Will you please turn to the book of Acts? Acts 26:19.
Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.
Colossians 1:24.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church.
2 Corinthians 8:5.
And this, not as we had hoped, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us through the will of God.
May we look to the Lord.
Our heavenly Father, we just ask Thee to breathe upon Thy Word. God, by Thy Spirit, make it living and operative. We ask that Thy words truly may become life and spirit to us. Grant the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
Last Lord’s Day, we shared together on this matter of commitment. We know that commitment is one of the important subjects. It is essential to our Christian life and to our Christian service.
The Apostle Paul says, “I know whom I have believed, and I am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” You know the words.
We are not able to commit if we do not know. First of all, we need to know. We know whom we have believed; and after knowing Him whom we believe, then it is but natural that we commit ourselves to Him, for Him to keep against that day, even the day of Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, let us just remember that commitment is primarily committing ourselves—that is, our redeemed selves—to the One whom we believe, and letting Him keep it and use it until that day.
Basically, we are not committed to a cause. We are not committed to a creed. We are not committed to an organization. We are not committed to a system. We are not committed to a group. We are not committed to anybody else. But, very simply, fundamentally, essentially, we are committed to One we have believed. That is to say, we are committed to Christ.
Now, brothers and sisters, as a matter of fact, there is no such thing as an uncommitted Christian. Can you imagine a Christian who is not committed? That is, he is not committed to the One who has loved him and gave Himself for him. He should not be. He ought not to be. Every Christian is committed. We are committed to Christ.
As a matter of fact, He is the only One who is worthy for us to commit to. Can you think of anybody else who is worthy for you to commit yourself fully and completely to? Nobody.
There is no one on earth. There is nothing in the universe that deserves our full and complete commitment. In other words, there is only one Person, even our Lord Jesus, who is worthy to have our absolute and total commitment.
To put it another way, to the Lord Jesus our commitment cannot be less than full and complete. It has to be total and absolute. Why? Because He is so worthy.
Any commitment less than that reflects upon Him. That is to say, it shows that we do not really know whom we have believed. We do not really know Who He is.
If we really know Who He is, if we really believe in Him, then what else can we do but commit ourselves fully, completely, totally, and absolutely to Him? This is the foundation of commitment.
I cannot emphasize it strongly enough, but I do want the Holy Spirit to impress upon our hearts that this is what commitment according to the Word of God really is. Commitment is unto the Lord.
Without this commitment, every other commitment is false, because this is the foundation of Christian commitment.
May I ask you at the very outset this question: Have you committed yourself to the Lord? To what degree have you committed yourself to Him? Is it partial, or is it full? Is it relative, or is it absolute?
I think every one of us needs to have this question settled, because if we have not settled this question, we cannot walk our Christian walk. We cannot live our Christian life, and we cannot serve in Christian service. This is very, very basic.
Now, we mentioned that last Lord’s Day, so I am not going to go all over it again. But this is the foundation which every one of us must know and must have settled.
Now, if you have settled that question, then I believe we can go on. In other words, we can build on that foundation. But all the time, please remember the foundation. Do not move away from that foundation.
And the foundation is this: our commitment is to Christ fully, totally, and absolutely. But according to the Word of God, we find that commitment is not only vertical; it is also horizontal. That is to say, we are not only committed to Christ the Head; we are also committed to the body of Christ, the church.
Maybe I have to say this: by the church, we do not mean an ecclesiastical institution. We are not committed to that. By the church, we do not mean the church as the world knows it. It is not, because it has no place in the Word of God.
By the church, we only mean what the Scripture means: the body of Christ.
We are committed to Christ, and in our commitment to Christ, you will find that at the same time you are committed to the body of Christ. Why? Because this is what Christ Himself is committed to.
Our Lord Jesus is committed to His Father. He is committed to do His Father’s will. And it is the will of the Father that He should give Himself for the church.
You know, our Lord Jesus gave Himself for our sins—Galatians 1:4. Our Lord Jesus not only gave Himself for our sins, but He gave Himself for you and for me—Galatians 2:20.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith,
the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
But He not only gave Himself for you and for me; He gave Himself for the church—Ephesians 5:25.
Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it.
In giving Himself for the church, He is committed to His Father’s will, because this is the will of the Father. You know, throughout His life, to our Lord Jesus there was only one question before Him, and that was, “What is My Father’s will?” That governed His life.
He was committed to His Father and to His Father’s will, even to the very last. When He was in the garden of Gethsemane, His prayer was, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.” And the will of the Father was that He should give Himself to the church, and He gave Himself willingly.
Our Lord Jesus committed Himself to the Father, to His will; and at the same time, He committed Himself to His own body.
We mentioned in the very beginning that God cannot deny Himself. God is fully committed to His own self. Now, in a sense, you will find that when our Lord Jesus gave Himself to the church, actually He was committed to His own self.
Because in Ephesians we are told that no one hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ also the church. We are His body, and He loves His own body.
He gave Himself to His body to nourish it, to cherish it, to sanctify it by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish.
So, in other words, you will find that in committing Himself to the church, He is actually committing Himself to Himself, because the church is none other than His own body.
And as our Lord Jesus is committed to the Father and committed to His own body, so our commitment must also be not only committing ourselves to Him, our Christ, but also committing ourselves to the body of Christ.
In committing ourselves to the body of Christ, it does not mean in any way that we are committed to something other than Christ.
Now, brothers and sisters, remember one thing: our commitment is basically unto Christ. If we commit ourselves to anything, to anybody, that is other than Christ, remember, that commitment is a wrong commitment.
One day you will find yourself bound. One day you will find yourself confused. One day you will find yourself puzzled. One day you will find yourself hurt.
Whatever our commitment may be, it has to be Christ and of Christ.
So when we say we are committed to the body of Christ, it does not mean that we are committed to any group, anything other than Christ or outside of Christ. No. If that is the case, then you will find that other thing is not Christ; it is a counterfeit. We need to be delivered from being committed to it, because our commitment is to Christ.
And in our committing ourselves to Christ, we find ourselves naturally committed to the body of Christ. Why? Because the body of Christ is none other than Christ Himself in His corporate expression.
Our commitment to the body of Christ is the outflow of our commitment to Christ. It is not a different commitment. It is a continuation; it is the overflow of our commitment to Christ. And only that kind of commitment is right.
So you can measure your commitment with this measurement: when you are committed to anything, measure it with Christ. Is it Christ? Is it an expression of my commitment to Christ? Is it a continuation or the outgrowth of my commitment to Christ?
If it is not, stop it. Be delivered from it. But if it is, then you will find yourself safely given to it because you are committed to Christ. So I do hope that brothers and sisters will see this very clearly.
Again, we would like to use Paul as our example. Now, if you read and study the life of Paul, you find that Paul truly was a man of commitment.
As we mentioned before, even before he knew the Lord, he was a committed person. He was committed to himself. As Saul the Pharisee, he was committed to Judaism according to the best of the traditions of the fathers. Because without commitment, you cannot accomplish anything.
So, as Saul, a committed Pharisee to Judaism, he did have a certain degree of achievement. But unfortunately, he was committed to the wrong thing.
But thank God, on the road to Damascus, when the Lord of glory appeared to him, then you find from that day onward Paul the apostle was a committed person, but committed to the right thing.
In other words, toward the end of his life, he was able to testify before King Agrippa, and before the governor, and before the whole world. He said, “Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”
From the day he met the Lord on the road to Damascus until the day he testified before King Agrippa—and we know he continued on until he wrote 2 Timothy—we find that his whole life was committed.
He said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” He obeyed the heavenly vision, and by that he means he was committed to the heavenly vision.
Now, what is the heavenly vision? To put it very simply, the heavenly vision that the Apostle Paul saw on the road to Damascus, and that he continued to see throughout his life by visions and revelations, is just this: the heavenly vision is none other than Christ and His church, the body. That is the heavenly vision.
On the road of Damascus, a heavenly light shone upon him. He was smitten by that light, and then he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.”
