Nee's 'Ministry to the House or to the Lord'

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Igzy

Hmmm. I have to say if Luke 17:7-10 isn't about us serving the Lord "dinner" first, then what is it about? You might say that it is more generally about the attitude of a servant, that his master's wishes come first and that the master is not obligated to thank his servant. Yes, but that's precisely what "feeding" the Lord before ourselves means. It's metaphorical. But Nee means it metaphorically, too. It means our attitude should be one of a servant not expecting courtesies from his master.

The fact that 7-10 follows verses about faith in no way require that that 7-10 be about the same subject. Passages containing the Lord Jesus' teachings often make abrupt changes of direction.

I think your rejection of 7-10 as instructions about serving the Lord before ourselves is more arbitrary than Nee's usage of it might be. It's another illustration of your hyper-skepticism.

Still love you though, bro'.

Even if you say it does mean that it is literally concerning God demanding us to remain in our position as servants, it does not also suggest that there is something that is service to the Lord and something else that is not. If that is the analysis, it would be evident that our entire life is service to the Lord. Therefore no basis for differentiating service in the field planting, plowing and reaping v cooking and serving dinner.

The main thing is that this passage does not support some unique ministry "to the Lord" that is separate from the "service to the house" as Nee has phrased it. Instead, it defines the whole of our service as one continuous thing. In Ezekiel, the service in the outer court was not for the benefit of the priests/Levites. It was part of a God-ordained necessity for the covering of the sins of the people. Surely there was a difference in serving out with the people and within the inner courts. But it was all service.

And if Luke 17 is to shed some light on it, I find that the call to come in and serve dinner came after everything else, not before it.

So the insistence upon coming first is contradicted by the very scripture that Nee used. The day was in service to the master. The end of the service outside was followed by service inside. Then the servant got some time to himself (and was probably still on call).

Reminds me of Downton Abby. Everyone was busy doing all kinds of things. A few got to actually serve in the owners' chambers. But without the activities still continuing "downstairs," there would be no meal upstairs in the dining hall.

And having read where Nee is said to have laid out his outline of what his ministry was about, it is clear that he considered his ministry very special. He basically left things like the gospel to others. He was all about "high things" to borrow more recent terminology of his successor. He had no heart to serve in the outer court with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes. He was all about the lofty things of a separated life.

And I got this from what appears to be gleaned from Lee's own biography of Nee.