We need to Bear the Truth by Learning and Practicing it in our Daily Church Life

As believers in Christ, we need to bear the truth by learning and practicing it in our daily church life.

When every brother and sister in the church life is full of life and truth, the church will be strong as the house of the living God and the pillar and base of the truth; we need to learn the truth and practice the truth in our daily life and in the chuch life so that we may arrive at the full knowledge of the truth.

We have seen two of the main functions of the church – the house of the living God and the pillar and base of the truth.

According to 1 Tim. 3:15, the church is both the house of the living God and the pillar and base of the truth.

What does it mean for the church to be the house of the living God?

First of all, that the church is the house of God means that the church is the dwelling place of God.

Secondly, that the church is the household of God means that the church is the family of God, God’s folks, and His spiritual people.

Thirdly, that the church is the house of the living God means that the living God has a living people who are one with Him and who move, work, and speak in oneness with Him.

This is the church as the house of the living God. This is God’s standard for the church.

For us to experience the church as the house of the living God, we need to enjoy the Lord as life.

First, we need to receive the divine life, for everyone in the house of God has God’s life.

Then, we need to grow in the divine life, enjoy Christ as life, and live by the divine life.

For us to experience the church as the pillar and base of the truth, we need to learn the truth and practice the truth in our daily life.

The Lord wants His people, the church, to know Him as the truth and to receive and enjoy Him as life.

Truth and life and inseparable, and they are two sides of the same thing, which is Christ Himself.

Christ is the truth and He is also the life. On one hand, He is the word of God, the very definition and explanation of God, and He is the reality.

On the other hand, Christ is the life; He came into us as life, He came so that we may have life and may have it abundantly, and today Christ is our life.

There’s nothing more subjective to us than our very life.

Through regeneration, we have received the divine life; Christ as life came into us.

How did we hear the gospel? Someone had to speak the truth.

By hearing the truth of the gospel, we believed into the Lord Jesus and were regenerated with the divine life.

Today we as the church are both the house of the living God where He lives and dwells, and the pillar and base of the truth, holding the truth and bearing the truth before the whole universe.

Being Full of Life and Truth to be the House of the Living God and the Pillar and Base of the Truth

It is very significant to see that, according to 1 Tim. 3:15, the church is the pillar and base of the truth.

This is not something simple for us to understand.

On one hand, the church is the house of the living God, and for this, we need to enjoy the Lord as life in our daily Christian life.

On the other hand, the church is the pillar and base of the truth, and for this we need to bear the truth, uphold the truth, and testify to the truth.

The truth we are speaking of here is not just doctrine; it is more than doctrine.

Truth is reality, the shining of the divine light on the doctrines in the Bible to make them real to us in our experience.

In other words, truth is reality, coming from knowledge of the Bible plus heavenly enlightenment and personal experience.

First, we read the Bible and exercise our mind to understand it.

Then, we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and receive the divine light.

When the divine light shines on God’s word, we see the truth and receive the truth.

Finally, our experience confirms and matches the truth in God’s word.

To see and obtain the truth as reality, we need to first spend time in the word of God to be nourished with the Lord and become familiar with the doctrines of the Bible.

We cannot just read the Bible mindlessly, just to finish our Bible reading schedule; we need to exercise our mind to understand the word and even commit the word to our memory.

Then, we need to contact the Lord and ask Him to shine on His word.

In our daily walk, we need to look to the Lord for enlightenment. He will shine on us and cause the word to become a reality to us and in us.

Then, we will gain reality, for we will have the Lord’s light shining on His word and we will also have the experience to match and confirm the word.

In this way, we have both life and truth. This is what we need today.

We need to both gain Christ as life and be constituted with Him as the truth.

The way we are constituted with the truth is not merely by memorizing the word of God or the spiritual portions that unpack and expound on the word of God.

It is by coming to the Lord to be enlightened by Him and by having the personal experience of the word of God.

We need to ask the Lord to speak to us, shine on us, and give us the experiences we need for us to have the truth and life constituted into our being.

When we have the truth and the life constituted into us, we will be the church as the house of the living God and as the pillar and base of the truth.

When every brother and sister is full of life and truth, the church will be strong as the house of God and the pillar and base of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). This is our need today.

May the Lord grant us the mercy and grace that we may come to Him again and again, remain in fellowship with Him, and be filled with life and truth.

May we pay the price to both contact the Lord throughout the day and remain in His word, even be constituted with the truth in God’s word, by having God’s shining on the word and by experiencing the Lord as the truth.

We all brothers and sisters in the church life need to be full of life and truth so that the church may be strong as the house of the living God and the pillar and base of the truth.

Lord Jesus, we want to be filled with life and truth! Amen, Lord, we come to You in Your word again and again to just contact You and be infused with You. Shine on us as we read and pray over Your word. We take Your word by means of all prayer and petition. We exercise our heart to love You and our mind to understand and apprehend Your word. We exercise our spirit to contact You. Enlighten us, Lord. Shine on the truth in Your word and make it real to us. We want to have a daily walk in Christ, looking to Him for enlightenment. Amen, Lord, grant us the experiences we need so that the divine truth may be wrought into our being and the divine life would grow in us. May all the brothers and sisters be full of life and truth so that the church may be strong as the house of the living God and as the pillar and base of the truth!

We are Responsible to Bear the Truth – we need to Learn the Truth and Practice it

The church is the pillar and base of the truth; the church bears the truth, upholds the truth, and testifies to the truth in this universe.

Just as a base supports the pillar and the pillar upholds the building, so the church bears and upholds the truth in this universe.

This is a function of the church.

Many believers think that it is the leading ones, the elders, those who serve God full time, who should uphold the truth.

