We should ask, “Lord, to whom should I be related?” Before we start to minister, to serve, to do our duty as living members, we need to solve the problem of being related with others. We all have to check ourselves with this matter. Then we will see what kind of help we will receive simply by being related to many dear ones.
We must learn to be related to persons who are not of our choosing according to our taste. If we have the choice to be related according to our taste, we eventually will be related to no one but ourselves. We will take ourselves as our best choice. We must learn to sacrifice, to crucify, our taste and to submit to others. If the Lord sovereignly brings together a number of brothers, they need to submit one to another. No one should say, “I don’t like to be with these brothers. I will join myself to someone else.” This does not work. We need to believe the Lord is sovereign and learn to submit ourselves under His sovereignty.
I believe in the Lord’s sovereignty. As a person from the Far East, I could never be here without the Lord’s sovereignty. Even five or six years ago I could not have dreamed that I would be in the United States. I do not know where I will be next year; the Lord is sovereign concerning this. But at this time His sovereignty has put me here, so I have to submit myself to the brothers here. I should not say, “The brothers in the Far East are wonderful.” I should not appreciate the brothers in the Far East in this way. Rather, I have to appreciate the brothers who are with me by the Lord’s sovereignty. We must learn to take His sovereignty. Whoever lives in a certain place should submit himself to the brothers in his place. He should not say that he likes the brothers in another place. We have to learn this lesson. In this matter, we need to be broken and to be built. This is a real test.
After we are related, there is still one thing that is very important: We must take care of others. To be related to others is one thing, but to take care of others is another thing. This is the real outreach. This outreach includes gospel preaching, outreach to the unbelievers. It also includes visitation, fellowship, with younger believers. Before we go to take care of others, we first need to be related with others. To be related with others is to get the help from others. Then when we get the help, we are able to help others. We all must learn to take care of these two aspects, the aspect of being related to brothers and sisters to receive the help, to be strengthened, supported, protected, and guarded, and the aspect of taking care of others. This is the proper service, function, and activity of Christians.
We need to work to take care of, to reach, these two kinds of people, the unbelievers and the believers. With nearly every matter, people in Christianity today have gone to extremes, some to one extreme, and some to the other. Even in preaching the gospel, in the outreach, Christians are on two extremes. Many Christians are on the extreme of acting too much. Others are the co-called or self-named spiritual persons who do not like to act without the Lord’s guidance. To wait and not act without the Lord’s guidance in this way is something human, soulish, and natural; it is not something of the Lord. I see this today, as I have seen this many times in the past. These so-called, self-named spiritual persons have been waiting for years, but they never have the guidance from the Lord. It seems they are waiting on a Lord who never acts. They say, “Without the Lord’s guidance, I would not move,” but they have been waiting for years, and still there is no guidance. This is an extreme. We need to be balanced, not being on one extreme or the other.
The way to be balanced is first to have fellowship with the Lord, second to have fellowship with the brothers to whom we are related, and then to take some action. We need to say, “Lord, I know that after I have been placed and built into the Body, I must be a member in fellowship and a member in function. I know that my duty, my responsibility, is to take care of the unbelievers and believers.”