QUESTION: How can this be the correct place when all kinds of wrong things are happening? There are disputes, divisions, worldliness, etc. If the Lord were truly in the midst, He would not permit

ANSWER: The problem is that we have turned tolerance of evil in an assembly into the criterion for judging whether or not it is gathered on the correct ground. We certainly understand how someone could reach such a conclusion: you and I would naturally think that if the Lord were truly in the midst of a certain group of Christians, there would be no problems there. He would not allow that group to go forward, for if He did so He would be condoning error -- which He would not do.

Well, we are not the first to raise such a question. Long ago Gideon asked: “Ah, Lord... if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened?” (Judg. 6:13). Such a question results from a false premise. The truth is that the Lord is in the midst of the “gathered saints” to sanction that church ground, which does not mean that He is sanctioning the condition of those people. Scripture distinguishes between the two things, and we need to do the same. If we see them as one thing, we will end up reaching wrong conclusions. This is also true of personal life and assembly life. For example, as believers, the Lord is with us all the time in the individual sense (Matt. 28:20; Heb. 13:5), but we cannot conclude that He approves of everything we do. And evidently, the same occurs with the assembly.

This is illustrated in Malachi. As you know, Malachi had the solemn duty of delivering God's last message to His earthly people -- the Jews -- before the coming of the Lord. In Malachi's day the people were in the correct position, but in the wrong condition. Having returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, the divine center of those days, they were in the right place. Therefore they counted on the Lord's presence “with” them (Hag. 2:4-5). But they were in the wrong condition, and for this reason Malachi was sent to exercise the people concerning this. We might wonder how the Lord could dwell among them when all sorts of wrong things were happening there, but the reason is that the Lord's presence with His people (collectively) does not mean that He is approving of their condition.

In the New Testament we find the same thing. The conditions in the assembly at Corinth were deplorable. All kinds of bad things were happening there -- divisions, fornication, bad doctrine and others that shook the foundations of the faith. Even so the apostle Paul wrote addressing them as “the church of God”. They continued to be recognized as an assembly “of God”, with regard to the ground they occupied. God recognized them as such. In chapter 5 Paul states that when “gathered together”, it was “with the power of Jesus our Lord” that they were seen. According to Matthew 18:18-20 this power or authority is only possible with the Lord being in the midst. Therefore, that assembly was not only recognized by God, but the Lord was in its midst. Notice that it does not say there “Where two or three, in good conditions, are gathered together... there I am in the midst of them”. It is not a conditional matter.

Once again we ask ourselves how the Lord could nevertheless identify Himself with an assembly that was so wrong. The point is that the Lord was not approving the evil in Corinth; He would not tolerate it indefinitely, for if He did so He would be sending a wrong message to the community. But the point of Paul's letter is that the Lord was giving them the chance to repent. Sooner or later the apostle would need to act in the name of the Lord and deal in judgment with that assembly, if they did not correct themselves (1 Cor. 4:21; 2 Cor. 1:23). As you know, the warning given in the first epistle was received, and the saints in Corinth repented and corrected the things that were wrong (2 Cor. 7:6-16). This demonstrates that the Lord does not quickly remove the lampstand from a place, but gives the chance of repentance when things are wrong (Rev. 2:21). It is interesting to note that in Revelation 2:5 the word “quickly”, which appears in the Almeida Corrigida version, is not in the original Greek text. There it should simply be “I will come to you, and will remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent”.

From the false premise that the Lord could not be in the midst of an assembly that was practicing error comes the idea that we should abandon it because of its bad condition. The argument is that, if the Lord is not there, we should not be there either, for we would not like to be where the Lord is not in the midst. Some who wanted to abandon the assembly anyway used this false argument as a convenient excuse for a quick exit. The old refrain is: “Evil is here and the Lord certainly does not want me to be in fellowship with evil!”

The error lies in imagining that there exists a certain degree of problems and evils that can be tolerated in an assembly, and that if that limit is exceeded the assembly will, in some way, mystically lose its status of being gathered on divine ground. Since each one has a different idea of what that degree is, it is left for each one to decide when he thinks the assembly is no longer truly gathered to the name of the Lord. This reminds us of the time when the judges governed. At the end of that book it says: “In those days there was no king in Israel; but each one did what seemed right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25). It is sad to admit, but things like this lead to confusion.

