The Normal Christian Church Life (#2) - Introduction

In the introduction to "The Normal Christian Church Life", Watchman Nee makes the case for how God cares, not only about our inner life with Him (the wine) but also about the expression of our corporate life in Him (the wineskin). He argues that God has not left it up to human ideas and preferences to determine how we are to live and walk together as His people and that the Scriptures show us what God desires related to this. The following are quotes from his book:

"We trust the readers of this book will bear in mind that its messages...were intended exclusively for the inner circle of my most intimate associates in the work, but by request we share our findings with the wider circle of all our brethren. The book is something private made public...so we trust our readers will pardon anything that seems unsuited to the wider public.

...The cross and resurrection, the Christ-life, the lordship of Jesus, the corporate life of the Body, the ground of the Kingdom of God and His eternal purpose...have been the burden of our ministry. But God's wine must have a wineskin to contain it. In the divine pattern, nothing is left for man to decide. God Himself has provided the best wineskin for His wine, which will contain and preserve it without loss, hindrance, or misrepresentation. He has shown us His wine, but His has shown us His wineskin also.

...the practical outworking of those truths (concerning the spiritual life of the believer and the eternal purpose of God) in the Lord's service is by no means unimportant. Without that, everything is in the realm of theory, and spiritual development is impossible. So we would seek, by the grace of God, not only to pass on His good wine, but also the wineskin He has provided for its preservation...

God demands both inward and outward purity. To have the outer without the inner is spiritual death, but to have the inner without the outer is only spiritualized life. And spiritualization is not spirituality. The leading of the Spirit is precious, but if there is no example in the Word, then it is easy to substitute our fallible thoughts and unfounded feelings for the Spirit's leading...God cannot lead a man one way in Acts and another way today. In externalities the leading may vary, but in principle it is always the same; for God's will is eternal, therefore changeless.

If we would understand the will of God concerning His Church, then we must not look to see how He led His people last year, or ten years ago, or a hundred years ago, but we must return to the beginning, to the 'genesis' of the Church, to see what He said and did then...Acts is the 'genesis' of the Church's history...It is the divine standard and our pattern for all time...

Christianity is built not only upon precepts, but also upon examples. God has revealed His will, not only by giving orders, but by having certain things done in His Church...He knows we learn more easily by example than by precept. Examples have greater value than precepts, because precepts are abstract, while examples are precepts carried into effect.

In closing...this book is intended for those who, having learned something of the cross, know the corruption of human nature, and seek to walk, not after the flesh but after the Spirit...May none of my readers use this book as a basis for external adjustments in their work, without letting the cross deal drastically with their natural life."