Love One Another

211 Pages·2003·0.91 MB·English

by  Watchman Nee

Basic Lesson Series—Volume 6
Love One Another

W N
ATCHMAN EE

Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc.
New York
Copyright ©1975
Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc.
New York
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 0-935008-10-1

Available from the Publishers at:
11515 Allecingie Parkway
Richmond, Virginia 23235
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
Basic Lesson Series—Volume 6
CONTENTS
39. GOVERNMENTAL FORGIVENESS 5
40. THE DISCIPLINE OF GOD 25
41. RESIST THE DEVIL 43
42. HEAD COVERING 69
43. THE WAY OF THE CHURCH 91
44. ONENESS 115
45. LOVE THE BRETHREN 137
46. PRIESTHOOD 157
47. THE BODY OF CHRIST 173
48. THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH 191
BASIC LESSONS
ON
PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN LIVING
Burdened with the need of a firm foundation for the Christian life,
brother Watchman Nee gave a series of basic lessons on practical
Christian living during the training session for workers held in
Kuling, Foochow, China in 1948. He expressed the hope that these
essential lessons might be faithfully learned by God’s people,
thereby laying a good foundation for the building up of the Body of
Christ.
These messages on practical Christian living have now been
translated from the Chinese language and will be published in a
series of six books, bearing the various titles of: (1) A Living
Sacrifice; (2) The Good Confession; (3) Assembling Together; (4)
Not I, But Christ; (5) Do All to the Glory of God; and (6) Love One
Another.
“Exercise thyself unto godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7), is the exhortation
of the apostle Paul. May our hearts be so exercised by God’s Word
as to give the Holy Spirit opportunity to perfect the new creation.
All quotations of the Scriptures, unless otherwise indicated, are
from the American Standard Version of the Bible (1901).
39 GOVERNMENTAL
39
FORGIVENESS
There are four kinds of forgiveness in
the Bible. For convenience’ sake, we shall
give each a name: first, eternal forgiveness;
second, borrowed forgiveness; third, communional forgiveness; and
fourth, governmental forgiveness. In order to walk uprightly, we
need to learn what God’s governmental forgiveness is. Before we
touch on this, however, let us first differentiate the four kinds of
forgiveness.
Eternal Forgiveness
We call the forgiveness we receive at the time we are saved
eternal forgiveness. This is the forgiveness of which the Lord Jesus
spoke when He said, “Repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem”
(Lk. 24:47). This is also what Romans 4:7 refers to: “Blessed are
they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”
We call this kind of forgiveness eternal forgiveness because once
God forgives our sins, He forgives them forever. He casts our sins
into the sea, into the depths of the sea, so that He no longer sees nor
remembers them. Such is the forgiveness we receive at the time of
salvation. For us who believe in the Lord Jesus, He forgives all our
sins and takes away all our iniquities so that before God none are
left. This is eternal forgiveness.
Borrowed Forgiveness
Many times God Himself says, “I forgive you!” Sometimes,
though, He declares His forgiveness through the church: “God has
6 Love One Another
forgiven your sins!” This kind of forgiveness we term borrowed
forgiveness. “And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and
saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit: whose soever sins ye
forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain,
they are retained” (John 20:22-23). Here the Lord gives His Holy
Spirit to the church so that she may represent Him on earth and be
His vessel to forgive people’s sins. Though we call this borrowed
forgiveness, we need to exercise extreme care lest we fall into the
error of the Roman Catholic church. Notice what the Lord said. The
forgiveness here is based on the Lord’s breathing upon the church,
saying, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” The consequence of receiving
the Holy Spirit is that the church knows whose sins are retained and
whose are forgiven. Thus the church may declare whose sins are
retained and whose sins are forgiven. Remember this: the church has
such authority only because she herself is under the authority of the
Holy Spirit. “Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto
them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained”—these words
come after “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” Borrowed forgiveness is
God forgiving people’s sins through the channel of the church.
Sometimes we meet a sinner who feels guilty after hearing the
gospel. We bring him to God and he confesses that he is a sinner. He
asks God to forgive his sins. He cries, he sheds tears, he repents and
honestly receives the Lord Jesus. But, being a heathen, he knows
nothing of the truth of salvation. If, at this moment, there is someone
who can represent the church and declare to him, “God has forgiven
your sins!”, this would be an excellent thing to do, for it would spare
him much sorrow and many doubts. Whenever you see a person who
has truly believed, you can tell him, “Today you have received the
Lord; now you may thank God, for He has already forgiven your
sins.” If the church cannot forgive or retain sins, how can she decide
who may be baptized and who may not? Why do you baptize some
people and refuse to baptize others? Why do you receive some to the
breaking of bread and refuse others? These are instances in which the
church exercises the authority the Lord has given her to declare who
GOVERNMENTAL FORGIVENESS 7
is saved and who is not saved, whose sins are forgiven and whose
sins are retained. Such words may not be idly spoken but only under
the authority of the Holy Spirit. The church, having received the
Holy Spirit, is under His authority, and is thus like a borrowed hand
to God. The Lord borrows the hand of the church to declare whose
sins are forgiven and whose sins are retained. This, then, is the
second kind of forgiveness in the Bible: instead of forgiving sins
directly, God uses the hand of the church to forgive people’s sins. In
eternal forgiveness, God directly forgives sins, but in borrowed
forgiveness, God announces His forgiveness by man’s hand.
Communional Forgiveness
What is communional forgiveness? “But if we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7-9). “My little children,
these things write I unto you that ye may not sin. And if any man sin,
we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and
he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for
the whole world” (2:1-2). The forgiveness mentioned here is neither
that which we received at the time of salvation nor that which the
church extends to us. After we believe in the Lord and become God’s
children, we still may have need of God’s forgiveness. We have
∗
mentioned this before as the forgiveness of the red heifer. Though
we have received eternal forgiveness, we may weaken and once
again sin before the Lord, thus interrupting our fellowship with God.
So, once again we need forgiveness.