However, nowhere in the Bible does it say that it is the apostles, the elders, and the leading ones among God’s people who should bear the truth; rather, it is the church, the whole church, who is the pillar and base of the truth.

This means that we all, you and me as brothers and sisters in the Lord, are responsible for bearing the truth.

We should not think that we don’t know that much, we did not memorize a lot of verses, and we don’t really know how to explain this or that from the Bible, so we defer our function of bearing the truth to others. Each one of us is responsible to bear the truth.

Every brother and sister as members of the Body of Christ and components of the church need to bear the truth.

What does it mean to bear the truth? An example of this is in Gal. 2:11-14 where Paul stood for the truth, even if this meant that he had to stand up to Peter.

Peter was a more mature apostle, compared to Paul, but he did something that was contrary to the truth.

Before some of the Jews came from Jerusalem, Peter ate with the Gentile believers, but when they came, he stopped doing this.

Peter was shrinking back and did not do this according to the truth. So Paul rebuked Peter, even though Peter was older and more experienced than him.

In this way, Paul was bearing the truth. Like Paul, we need to bear the truth; it is our responsibility to bear the truth.

First, we need to come to the full knowledge of the truth, paying the price to learn the truth and practice the truth in our daily life (1 Tim. 2:4; 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1).

We need to not only know the truth in doctrines but even more, we learn the truth and we practice the truth in the daily church life.

We bear the truth by speaking the truth to one another.

When we meet with the saints or shepherd the new ones, we speak the truth to them.

May we be saved from the thought of letting the elders and more mature ones function in the church and bear the truth, while we sit down and listen.

None of the members of the Body should be non-functioning; rather, we all need to function in our measure in the Lord.

If the saints in a local church do not bear the truth but rely on the strong ones or the elders to do it, that church will not be strong. Such a church is poor.

For the church to be strong, every brother and sister must know the truth, come to the full knowledge of the truth, and practice the truth.

Even the young ones need to know the truth by learning the truth and practicing the truth.

When we’re in the meetings of the church and someone shares something of the truth, we need to listen and discern whether or not he is speaking according to the truth (1 Cor. 14:29).

The church is the pillar and base of the truth; this implies that every member of the church should know the truth.

May we all make a decision to learn the truth.

For the sake of the testimony of the church and also for the sake of the spreading of the church to new localities, there’s the need for leading ones who can bear responsibility.

Also, there’s the need for us to rise up and learn the truth and practice the truth in the church life.

When we bear the truth, we will also bear the responsibility to spread the truth.

Then, our Christian life and church life will be brought up to God’s standard for the church.

Praise the Lord, we in the church life in the Lord’s recovery are heading toward God’s standard for the church!

And He is bringing us on, bringing us up-to-date with Him, so that the local churches would be strong, hold God’s word and not deny His name, so that God would have a pillar and base of the truth in this universe! Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to learn the truth and practice the truth in our daily church life. We aspire to arrive at the full knowledge of the truth so that we may be the pillar and base of the truth. Amen, Lord, cause us to see our responsibility to bear the truth. Save us from thinking only the elders and responsible ones should bear the truth. May we all rise up and come to the full knowledge of the truth by learning the truth and practicing the truth in our daily church life. Amen, Lord Jesus, may all the local churches be strong in the truth by all the saints learning the truth and practicing the truth. May we all bear the truth and uphold the truth! Bring us up-to-date with You in the matter of the truth. May all the local churches be brought up to God’s standard concerning the church! Amen, Lord, gain the church as the house of the living God and as the pillar and base of the truth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1978, vol. 2, “Crucial Principles for the Christian Life and the Church Life,” pp. 618-620, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living and Serving According to God’s Economy Concerning the Church (2023 fall ITERO), week 8, entitled, The Function of the Church (1) The House of the Living God and the Pillar and Base of the Truth.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Pillar of the Truth, unto New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The reality of the house of God being the reality of the Body of Christ, a portion from, A General Outline of God’s Economy and the Proper Living of a God-Man, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
  – Being Constituted with the Truth for the Church to be the Pillar and Base of the Truth with All the Saints Being Responsible to Uphold the Truth, outline via, The Local Church in Toronto.
  – The pillar and base of the truth, a portion from, Life Messages, Vol. 1 (#1-41), Chapter 18, by Witness Lee.
  – The Faithful and Diligent Spreading of the Truth, LSM newsletter, Having this ministry.
  – Preaching the gospel, teaching the truth, and ministering life, a portion from, Elders’ Training, Book 04: Other Crucial Matters Concerning the Practice of the Lord’s Recovery, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – In daily walk and in our meetings too, / Christ is the center, Christ is everything; / ’Tis not for form nor doctrine good and true, / But ’tis for Christ alone we’re gathering. / Christ is the way and Christ the light of life, / In Him we walk and by Him we are led; / Christ is the living water and the food; / Of Him we drink and we with Him are fed. (Hymns #863 stanzas 1-2)
  – Thou in the Word art the Spirit and life, / Thus by the Word I may feed upon Thee; / Thou dost as Spirit in my spirit live, / Thus I may drink in the spirit of Thee. / Now to enjoy Thee I come to Thy Word, / On Thee to feed till my hunger is o’er. / Now in my spirit I turn unto Thee, / Of Thee to drink till I’m thirsty no more. (Hymns #811 stanzas 5-6)
  – When to messages I listen, / I must pray them in; / Thus the word will be digested / From within. / When the Word of God I study, / I must touch the Lord; / If in mind and not in spirit, / Dead is the Word. / O what riches, O what glory / In the Spirit shine! / When I exercise my spirit, / All are mine. (Hymns #612 stanzas 406)