1. Turning Away from the Ministry Versus Keeping the Word
   
   
2. Speaking the Same Thing According to the Taste of the Lord’s Recovery
   
   
3. Teaching Different Things from the Unique Ministry of God’s Economy Creating Division and Destroying the Recovery
   
   
4. Lessons Concerning the Oneness of the New Testament Ministry
   
   
5. No Uncertain Sounding of the Trumpet in the Lord’s Ministry
   
   
6. Being Restricted to One Publication Work for the Fulfillment of the Lord’s Commission to His Recovery
   
   
7. Entering into the Lord’s Ministry in the Present Age
   
   
8. The Up-to-Date Way to Fulfill the Lord’s Ministry—Many Brothers Serving Together in the Way of Blending

III. TEACHING DIFFERENT THINGS
FROM THE UNIQUE MINISTRY OF GOD’S ECONOMY
CREATING DIVISION AND DESTROYING THE RECOVERY

Throughout the twenty centuries of church history, the divisions, confusions, and problems which have taken place among all the Christians were all due to a ministry. Whatever you minister produces something. If you minister the heavens, something heavenly will be produced. If you minister earthly things, surely the issue, the coming out, will be earthly. The many divisions and confusions among the Christians today all come from one source—a ministry. The Presbyterian denomination or division came out of the ministry of the presbytery. The Baptist division came out of the ministry of baptism by immersion. All the different kinds of Christian groups come out of different ministries. A ministry is mainly a teaching. We must realize that the teaching which a Christian teaches ministers something. It may minister something right, something wrong, something high, or something low. A teaching always issues in something. Based upon the issue of your teaching, your teaching may be considered as a ministry. Ministry in the biblical usage means to serve people with something, just as a waiter in a restaurant serves people with the courses of food. To serve others with something is to minister. To minister is not to preach, teach, or speak without serving anyone with anything. We may say that a certain minister who speaks for an hour ministers nothing to people. This means that according to Christ he ministered nothing, but according to the facts that minister did minister something. He ministered something wrong, something bad, or something low to people. I hope we can see that ministry produces problems, ministry produces division, and ministry produces confusion.

Not to Teach Differently

This is why Paul wrote 1 Timothy in the midst of a confusing environment and after many years of his work with his co-workers. This Epistle is altogether an inoculation. Poison after poison was injected into the Christian church while the church was going on. At the conclusion of his writing ministry, Paul wrote 1 Timothy to inoculate the church against all these poisons. In the opening word of this Epistle, however, Paul did not write in a way that we would think to be so serious: “Even as I urged you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach differently (1:3).” This phrase “not to teach differently” seems so simple. If you merely read this phrase, you will not sense the seriousness of different teaching. We may not think that this is serious, but actually it is more than serious. It kills people to teach differently. To teach differently tears down God’s building and annuls God’s entire economy. We all must realize that even a small amount of teaching in a different way destroys the recovery. There is a proverb which says, “One sentence can build up the nation and one sentence can destroy the entire nation.” You do not need to give an entire message. Just by speaking one sentence which conveys your kind of concept tears down everything. We must realize that ministry is “terrible.” Your speaking can build up or destroy. It is possible that your speaking destroys, kills, and annuls.

The Unique Ministry

As we have seen, Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3 that he left him there in Ephesus to charge certain ones not to teach differently. What then, we may ask, is the unique thing which all the Christian teachers should teach? Christian teachers today teach many things such as the presbytery, baptism by immersion, the episcopalian way, holiness, how to preach the gospel, and the way to teach the Bible. We would all agree that to teach the way of Judaism is surely wrong, but what about teaching how to preach the gospel? What is wrong with preaching the gospel? We must realize that even the teaching to preach the gospel creates division. This is wrong. There is only one ministry which always builds up, edifies, and perfects with no destruction at all. There is only one unique ministry that is justified, promoted, uplifted, and even glorified in the New Testament. In 1 Timothy 1:4 Paul went on to tell Timothy what those ones who were teaching differently should be occupied with—God’s economy. Through my contact with some of you brothers, I became burdened and made a quick decision to call this gathering for this training. I do not like to see the recovery destroyed by different teachings. I realize the real situation. The Lord covers me. You may not know what I am talking about because you do not know all the factors. My contact with some of you impressed me with a terrible factor. I realized that you were going to teach things differently to cause trouble and to create division. There is only one ministry that ever builds up and that never destroys—this is God’s economy.

We must ask ourselves what was wrong with teaching Judaism at the Apostle’s time. This is not Buddhism or Gnosticism. To teach Judaism is to teach according to the holy Word in the Old Testament. Someone could have said to the Apostle Paul, “What is wrong with teaching the law? I am teaching the Bible.” Is there anything wrong with teaching people the Bible, with teaching people theology, or with teaching people how to preach the gospel? There is nothing wrong, but we must realize that this kind of teaching creates division. In 1 Timothy Paul did not indicate that those who taught differently taught heresies or heathen things. If they had taught heathen things, no Christian would have taken them. The reason why their teachings were received is because they were scriptural things from the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. By that time the New Testament had not yet come into existence. The holy Word was only the Old Testament. These ones who taught differently could have thought, “If you don’t allow me to teach the Old Testament, then what am I going to teach? I am quite legitimate and quite scriptural.” Their teaching, however, created division. Is there anything wrong with setting up a mission and sending missionaries to the field? We must realize that this is not a matter of being wrong or right, but it is a matter of “cutting Christ’s Body into pieces.” On the one hand, the bringing of people to Christ through the missionaries is very positive. Unconsciously, however, this kind of work cuts Christ’s Body into pieces. We should be careful because we may do the same thing. We may insist, stress, and emphasize a scriptural item which seemingly is right, yet actually it cuts the Body of Christ. It divides the recovery. We must be careful. I called such a gathering because I read people’s hearts from their attitude and from their spirit in speaking. I am afraid that some different teachings might be on the verge of coming out.

