Come Back to First Principles
For where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in
the midst of them." Whether for discipline or for making requests of God,
the Lord lays down this great principle, that where two or three are gathered
together unto His name, He is in the midst of them. Nothing could be more sweet
and encouraging. And I am persuaded that the Lord had in view the present ruin
of the Church, when there might be ever so few gathered aright, assembled in
obedience to the word of God, and carrying it out according to the will of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
But a person may ask, Are any upon that ground? I can only say that the
Christians who fall back on Scripture, owning the faithful presence of the
Spirit in the assembly on earth, are taking an immense deal of trouble for a
delusion if they are not. They are very foolish in acting as they do unless
they are sure that it is according to the mind of God. Ought you to have more
doubt how Christians should meet together for worship or mutual edification
than about any other directions in the word of God? If we are not restrained by
human rules, if the word of God alone is followed, there is entire liberty to
carry out its directions. But while speaking thus confidently, on the other
hand ought we not to take a very low place? When members of Christ's body are
scattered here and there, humiliation alone becomes us; not only because of
others' ways, but our own. For what have we been to Christ and the Church? It
would be very wrong to call ourselves the Church; but if we were only two or
three meeting in the name of Christ, we should have the same sanction and
Christ's presence as if we had the twelve apostles with us. If through unbelief
and weakness the Church at large were broken up and scattered, and if, in all
this confusion, there were only two or three who had faith to act upon the
Lord's will, for them the word would still be true, "Where two or three
are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them." It
is the presence of Christ and obedience to Him that give sanction to their
acts. If the Church has fallen into ruin, the business of those who feel this
is to depart from known evil — "Cease to do evil; learn to do well."
We always have to come back to first principles when things get astray. This is
the obligation of a Christian man.
(WK Lectures on Matthew p365)