I.　The ministry of the New Testament is uniquely one universally—Acts 1:17; 2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:12:

A.　The New Testament ministry is uniquely one and corporate—Acts 1:17; 2 Cor. 4:1.

B.　Though the apostles were twelve in number, their ministry was uniquely one—this ministry, a corporate ministry in the principle of the Body of Christ—Acts 1:25.

C.　All the apostles carried out the same ministry to bear the testimony of the incarnated, resurrected, and ascended Christ, who is Lord of all.

D.　All the apostles' works are to carry out this unique ministry, the ministering of Christ to people for the building up of His Body.

E.　The many gifted persons (Eph. 4:11) have only one ministry, that is, to minister Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ; this is the unique ministry in the New Testament economy—1 Tim. 1:12.

F.　By the Lord's mercy and grace, He has put us into the corporate ministry that builds up the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:12.

II.　The ministry of the New Testament is uniquely one, but there are many ministers who have a part, a portion, in this one ministry—Acts 20:24; 21:19; 2 Tim. 4:5; Col. 4:17:

A.　The ministers are many, but all the ministers have only one corporate ministry, which is the New Testament ministry—2 Cor. 4:1.

B.　In considering the verses that speak of personal ministry, we need to realize that all the believers are members of the one Body:

1.　As a whole, the Body has one corporate ministry, not many ministries.

2.　Each part of the Body has its own ministry.

3.　The many ministries of the members of the Body are not separate ministries but part of one corporate ministry.

C.　We all have a part in the unique ministry of the New Testament, which is one ministry with different functions and different aspects; when we have all the functions and aspects, we have the ministry of the Body.

III.　Divisions come out of different ministries with different teachings:

A.　The different teachings are the major source of the church's decline, degradation, and deterioration—1 Tim. 1:3-4, 6-7; 6:3-5, 20-21:

1.　To teach differently tears down God's building and annuls God's economy.

2.　Even a small amount of teaching in a different way destroys the recovery.

B.　The basic factor of all the divisions, their very root, is different ministries.

C.　Different ministries cause problems, divisions, and confusion.

D.　If all Christians were willing for the Lord to take away their different ministries, they would all be one.

E.　Only one kind of ministry builds up and never divides—the unique ministry of God's economy, the unique ministry of the New Testament.

IV.　"Regarding this matter of the ministry, we need the Lord's shining. We need to go to the Lord and open ourselves to Him. If we do this, light will shine upon this teaching concerning the ministry, and the teaching will become the truth, the reality to us"—Truth Messages, p. 41.