In this message we will cover the administration of a local church by locality and the organic building up of the Body of Christ. These matters are deep, profound, far-reaching, and all-inclusive. They are the central burden of our training this time. Administration by locality is related to the local church, and the organic building up is related to the Body of Christ. In these two matters lies the secret of our practice.
The local churches are for the expression of the Body of Christ. They are the manifestation of the Body of Christ in various localities. They are not an organization, but an organism manifested in various localities. They are the expression of one same thing in the various localities. This is like the moon, which appears over Taipei, New York, and London: there is only one moon, but its manifestation is manifold and is local. In the same way, there is only one Body of Christ, but its expression appears in many localities. Each appearance in a locality is an expression of the Body of Christ. This is absolutely different from the isolation and autonomy practiced in the political sphere.
I would like to fellowship with you a little about history. During the 1820s, the Lord raised up a group of brothers in England. Among them were many great teachers. They saw much light in the Bible. The leading one among these brothers was J. N. Darby. By examining the revelation of the whole Bible, he saw that all the churches should be identical. As a result, he suggested that all the churches be unified. This term “unified” is not very sound doctrinally. The churches should be identical, but the churches cannot be unified. To be identical is one thing; it means that everything is the same. But to be unified has a political sense. When one speaks of unification, there is the sense of a federation like that of the United States of America. This, of course, is wrong for the church. Although to be identical and to be unified are similar terms, in meaning they are totally different.
All the churches should be identical, like the seven golden lampstands in Revelation. The lampstands there are all identical. In certain respects all human beings are identical. But everyone’s face is different. Hence, we can only say that we are identical in a general way. But the identity of the seven lampstands is absolute. If you put the seven golden lampstands together, you can never differentiate them one from the other unless you number them. This is because they are identical. But this kind of identity is not a unification. Once the term “unification” is used, the matter becomes political. The local churches are the manifestations of the Body of Christ in various localities. They do not have a political nature.
For this reason, when we use the term “administration,” we have to be very careful. We have carefully studied the whole Bible. We have also spent time to study the meaning of these words. We cannot find one word related to the administration of the church that has the sense of political administration. Church administration is different from political administration just as family administration is different from governmental administration. A family emphasizes life, whereas a government emphasizes organization. Between the different departments of a government, the relationship is altogether organizational; there is no organic relationship between them. But a family administration has a blood relationship of life. Between the father and the mother, the children, the brothers, and the sisters, there is a full blood relationship which is of life.
The Brethren were later divided into two groups. One was called the Closed Brethren; the other, the Open Brethren. Among the Open Brethren there was one teacher by the name of G. H. Lang. He wrote many books, one of which is called The Churches of God. In that book he claimed that every local church should be an autonomy. This would be like the autonomy of every one of the fifty states in the United States. Each is governed by itself. These fifty states then are fifty autonomies. This stirred up a great controversy in truth. Lang condemned Darby’s unification, calling it a federation. In Lang’s book, both terms, “autonomy” and “federation,” were used. In this respect, neither of the two brothers were clear about the ground of the church. Darby felt that all the assemblies meeting in the city of London should be unified. But Lang argued that such a unification would be a federation. Because of this, Lang proposed that every local church (assembly) should be an isolated autonomy. Each local church (assembly) should be clearly separated from the others. Because of this teaching, great damage was brought in among the Brethren. Today they are divided into pieces.
The last time I went back to the United States, I heard that some have brought in the teaching of autonomy. Immediately, I strongly reproved this error. This kind of speaking and practice cannot be brought into the Lord’s recovery. Everyone likes this practice because everyone likes to be independent and equal. No one likes to be under anyone else. But we have to realize that the church of Christ is not a political institution. The church of Christ is an organism just like our body. The Bible says, “The church, which is His Body” (Eph. 1:22-23). This is not an illustration, but a statement of a fact. In Ephesians 1:19-22 we are shown that all of Christ’s attainments in His resurrection and ascension are for the church. Verse 23 continues to say that this church is “His Body.” Christ is the Head (Eph. 5:23), and the church is His Body. This is a definite fact.
Take our human body as an example. It is impossible for an arm to form an autonomy. If the arm is an autonomy, and the palm is another autonomy, while the nose, the eyes, and the legs are all different autonomies, the body is completely separated and dismembered, and there will not be a body anymore. For this reason, we must see that the church is not a political institution. The church is absolutely an organism. Since the church is an organic body, there is no way for it to be separated or autonomous. The Bible uses our organic body to describe the church, the Body of Christ. This is a most thorough description, and by it many problems can be avoided. If the state-federated government of the United States is used as an illustration of the churches, it puts the church in a political realm. This is completely wrong and will kill the church.
Actually, today’s Christianity is altogether a big political institution. This is especially true of the Catholic church. The formation of the Catholic church began in the second century with an erroneous concept brought in by an early church father named Ignatius. He made the mistake of thinking that the bishops in the New Testament were higher than the elders. But Acts chapter twenty shows us that Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. When the elders came, Paul told them that the Holy Spirit had set them apart as bishops, or overseers, of the flock (v. 28). This proves that “bishop” and “elder” are synonymous terms; they denote the same group of people. The word “elder” refers to the person, while the word “bishop,” or “overseer,” refers to the ministry, the work. The wrong teaching of Ignatius became the basis of a religious hierarchy. It brought in the religious system of bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and the pope. The pope is the highest overseeing bishop. This becomes a huge political system. For the Protestants, similar practices evolved. This is especially true with the Episcopalians. The word “episcopalian” itself includes the sense of an overseeing bishop. The Episcopalian church was also built upon the system of organization with an overseeing bishop. In principle, no denomination has freed itself of this system. If we are not careful, we will also fall into this trap. For this reason, we must see clearly that the church is an organism. It is the Body of Christ and cannot be degraded into a political system. Once it is degraded into a political system, it has departed from life and become completely an organization.