Assembly Life by Watchman Nee

Author:Watchman Nee
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Christian Fellowship Publishers
Published: 2009-12-07T22:00:00+00:00

The Practice of Fellowship

65

famous preacher is, you are taking independent action. Since you are in fellowship with us here, you will be in fellowship with the brethren there with whom we have fellowship. You cannot choose where to meet. This is the principle of body fellowship. You cannot move independently.

We frequently think we may choose the place to meet according to our pleasure. If so, then we do not realize we do not have that option, but must choose the place where God wants us to be. For in the meeting we receive the greatest blessing, bear the greatest responsibility, and also accept the greatest restriction. Wherever we go, we go to where the church ground is. Do not speculate about how denominations bind people, for our fellowship binds people more strongly than does sectarianism. Yet what they have is legal organization; what we have is body organism. I suspect that nothing in the world binds people together more strongly than the principle of the body. None of the members of our physical body can freely move for a single day. Even a small finger cannot be free for a day. Our bonding is the bonding of the body, therefore there is no independency.

May we truly see the body of Christ and how we may not take independent action. After believing in the Lord, we are not only saved through faith, we must also take our place as brethren. We are not only Christians, we are brethren to one another. This is brotherly love.

Each Is Responsible

Practically speaking, we would like to ask the question—What is the responsibility of the brethren? Each brother or sister must not only bear the responsibility of the local meeting but also consider all the brothers and sisters who are in Christian fellowship throughout the earth. To be truly Scriptural, we must look beyond China and see all the brethren throughout the world. For we participate with them in 66

The Church and the Work: Assembly Life

the fellowship of God and of His Son. Today we have a drawback, which is, that those who meet in Shanghai see only the brethren in the Shanghai meeting. Those who meet in Peking see only the brethren in the Peking meeting. Believers lack a world vision and love. This is a great deficiency. Just as many people only see their sins and how through faith in Christ they have received forgiveness without then connecting it in the slightest to the notion of brotherly fellowship, so there are many who only consider the local brethren who are seen without giving any thought to the brethren in other places who are not seen. Neither of these is the will of God.

The salvation work of God is to obtain living stones for the building of the spiritual house. If stones are scattered, they cannot be a spiritual house. But as we together break the bread, we manifest the entire body of Christ. Hence, each of us who breaks bread is responsible to the

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