Weekly Pursuit – Week 3 of December
Verse:
Matt. 18:17 “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to hear the church also, let him be to you just like the Gentile and the tax collector.”
Excerpts:
In determining the correctness of a church, the matter of condition is secondary; the primary matter is the ground. Sadly, people’s knowledge of the church is mainly based on the condition of the church, and they neglect the ground of the church. When speaking concerning a certain Christian group, they feel that there is no problem if the people are zealous, holy, and spiritual. This is to know the church based on condition, not on the ground. This is dangerous.
Conditions may change. Someone may not love the Lord today, but perhaps tomorrow he will love the Lord very much. A particular group may not be spiritual today, but next year they will become very spiritual. Therefore, the assessment of a church can never be based on its spiritual condition but on its ground. Its ground is absolute and can never change.
In regard to knowing the church, if we depart from the ground and focus our attention on anything else, regardless of how good it is, danger awaits us in the future. Sooner or later, there will be division. No doubt we should pay attention to spirituality and the pursuit of life, but we should set our pursuing feet firmly on the ground of the church. This is our safeguard against any division. Whenever our hearts pursue spirituality and our feet are set on spirituality, division will follow. Once we leave the ground, our pursuing and our spirituality will turn into something dangerous. (Lessons for New Believers, lsn. 16)
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