And he said, “Lord, who art Thou?” You know, he not only heard the voice; actually, he saw the Righteous One. And because he saw Him, his eyes were blinded. The light was so tremendous that it blinded his eyes, but he did see the Lord. He heard His voice; he saw the Lord.
He saw the One whom he persecuted. He considered Jesus of Nazareth an impostor of Judaism. He considered Jesus of Nazareth despicable. He considered Jesus of Nazareth as deserving to be persecuted and wiped out; His name should be wiped out.
But not knowing that this Jesus of Nazareth is none other than the Lord of all—God has made Him Lord over all—he came to recognize Him. He is Lord.
And when he recognized it, he capitulated to Jesus as his Lord. From then on, he was obedient to his Master, to his Lord. He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Brothers and sisters, he was fully committed to Christ. His commitment to Christ was full and total.
Listen to what he said in Philippians 3:
What things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:
for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ,
and be found in Him.
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
becoming conformed unto His death;
if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead.
Brothers and sisters, with Paul, he had only one Person before him: Christ. His one passion was Christ the Lord. That is all that mattered.
He was a person fully committed to Jesus Christ. To him, Jesus Christ was gain. Anything other than Jesus Christ was loss—even refuse. He was fully committed to Christ.
His commitment was total. He said, “I do not count my life as dear unto myself, so long as I finish my course and fulfill the ministry that He has committed to me.” To him, it was Christ and Christ only. He was fully committed.
And then, brothers and sisters, because he was committed to Christ, we find that he was fully committed to the body of Christ. Why?
Because on the road of Damascus, when he saw the Lord, he heard the voice, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Saul said, “Now, who art Thou, Lord?” And the voice said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”
Now, Saul did not argue and say, “Now, if You are Jesus, I have never persecuted You.” Nowhere in the Scripture do we find the record that Saul ever persecuted Christ. Saul came a little too late to persecute Christ. All he did was persecute the followers of Christ, the believers of Christ.
Saul could very well have argued and said, “Now, You make a mistake, because I have never persecuted You in person. I only persecuted Your followers.”
But at that very moment, immediately he got a revelation. And the revelation was this: whoever persecutes Christ, touches the followers of Christ, touches Christ.
Why? Because the Head is in heaven. You cannot touch Him. But His body is all over the earth, and whoever touches any member of the body touches the Head. The Head and the body are one.
“Why persecutest thou Me?” The Lord did not say, “Why persecutest thou My followers? Why persecutest thou My believers?” No, He said, “Why persecutest thou Me?” Because they are Me—the members of the body, all one with the Head.
The Head is in heaven. Thank God for that. He is above all; He cannot be touched anymore. But His body is all over this earth, and we are members of that body.
On the road of Damascus, Paul received that revelation. No one in the whole New Testament—I mean, among the apostles—knew the church as the body of Christ as Paul knew it. It seems as if this was a special ministry to him.
He said, “I know the mystery.” He wrote to the Ephesian believers and said, “By reading, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of the Christ.” It was hidden throughout the ages, but now it has been revealed by the Holy Spirit to the prophets and apostles. And I know what that mystery is.
He knew that at the very beginning, and increasingly he saw the church as the body of Christ. And to that body, he committed himself.
Even though the Apostle Paul was a great apostle, as a matter of fact, there were things that he could afford to be—a lone Christian, an independent Christian. That is to say, he did not need to be related to anybody else, because he was all-round, as it were, all-sufficient. Maybe he could say, “My Lord and I, and nobody else.”
But now, he would have been disobedient to the heavenly vision if he had done that. And as a matter of fact, from the very beginning, the Lord taught him that lesson.
When he said, “Lord, what shall I do? Now I have surrendered my life to You. I am fully committed to You. All right, give Your orders and I will do it.” Did the Lord give him orders? Not really, because the Lord said, “Go to Damascus and wait.”
You know, it is very hard for a man like Saul to wait. He was always on the go. But the Lord said, “You go to Damascus and wait, and I will send someone to tell you.” Now, is that not humiliating?
