Let us consider the prominent apostles like Peter, John, Paul, and James. Since last year my view has been much clearer than it was in the past. Formerly I had an unconscious understanding that Peter’s ministry was not the same as Paul’s. However, while working on the Life-study of Peter, and in these recent days on the notes for John’s Epistles, I have found out that these three great writers of the New Testament were all carrying out the one ministry. Now that we have had the training on the Epistles of Peter, I think we can all see that though the terminology and presentation are different from Paul’s, the ministry, or the focus of the ministry, is the same. In other words, they were all doing one work. Paul was not doing one work to carry out one objective and Peter another work to carry out a different objective and John a third work with a third objective. No, they were all doing one work to carry out one thing.
What is division? What is a denomination? It is the doing of another work, the carrying out of something else. This is not to say that Paul’s preaching and teaching have the same terminology and presentation as Peter’s. Nor does John have to preach and teach in the same way as Paul or Peter. All of them used different terminology and different ways of presentation, yet they were all doing the one work. They were all participating in the one ministry.
Years ago in New York the claim was made that they accepted all ministries. At the end of 1969 when I was invited there, I went to that brother’s home and faced him. I told him, “You don’t accept all ministries. At least, you don’t accept my ministry.” He said, “We accept all ministries selectively.” I said, “What is this? If you accept all ministries selectively, that means you select, doesn’t it? As long as you select, you don’t accept all.”
There have no doubt been some great preachers and teachers raised up in today’s Christianity, but they are for the most part in different ministries because they are working for different denominations, for different works. In the Lord’s recovery, however, we are doing one work, carrying out one ministry. We are serving one Lord, worshipping one God. We are in His unique plan, in His unique economy, in His unique work, in His unique way. We minister His unique focus. While we participate in this unique ministry, we fully realize that each one of us has an individual service. Not only the so-called gifted ones, even all the saints have each his own service, like the Levites. A Levite had his own service, yet the ministry to care for the ark was unique. There was no ministry other than that one. All the services of the different Levites were just for the unique ministry of caring for the ark.
To me the picture is more than clear. From past experience we realize that there is a peril that some of the brothers gradually, even unconsciously, may get into a work that is different from the ministry’s goal. It is not easy to stay in the unique focus, that is, in the focus of the divine Trinity. It is not easy to stay in the unique ministry. Nonetheless, the entire New Testament presents us this unique ministry to minister the Trinity as the unique focus and to produce the church as the unique circumference.
When I met Brother Nee, I realized that his work was in the same ministry as Paul’s. Because of this, from the day that I met him I did everything as part of the one work. In the early days in China many among us didn’t know this principle. All they saw was how one I was with Brother Nee in the work; they didn’t realize the principle I took.
When we published the first issue of The Stream, the first message was on the one flow. I pointed out there this principle. I was one with Brother Nee because I saw that in the entire New Testament there is only one flow on this earth. To say “one city, one church” is right, yet this alone is not adequate to keep us in the genuine oneness. The “Ephesian line” would also set up one church, one city, but that is another line.
Our ministry is to carry out the divine Trinity, as all the apostles did. All the Epistles reveal this focus. Prophecies and the interpretations of the Old Testament are covered, but all these prophecies and interpretations are for the focus. The New Testament doesn’t have prophecies apart from the focus. It does not interpret the Old Testament apart from the focus. The prophecies are defined, the Old Testament is interpreted, all in the way to carry out the focus, which is the divine Trinity.
Whatever we preach or teach in the Lord’s recovery must be focused on the Trinity. Otherwise, what we preach and teach will unconsciously produce another work. Then such preaching and teaching will become a separate ministry. Only one thing can preserve our preaching and teaching in the one ministry: the unique focus.