∗
Volume 4, Not I But Christ, Lesson 22
8 Love One Another
Life has a special characteristic—it delights in fellowship. Or, as
biology students know, we may say that life has two basic features:
self-preservation—to keep oneself alive and away from death, for
life fears to die; and fellowship—the fear of being isolated. If you put
a chicken alone in one place, it will show boredom; but if you put
many chickens together, they will manifest great liveliness. A man
imprisoned in solitary confinement suffers greatly because of being
unable to communicate with other people. Man, like other living
creatures, desires to preserve his own life as well as to have
fellowship with others.
For you who have trusted in the blood of the Lord Jesus, the life
preservation problem is already solved. You have no more trouble
because you are eternally saved and your sins are eternally forgiven.
But there may be trouble in another respect. If you sin against God
after you are saved, your fellowship with God as well as with God’s
children may be disturbed. What does this mean? Let us use an
example: after her mother has gone out, a girl steals into the kitchen
and, without permission, eats some goodies. When she is finished
eating, she wipes her mouth clean, cleans off the table, and closes the
kitchen door. But she has already committed a sin! Usually she and
her mother have very intimate fellowship in the evenings, but tonight
it cannot be the same. When her mother calls her from upstairs, her
heart jumps downstairs! She thinks that her mother is going to beat
her. Even when her mother gives supper to her, she cannot enjoy the
food. She is afraid that her mother has discovered what she did. All
evening she tries to evade her mother. As you can see, her fellowship
with her mother is disturbed. Of course, just because she has stolen
some food does not mean that she is no longer a daughter. No, she is
still a daughter, but the fellowship with her mother has been
disturbed. Likewise, not because you have sinned have you ceased to
be God’s child; you are still His child, though your sin has caused
your fellowship with Him to be immediately interrupted. No longer
is your conscience without offense, and, to enjoy uninterrupted
GOVERNMENTAL FORGIVENESS 9
fellowship with God, you must have a clear conscience. When one’s
conscience is offended, fellowship with God becomes impossible.
God’s children will not lose their position as His children because
of sin, but they will certainly lose their fellowship with Him.
Therefore, God has provided a kind of forgiveness which we call
communional forgiveness. Why do we call it communional
forgiveness? Because by coming to God and confessing your sin, you
may have your communion and fellowship with God restored.
Otherwise you have no way of having your fellowship restored. You
cannot pray, you cannot even say “Amen” to another’s prayer. What
then can you do? What should the girl in our parable do? She must
come to her mother and confess that she has stolen food which she
should not have. She needs to learn to stand on her mother’s side of
the matter and say that she has sinned. She must call sin by its proper
name and say, “Please forgive my sin!” In like manner, we must
come to God and confess that we have sinned against Him in a
certain matter and ask His forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” Such forgiveness is not connected to eternal
salvation but is related to fellowship with God. Therefore, we call it
communional forgiveness.
Governmental Forgiveness
There is still another kind of forgiveness which we call
governmental forgiveness. This kind of forgiveness is seen in the
following Bible passages: Matt. 9:2, 5-6; James 5:15 and Matt. 6:14-
15, 18, 21-35.
What is God’s governmental forgiveness? I am convinced that if I
had known the government of God immediately following my
salvation, I would have been spared many troubles and problems.
10 Love One Another
The parable of the girl may be continued here: formerly the
mother always left the doors in the house open, including the
cupboard door and the kitchen door. She never locked the cupboard
in which she put food. But this time, when she came home, she
discovered that some of the food in the cupboard had been eaten.
Now that the mother knows what has happened, the girl is forced to
confess her sin and ask for forgiveness. The mother forgives her and
even kisses her. The incident is considered past and the fellowship is
restored. However, next time the mother leaves the house, she locks
all the doors. Her way of doing things has changed. Fellowship is
one thing, but government is quite another.
What is government? Government is a way. God’s government is
God’s way, God’s administration. The mother may forgive the girl’s
sin and restore their fellowship, but next time she will lock both the
cupboard and the kitchen doors when she goes out. In other words,
she has changed her way. To restore fellowship is easy, but to restore
the way is not so easy. The mother is afraid that her daughter may do
it again. She cannot give the daughter full liberty but has to put on
some restraints. Her way has changed. Remember, God treats us in a
similar manner. Communional forgiveness is relatively easy to get.
He who sincerely confesses his sin will have his fellowship restored.
At the moment he confesses his sin, God restores fellowship with
him. Nevertheless, God may change His way toward him. It may be
that God’s discipline will immediately come upon him; God may not
give him as much liberty as he enjoyed before.
Again, another day may come when God removes His disciplinary
hand—and this we call governmental forgiveness. In the case of the
mother, this would mean that the day comes when she feels her
daughter is now dependable, so she leaves the doors unlocked. This
is governmental forgiveness.
Communional forgiveness is one thing, governmental forgiveness
is quite another. Another example of this would be a father who has