is divisive. If we require the believers to either drop or adopt certain practices in order to be accepted by us, we are divisive. We should not care about any practices, but about whether or not the ones who come to us are real Christians. The basis upon which we receive the saints is nothing less and nothing more than Christ Himself. No matter what kind of background a believer may have, as long as he is a Christian, we must receive him as a brother in the Lord.
In order to be saved from divisiveness, we need the growth in life. It is not sufficient merely to understand the teaching concerning oneness. The more we grow in Christ’s life, the more we shall be saved in His life. When I was a young Christian, I often asked other Christians what they believed concerning baptism or the rapture. But after I had a certain amount of the growth in life, I stopped questioning other believers in this way. Now when I contact the saints, I do not ask them doctrinal questions. Instead, I appreciate the measure of Christ that is within them. I simply do not care about outward things. If we want to be saved from divisiveness, we need to grow. The greater our measure of Christ, the less divisive we shall be. Because we are still in the old nature with its divisive element, we dare not say that we have been fully delivered from divisiveness. We need to be watchful concerning this divisive element within us. We also need to pray that the Lord will grant us the genuine growth in life so that we may be saved from divisiveness.