The Purpose of the Vital Groups (3)
The first lesson we must learn as members of the vital groups is not to uncover people’s weaknesses. The story of Ham in Genesis 9 is an illustration of this. His father Noah became drunk, and he was uncovered in his tent. Ham saw his father Noah’s nakedness and told his two brothers about it. But his brothers, Shem and Japheth, took a garment, walked backward, and covered the nakedness of their father. As a result of this, Ham was cursed, but his brothers received the blessing (vv. 20-27). In the vital groups we have to avoid this kind of uncovering talk. Our uncovering talk is a defect that will kill our vital groups. We must learn to cover others. When we become aware of someone sinning or of someone sinning against us, we should not talk to others but to the person directly. Our natural man always likes to tell others about a person’s sins or mistakes. This is wrong.
The Lord gave us the step-by-step way in Matthew 18. These steps are to go to the person alone, then with one or two others, and finally to the church. If he would not listen even to the church, would we give up? We may stop with verse 17 of Matthew 18 by simply letting him be to us like a Gentile and a tax collector. If we stop here, however, our group will be reducing instead of increasing. Following verse 17 is verse 18 where the Lord said that we have to learn to bind and to release. We have to learn to pray in harmony for a sinning one. Then the Father in heaven will perform what we ask and will be in our midst. We also have to learn to forgive others countless times. This is the reality of the vital groups.
In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul rebuked the Corinthian believers and charged them to remove an evil one from their midst (v. 13). Paul’s charge was somewhat comparable to that of the Mosaic law in the Old Testament (see Deut. 13:5; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21-22, 24; 24:7). But in 2 Corinthians Paul was tender, cautious, and considerate regarding this sinful person. After Paul told the saints to remove him, he did not have the peace, so he sent Titus to see the situation. Titus brought back the good news that this evil man had repented (7:6-13). Then Paul said that the saints should forgive and comfort this one. Otherwise, they could be taken advantage of by Satan (2:6-11).
A vital group is a real representation of the church. The church should learn how to deal with a sinning one by the example of Paul. Paul did not have the peace when this sinful one was removed, so he still did something to take care of the situation. The most important thing is to cherish and forgive. To visit is to cherish. Paul sent Titus to visit Corinth in order to cherish the Corinthians. Then Paul told them to forgive. Forgiving should follow cherishing. Then we can recover and gain people. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 1, pp. 63-65)
The church in Zamboanga 