Footnotes

Neither faith nor love are ours

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That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love. (Eph. 3:17)

“To experience Christ we need faith and love (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith enables us to apprehend Christ, and love enables us to enjoy Him. Neither faith nor love are ours; they are His. His faith becomes our faith, by which we believe in Him, and His love becomes our love, by which we love Him. When we are rooted and grounded in His love, we grow and are built up in His life.”

(Ep 3:17, footnote 4)

Why do we need to pass through afflictions and persecutions?

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We ourselves boast in you among the churches of God concerning your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions which you bear,
A plain indication of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which also you suffer. (2 Thes. 1:4-5)

Establishing the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)

“The believers have been called into God’s kingdom and glory (1 Thes. 2:12). To enter into this kingdom, we need to pass through afflictions (Acts 14:22). Hence, the persecutions and afflictions are a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment, showing that we may be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God.”

(2 Thes. 1:5, footnote 2)

What is the difference between living for the Lord and living to Him?

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And He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised. (2 Cor. 5:15)

“Living to the Lord is deeper in significance than living for the Lord. Living for the Lord implies that I and the Lord are still two; living to the Lord indicates that I am one with the Lord, as the wife is one with the husband in married life.”

(2 Cor. 5:15, footnote 2)

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Verses about the church in certain localities being in a house

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“Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. And greet the 1church, which is in their 2house.” (Romans 16:3-5a)

Rom 16:51 church
The church in Prisca and Aquila’s house must have been the church in Rome. When they were living in Ephesus (Acts 18:18-19), the church in Ephesus was in their house (1 Cor. 16:19). Wherever they were, they were willing to bear the burden of the practice of the church by opening their home.

Rom 16:52 house
Showing that the early saints met primarily in their houses. Such a practice corresponds with Acts 2:46 (see note 3 there) and 5:42.

“Aquila and Prisca greet you much in the Lord, with the 1church, which is in their house.” (1 Cor. 16:19b)

1 Cor. 16:191 church
This means that when Aquila and Prisca lived in Ephesus, the church there met in their home (Acts 18:18-19, 26). When they lived in Rome, the church in Rome met in their home (Rom. 16:5; cf. Col. 4:15-16; Philem. 2).

“Greet the brothers in Laodicea, as well as Nymphas and the 1church, which is in his house.” (Col. 4:15)

Col. 4:151 church
The church in the house of Nymphas was the local church in Laodicea, which met in Nymphas’s house. Such meetings in the saints’ homes afford every attending believer the opportunity to function, and they also strengthen the mutual fellowship among the saints.

“And to 1Apphia the sister and to 1Archippus our fellow soldier and to the 2church, which is in your house” (Philem. 2)

Philem. 21 Apphia and Archippus
According to the familial nature of this Epistle, Apphia must have been Philemon’s wife, and Archippus, his son.

Philem. 22 church
Philemon lived in Colossae (v. 2 cf. Col. 4:17; v. 10 cf. Col. 1:2; 4:9) and according to history was an elder of the church there. It must have been that the church in Colossae met in his house. Hence, it was the church in his house.

The house in Bethany was a miniature of the church life

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“Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” (John 12:1)

Bethany means house of affliction. At this point the Lord was outside Judaism. Through His resurrection life He had gained a house in Bethany where He could feast and have rest and satisfaction. This house of feasting was a miniature of the church life and depicted the situation of the church:

  1. Produced by the resurrection life — Lazarus (11:43-44);
  2. Composed of cleansed sinners — Simon the leper (Mark 14:3);
  3. Outwardly afflicted — Bethany;
  4. Inwardly feasting in and with the presence of the Lord (v. 2);
  5. Having more sisters than brothers (vv. 2-3);
  6. Having members with different functions:
    • Serving — Martha
    • Testifying — Lazarus
    • Loving — Mary (vv. 2-3);
  7. Spotted by the false one — Judas (v. 4);
  8. Persecuted by religion (v. 10);
  9. Being a test and exposing people (vv. 6, 10); and
  10. Bringing in many believers (v. 11).

(John 12:1, footnote 1)

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How should we meet according to God’s economy?

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“And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the 1temple and 2breaking bread from 3house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and 4simplicity of heart” (Acts 2:46)

Acts 2:461 temple
In the initiation of God’s New Testament economy, the early believers and even the first group of apostles were not clear that God had forsaken Judaism with its practices and facilities, including the temple (see Matt. 23:38 — “your house,” referring to the God-forsaken temple). Hence, according to their tradition and habit, they still went to the temple for their New Testament meeting.

