The Purpose of the Vital Groups (5) – To Live the Church Life
If we live the kingdom life and the church life, we will overcome the degradation of the church. Today our problem is not just Satan, sin, the world, the flesh, and the self. We are facing another strong factor, that is, the degradation of the church. Actually, we were born into the degradation of the church and have been under the influence of this degradation. Second Timothy is a book dealing with the degradation of the church. It says that the saints in Asia forsook the apostle Paul (1:15). Actually, they forsook the apostolic teaching, so they began to degrade. This is why Paul wrote his second Epistle to Timothy.
By Exercising Our Regenerated Spirit
We can live the normal church life and overcome the church’s degradation by exercising our regenerated spirit of power, love, and sobermindedness (v. 7). We have to fan our spirit into flame (v. 6). Our spirit of sobermindedness and power also needs to be of love. We will not let anyone go or give up on anyone when we exercise such a forgiving and loving spirit.
By Holding the Healthy Wordsand Guarding the Good Deposit
Also, we need to hold a pattern of the healthy words we received from the apostle, in faith and love, and guard the good deposit through the indwelling Spirit (vv. 13-14). This is the deposit of the riches of the word, which we guard with the Spirit of God who indwells us.
By Cutting Straight the Word of the Truth
Second Timothy 2:15 says that we need to cut straight the word of the truth. This cutting is as a carpenter cuts a piece of wood. We should cut the word in a straight way. This is to unfold the word of God in its various parts rightly and straightly without distortion.
By Enjoying the Lord in Our Spirit as the Abiding Grace
In order to overcome the degradation of the church, we must enjoy the Lord in our spirit as the abiding grace. Christ today is the life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit. Second Timothy 4:22, the last verse of this Epistle, says, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” Thus, the end of this Epistle on how to deal with the degradation of the church is that we must enjoy Christ in our spirit as our abiding grace. This is the way to live the church life in the vital groups under the degradation of the church.
We must live a proper kingdom life, and the kingdom life is actually the church life. Without the kingdom life there is no possibility of having the church life. The Lord said that whoever would follow Him must deny himself and bear the cross (Matt. 16:24). This is the reality of the kingdom life. It is a life of always denying ourselves in order to kill our natural man with all its preferences. Everything of the old man should go to the cross. Then we can have the kingdom life and the righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. This righteousness is Christ living out of us as the kingdom life, which becomes the church life. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 1, pp. 67-69)
The church in Zamboanga 