A WORD OF FELLOWSHIP CONCERNING TRAINING
What we have seen thus far of a general sketch of the New Testament should be considered as a training. You must now spend several years to try to put what you have seen into practice.
Not Making Demands on Others
In addition, you must never put demands on any person, church, or group according to what you have received. To put demands on others or on the church is not a help; rather, it is a great damage. If you want to make demands, make demands on yourself. Do not say to others, “Now my eyes are opened. We have been trained in a certain way, but you don’t have this. Therefore, the church here is too poor.” Demanding never helps the situation. The right thing to do is to supply and minister.
The training meetings are completely different from the church meetings. It is a problem when some do not differentiate the two kinds of meetings. The one who conducts a training has the ground to say certain things to the trainees, but you do not have the same ground with others. If you speak things in the same way as in a training meeting, you may damage the situation. Therefore, do not treat other people as trainees. You may treat only yourself as a trainee. This is a serious matter. On the mainland of China, some brothers after being trained became a great help to the local churches, but others went back to their localities and became a big damage. They treated the church as their trainees, and they made demands on the church. This is wrong. You are not trained to make people your trainees. Rather, you are trained to grow, to minister, and to supply something from the Lord. You are trained even to suffer loss for others.
Not Criticizing or Causing Divisions
In addition, whenever you make a demand, you are tempted to criticize. You may realize the true situation with others, but do not criticize them. Do not believe in yourself too much when you see the situation, because your realization about it may not be correct. Apparently a person’s situation is of one kind, but in actuality it may be of another kind, so it is foolish to discern things too fast. Be careful in speaking about a situation. Just consider how easy it is for others to misunderstand you. In the same way, you may feel that a certain brother is not right, but before the Lord he may be very right. Therefore, we must be careful.
After we are trained, our eyes are opened to a certain extent, and it is easy for us to discern things according to our new understanding. As a result, we are tempted first to criticize others and then to cause divisions. This is one hundred percent wrong. Never go to a place or remain in your place to discern things according to your training and then criticize and make divisions. If you do this, you will never be a help to the church. Rather, you will damage it.
Supplying the Body
Learn to be humble, faithful, and honest, and always do your best not to contradict. Always do your best to minister help to others in a quiet way without contradicting. In this way you will supply nourishment, solid food, to the Body. The Body needs this. There is no need to adjust others. If there is something wrong in the Body, the supply will take care of it spontaneously. The supply is like a dose of medicine. If you administer the dose, the medicine will eventually get into the Body. Then if there is a germ, some element in the medicine will kill it unconsciously.
In the past I have said that you must be aggressive, and that is right. However, I now advise you to not be a troublemaker in the church. This is very important. As those who have been trained, we must be careful.
(General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A - Part 2: Romans through Philemon, Chapter 15, by Witness Lee)