The great Saul needed to be told by somebody else what the will of God was. “Why do You not tell me right away? Let me get up and do it.” Oh, that would be disobedient to the heavenly vision.
He had to learn it personally. The Lord did not tell him what the Lord wanted him to do. Of course, the Lord knew even before the foundation of the world, but the Lord did not tell him. The Lord sent somebody else to tell him. Why? To show him the body. He needed the body just as anybody else.
He needed the Lord, and he needed the body. So he went to Damascus and waited three days and three nights, fasting and praying. And in a vision, he saw a little man put his hands on him and open his eyes.
At the same time, the Lord appeared to Ananias, an unknown believer—known in Damascus, but not in Jerusalem. The Lord said, “You go to the street called Straight, and there is a man, a chosen vessel, to bear My name and to suffer much for Me. Go and open his eyes.”
And Ananias went, laid his hands on Saul, and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord opens your eyes.” So he opened his eyes, and the first one he saw was another believer.
And the Bible says he joined himself with the disciples in Damascus, going in and coming in with them, and testifying.
And then, three years later—you remember, he got into trouble; I skip a lot—he went to Jerusalem and sought fellowship. But everybody was afraid of him. Even after three years, people in Jerusalem were still nervous about him, because he had done such a devastating work there.
No Christians dared to touch him until that good man Barnabas believed what Saul told him. So he introduced him to Peter, and there he had fellowship with them. You find throughout his life he was committed to the body of Christ. Wherever he went, he sought fellowship.
Even when he was a prisoner, he was committed to the body of Christ. And to what degree was he committed? Listen:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church.
He rejoiced in sufferings for you believers. He said, “I fill up that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.”
Now, what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ? Certainly, the sufferings of Christ on the cross are complete. So far as atonement is concerned, it is full and complete, because the Lord Jesus said, “It is finished.”
But what is it that is still lacking in the afflictions of Christ for His body, which is the church? In other words, our Lord Jesus gave Himself up for His church.
Out of His side came blood and water, and with that which came out of His side—the blood and water—God built a woman, the church. So the church is born out of the side of our Lord Jesus.
But the church needs to grow and to be built up. And in the building up of the body of Christ, you will find there is something you and I can fill up.
So the body of Christ is born through the afflictions of Christ. Now there needs to be fellowship with His sufferings to bring the body into maturity. And Paul said, “I am committed to that. I am willing to suffer for the building up of the body of Christ.”
And how much he suffered. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11. Here you find Paul saying:
Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as one beside myself; I more:
in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft.
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck,
a night and a day have I been in the deep;
in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers,
in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles,
in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea,
in perils among false brethren;
in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst,
in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches.
Who is weak, and I am not weak?
Who is caused to stumble, and I burn not?
What a commitment.
To the church in Galatia, he says in Galatians 4:19:
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
Here is a man who was fully committed to Christ, the Head, and at the same time so committed to the church, the body of Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, if this is what Christ is committed to—His own body—and if this is what the Apostle Paul is committed to, do you not think that this is something to which we need to be committed?
Again, we need vision, revelation. If we do not have vision and revelation of what the church, the body of Christ, is, then what you commit to is just an organization, a dead system, or the tradition of men.
No matter how correct it is, it is dead. It is a counterfeit. It is not worth committing to.
But, brothers and sisters, if you have vision—if the Lord has shown you what the church is, even the body of Christ, and how He loved the church and gave Himself for it; if He wants to see the church built and matured, that He may come back and claim her as His bride—then, brothers and sisters, what can you do but commit yourself to it?
To say that we are committed to Christ and not committed to the body of Christ means something is missing.
Again, I say, if we are committed to anything other than Christ, we are on the wrong path. If ever we are committed, it has to be to Christ—a continuation and extension of Christ. It should not be in conflict with Christ.
In other words, the more you are committed, the more you will find you are committed to Christ. If the more you are committed, the more you find yourself in conflict with Christ, something is drastically wrong. Get out of it.
This is what commitment really is.
Brothers and sisters, we are not asking you to commit yourself to anything other than Christ. Just commit yourself to Christ, and as you commit yourself to Christ, you will find yourself committed to that which is of Christ.
