When I was young, I also thoroughly studied the matter of the sisters covering their heads. I studied this matter to such an extent that I looked even into the color, size, style, thickness, and material of the covering, and I even studied how it should be worn. Strictly speaking, the coverings used by the sisters today are all inadequate; I do not agree with any of them. However, I do not care for these things. I attended a month of meetings in London and saw that the hats worn by the Christian women in England were different one from the other, and they were of diverse, new styles. That is not covering one’s head; that is being fashionable. Nevertheless, I was not bothered, and I still fellowshipped with them because I did not care for these things. Whoever has been baptized into Christ has put on Christ. It does not matter how many times one has been baptized, nor does it matter what style of head covering one wears; living Christ is what matters. This is why there has not been any dispute among us in these past several years. Only those who have not seen the Body of Christ would pay attention to these matters. Those who have seen the Body do not care for these things. What is the Body? It is the fullness of Christ. What is the fullness of Christ? It is your inward enjoyment and experience of Christ; it is your living in Christ and your allowing Christ to live in you. This is the Body.
The matters I have spoken about here are very shallow, but now I would like to describe a few deeper matters. Some pursue holiness, some pursue spirituality, and some even pursue the subjective experience of Christ. Nevertheless, I would like to say that you must be delivered even from pursuing the subjective experience of Christ. What the Lord wants is not merely the subjective experience but the church that is produced through the subjective experience. What the Lord wants is the church. If your subjective experience makes you so individualistic that you cannot be blended with others, then that is a big mistake. Everything is good about you, and this is right. However, this is not the final test; the final test is whether you can be blended with others. If your spirituality, your holiness, and your subjective experience make you individualistic, then you have to put a question mark on them. When a drop of water falls into water, it is immediately blended into that water. However, if a drop of oil falls into the water, it remains a drop of oil; it does not blend with the water even though it is in the water. According to value, oil is worth more than water, but in the overall picture, oil is troublesome. Some brothers are very good, yet they do not go along with the flow, get along with others, blend with others, or coordinate with others. I am afraid that this kind of brother will become a “good” problem. You are very good, yet you become a problem.
After visiting many places and observing many kinds of Christians in the past twenty-five years, my heart truly grieves. Those who love the world, love the world; those who love sin, love sin; those who do not know the flesh, do not know the flesh. Some, like the Pentecostals, play with the spiritual gifts. Moreover, the so-called spiritual ones cannot get along with one another. According to my observation, the more spiritual a person is, the more he does not get along with others. I once visited a so-called spiritual group and saw that all of them were individualistically spiritual, not getting along with one another and even criticizing others before my face. Their criticism of others was civil and polite, but the Holy Spirit did not confirm their speaking. This is the reason their work did not bear any fruit. Thus, today it is not a matter of how spiritual or how holy we are; it is a matter of the oneness, of the Body, of the fullness.
Dear brothers and sisters, we all need to have the grace and mercy to see the vision that it is not a matter of the interpretation of doctrines or even a matter of being spiritual and holy. Rather, it is a matter of Christ’s living in us and of our living in Christ. It is a matter of there not being Jew and Greek, slave and free man, male and female, because we all are one in Christ. Nothing matters but this oneness. This is the Body.
Brothers and sisters, this is the testimony the Lord wants today. We need to go to every place to testify this one thing: We are one in Christ. Three of us coming together are one; thirty of us coming together are one; three hundred of us coming together are still one. We are one when we come together in one locality; we are still one when we come together from ten localities. When we come together from ten countries, we are one; when we come from all the countries, we are still one. This is the Body of Christ: one Body and one Spirit. I do not believe that we are all exactly the same, but I thank the Lord that we are one in spirit. Now, whenever anyone comes to speak to me about how to practice head covering or baptism, I do not have the heart to get into it. I would like to testify that I have been delivered from these matters. This does not mean that we do not do things according to the Bible. On the contrary, we do everything according to the Bible, but even more importantly, we walk according to the Spirit. Galatians 3:27-28 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there cannot be slave nor free man, there cannot be male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” It is here that we have to ask, “Is Christ divided?” No! We do not care for doctrines; we are the Body. The Body is Christ, and Christ cannot be divided.
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