I.　We need to see that teaching different things other than the unique ministry of God's economy creates division; the ministry of the New Testament, which is the ministry of the new covenant, is uniquely one universally—1 Tim. 1:3-4; Acts 1:17, 25; 2 Cor. 3:6, 8-9; 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:12:

A.　Any teaching other than the unique teaching of God's economy is considered by the apostles as a different teaching—vv. 3-4.

B.　The ministry of the New Testament is according to the apostles' teaching, the teaching of God's New Testament economy, for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—2 Cor. 3:6; Eph. 3:9-10; 4:11-13.

C.　The New Testament ministry is uniquely one and corporate, but because this ministry is the service of the Body of Christ and because the Body has many members, every member has its own personal ministry—1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 4:5.

D.　Although the ministers are many, all these ministers have only one corporate ministry, which is the New Testament ministry—1 Cor. 16:10; 2 Cor. 4:1.

E.　To teach differently tears down God's building and annuls God's entire economy; only one kind of ministry builds up and never divides—this is the unique ministry of God's economy—1 Tim. 6:3-4.

F.　The different teachings of the dissenting ones are winds used by God's enemy to distract His people and carry them away from His economy; these different teachings are the major source of the church's decline, degradation, and deterioration—Eph. 4:14; 1 Tim. 1:3-7; 6:3-5, 20-21.

G.　The basic factor of all the divisions, their very root, is different ministries; all the troubles, divisions, and confusions come from the one source of the tolerance of different ministries—2 Cor. 11:2-3:

1.　"If we are not watchful, if we are careless, in one way or another the enemy would creepingly use some means, some ways, to bring in different ministries. Such a thing would end the Lord's recovery"—Elders' Training, Book 1: The Ministry of the New Testament, p. 16.

2.　"If you could take away all the different ministries and leave only the unique ministry of the New Testament, all the denominations, all the different groups, and all the divisions would disappear…If we carry out something new, something different, something other than this unique ministry, we will be through as far as the Lord's recovery is concerned. Actually, the Lord's recovery is to bring us back to the unique ministry of the New Testament" (pp. 70-71).

H.　The saints who have been raised up by this ministry have a taste for this ministry, and this taste is the controlling factor in the Lord's recovery; those who have been raised up by this ministry will reject a taste that is contrary to it; this means that if you speak something contrary to the taste of the Lord's recovery, your speaking will be rejected and you will suffer loss—1 Pet. 2:3.

II.　The problem of rebellion among us comes out of certain divisive factors:

A.　The intention to do an extra work within the unique work of the Lord's recovery is a divisive factor; in the Lord's recovery there is one unique work for the accomplishment of God's eternal economy to build up the Body of Christ— see Life-study of 1 and 2 Samuel, pp. 64-65, and Further Consideration of the Eldership, the Region of Work, and the Care for the Body of Christ, pp. 18-19.

B.　The tendency to keep separate territories is a divisive factor; we should work for the Lord within His measure (2 Cor. 10:13-16), but we should not consider what the Lord has measured to us as our particular territory.

C.　The way of not having one's work mingled with others' work is a divisive factor; Peter's work for the Lord and Paul's were all for the one Body of Christ without any distinction or separation—1 Cor. 1:12; Acts 15:2, 4; 21:17-20a.

D.　The hidden expectation of being a prominent figure in the Lord's work is a divisive factor—3 John 9; cf. Acts 15:39.

E.　The negligence regarding the keeping of the one accord in the Lord's recovery is a divisive factor—1:14; 2:42, 46; Eph. 4:3.

F.　Many of the dissenting accusations of the rebellious, divisive, and factious persons today are the same accusations of Satan (Rev. 12:10-11) in the previous turmoil among us—see Elders' Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (2), pp. 93-112, and The Practice of the Church Life according to the Godordained Way, pp. 19-48.

III.　The way to deal with any present rebellious and divisive situation is to pay full attention to the truth concerning the church as the Body of Christ and as the house and kingdom of God (Eph. 4:15-16; 1 Tim. 3:15; Rom. 14:17), to keep the truth at any cost (2 John 1-2; 3 John 3-4), to reject any kind of division (1 Cor. 1:10), to stand against any wind of teaching and any spreading of spiritual death (Eph. 4:14; 2 Tim. 2:16-17), and to separate ourselves from the contagious ones—exercising to quarantine (Titus 3:10; Rom. 16:17):

A.　In today's situation it is not a matter of being right or wrong; it is a matter of whether we are divisive or not—1 Cor. 1:10-13; cf. Gen. 2:9.