Otherwise, something is missing. In other words, we can become so spiritualized that we fail to be practical.
Now look at Paul again. If you read his writings, you will find how he knew Christ, how he held fast the Head.
Oh, if you just read Ephesians, you will find that he tells us the mystery of God’s will. What is the mystery of God’s will? To sum up all things in Christ—the things in the heavens, the things on the earth, the things under the earth—all things summed up in Christ.
Ephesians 1:22-23 tells us that God made Christ Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.
In Colossians, Christ is the exact image of God, the Firstborn of all creation; for in Him all things were created, through Him, for Him, and unto Him.
And what does he teach about the church, the body of Christ? You would be amazed. On the one hand, he told the Corinthian believers, “I have something to share with you that I could not share because you are still immature.” You remember that?
And yet, even though he could not share with them, he still shared it. Is that not wonderful? Because it was in his heart. It was too full.
In 1 Corinthians 12, that wonderful chapter on the body, what does he say? He says, “Do you not know that there is only one body but many members? And even though the members are many, yet one body—so also is the Christ.”
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free;
and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
The eye cannot say to the ear, “I do not need you.” The hand cannot say to the foot, “I do not need you.” How all the members of the body need one another.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it. We are the body of Christ, and members severally.
Brothers and sisters, what is this? This is the church, the body of Christ.
And if you are a member of the body, can you not be committed to that body? Impossible. And that is the reason why you find chapter 13, love, and chapter 14, functioning—wonderful chapters.
Brothers and sisters, do we see this? By what sign do we know that we are committed?
How do I know that I am committed to Christ? I know I am committed to Christ if I obey Him.
Paul said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” In other words, he obeyed Christ. Now, if you really are committed to Christ and you do not obey Him, what is your commitment?
Oh, you say, “I am committed to Him,” but when Christ says something, you say, “No, Lord. No, Lord. Not so, Lord.” Is that commitment?
The only way to prove your commitment to Christ is that you obey Him—whatever He says.
If you still can choose whether to obey Him or not obey Him—if you obey Him in the things that you agree with and disobey Him in the things that you do not agree with—then what is your commitment?
You are a double-souled person, and a double-souled person is unsettled in all his ways, says James.
The one sign of our commitment to Christ is obedience. And throughout the Scripture I can illustrate case after case, but I have no time to do that—how obedience is the sign of commitment to the Lord.
All right, what is the sign of our commitment to the body of Christ? Love. Love. Love.
You remember, on the last day before His betrayal, when our Lord Jesus gathered with His disciples for that last Passover supper, the Lord rose from the table, took off His robe, girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin, and washed the feet of His disciples.
That is the lesson behind it. He said, “As I have loved you, love ye one another.”
The Lord loves His body. He sanctifies His body by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that it may be holy and without blemish.
He loved His own, and He loved them unto the uttermost. That is commitment. He is committed to you and me. He is committed to the body of Christ to that extent.
He is determined. He is willing to cleanse us, to wash us, to sanctify us, to set us apart, to mature us, until we can be a glorious church to Him. He is committed to that. Thank God for that.
Now, are we committed to the body of Christ? Are we willing to love the brethren?
And by the love of the brethren, I do not mean that natural love. Natural love chooses whom to love. I mean the love of Christ, the love of God spread abroad in our hearts, that we love the brethren notwithstanding whether that brother is lovely or unlovely, whether he is peculiar.
Love the brethren. In loving the brethren, it is very practical. We want to see the body grow.
Brothers and sisters, oftentimes you hear people complain about love. “Oh,” they say, “there is no love there. People do not love enough.”
Remember, the one who is complaining does not know what love is, because love never demands. Love always gives.
If you are demanding, you do not know what love is. If you love, you give.
The Apostle John says in 1 John 3:16. I think John 3:16 we all know, but do we know 1 John 3:16?
Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us:
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Do we really love the brethren? That is, do we really love the body? You do not want to see the body hurt. You want to see the body grow, nourish it, cherish it. You are willing to lay down your lives for that body.
