How did the Lord Jesus begin the church life? Some people have the concept that Christ began the church life with teaching. No, He did not do that. The Lord Jesus began the church life by sowing Himself into man as the seed of life. The church life simply comes out of this very seed of life. The Lord Jesus came to sow Himself into us, and this seed of life brings forth the church life. Matthew 13:3 says, “Behold, a sower went forth to sow.” The Lord Jesus came, not as a teacher to begin the church life by teaching, but as a sower, sowing Himself as the seed of life into the fallen race. It is from this seed that something springs forth as the church life.
The Apostle Paul says, “I have planted, Apollos watered” (1 Cor. 3:6). Do not imagine that Paul went simply to preach and Apollos came to teach. No, Paul planted and Apollos watered. Both planting and watering are for the growth of life, which issues from the seed which is Christ Himself. I like these three words: sowing, planting, and watering. What the local church mostly needs is not teaching, but planting and watering. We do need to be watered that we may grow. Teaching does not help us to grow, but watering does. This is why it is rather difficult for anyone to see a real church life on the earth today. It is simply because of the lack of planting and watering among the Christians. Teaching alone kills and divides, but watering helps the growth.
First Corinthians 3 speaks of the church being planted and watered and also mentions something more. It says that we are not only the husbandry of God, but also God’s building. The husbandry requires the growth, and the building requires the building up. How can we be built up? By the growth. If we want a solid church life with a group of believers built up in a solid way, we must minister Christ as life so that everyone will grow. First Corinthians 3 speaks of the growth and the building up. It is by growth that we can be built up together.
First Peter 1:23 tells us that we were all born of the incorruptible seed which is Christ, the living Word. Christ has sown Himself into us as this seed, and out of this seed we are born. After we are born, as newborn babes, we need the milk of the Word that we may grow into salvation (1 Peter 2). We need to be saved from so many things, and this kind of salvation can only be realized by growth in life. This corresponds with Romans 5:10, which tells us that we must be saved by His life. It is by growth in life that we are saved.
We need milk, not knowledge. The newborn babes need to drink of the milk that they may grow. Then 1 Peter 2 continues by saying that as we grow, we become the living stones to be built up together. The more we grow, the more we grow together. The more we grow, the more we grow into one. The more we grow, the more we grow into a building. We are built up together by growth, not by being organized or taught. It is all by growth in life.
Wherever we go, we must not try to adjust others. Let them be wrong. Do not try to correct and change them. What they need is to grow. Even if you can adjust and correct them, it means nothing, for there is still no growth in life.
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