I. The Way for the Practice of the Church Life

B. The Factors of Division

2. Specialities Among the Believers

Not only do divisions result from the Lord’s servants forming independent groups around their own work, but they also result from the believers themselves having “specialties.” In defining this term, Witness Lee gives both the historical background of this particular factor of division and a personal word of testimony:

Now we come to the second factor of divisions, which is related to having specialties. The divisions came into being because of the saints’ having something special….Many saints saw particular spiritual things such as baptism by immersion, the presbyterial system, and holiness, sanctification, by faith. Those who saw something about baptism formed something to represent and maintain baptism. They made a mistake by making baptism by immersion something special, and they stood for this specialty. Then there were the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and so many other denominational churches. Thus, many divisions were created, and every division was for something special.

I was told that in a certain place there were two groups of believers. They were the same in nearly everything, but in one thing they were different. While one group insisted on not having a piano or organ, the other group insisted on having some kind of instrument for the music. Because of this, the original group was split into two – one group without any piano or organ and another group with a musical instrument.

I was brought up in Christianity and had learned to behave in the meetings in a quiet and nice way. One day in 1932, I attended a meeting which was somewhat under the influence of the Pentecostal movement. Brother Watchman Nee was invited to speak there. When I went into the meeting, some were laughing, clapping, and shouting “Hallelujah!” in a corner, some knelt down and were crying and weeping, some were dancing, and some were even rolling on the floor. I said to myself, “My goodness, what is this?” Then after a while, they all quieted down to listen to the message given by Brother Nee. After the meeting was over, while Brother Nee and I were walking back to the place where we stayed, I said to him, “Brother Nee, I cannot go along with that kind of meeting.” He replied, “You cannot find any kind of regulation or any kind of form from the Scriptures concerning how we Christians should meet.” That stopped my speaking. I must make it clear, however, that this does not mean that Brother Nee agreed with that kind of dancing, laughing, shouting, weeping, and rolling on the floor.

My point is that we all have to learn not to make ourselves special in anything. We do not represent anything but Christ. Christ is the center, Christ is the circumference, and Christ is everything. Whenever we come together as the church, we do not and should not represent anything but the all-inclusive Christ. We are not for baptism, for speaking in tongues, for the breaking of bread, or for the order of the meetings. We are for Christ alone. This is easy to say but not easy to practice. One time a brother from a local church that uses grape juice for the Lord’s table went to another locality where the saints use wine for the Lord’s table. When he noticed the difference, he first hesitated and then he spoke a lot to express his disagreement. Brothers and sisters, we must maintain the proper attitude not to make anything special in the practice of the church. If you make something special, that means you become sectarian in that particular matter.

You may be in your locality going on in the way that you believe is decent, good, and in order. But if you go to some other places where they have some other ways to conduct their meetings and to arrange the seats, will you be able to refrain from saying anything and just go along with them? This is the biggest problem. (104-106)

Based upon his exposition of the Bible’s teachings concerning the oneness of the universal and local church and the two factors of division, Witness Lee sums up the primary points of chapter twelve with some advice for those seeking to apply these New Testament principles to their Christian life:

In conclusion, first, we have to realize that the church is one in the universe, so the expression of the church in any place must be one. As Christians coming together to express Christ in any locality, we should be one with one another. We should not keep ourselves separate from other Christians in the same locality. Second, all the workers must keep their hands off the work. They should leave the results of their work to the saints in the local church. Third, all the local churches must be very common, general, without anything special. If you keep anything special, you will be sectarian.

I believe in unity, but I do not believe in uniformity. Perhaps the saints in the church in Los Angeles meet in one way, and the saints in other localities meet in other ways. Do not try to make every place the same in everything. One local church may practice in one way, and another may practice in another way, yet they are still one. They are in the oneness, the unity. All these things seem complicated, but actually it is quite simple. In the early days, the Christians were very simple. They had no forms, no organization, no division, no regulations, etc. But they had the living Spirit within them. Wherever they went, they just gathered together to worship the Lord according to the leading of the Holy Spirit within them.

Today we should also make everything simple. Wherever we go and wherever we are, we have to be one with the other saints. In any place you should not separate yourself from other saints. As long as they are not divisive, you have to join them and be one with them. We may say that we are free, that we are not denominational, and that we are not sectarian, yet we are separated and would not come together as the one expression of the Body of Christ in this one city. This shows that we are wrong and is a real test to us, proving that we still have something which is not of the Lord. If we are really for the Lord and are absolutely of the Lord, we will come together in our locality as the one expression of the one Body of Christ. There is no reason and no right for anyone to keep his group separated from others. This is the test. (106-107)

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