In this chapter we want to fellowship concerning the most crucial and practical point of the many aspects and details concerning the matter of the believers serving the Lord full-time.
According to Revelation 1:5b-6 and Romans 15:16, all the believers are God’s priests. Christ has died for us and redeemed us to God that we may be His priests. According to Old Testament typology, priests are persons who are professional. They do not do anything except serve God all day for their entire lives. Priests are the serving ones to offer offerings to God. The New Testament priests do not offer animal sacrifices but living persons to God. In Romans 15:16 Paul says, “That I should be a minister of Christ Jesus to the nations, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that the offering of the nations might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit.” Paul served God by ministering the gospel of God to the Gentiles to offer them to God for God’s satisfaction.
The Lord also told us in John 15 that He is the vine and that all the believers are the branches of the vine. The branches of the vine tree are for the very expression, the very glorification, of the Triune God. To be a priest is to offer something to God for His satisfaction but to be a branch of Christ, of the vine tree, is for the purpose of expressing God, of glorifying Him in what He is in bearing fruit.
Furthermore, the New Testament tells us that all the Lord’s children are His servants and even His bondslaves. He is our Master, He has bought us, and we are His bondslaves, His servants. According to Matthew 25, the Lord has given us His talents (vv. 14-15). Talents signify spiritual gifts. In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 the man who went into another country gave one of his slaves five talents, another two talents, and another one talent. The problem was with the last slave who received only one talent (vv. 24-26).
We must be clear that all the believers are priests, offering people to God, branches of the organic Christ to express God for His glory, and the Lord’s servants to serve Him by making profit for His kingdom. The Lord told us that one day He will come back to settle accounts with us (Matt. 25:19). His settling accounts with us signifies His judgment at His judgment seat (2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10) where the believers’ life, conduct, and work will be judged for reward or punishment (1 Cor. 4:5; Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12; 1 Cor. 3:13-15). It would be good if there were a bumper sticker that said—“Christ will come to settle accounts with you.” Are you ready to give Him an account? He is the believers’ Master and He has advised us to do business (Luke 19:13), to make profit for Him. One day He will come to check with us about our account. How much is on the credit side and not on the debit side? This is something quite serious.
No one can make more profit than what the Lord gives. If you have received five talents, the most you can make is five. If you have received two talents, the most you can make is two. You cannot make more than the Lord gives you, but you have to make profit. Those who make profit will receive a reward to be the co-kings with Christ and to enjoy His joy in the coming kingdom (Matt. 25:21, 23). We have not enjoyed that kind of joy yet. We have only had a little taste.
The kingship and the Lord’s joy will be a reward to the faithful ones, but the unfaithful ones will be put into darkness (25:30). When the Lord judged Pharaoh and Egypt, He sent darkness upon them (Exo. 10:21-23). When you are not in the divine light, you are in darkness. To be in darkness is a real suffering. The unfaithful slaves shall be cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30). This indicates a certain amount of suffering.
If we believe that the Lord’s word is trustworthy, we have to believe His word in Matthew 25. This word is as trustworthy as the word in John 3:16. In my youth I was told to recite John 3:16, but no one ever told me to recite Matthew 25:19 and 30. Christ will come to settle accounts with you, and if you are not faithful, He will put you in darkness. Paul said that if he preached the gospel voluntarily he would have a reward (1 Cor. 9:16-17). But if we are not faithful, the Lord will surely punish us. Be certain that He will come to settle accounts with us. As saved believers we are the serving ones in three categories—priests, branches, and slaves. If we are saved, we have to rise up to serve. The Lord is calling us to rise up to serve God as His priests, as the branches of Christ, and as the slaves of the Lord.
The branches should bear fruit. That is their profession, their job, their business, and their duty. As branches of Christ, do we bear fruit? If we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off from the vine (John 15:2, 6). To be cut off from the vine indicates that we will miss and lose the enjoyment, the fellowship, of the vine tree’s riches. If you do not bear fruit as a branch of Christ, you will be cut off and cast out, which is to be cut off from participation in the riches of the life of the vine.
