Standing on the Unique Ground of God’s Choice to be the Testimony of God in Oneness

This week we want to enjoy a sweet, soothing, flavorful, and aromatic word in God’s word on Jehovah’s commanded blessing of life on brothers who dwell together in oneness, and today in particular we want to see the unique ground of God’s choice – the ground of oneness.

Psalms 133-134 are so sweet and wonderful, and they show us how God pours out His blessing upon the saints who dwell together in oneness, that is, on the saints living the proper church life today.

Before we get into these Psalms, we want to see the unique ground of God’s choice, which is Jerusalem in the Old Testament and the genuine ground of oneness – the ground of locality – in the New Testament.

The unique ground of Jerusalem, the place where the temple as God’s dwelling place was built on Mount Zion, typifies the unique ground of God’s choice, the ground of oneness (see Deut. 12:5; 2 Chron. 6:5-6; Ezra 1:2-3).

Both Deut. 12 and Psa. 133 in the Old Testament, and John 17 and Eph. 4 in the New Testament are portions speaking of oneness. In Deut. 12 in particular God commanded the children of Israel to destroy all the places where the nations in Canaan would serve their gods, and wipe out the names of those gods from those places.

The first thing is that the paganistic land is filled with idolatry and abomination and evil, and God wants His people to remove and destroy these places – this is on the negative side. On the positive side, Jehovah God chose a unique place where He would put His name, and to that place the people of Israel had to go to worship Him, build His altar, and feast together.

It is in the unique ground of God’s choice that the people of Israel could erect an altar, bring the top tenth of the produce offer the burnt offering, render God the genuine worship, and keep a feast to God.

The choosing of one place for all the twelve tribes is not about the people’s convenience, but it is the unique ground of God’s choice for the oneness of the people to be kept. This implies that in the original situation there were idols, trees under which there were altars, and other gods – this was a picture of division, and the Babylonian principle was at work there.

The land of Canaan was filled with idolatry, mixture, abomination, and uncleanness, which God hates. But God has chosen a place where He can meet with His people in oneness.

This place – the unique ground of God’s choice – has been lost throughout the ages, but the Lord is recovering it – starting with the Moravian brothers, then with the Brethren, and then with us, the saints in the Lord’s recovery today.

Without the ground of oneness there is no church life and no recovery of the church. This place, the genuine ground of oneness – the unique ground of God’s choice – is the ground that keeps us one.

We do treasure the foundation of the church, which is Christ, and we also treasure the ground of the church, the site where the church is built – and this site is oneness!

This oneness is not an ecumenical oneness or an organisational harmony; rather, this oneness is the oneness of the Triune God Himself. When we are united, joined, mingled, and incorporated with the Triune God, we have the oneness – God Himself enlarges His oneness to include us in the divine oneness, and we experience it and express it on the unique ground of God’s choice!

Standing on the Unique Ground of God’s Choice to be the Testimony of God in Oneness

In the ancient times all the people of Israel came together three times a year at Jerusalem, according to God’s ordination; it was by this unique place of worship to God – Jerusalem – that the oneness of His people was kept for generations (see Deut. 12:5; 16:16).

Then, after the children of Israel returned from the captivity in Babylon, they came back to this unique ground of God’s choice, Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple of God (His dwelling place) and the city of God (His kingdom).

The return of Israel to Jerusalem was crucial in four main points:

1. It recovered the purpose of God’s calling Israel to make them His testimony according to His law (see footnote 1 on Exo. 20:1 in the Recovery Version Bible);
2. It recovered the oneness of Israel on the unique ground of Jerusalem (Deut. 12:5, 11-14);
3. It recovered Israel’s enjoyment of the good land promised by God;
4. It allowed God to fulfill His intention of having His house built and His kingdom established on the Satan-usurped earth in order to carry out His eternal economy through Israel’s participation in and enjoyment of the good land.

These items typify today’s church life, which is a recovery of the church out of captivity in the great Babylon (Rev. 17:1-6) and back to the unique ground of God’s choice, the ground of oneness.

The only way our oneness as God’s people can be kept is by giving up any other ground and returning to the ground of God’s choice, the unique ground which the Lord has chosen, which is the genuine ground of oneness, the ground of locality.

For example, the church in Corinth was a genuine church in God’s eyes and according to the apostle Paul; he calls it, The church of God which is in Corinth.

In 1 Cor. 1:2-3 we see five main characteristics or features of a genuine church in God’s eyes:

1. A genuine church is the church of God – it belongs to God, it is saturated with God, and it has the element of God, with His divine nature.
2. A genuine church is the church in a locality – practically, the church is local, one church in each locality, a church standing on the genuine ground of oneness.
3. A genuine church is sanctified in Christ – the word of Christ sanctifies the saints in the church, and Christ Himself sets them aside from the world and saturates them with His holy nature.
4. A genuine church is composed of the called saints – the components of the church is the saints; all believers are saints called out by God to be part of the church.
5. A genuine church has fellowship with all those who call on the name of the Lord in every place – the local church should not be and cannot be individualistic or “autonomous”; rather, a genuine local church has fellowship with all the other saints and all the other churches around the world.