B.　Being neutral does not build up (2 Cor. 13:8, 10) but destroys the Body of Christ; we need to practice the Body life by receiving the believers and turning away from those who make divisions (Rom. 14:1-3; 16:17).

C.　To keep the truth we need to overcome personal affection with the vow of a Nazarite; we need to put aside our natural relationships and practice the truth of the Body—Num. 6:1-9; cf. Lev. 10:6-7; Exo. 32:25-29; Deut. 33:8-9.

D.　We need to be inoculators, those who are full of life and constituted with the truth, to inoculate others against the decline of the church—2 Tim. 2:1-15; 1 John 5:16a; Titus 1:9.

E.　We need to stand on the unique ground of the local churches of God and pay the price to enter into the practice and intrinsic significance of blending for the oneness and reality of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 1:1-2, 9-13; 12:24; Eph. 4:3-6.

IV.　We must receive the Lord's mercy to be His overcomers who bring in a new revival to turn the age in the Lord's present recovery by arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation, by living the life of a God-man, and by shepherding people according to God in the vital groups for the building up of the Body of Christ, the preparation of the bride of Christ:

A.　We can enter into a new revival by arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation through the ministry of the age; the particular recovery and work that God is doing in one age is the ministry of that age; in every age there is the vision of that age, and we have to serve God according to the vision of the age—Prov. 29:18; Acts 26:19; Eph. 1:17; 3:9:

1.　In order for us to serve God today, our vision must extend all the way from the first vision of Adam in Genesis to the ultimate vision of John in Revelation; today we can be in one accord because we have only one vision—an up-to-date, all-inheriting vision, the vision of God's eternal economy.

2.　God's eternal economy is to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead and to make Himself one with man and man one with Him, thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression, that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues—1 Tim. 1:3-4.

3.　"I hope that the saints…will see this revelation and then rise up to pray that God would give us a new revival—a revival which has never been recorded in history"—Life-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, p. 15.

4.　"We have to learn the high peaks of God's present revelation and learn to speak these things…I would encourage all of us to pick up this high commission: to go out with the high peaks of the divine revelation and with God's up-to-date vision to move with God for His high peaks of the divine revelation that will consummate His eternal economy"—The Triune God's Revelation and His Move, p. 98.

B.　If we practice living the life of a God-man, which is the reality of the Body of Christ, a corporate model will be built up, a model living in the economy of God; this model will be the greatest revival in the history of the church to bring the Lord back:

1.　The reality of the Body of Christ is a corporate living, a mingling living, in the eternal union of the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite God-men with the Triune God in the resurrection of Christ—cf. Lev. 2:4-5.

2.　"If among us there is, if not in full at least in part, such a living, the reality of the Body of Christ is among us. This is the high peak of the recovery in the local churches like Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem. Such a mingling living as the reality of the Body of Christ will consummate ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God's increase and expression for eternity"—The Practical Points concerning Blending, p. 37.

3.　"We should all declare that we want to live the life of a God-man. Eventually, the God-men will be the victors, the overcomers, the Zion within Jerusalem. This will bring in a new revival which has never been seen in history, and this will end this age"—Life-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, p. 28.

C.　We need to coordinate with Christ in His heavenly ministry to shepherd people according to God in the vital groups for the fulfillment of the economy of God to build up the Body of Christ—1 Pet. 5:4; 2:25; Acts 20:28:

1.　"I hope that there will be a genuine revival among us by our receiving this burden of shepherding. If all the churches receive this teaching to participate in Christ's wonderful shepherding, there will be a big revival in the recovery"—The Vital Groups, p. 40.

2.　"I hope that we would pray, ‘Lord, I want to be revived. From today I want to be a shepherd. I want to go to feed people, to shepherd people, and to flock people together' "—Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, p. 137.

3.　"If we practice these things, there will be a real revival in the Lord's recovery. We must be shepherds with the loving and forgiving heart of our Father God in His divinity and the shepherding and finding spirit of our Savior Christ in His humanity. We also must have the heavenly vision of all the divine and mystical teachings of Christ. Shepherding and teaching are the obligation of the vital groups and the basic way ordained by God to build up the Body of Christ consummating the New Jerusalem"—The Vital Groups, pp. 55-56.