Also, the branches who do not bear fruit by abiding in the vine are gathered and cast into the fire for burning (John 15:6). This does not refer to eternal perdition because in chapter ten of John, the Lord Jesus told us definitely that whoever receives Him will have eternal life and will by no means perish (v. 28). A regenerated believer has no way to perish. There are many verses which assure us concerning the security of our salvation, but if we believers do not bear fruit, there will be a certain kind of punishment. We will firstly be cut off from the participation in and enjoyment of the riches of Christ and then be cast into the fire. The Apostle Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 3 where those believers whose Christian works are not approved by the Lord at His coming back will be saved so as through fire (v. 15). Through fire surely indicates punishment. The Bible indicates strongly that if we believers as priests of God, branches of Christ, and servants of the Lord would not be faithful, there will be a certain punishment assigned to us. This is not what I say, but what the Bible says. D. M. Panton said that many Christians may feel that they have a ticket for entering into the kingdom, but they will eventually discover that their ticket will not be honored.
We all have to rise up, but this does not mean that only the full-timers who give up their jobs are priests, branches, and slaves. All of us, even the smallest ones, are priests of God, branches of Christ, and slaves of the Lord. Therefore, we all have to rise up. When I ask you to rise up, I do not mean to rise up to be a missionary going to the mission field. We must come back to the pure Word, which tells us that we all are priests of God, branches of Christ, and slaves of the Lord. None of us can escape this fact. We have to rise up to do our duty; otherwise, we will be cut off and we will suffer punishment.
Again, the Lord’s speaking for all of us to rise up is not just to those who can offer all their time to the Lord. In the New Testament there is no hint that those three thousand who were saved on the day of Pentecost gave up their jobs. They sold their possessions (Acts 2:45), but the Bible does not say that they gave up their jobs. Acts 18:1-3 tells us that Aquila had the trade of making tents as did the Apostle Paul, who labored with him in this trade for a while. We have to realize that many New Testament priests, branches, and slaves have jobs. All the priests, branches, and slaves do not have to be full-timers who give up their jobs. Was the Apostle Paul a full-timer who gave up his job? Sometimes he was and at other times he was not. When the circumstances under God’s sovereignty allowed him to serve as a priest of the gospel with his full time, he did it. But sometimes the circumstances did not allow him to do this, so he worked with his hands making tents, not only to take care of his own need but also to take care of his co-workers’ need (Acts 20:34). In the New Testament there is not such a profession of preaching.
Practically speaking, the work of preaching the gospel can mostly be by full-timers. To work for the preaching of the gospel on the college campuses in the United States requires full-time laborers. The recovery has been in the United States for twenty-three years, and we have discovered that the spread of the gospel of God’s New Testament economy requires a good number of full-time workers. But we all are priests who should serve God by ministering the gospel to the sinners to make them offerings to God. We all are branches who should bear fruit for the multiplication, the glorification, the expression, of God the Father. We all are slaves who have received at least one talent with which we must do business for the Lord. We are responsible for what we do with this talent and we have to give an account to the Lord at His coming back. It is not necessary for us to be a full-time worker to go to our neighborhood. We can go to our friends, colleagues, relatives, and neighbors. All of us can preach and teach the truth in the evenings, on the weekends, and on holidays. All of us can speak for the Lord in the meetings. All of this is included in the rising up and the going out. To rise up does not mean that you will be a full-time worker, and to go out does not mean that you need to be a full-time worker. If you are not a full-time worker, you can still rise up and go out.
When the full-time workers are doing much work on the college campuses, the saints who are not the full-time workers can also surely participate in that work. In 1985 some full-time workers went to Berkeley, California, and caught approximately two hundred contacts for the Lord. Then many of the saints in the Bay Area who were not full-timers picked up the burden to care for these two hundred contacts. In Taipei, Taiwan there are at least one hundred thirty full-time workers working on the campuses. There are also approximately two hundred saints who are not full-time workers helping them. They can go with the full-time workers on the weekend to do something on the college campuses. None of us should be discouraged or disappointed if we cannot do the Lord’s work with our full time. If the Lord is not allowing us to take the full-time way, we can still rise up and go.
If the Lord is calling us to work for Him with our full time, we should not shrink back, withdraw, or try to escape from His calling and inner leading. Be at peace to follow His leading. If He leads you to take the full-time way, you have to go this way. If He keeps you in your locality to do your job to serve Him as a branch, a slave, and a priest to support the full-time work, you will be rewarded.