When we live the church life in a locality, we will be saved from self-views and self-goals. Views are opinions and concepts. Goals are purposes; they come from motives. Where there is a motive, there is a goal. Only the church life can save us from our own opinions, motives, and goals.
Today, we who are in the church life should be those without any opinion. If there is to be any opinion, it should be the opinion described in Romans 12:2: “Prove by testing what the will of God is, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect.” God’s perfect will is our view, opinion, and concept. Other than this, we have no concept or motive. We also have only one goal, which is to see that the Body of Christ be built up and the economy of God fulfilled. The church life is our test. It exposes all of our hearts, concepts, and motives.
The Body of Christ is unique in the universe. In the whole universe there is only one Body. The church of God is also unique in the universe. This unique church of God in the universe becomes the churches in the various cities locally in all five continents through the spread of His children over all the earth. Every believer can only live in the practical church life in one local church. If anyone is not happy with the church where he is, he may move to meet in another church. After a while, he may move to yet another place to find a church that will satisfy him. This kind of moving is not according to the will of God. God wants the believers to live the church life locally, practically, and without any opinion.
The subject of Romans 16 is the local churches. Romans 1 talks about the just having life and living by faith (v. 17). Chapter five talks about the believers’ justification unto life. Though chapter sixteen seems to only contain many verses which are just greetings, the focus of this chapter is not the greetings. This chapter shows us through the greetings the condition of the local churches at the time of Paul. The greetings manifest the condition of the churches.
First, in the church in Cenchrea, there was a sister named Phoebe who was a deaconess in the church. She had been a patroness of many and of the apostle (vv. 1-2). She was indeed worthy of being a saint. Paul hoped that the church in Rome would receive her as a noble saint and in a manner worthy of her noble status.
Second, the churches of the nations existed severally in various localities. They were not all in one locality (v. 4). Third, the church in the house of Prisca and Aquila was the church in Rome (16:3, 5a). This shows us that the number of saints in the church in Rome was probably not that large. Fourth, the churches of Christ were the local churches existing severally in various localities (16:16b). Fifth, the church of which Gaius was the host probably refers to the church in Corinth, which met in Gaius’ house. All these items show us the condition of the local churches at that time.
The local churches are the gathering point of our enjoyment of God’s salvation in life. After a man is saved, he will always try to find a church. There is no saved person who does not want to find a church. This is a wonderful thing! Hence, the church is the gathering point where saints receive grace. It is the gathering point of grace. If you want to see God’s grace, you have to go to the church. Hence, this is the destination of our enjoyment of God’s salvation in life. The more we enjoy God’s salvation in life, the more we love to go to the church meetings. This is the place where we enjoy God’s salvation in life unceasingly. Finally, the result of the enjoyment of God’s life is our being saved from self-view and self-goal.
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