The purpose and goal of the group meetings is the perfecting of the saints through teaching in mutuality, and the best way to carry out the teaching is by asking and answering the proper questions. However, it is better to begin the group meetings with fellowship, intercession, care, and shepherding; these constitute the foundation of the group meetings. In order to build up anything, there is the need to first lay a foundation. In order to teach one another, there is the need for us first to know each other. When people know each other, there is a pleasant feeling between them. Their hearts are opened and softened. If someone who does not know the brothers and sisters is invited to speak to them, they may receive what he speaks, but his word will not be intimate or very effective. The saints will not feel at home with the speaker. Such a lack of intimacy will frustrate the mutual speaking and mutual understanding in the meeting. Thus, every time we come together to have a group meeting, we must warm each other up and become intimately acquainted again. Then the saints will be prepared to be taught by one another. They will be open, and there will be no uneasy feeling and no frustration to the mutual speaking and mutual understanding. This is why such a foundation is needed in every group meeting.
In the group meetings we should not neglect the fellowship regarding the personal situation of the saints; however, neither should we overemphasize this fellowship. An overemphasizing of the fellowship will damage the meeting. When we come to the group meetings, we must open ourselves and make ourselves known to one another, but in doing so there is the danger of going too far. If we go too far in our fellowship, we will bring in looseness. When we open ourselves, we should not do so without restraint. We must learn the proper way to open ourselves and not use too great a part of the meeting for this purpose. Since we are only one of many persons in the meeting, we should control ourselves and use only a brief time for our speaking concerning ourselves.
In asking questions in the group meetings, we need to consider whether the subject of our questions is profitable to all the saints. We should avoid asking questions that are peculiar. If a peculiar question is asked in a group meeting—for example, someone may ask when mankind began to have different colors of skin—we should not answer it, but should pray and seek for a proper way to redirect the speaking to a more profitable line. There are many things that we do not understand, even concerning ourselves. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” The Lord keeps many things hidden from us and permits us to know only the things that are profitable for us. Our questions should concern profitable matters, such as the truths in Romans 8. The truths in this chapter are deep and, to some extent, mysterious, but they are logical and very profitable.
The old way of meeting kept everyone in a deadened and regulated condition; for the most part, this prevented peculiar things from taking place in the meetings. For the group meetings in the new way, however, we should be released. We should be free and not bound. When a group meeting becomes prevailing, everyone in it will be free, but this may open the door for certain peculiar things to come in. Thus, in the group meetings we should not be bound, but neither should we be free without limitation.
The most valuable and difficult aspect of the group meetings is the teaching through the raising and answering of questions. When we answer questions in the group meetings, we need to consider them very much and answer with the best utterance and in the most excelling way. Paul said, “Seek that you may excel for the building up of the church” (1 Cor. 14:12, lit.). We must seek the excelling gift, so that whatever we have may excel for the building up of the church. Therefore, we all need to learn the truth, and for this we all must study the Bible. When Brother Nee was a student, he determined that he would read through the New Testament every week for a year. Wherever he went he carried a New Testament and would read a small portion at a time. He later said that that year of reading the New Testament was the most profitable time in his life in knowing the Bible.
In expounding any book of the Bible, even a book such as Daniel, which contains many prophecies, my main burden is to speak concerning Christ and His salvation and concerning our enjoyment of Christ and His salvation. However, it is difficult to see these matters in a book without reading it a number of times and studying it thoroughly. We all need the thorough and continual study of the Word year after year. Even if we have a certain understanding of a book of the Bible, we should still read it again and again. Many of us have a good understanding of the book of Romans, but if we would read it again once a week for three weeks, our understanding of it would become solid and crystal clear. It is good to read the entire Bible once a year. At least we can finish the New Testament once a year and read through the Old Testament every two or three years. To read the New Testament once a year and the Old Testament once every three years requires that we read only one chapter from the New Testament and one from the Old Testament each day. In order to read through the Bible in this way, we need to read it quickly, taking only a few minutes to read each chapter. If we carry a pocket-sized Bible, we can take a few minutes of our lunch time to finish one or more chapters. In this kind of quick reading, we do not need to ponder, meditate, or dwell on the verses as we do in morning watch. If during our quick reading we do not understand certain portions of the Word, we do not need to be concerned; we may understand these portions when we read them the second time, or we may understand them after additional readings.