In the past when we read John 15, we greatly emphasized that if we abide in the Lord, the Lord will abide in us (v. 4). But we have overlooked the purpose of the abiding. The Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit” (v. 5). This shows that the purpose of abiding is that we would bear much fruit. Verse 2 says, “Every branch...that does not bear fruit, He takes it away.” This word shows that we are the branches of the Lord Jesus, yet if we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off from Him. To be taken away is to be cut off, which means that the branch is cut off from the vine and loses all the enjoyment of the riches of the vine, no longer being supplied by the vine’s life-juice. This is very serious.
Before seeing the new way, an elder in a certain locality told us that he had never brought one person to salvation in his more than ten years of being an elder. In other words, he did not bear a single fruit. How could such an unfruitful person enjoy all the supply in Christ? Nevertheless, he felt quite good about himself because the Lord was abiding in him. We dare not to pass judgment on him, but at least we know something is wrong with unfruitfulness. We all know that in order for the branch to enjoy the riches of the vine, it must be joined to the vine and express the splendor of the vine, which is to bring forth fruit.
In verse 16 the Lord Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” In the Greek the word rendered go is a strong word. Regretfully, we fail to notice it when reading the Bible. We seem to not see the word go, as if the Lord had only assigned us to bear fruit. The Lord went on to say, “That your fruit should remain.” We all know that it is not easy for a person to believe in the Lord and be saved and baptized, and it is even more difficult for him to remain. For example, one time we baptized more than a hundred new believers, and we rejoiced greatly within, but after half a year less than five out of the hundred remained. We were quite perplexed inwardly. It seemed that the fruit was not solid enough since they were lost after a short time. This was like a child dying prematurely after he is born. How could this be?
Now, in taking the new way, we have come back to the Bible to properly re-read these related verses. As a result, we see in John 15:16 that there is the word go. The Lord wants us to go forth and bear fruit. If we do not go, we cannot bear fruit. Going is the prerequisite for fruit-bearing. Go means we should go to all the nations, going to them house by house, and then our fruit should remain. We are becoming more and more clear concerning this point. When we go door-knocking, we are “going forth.” Then we baptize people and establish a meeting right away in their home. This home meeting is a shelter. Establishing a home meeting in their home is to establish a shelter to cover this home, and by this the fruit remains naturally.
Today medicine is quite advanced in the United States, so much so that even a premature infant born at five or six months is able to survive. That was certainly impossible before, but now in the United States there are, in fact, such cases of successful survival. This is done by immediately placing the newborn infant in an incubator. This incubator is his shelter, which enables him to survive. Our mistake in the past was to let go of people as soon as they were baptized, like a mother who neglects her child after he is born. How can this child remain if he is born but not cared for? Therefore, we must establish a meeting in people’s homes right after we have baptized them. This home meeting is an “incubator,” ensuring the survival of the newborn infant. We should see this clearly.
In our past church life, we neglected the meetings in the homes of the saints and relied mostly on the meetings in the meeting hall. This is not according to the Bible. Acts 2:42 and 46 clearly show us that on the one hand, they met in a big meeting place in the temple, and on the other hand, they gathered in the homes. Verse 46 speaks of being in homes, or “from house to house,” which, if house is to be used as the unit, can also be “according to house.” Therefore, some translations render it as “from house to house.”
The contents of these meetings from house to house are first, the teaching of the apostles, which is the teaching of the truth; second, the mutual fellowship; and third, the breaking of bread and the prayers. This means that the breaking of bread was in the homes, the prayers were in the homes, the teaching of the truth was in the homes, and the mutual fellowship was in the homes. In verse 46 we are shown that they were “breaking bread from house to house.” Chapter five verse 42 says, “From house to house, they did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.” We can see that the teaching of the truth and the preaching of the gospel can all be done in the homes.
In Acts 12 we see that Peter was persecuted and put into prison by Herod, and then prayer was being made fervently by the church to God concerning him (v. 5b). After Peter was released from the prison by the angel, he went to the house of a sister, where there was a considerable number assembled together to pray (v. 12). Putting these two verses together, we see that the fervent prayer of the church was made not in a meeting in the meeting hall but in the home of a saint, and the home was the home of a sister. All of these verses prove that the early church life was in the homes of the saints. They taught the truth, preached the gospel, fellowshipped with one another, broke bread, and prayed in the homes. Beginning from now, our church life should be absolutely according to the pattern in the Bible, following the footsteps of the early saints. After we baptize people, we should immediately establish a home meeting in their homes in order to teach them, lead them, and help them. In other words, they should learn to know the truth, preach the gospel, have mutual fellowship, and pray and break bread in the homes. In this way the saints are able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.