We need to see the profit of the Body to the local churches and the profit of the local churches to the Body. We can use a family as an illustration of this. On the one hand, the father is for the members of his family, and on the other hand, the members of the family are for the father. If we do not have a father, we are orphans. An orphan does not receive the profit, the benefit, from a father, so he suffers a lot. But a man who does not have any children also suffers. This is a good illustration of how the Body of Christ is the source of the local churches. Such a universal Body is like the father to all the churches, and all the churches are like the children to the father.
Now let us consider the profit from the Body of Christ to a local church. Many of the members in a local church may not actually be saved directly by that church. Instead, they are saved elsewhere and come from other localities. This is the benefit from the Body to that local church. This is the profit from the “father” to his “child.” Some among us enjoyed the inheritance from the Body, but then they gave up the Body and would not care for the Body. They have caused divisions, and divisions are a part of degraded Christianity.
According to the book of Revelation, the Catholic church, which is a great part of Christianity, has become a great harlot. In Revelation 17 the harlot is a mother who has daughters, and these daughters are also harlots (vv. 1, 5). A harlot is a woman who has many men and no definite husband. The denominations have taken many names (such as Lutheran, Wesleyan, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc.) other than the name of our Husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. This means that they do not have a definite husband. To denominate the church by taking any name other than the Lord’s is spiritual fornication. The church, as the pure virgin espoused to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2), should have no name other than her Husband’s. Any division among the believers is a harlot.
Rahab was a harlot but she turned from her harlotry to God’s people, and she married the proper husband. She was alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and had nothing to do with all the promises of God as mentioned in Ephesians 2:12, but she turned to the people of Israel. Then she became no longer a harlot but a wife of a definite Israelite whose name was Salmon. As a result, Rahab became one of the important ancestors to bring forth Christ (Matt. 1:5).
When I was a young man, the Lord used me to raise up a church in my hometown of Chefoo. One evening the leaders of the denominations there invited me to have dinner with them. They complimented me for being zealous for the Lord’s gospel and for bringing many people to the Lord. But they said that they could not agree with me setting up a church. Instead, they proposed that I go to their various denominations in the town to preach and to teach each Lord’s Day.
I asked them if they believed that the divisions in Corinth were justified by Paul. Paul said, “Now I mean this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?...For when someone says, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are you not men of flesh?” (1 Cor. 1:12-13a; 3:4). All of these divisive ones were condemned by Paul. I then asked them, “What if Paul were here with us today? Would he justify your condition?” They said that he would not. Then I said that I could not maintain anything which God condemned. I asked them where I should put the new believers whom I gained as a result of my preaching of the gospel. I surely could not send them to their denominations, since they are condemned by God. This forced me to set up a meeting hall to take care of the new believers. Then I told them that if they took away all the signs which designated them as denominations, I would close the door to our meeting hall that night. They said that it was impossible for them to do this. I responded by saying, “Then you bear the responsibility for division, not I.”
As we said in the previous chapter, all the problems are due to one thing—not knowing the Body. Some in the churches are self-appointed elders. They may say that the Holy Spirit appointed them, but the Bible does not say that the elders are appointed merely by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the apostles appointed the elders and that eventually the Spirit recognized that appointment (Acts 14:23; 20:28).
I want to say again that whenever we do something, we must have a proper consideration for the Body. We need to consider how the Body would feel about what we are doing. The biggest problem, the unique problem, is not knowing the Body and not caring for the Body. If we take care of the Body and are concerned for the Body, there will be no problems.
We are here for the Body. Without the backing of the Body, without the backing of the recovery, we have no way to practice the local churches. If we practice the local church life and neglect the view of the Body, our local church becomes a local sect.
The recovery is for the Body, not for any individual or merely for any individual local church. If we are going to do something, we have to consider how the Body, the recovery, will react. The problems are all due to the lack of seeing the Body and of caring for the Body. We all need to come back to the truth, and to practice the truth is to take care of the Body. Sometimes the Body is strong, and sometimes the Body is weak, but it is still the Body. If we come back to the truth and take care of the proper order in the Body, the Body will immediately become stronger. All the problems are due to one thing: not seeing, not knowing, and not caring for the Body. We have to honor the Body.