The New Testament Ministry

The only way that can preserve us in the recovery is the unique ministry. If we say that we are in the recovery, yet we teach something so lightly, even in a concealed way, that is different from God’s economy, we sow the seed that will grow up in division. Therefore, the only way that we can be preserved in the eternal oneness is to teach the same thing in God’s economy. This kind of teaching is called the New Testament ministry, the ministry of the new covenant. The ministry of the new covenant is only to minister the Triune God, processed, to be dispensed into His chosen people as life and life supply to produce members of Christ to form the Body to express the Triune God. This is the New Testament economy. To teach anything, even good things and scriptural things, which is even a little bit apart from God’s New Testament economy will still issue in division and that will be very much used by the subtle one, the evil one. We must, therefore, be on the alert. (Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, pp. 41-46, 48-49, Witness Lee)

Divisions Coming out of Different Ministries

We need to be very clear that the foundation of all the denominations and the factor that produces each denomination are their different ministries. If all the Christians today would be willing for the Lord to take away their different ministries, they would all be one. The basic factor of all the divisions, their very root, is different ministries. Ministries that are different may be very sound, even very scriptural, but they are something Paul said was creeping in at the time of Galatians 2 (v. 4, lit.). This thing crept in as early as the time of Paul. Paul, Peter, and James were all there, and a ministry of another kind was trying to come in. In 1 Timothy 1 Paul charged Timothy to remain in Ephesus to take care of one thing: to charge certain ones not to teach differently, which means not to teach according to another ministry (vv. 3-4). At that time the different teaching was the teaching of the law. In Galatians 2 what was trying to creep in was the law.

At a later time, the heretical teaching of Gnosticism came in. Gnosticism was heresy, but you cannot say that to teach something of the Old Testament was heretical. At this point we need to consider that whole situation carefully. Paul was carrying out God’s New Testament ministry and his ministry followed Peter’s ministry, which was an immediate continuation of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Himself. In the four Gospels Jesus Christ carried out God’s ministry, and in the first part of Acts, Peter continued that ministry. Then in the second part of Acts, Paul’s ministry was a continuation of Peter’s to carry out God’s New Testament ministry. Nevertheless, when the Judaizing believers were strong in teaching the law, Peter became weak. Peter was afraid of those who came down from James (Gal. 2:11-12). This also indicates that James was a strong figure, a strong character, in tolerating the teaching of the law in the New Testament age.

Can you imagine Paul facing that problem? In Antioch Paul was facing the number one apostle, Peter, and he was facing representatives of the most influential apostle, James. It was not easy for Paul to face that situation. Two strong influences were there, the influence of Peter and the influence of James. Peter could have said to Paul, “Who are you, Saul of Tarsus? When I was speaking there in Jerusalem, you were still a young man opposing. Who do you think you are?”

In addition, Paul was facing the representatives of James, a godly man who prayed so much, day after day, that there are reports that his two knees were calloused. James was famous for his godly perfection and was very influential. He became even more influential than the great first apostle, Peter. Peter was afraid of his influence. In Antioch Peter was eating with the Gentiles peacefully. However, when some representatives came from James, Peter became a hypocrite and pretended that he had not eaten with the Gentiles. This indicates how strong James’ influence was.

Paul, as a younger apostle who had come later than Peter, was facing such a situation. Undoubtedly, it was hard for him. Nevertheless, for the sake of the truth, Paul did not tolerate that situation. He did not allow such a thing. He cut off the different ministries. He closed the door for the different ministries to creep in, and God honored what Paul did in that situation.

According to the New Testament and according to church history, from that time onward Peter did not play an important role in God’s New Testament economy, not as important as the role he played in the first twelve chapters of Acts. This is an important point. After not too long a time, in A.D. 70, God destroyed Jerusalem (Matt. 24:1-2), which was the base of Peter’s work and the base of James’ influence. He tore down the whole thing, leaving no stone upon another, destroying it. Not only was that a judgment on the rebellious Israel, but it was also the destruction of the base of Peter’s work and of James’ influence. After the destruction that took place in A.D. 70, however, Paul’s ministry and his influence remained. God did not allow different ministries and other influences.

We need to see this principle throughout the entire Christian era. All the troubles, divisions, and confusions came from the one source of the tolerance of different ministries. Many Christian teachers have known the peril of different ministries; nevertheless, they have tolerated them. There has been a tolerance of different ministries. In the Lord’s recovery, for the long run, we should not believe that this kind of creeping in of the different ministries would never take place. Rather, we must be on the alert. Such a peril is ahead of us. If we are not watchful, if we are careless, in one way or another the enemy would creepingly use some means, some ways, to bring in different ministries. Such a thing would end the Lord’s recovery.

If you look at today’s situation, you will realize that there are many different ministries in addition to this unique New Testament ministry. If you could take away all the different ministries and leave only the unique ministry of the New Testament, all the denominations, all the different groups, and all the divisions, would disappear. There would be no division and no confusion.

All of us need to learn this sober lesson and be on the alert not to deviate from the ministry of the New Testament. If we carry out something new, something different, something other than this unique ministry, we will be through as far as the Lord’s recovery is concerned. Actually, the Lord’s recovery is to bring us back to the unique ministry of the New Testament. (Elders’ Training, Book 1: The Ministry of the New Testament, pp. 14-16, 72, Witness Lee)

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