The work of the full-time serving ones is mainly with the small groups in their respective localities. All full-timers must know how to help the small groups. We have already seen that the small group meeting is a fellowship meeting. A fellowship meeting is all-inclusive in nature. When a full-timer goes to a small group, he should not assume the status of a full-timer or display the air of a full-timer. In order to help the fellowship in a small group, he should first help the saints learn how to read the Word of God. The best materials for this are the Life-studies and the Recovery Version. Second, he should help them to gradually build up a proper bread-breaking meeting. Third, he should help them to attend the prayer meeting and learn to pray.
The full-timers do not hold a secular job. If possible, they should not be concerned about their food, their clothes, or their sleep. This is the spirit I had when I began to serve full time. I desired to use all my time to read the Bible, pray, fellowship with the Lord, pursue the Lord, serve the Lord, fellowship with the brothers and sisters, and preach the gospel. All the full-timers should have a spirit to consider the truth twenty-four hours a day. Often when I wake up in the morning, I immediately begin to consider the message that I gave the night before. I encourage the full-time serving ones to have such a mentality.
Although you brothers and sisters should not regard yourselves as full-timers or display the air of full-timers, the fact remains that this is your occupation. We have given up our education and jobs. We do not make money or seek prosperity in the world; we have given up all these things. Since this is our occupation, we should do an outstanding job. Of course, we should not be proud, but neither should we be without a backbone. Especially the young ones should never be careless about their food, clothing, or sleep.
In 1932 a denomination in Chefoo invited Brother Nee to give a message. I went along with him and stayed in a dormitory. The room I stayed in was so filthy that it was not suitable for sleeping; therefore, I spent a whole day cleaning the room. When others saw that the dormitory room was clean, they had a positive impression of the person who cleaned it. We should be such persons. If we are put in a place that is dirty, we should not merely accept it; rather, we should rise up to make the place clean and respectable. Hence, you must not be careless so that others do not despise your youth.
In a small group we will always encounter people who ask questions concerning the truth. Hence, we must have a thorough understanding of the truth so that we may be able to help them. In Christianity there is the Bible and there is theology. The Bible is God’s revelation, but theology is the knowledge that men have gained from studying the Bible. The study of the Bible began in the second century after the apostles had died by the end of the first century. In the second century many lovers of the Lord and scholarly men were raised up by the Lord, and they began to study the Bible. The church fathers were produced from this group of people. For the past nineteen centuries the study of the Bible has never stopped. The results of these studies have been published and are the content of Christian theology.
The situation in Christianity today is pitiful because people pay more attention to theology than to the Bible. The truths that they accept are according to theology but are not necessarily according to the Bible. There are even several categories of theology. Catholicism has Catholic theology, and Protestant denominations have their own theological views. There is also the theology of modernists, who do not even believe that the Bible is God’s revelation, that there are signs and wonders, or that the Lord Jesus is God possessing divinity.
After the Brethren in England were raised up by the Lord in 1827, they began to study the Bible thoroughly instead of remaining in traditional theology. This was a great thing in church history. It was at that time that God used them to unfold many truths in the Bible. Within seventy-five years, in less than a century, they received much light from the Bible. During that period of time, a great amount of light came forth.