In Matthew 16:18 Christ builds His church. In John 11:52 He gathers together in one the children of God. In 1 Corinthians 12:13 all believers are baptized by one Spirit into one body. In Ephesians 4:4, “There is one body, and one Spirit.” All this speaks of unity. The church which Christ builds is one; the children of God which He gathers are one; the body is one. This is what God, in the power of the Spirit, has worked through Christ.
We find, too, in Scripture that the assembly in a city or a country place was a local representation of this one body, the church. It was the assembly of God in that place, and gathered on the principle that the assembly of God is one. The name of the Lord Jesus was that to which the saints were gathered. They were gathered to this name in the power of the Spirit and in obedience to the Word, and when gathered, Christ was in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 4:34).
Such was the local assembly as set up of God at the beginning. The marks are plain, and they show that in no sense was it a mere voluntary assembly formed by man’s will. Man’s will has no place in it, except as it may be introduced by the working of the flesh and contrary to the Spirit of God.
An assembly formed by man’s will would not be an assembly of God at all, even though a perfect imitation as to outward form and action. Alas, we know well the flesh may display itself in a shocking way, even in God’s assembly! But our failures do not mean that voluntary associations are God’s assembly.
Now we know that God allowed the assembly to be tested, and it was not long till sad failure came in. The flesh displayed itself in various ways and in schisms growing out of the worldly state which was allowed to go unjudged in the assembly.
These schisms were connected with heresies—schools of opinion allowed of God to arise in the assemblies to test their state. “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor. 11:19). Such schisms and heresies are in no way the fruit of the Spirit, manifested in the assembly.
A. H. Rule