Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint, because there is no one accord. It is true that many people love the Lord and serve God, but everyone has his opinion and his own vision. As a result, there is no way to have the one accord. This is the reason that Christianity has become so weak. God’s people are divided and split apart. There are divisions everywhere. Although everyone says that he loves the Lord, there is no clear vision, and men are “carried about by every wind” (Eph. 4:14). Some among us also doubt, saying, “Are we the only ones who are right? Do not others also preach the gospel? Do they not also bring men to the Lord and edify them? Consider the aged James. He was more pious than Paul or Brother Nee. How can we say that he did not have a vision?”
Recently while we were translating the New Testament Recovery Version, I used two Catholic translations among my references. In some expressions we felt that these Catholic translations are not bad. I joked with my helpers, saying, “In this sentence, let us follow the Catholic Church.” My point is this: Although James was pious to the uttermost in Jerusalem, we cannot conclude from this that his pathway was the right one. We cannot conclude from this that he possessed the vision that matched the age. No, we must be clear what the genuine vision is.
I believe this word will answer many questions in your heart. Although we are far behind many people in their zeal for preaching the gospel, although many people are more zealous and more burning in spirit than we are, and although we are poor, the vision is still with us. I truly hope that the young workers among us and the trainees would exercise themselves unto godliness. It does not mean that once we have the vision, we do not need to have godliness anymore, yet I hope that you would remember that godliness alone cannot match the vision. We certainly need to exercise ourselves unto godliness; we should not be loose, and our personality and character, should be noble. But this does not mean that once we have a noble character, we are in the vision. In other words, our vision should be one that matches the age. It should also be one that includes everything that has gone before us. It should include the godliness of the Jews, the zeal of the evangelicals, and the genuine service. Only then will we be able to practice an all-inclusive church life, the church life Paul revealed to us (Rom. 14). We are not divided into sects, and we do not impose any special practice on anyone. We only live an all-inclusive church life. If we do this, we will have the genuine one accord.
Today we can be in one accord because we have only one vision and one view. We are all in this up-to-date, all-inheriting vision. We have only one viewpoint. We speak the same thing with one heart, one mouth, one voice, and one tone, serving the Lord together. The result is a power that will become our strong morale and our impact. This is our strength. Once the Lord’s recovery possesses this power, there will be the glory of increase and multiplication. Today our situation is not yet to that point; it is not yet at the peak. Although we do not have many major contentions, we do have some small complaints and criticisms. These things lower our morale.
When I returned to Taiwan in 1984, there was no morale at all because the one accord was gone. The goal was gone, and the vision had become blurred. At the present time we hope that the Lord would be merciful to us. We want to recover our morale, beginning from Taiwan. We want to recover our vision. We want to have the one accord, and we want to see clearly that there is only this one way. The churches in the Lord’s recovery should have the Lord’s testimony and a definite standing. Today there is still much ground for us to cover in the spreading of the Lord’s churches. We have to preach the gospel everywhere, build up the small groups, and teach the truth. With this goal in view, we should have no arguments and no different opinions. We should speak the same thing, think the same thing, and press on in one accord. Not only should the churches in Taiwan do this, but all the churches in all the continents throughout the earth should do this. If we do this, the power will be great. The Lord will surely grant us an open door because this is the way that the Lord wants to take today.