Acts 2:462 breaking
The early believers remembered the Lord by breaking bread daily in their houses; this showed their love and enthusiasm toward the Lord.

Acts 2:463 house
Or, at home; in contrast to in the temple. Meeting in homes as the Christian way of meeting together is fitting to God’s New Testament economy. This way differs from the Judaic way of meeting in the synagogues (6:9). It became a continual and general practice in the churches (cf. Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2).

Acts 2:464 simplicity
Or, singleness; describing the heart’s being simple, single, and plain, having one love and desire and one goal in seeking after the Lord.

“Now Peter and John were going up into the 1temple at the ninth-hour prayer” (Acts 3:1)

See note 461 in ch. 2 [above]. It was not only the early believers who were not clear concerning God’s New Testament economy in relation to the Judaic temple; even the early apostles did not have a clear vision concerning God’s abandoning of the Judaic things. Hence, even after God poured out the Spirit upon them on the day of Pentecost to initiate a new dispensation, they still would not separate themselves from the Judaic temple. At the initial stage God tolerated their ignorance in this matter. But this led to a mixture of the church with Judaism, which was not condemned by the early church in Jerusalem (cf. 21:20-26). Eventually, the temple was destroyed by Titus with his Roman army in A.D. 70, as prophesied by the Lord in Matt. 23:38 and 24:2. That destruction cleared up the religious mixture.

All religions are old wineskins

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“Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matt. 9:17)

“The old wineskins signify religious practices, such as the fasting maintained by the Pharisees, who were of the old religion, and by the disciples of John, who were of the new religion. All religions are old wineskins. New wine put into old wineskins bursts the wineskins by the power of its fermenting. To put new wine into old wineskins is to put Christ as the exciting life into any kind of religion. This is what the so-called fundamentalists and Pentecostalists are practicing today. They attempt to squeeze Christ into their different modes of religious ritual, formality, and practice. The kingdom people should never do this. They must put the new wine into fresh wineskins.”

(Matthew 9:17, note 2)

Overview of the New Testament

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“In the Gospels is the Christ who lived on the earth and died on the cross for the accomplishing of redemption.

In the Acts is the resurrected and ascended Christ propagated and ministered to men.

In Romans is the Christ who is our righteousness for justification and our life for sanctification, transformation, conformation, glorification, and building up.

In Galatians is the Christ who enables us to live a life that is versus the law, religion, tradition, and forms.

In Philippians is the Christ who is lived out of His members.

In Ephesians and Colossians is the Christ who is the life, the content, and the Head of the Body, the church.

In 1 and 2 Corinthians is the Christ who is everything in the practical church life.

In 1 and 2 Thessalonians is the Christ who is our holiness for His coming back.

In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus is the Christ who is God’s economy, enabling us to know how to conduct ourselves in the house of God.

In [Hebrews] is the present Christ, who is now in the heavens as our Minister and our High Priest, ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power and sustaining us to live a heavenly life on earth.

In the Epistles of Peter is the Christ who enables us to take God’s governmental dealings administered through sufferings.

In the Epistles of John is the Christ who is the life and fellowship of the children of God in God’s family.

In Revelation is the Christ who is walking among the churches in this age, ruling over the world in the kingdom in the coming age, and expressing God in full glory in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.”

(Heb. 1:3 footnote 4)

Being willing to be weak in the Lord

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“For indeed He was crucified out of weakness, but He lives by the power of God. For indeed we are weak in Him, but we will live together with Him by the power of God directed toward you.” (2 Cor. 13:4)

“The apostles followed the pattern of Christ and were willing to be weak in the organic union with Him that they might live with Him a crucified life. Thus they would live together with Him by the power of God directed toward the believers. Apparently, they were weak toward the believers; actually they were powerful.”

(2 Cor. 13:4, note 3)

Each member of the Body needs the function of all the others

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“So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12:5)
“The purpose of God’s salvation is to have Christ reproduced in millions of saints that they may become the members of His Body, not separate and complete individual units but parts of a living, functioning, coordinated, corporate whole. Although these parts have different functions, they are not detached from one another. Rather, they are “individually members one of another.” Each member is organically joined to all the others, and each needs the function of all the others. All the members must be coordinated together to practice the Body life that is revealed in this chapter.”