No matter what the condition of the church is, as long as we stand on the unique ground of God’s choice – the genuine ground of oneness – we are in the right location for the church to be built up, for the kingdom of God to come in, and for God to gain His corporate expression on earth.

Lord Jesus, keep us on the genuine ground of oneness – the unique place of God’s choice. May we be part of the church of God which meets on the ground of oneness in the locality we live in, the church sanctified in Christ Jesus and composed of the called saints. Amen, Lord, we give up our choice and preference, we return to the pure revelation in Your word, and we stand on the ground of Your choice, to be one with You and one with the saints for Your testimony on the earth today!

The Proper Ground of Oneness ordained by God is the Unique Ground of One Church for one City

According to the principle set forth in the Old Testament, the unique ground of God’s choice is the proper ground of oneness for His people, and in the New Testament this ground is the unique ground of one church for one city, one church for one locality (see Rev. 1:11).

In His wisdom, God is keeping the church as His people one, and as long as we keep this principle, we are not scattered and divided but rather practice the oneness and the one accord.

Yes, the church is out of Christ, the church is Christ, and the church is constituted of the universal God together with all His people, but at the same time the church exists on earth in many localities practically.

In nature the church is universal in God, and in practice the church is local in a definite place – the church in Corinth, the church in Jerusalem, the church in Antioch, the church in Ephesus, etc.

There are therefore two aspects of the church: the universal aspect and the local aspect; without the universal aspect, the church is void of content, and without the local aspect, it is impossible for the church to have any expression and practice.

When the Bible speaks of the church, it mentions both the universal church (see Matt. 16:18, I will build My church) and the local church (see 1 Cor. 1:2, the church … in Corinth). This means that the church in Corinth, for example, remains in the locality of Corinth and takes this locality as its standing, ground, and jurisdiction for its administration in business affairs.

There was a physical, particular, local church where Paul could write an epistle, who was composed of all the believers in Christ who lived in Corinth. The church in Corinth was not a church “in the heavens” but a church in a city called Corinth to be the local testimony of Christ in that city.

This local testimony is a part of the universal testimony of Christ. For example, since I live in London, there is only one church in the entire city of London – even though London may have more than 10 million people living here.

There is only one testimony in the entire city of London, and this local testimony is a part of the universal testimony of Christ. For us to be one and keep the unique ground of God’s choice, which is the unique ground of one church for one locality, we need to drop our concepts, ideas, preferences, and desires, and meet as one church in the locality where the Lord has placed us.

We need to realize that, on one hand, the church is possessed by God and has God as its nature and essence, and so the church is divine, general, universal, and eternal; on the other hand, the church is expressed in a definite locality, in a city, and takes the boundaries of that locality as its standing, ground, and jurisdiction in time and space.

Without the universal aspect, the church is void of content; without the local aspect, it is impossible for the church to have any expression and practice; the record concerning the establishment of the church in its locality is consistent throughout the New Testament – Acts 8:1; 13:1; 14:23; Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 8:1; Gal. 1:2; Rev. 1:4, 11.

At the same time, we in the local churches all over the earth are fellowshipping not only with the saints in our locality but we blend, we visit, we fellowship with other saints and other churches.

Without having fellowship with other churches, we become a local sect, but when we are related with all the saints who call upon on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in every place around the globe, we are kept in the unique oneness of the Body of Christ.

Thank You Lord for placing us in a particular locality to meet with the saints in that locality as the local church in that locality, the local expression of the universal Body of Christ. We want to stand on the proper ground of oneness ordained by God – the unique ground of one church for one locality, and we want to fellowship with all the saints who call on Your name in every place. Praise the Lord for the local church, and praise the Lord for the universal church, the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, A Genuine Church (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 6, Jehovah’s Commanded Blessing of Life on Brothers Who Dwell Together in Oneness.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The Church within the universe / Is one as Christ’s possession; / The Church must therefore locally / Be one in her expression; / For all her elements are one – / One God, one Lord, one Spirit, / One faith, baptism, Body too, / One hope all saints inherit. (Hymns #831)
  # Burning, burning, we are burning, / Ever to our spirits turning, / One for Thine eternal purpose, / in spirit one; / On the ground of locality, / We express our unity— / Many members, but one Body, / Christ as our Head. / Christ and the local church, / Christ and the local church, / Christ and the church, / Our reality and life. (Hymns #1266)
  # There’s a church in New York City, / Honoring the risen Christ; / Caring for the other churches— / Following in truth and light; / With them in coordination, / We the kingdom will possess; / Fighting as one mighty army, / Till the kingdom’s manifest. (The name of the city may be replaced with other names – Hymns #1263)