Besides the elders as the priests and as the administrators, there are the prophets and teachers as illustrated in Acts 13:1-4. In Acts 13 in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers. These prophets and teachers are the ones who can help in the priesthood and in the eldership. They are like the Old Testament prophets who helped the elders, the kings, and the priests. Today in God’s administration on this earth, the principle is the same. Besides the ones who are the priests to receive the revelation from the Lord directly and the administrators to carry out what God spoke, there are the prophets and the teachers to help the eldership and the priesthood.
After the apostles appoint the elders and commit the church into the hands of the elders, what shall the apostles do in the future? Some say that the apostles have nothing to do with the church anymore. According to their feeling, the appointment of the elders by the apostles was the termination of the relationship of the apostles with the churches. They say this by using Brother Nee’s fellowship in The Normal Christian Church Life as a basis. On page 66 of this book, Brother Nee says, “Once a church was established, all responsibility was handed over to the local elders, and from that day the apostles exercised no control whatever in its affairs.” In this quote from Brother Nee’s book, we should notice the phrase “in its affairs.” Some quote Brother Nee’s words without realizing the significance of this phrase. (Brother Nee in his book entitled Church Affairs, pp. 149, 14-20, corrected this misuse of his word.) The apostles were to keep their hands off of the administration of the local church in its business affairs, not in its need of the apostles’ teaching, instruction, and charge.
We saw that Paul wrote a letter to the church in Corinth charging them to remove a certain sinful man from the fellowship of the church. The apostle commanded the church to do this-“Remove the evil man from among yourselves” (1 Cor. 5:13). Does this mean that the apostle took the church back under his administration? No, not at all. If this had been the case, he would not have needed to tell others to remove the sinful one. He would have done it directly by himself. In this sense, Paul as an apostle kept his hands off of the church administration but not from teaching, instructing, and charging the church.
There is another aspect to the apostles’ relationship with a local church, which Brother Nee talked to us about, in 1 Timothy 5. First Timothy 5:19-20 says, “Against an elder do not receive an accusation, except on the word of two or three witnesses. Those who sin reprove before all that the rest also may be in fear.” Timothy was charged by the apostle Paul to receive an accusation against an elder. This indicates that the apostles have authority to deal with the elders even after they have been appointed by the apostles to be elders. If there is a problem among the elders, this case should go to the apostles, and the apostles have to judge. The apostles have the authority to rebuke a sinful elder in front of others. The apostles’ hands should be off of the church in its administration, but this does not mean that the apostles have absolutely nothing to do with a local church after its elders have been established.
The wrong and sinful elders can be accused by the saints, and this accusation should go to the apostles. Eventually, the apostles become a small law court to judge the situation. According to 1 Corinthians 6 even the saints can form a small law court to judge cases among themselves (vv. 1-3). The apostles should make a judgment in cases regarding the alleged wrongdoing of certain elders. It is up to the apostles to justify or condemn them. According to 1 Timothy 5:20, if an elder is judged to be sinful, he can be reproved before the others. A sinning elder should receive public reproof because of his public position. Based upon Paul’s word to Timothy in this matter, how can we say that the apostles, who appointed the elders and handed over the church to them, have nothing to do with the church or the elders once they have been established?
The entire book of 1 Corinthians is a “bothering book.” The writing apostle bothered the church in Corinth. The entire book may be considered as a commandment to the local church. First Corinthians 11:34 says, “If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, that you may not come together for judgment. And the remaining matters I will set in order when I come.” Even after charging the church to take care of so many things, Paul says that he will set in order the remaining matters when he comes. We need to come back to the Word. The Word is our highest authority, our constitution. This verse tells us that some things were not set in order by the apostle Paul. In his Epistle to the church in Corinth, many things were set in order by Paul’s charges, such as the matters of marriage, the eating of sacrifices to idols, head covering, the Lord’s table, etc. Paul charged the Corinthians to deal with at least eleven problems in his fellowship with them. He charged the church to do many things. As the apostle he did not have the position to administrate the church, but he did have the position, right, and responsibility to charge the elders to do it.
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