That is the sign of our commitment to the body of Christ.
Well, let me be very practical. You know, people can talk about the body of Christ and it is all in the air. “Oh, I love the body of Christ,” but where is it?
The body of Christ has its local expression on earth. In other words, we are committed to the body of Christ universal. That is true, and we shall never forget that vision—not just our little company. No, no. It is the body of Christ.
But the body of Christ has to be locally expressed. In other words, whenever there is a group of believers that are centered upon Christ and desiring to be an expression of Christ corporately, then, brothers and sisters, I will give myself to that group.
Remember, we are not committed to any group. Let me put it very emphatically: brothers and sisters, we are not asking you to commit yourself to this group. No. It is not worth it. It is not worth your commitment.
But we are asking you to commit yourself wherever a group of people is desiring to be an expression of Christ as His body. Then put yourself in it. Help to build it up.
On two conditions.
Number one: Is this a development, an outgrowth, a continuation, an outflowing of your commitment to Christ?
When you commit yourself to a group of people, is it because of your commitment to Christ? If it is not, do not commit yourself. Do not commit yourself to any group.
You will find today there are groups that demand your commitment even more than Christ demands. Or, to put it another way, they demand on you a total and complete commitment outside of Christ. That is a cult. Escape from it.
But, brothers and sisters, if you find a group of people who are really committed to Christ for the building of the body of Christ, then you need to be with them and be committed. Put yourself completely in it, because it is just an outgrowth of your commitment to Christ. There is no conflict.
If one day a conflict arises between your commitment to Christ and a commitment to a group, remember: Christ first.
Number two: On condition that these people with whom you are are really committed to Christ and to His body. When that changes, get out.
Why? Because, basically, it is commitment to Christ, not to any other group or any other person.
Today we find there are many people who are lost in this matter of commitment. We find there are many men, many groups, many systems, many organizations, that are demanding the full commitment that only Christ can have.
Brothers and sisters, only Christ is worthy of our total commitment. Nobody else.
But, as I say, because Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, therefore we love the church and we give ourselves for it. This is not another commitment. This is the continuation of our commitment to Christ, and this is the practical expression of our commitment.
I often hear people say, “We love you. We are with you in spirit.” But I often mourn and say, “How much better if you are also with us in body.”
Remember the early days, the early Christians? How they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer; and how they gathered together as one. They were all in one place.
They did not say, “I am with you in spirit,” but you never saw them. They were together in one place, and no one said that anything was his own. They shared all things in common.
People even sold their properties and gave to the poor according to needs. Now people say, “Well, is that not the Bible advocating communal life, or community life? Is Christ trying to set up a new social order?” Not at all.
Our Lord Jesus is not interested in setting up a new social order on this old earth. One day He will set up His new order in His kingdom. That is true. But for now, He is not interested in that.
What you find there is not an attempt to set up a new social order. It is to show us the expression of a new life. When a new life is there, people are so delivered from themselves and their self-possessiveness that they really love one another.
You know, there are people who are now advocating community life or commune life. And if you want to join them, they demand that you give up everything to them before you can join them.
You do not find that in the Scripture. There is no demand. There is no requirement. It is not required that all shall sell their properties. Now, you can keep them if you like—for the Lord. But if you are led by the Spirit, sell it.
There is no requirement upon anybody. It is just love—the love from above, the love of the brethren—that you find these things happening.
It is not communal life. They do not really live together as one, because the Bible emphasizes family life. It is not a new social order.
You find that only in Acts 2 and Acts 4, because God is not setting up a new social order. But you find the love of the brethren not only in the New Testament, but in these twenty centuries as the Spirit works.
Oh, brothers and sisters, love to the extent that we are willing to lay down our lives for our brethren, because Christ laid down His life for us.
Now, this is commitment. Do you dare to commit? Or, may I say, do you dare not to commit?
Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, we cry unto Thee: open our understanding, that we may know what commitment is; to whom should we commit; how should we commit.
Lord, deliver us from any error, any mistake. It is too serious, Lord. We do want to commit ourselves only to Thee and to Thy body. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.