I.　The church is the supporting pillar and holding base of the truth—1 Tim. 3:15:

A.　The Lord wants His church to know Him as the truth in order to testify con- cerning Him as the truth—John 14:6; 18:37; 1 John 1:6; 5:20.

B.　Truth in 1 Timothy 3:15 refers to the real things revealed in God's Word, which are mainly Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the Body of Christ—2:4; Col. 2:9, 19.

C.　The truth is the Triune God, having Christ as the embodiment, center, and expression, to produce the church as the Body of Christ, the house of God, and the kingdom of God—v. 9; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; 1 Tim. 3:15; John 3:3, 5.

D.　The church bears Christ as the reality; the church testifies to the whole uni- verse that Christ, and Christ alone, is the reality—1:14, 17; 14:6.

E.　As the pillar which bears the truth and the base which upholds the pillar, the church testifies the reality, the truth, of Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ—Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4.

F.　The kind of church that we build up depends on the kind of truth that we teach; thus, there is the desperate need of the living truth to produce the church, to help the church to exist, and to build up the church—1 Tim. 3:15.

G.　In the church life we all need to come to the full knowledge of the truth— 2:4; 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1:

1.　Every believer should have a full knowledge, a complete realization, of the real things revealed in God's Word—1 John 2:21.

2.　The full knowledge of the truth is a thorough apprehension of the truth, a full acknowledgment and appreciation of the reality of all the spiritual and divine things that we have received through faith—1 Tim. 2:4; 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:25.

3.　To cut straight the word of the truth is to unfold without bias or distortion the reality of God's economy revealed in the New Testament—v. 15.

H.　In the Lord's recovery today, we need Ezras, priestly teachers who are satu- rated with God and skillful in the Word of God, to educate the saints with the divine truths—Neh. 8:1-8, 13; 2 Tim. 2:2, 15.

I.　The greatest need that we must meet is to bring the saints into the truth; all the saints should be trained in the divine revelation—1 Tim. 2:4:

1.　We all need to be helped through the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-studies to see the intrinsic significance of the word of the Bible—Neh. 8:8, 13.

2.　The Life-study messages are openers; they open the Bible and bring us into the Bible.

3.　"I consider our writings as the opener to open the holy Word. I believe that those of you who have read the Life-study messages can testify honestly that these messages with the notes of the Recovery Version have opened up a certain chapter or a certain book of the Bible to you. This is not to replace the Bible but to bring people into the Bible" (Elders' Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, pp. 101-102).

II.　All the saints are responsible to uphold the truth—1 Tim. 3:15; 2 Tim. 2:15:

A.　The supporting pillar and holding base of the truth are the entire church, including all the saints; every member of the church is part of the pillar and base that uphold the truth—1 Tim. 3:15.

B.　The church being the pillar and base of the truth implies that every member of the church should know the truth; thus, we should make a decision to learn the truth—2:4:

1.　Most of the saints probably do not have a deep sense that they are respon- sible to bear the truth.

2.　The church, including every believer, must uphold the truth.

3.　The saints in the churches need to respect the leading ones, but if the leading ones do something contrary to the truth, the saints should be responsible to uphold the truth:

a.　No matter who is speaking, the saints must discern whether or not what is spoken is according to the truth—1 Thes. 5:21.

b.　We should not care for the person but for the truth and always be ready to uphold the truth—1 John 1:6.

4.　In order for the church to be strong, every brother and sister must uphold the truth by learning the truth, experiencing the truth, and being able to speak the truth—1 Tim. 2:4.

C.　To understand what it means to uphold the truth, we may consider the example of Paul in Galatians 2:11-16:

1.　Paul saw that Peter did something contrary to the truth in shrinking back from eating with the Gentiles—vv. 11-13.

2.　Paul rebuked Peter because he was doing something contrary to the truth; thus, Paul was upholding the truth—vv. 14-16.

3.　In this situation Paul was a pillar and base of the truth—vv. 5, 14.

D.　If we learn the truth and practice the truth in the daily church life, we all will be able to bear some responsibility in upholding the truth—2 John 4:

1.　Every truth has two sides; we need to hold both sides of every truth in order to be balanced.

2.　We must always learn, guard, and uphold the truth—3 John 3-4, 8.