PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

When I speak of the kingdom truths or other truths, I have no intention to force anyone to believe what I believe or to take the same way I take. My intention is that these truths will help others to love the Lord, seek Him more, realize the proper spiritual life, and practice the church life more and more. As long as one loves the Lord, seeks Him, experiences Him, lives by Him, and comes together with the saints to exalt and exhibit Him more and more, I am happy. I will be happy even if someone fully differs from me in certain truths. We do not have the truths for their own sake; rather, they are all for Christ and the church.

On the other hand, if someone receives these truths and agrees with them, he must not argue with others or try to convince them. We are not preaching truths; we are preaching Christ. Our intention, commission, and burden is not to preach doctrines but to preach Christ and minister Him to others. Of course, sometimes we need doctrines and truths as the means to help people to know Christ more, but the truths are not for the truths; the truths must be for Christ, the church, and the proper spiritual life. As long as people receive Christ, experience Christ, and love the Lord more and more, we are happy and praise the Lord, regardless of the truths concerning the kingdom, the rapture, or other matters. We do not care for those matters; we care for the Lord Himself and His Body. Do not go to preach these truths and argue with people about them. If we do this, we have completely failed the Lord. We must realize that the aim, the goal, is Christ and the church, the Lord and His Body.

We must keep the above four matters. We need to reject our self, give up our independence, always do the best to keep the harmony, and always keep in mind that nothing is as important as Christ and His church. When we do this, we are in the reality of the Body life. I simply present this to you in a brief way with few words. Let us try to learn these lessons. Then we will realize how practical they are, yet how much of a test they are. These are testing lessons, lessons that always test and check us. The self, the independence, the disharmony, and the overemphasis of matters other than Christ and His church damage and kill the church life.

Let us learn the lessons along this line and toward this goal. Learn the lessons to give up our self, to forget our independence, and to keep the sweet, fine, and tender harmony among the saints. Moreover, always remember that we are here for nothing but our dear Lord and His Body; this is our commission, our business. If we do this, I am assured that in a very short time we will all be in the reality of the Body life. Then there will be the real building up of the church. We can be assured that all the riches of Christ for His church will be with us and will be realized by us, and we will see a wonderful and beautiful situation. There is no need for us to seek other spiritual things. We simply need to go along with the Lord in these lessons.

[When we practice these things, not only will we realize the church life in a sweet, fine, and tender way, but we will also realize our family life in the way of the Lord's recovery. In this manner we will maintain a sanctified family, made holy, separated from everything common unto God for His purpose, which will give the Lord the ground to touch, train, and perfect each of the members of our family starting with the parents.]

Witness Lee, Basic Principles for the Service in the Church Life, pp. 65-70

APPLICATION

1. What is the difference between giving up our self and losing our independence?

2. Explain what it means to keep the harmony in the family. Apply this principle to the areas of your own living where you need to learn this lesson.

3. Consider in what areas of your personal or family life there is the danger of doing something or insisting on something which will damage the testimony of Christ and His Body.