[Indiana]

Witness Lee 1968: “It is only by being so liberal and general that we can receive all the saints in a proper way. If we are otherwise, we cannot avoid being sectarian in the matter of receiving. If we are special in anything and insist upon that, we will probably not receive those who differ from us in certain matters. But the Apostle said, ”Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.” What he meant when he referred to “him that is weak in the faith” is illustrated in the following verses: i. e., the matter of eating and keeping of days. By this we are affirmatively told that we must receive the saints who differ from us in these things. Any saint who holds a different opinion or concept regarding the things we are in favor, we must receive, “for God hath received him.” As long as he is a saint, as long as He has received him, we have no right to reject him. Our receiving must be the same as God’s receiving, no less and no more. God’s receiving is the basis of our receiving. Our receiving must not be according to our taste, our opinion, or our assertion. It must be in accordance with God’s receiving. It must be based upon God’s receiving – nothing else.

God receives people according to His Son. As long as a person receives His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as His personal Savior, regardless of the concepts he holds regarding all other things, God receives him immediately. Since God receives people in this way, we too must receive people in the same way. Our receiving must be in accordance with God’s receiving. If our receiving differs from His, it means that we are wrong: either we are more narrow or more broad than God. This will cause much trouble and damage to the church life.

God’s receiving is based upon Christ’s receiving, and Christ’s receiving is in accordance with our faith in Him. Whoever believes in Him, He will receive. Whoever receives Him, He will never reject. He said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Since coming to Him, believing in Him, receiving Him, is the only condition for Christ’s receiving, so we must receive people upon the same basis with nothing added. As long as anyone believes in Christ our Lord, as long as he receives Him as his personal Savior, we must receive Him with nothing else required. Regardless of how he may dissent in so many other things, as long as he is a real believer in the Lord, we have no choice but to receive him. For the Lord has received him. This is why the Apostle said, “Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.” We must receive whoever Christ has received. We must
have such a proper receiving of all the saints that we may keep the proper unity; otherwise, we can never keep ourselves from being sectarian and causing much confusion and damage to the church life. To practice the church life by keeping the proper unity, such a general receiving is necessary. May the Lord have mercy upon us!”
(W. Lee, Practical Expression of the Church, pp 66-77, 1968)
.................................................. .....................................

(In the Wake of the New Way - 2001)

Brother shared in 1986, "When Gideon was called to take the army to fight the battle for Jehovah, the Lord told him that he had too many. Eventually, the Lord chose three hundred men and told Gideon to send the others home. This does not mean that whoever went back home was no longer an Israelite. He was still an Israelite, but he had nothing to do with the fighting army". He gave the analogy that "to be a citizen of the United States is one thing, but to fight in the United States army is another matter".


Gideon only needed three hundred men and the rest could go home. This was the spirit of the Lord's new move. Many actually did go home and did not return.

There was to be "no uncertain sounding of the trumpet" for the army to follow with brother Lee as its unique leader. He had the burden to train this army to get into the deeper truths of God's New Testament economy and propagate them throughout the earth. While addressing the elders during an elders training, he said, "You may say that you follow Brother Lee, that you are one with this ministry. That sounds very good, but I am a little concerned that you may not know what it means to be one with this ministry. You may want to take me as your commander-in-chief and follow me, but I do not want to have many followers who know nothing about God's New Testament economy. We are not doing anything but carrying out God's New Testament economy." Speaking in this way, he showed that he meant business for the saints to rise up to become constituted with the word of God's economy for "the Lord's move on the earth".

This manner of fellowship caused quite a stir in the churches, and most of the saints in the churches initially wanted to give their full cooperation for this turn. But not every brother and sister and not every church felt this way. Gradually, more members grew cold, though most churches were endeavoring to go on in the new way. Brother Lee did anticipate problems, saying, "I am prepared to meet a situation in which some in the Lord's recovery will not go this way. This will not surprise me. You and I should not consider these ones as strangers and should not cut them off from the recovery. We should still love them, respect them, and not despise them a bit. Do not consider them as another kind of people. Although they have not joined the army, they are still proper citizens."

It proved quite difficult, however, to realize the proper care and acceptance of churches or individuals who could not rise up for the new way. It was, in fact, impossible in many places and with a number of people. Many felt ostracized and out of function. Some just lost heart because they viewed the new way as a lot of activity with stress on numbers and production and less concentration on the person of Christ and our enjoyment of Him. This, along with other matters, became an expanding concern for them and for many leading ones as they saw discouragement set in among the saints in their localities.