Many have asked: "When should a person leave an assembly?" The answer is simple: you leave when the Lord leaves. But when does this happen? In the days of the apostles it would be when the assembly deliberately refused to correct its errors and an apostle was obliged to deal with the matter by his apostolic judgment and acting for the Lord (1 Cor. 4:21; 2 Cor. 1:23). Today it would be when another assembly gathered to the name of the Lord, after much insistence and patience, officially ceased to recognize that one as being an assembly gathered on divine ground. This would be a decision made in the name of the Lord (Matt. 18:18-20).

If we think we should leave an assembly because of certain things that occur there, even though it has not been formally repudiated by another assembly gathered to the name of the Lord, we will be doing something without the Lord's consent. It would be the same as saying that we are holier than the Lord Himself. If He can still be in the midst of an assembly in error (even though grieved because of its condition), we too can remain there.

What we can do until the problem is corrected, or the assembly is repudiated, is to "weep" because of the wretched state of the assembly. It may be that the Lord will intervene in an administrative action and deal with the problem or with the people involved in the error (1 Cor. 5:1-2). But the Scriptures do not indicate that we should leave an assembly because of its bad condition. W. Potter wrote:

"Suppose this assembly has reached a deplorable condition. What we should do is humble ourselves before the Lord, and not leave it... If the Spirit of God has gathered us to the name of the Lord, we would not dare to abandon this position until we have the Word of God to that effect".

The third epistle of John gives us light on this matter. The conditions in the local assembly where Gaius lived were terrible -- to say the least. An elder in that assembly (Diotrephes) had left his role of guiding, caring for and shepherding the flock to take control of the assembly, and to govern it in a carnal way. He acted like a runaway locomotive. The result was that many ended up hurt by his brutality and his selfish way of being (see Jeremiah 10:21). The six evils of Diotrephes were:

• He loved preeminence, having assumed exclusive control of the assembly.

• He censured a letter from the apostle John addressed to the assembly.

• He unjustly accused the apostles with malicious words.

• He refused to receive workers who traveled laboring in the Word and doctrine.

• He hindered those who wanted to receive the workers.

• He excommunicated people unjustly.

We might ask: "In such conditions, what could we do?" (Ps. 11:3). You will notice that there are two things that are notable for their absence in the epistle: First, John does not tell Gaius to abandon the assembly because of the terrible things that were happening there. John did not say to him: "Gaius, you don't have to put up with this; just pick up your things and leave".

No, that was not an option. Second, John does not tell Gaius to gather Demetrius and some other brothers from there and put that man out of fellowship (excommunicate him). Not that this should not be done -- it would have been the right thing to do. But this epistle addresses the question in an assembly when conditions had reached such a point that there was no power to deal with the evil. (Being a "third" epistle, it presents conditions that had developed from what is found in the "second" epistles). It would have been useless to fight against Diotrephes, for those who tried to do so ended up themselves out of fellowship! Therefore, trying to excommunicate him was not an option.

When things reach such a point in an assembly, this epistle shows us that there is still a resource -- the Lord Himself. Since He is the Head of the church, at that time He could send an apostle to deal with the problem. This is seen in John's words: "If I come, I will bring to remembrance the works that he is doing" (verses 10, 14). John planned to go to that assembly and deal with Diotrephes in apostolic judgment. It would be a divine intervention, for his action as an apostle would in reality be an extension of the Lord's authority. Today there are no apostles on earth to intervene in the name of the Lord in this way, but the Lord can still intervene administratively -- in a providential way -- in difficult situations in the assemblies. Perhaps this, in our days, would be the equivalent of John's going at that time. Just as Gaius and all the saints who were going through a similar exercise in that assembly, we should wait for the Lord to act in His due time.

Meanwhile John said to Gaius: "Beloved, do not follow what is evil, but what is good", that is, do not fall into the evil of Diotrephes. It seems that the apostle anticipated the doubt Gaius might have, as to how to act in the difficult situation through which the assembly was passing, so John points to Demetrius.