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Love One Another
Laying a good foundation is essential for the full growth of a Christian as well as for the building up of the body of Christ. The apostle Paul exhorted young Timothy to “have an outline of sound words which words thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Keep by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted” (2 Tim 1:13,14 Darby’s). Such good deposit of fundamental teachings on practical Christian living forms a sure foundation on which to build. In this third book on Basic Lesson Series, messages are given on Governmental Forgiveness, the Discipline of God, Resist the Devil, Head Covering, the Way of the Church, Oneness, Love the Brethren, Priesthood, the Body of Christ, and the Authority of the Church. May we learn these lessons faithfully.
235 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1975
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91 people want to read
About the author
Watchman Nee
530 books637 followersWatchman Nee (Chinese: 倪柝聲; pinyin: Ní Tuòshēng; Foochow Romanized: Ngà̤ Táuk-sĭng; 1903–1972) was a Chinese Christian author and church leader during the early 20th century. He spent the last 20 years of his life in prison and was severely persecuted by the Communists in China. Together with Wangzai, Zhou-An Lee, Shang-Jie Song, and others, Nee founded The Church Assembly Hall, later which would be also known as the "Local churches" (Chinese: 地方教會). or more commonly as (聚會所) meaning "assembly hall"
Born into a Methodist family, Watchman Nee experienced a religious revival, and joined the Church of Heavenly Peace, Fuzhou in 1920 at age 17 and began writing in the same year. In 1921, he met the British missionary M. E. Barber, who was a great influence on him. Through Miss Barber, Nee was introduced to many of the Christian writings which were to have a profound influence on him and his teachings. Nee attended no theological schools or Bible institutes. His knowledge was acquired through studying the Bible and reading various Christian spiritual books. During his 30 years of ministry, beginning in 1922, Nee traveled throughout China planting churches among the rural communities and holding Christian conferences and trainings in Shanghai. In 1952 he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison until his death in 1972.
Born into a Methodist family, Watchman Nee experienced a religious revival, and joined the Church of Heavenly Peace, Fuzhou in 1920 at age 17 and began writing in the same year. In 1921, he met the British missionary M. E. Barber, who was a great influence on him. Through Miss Barber, Nee was introduced to many of the Christian writings which were to have a profound influence on him and his teachings. Nee attended no theological schools or Bible institutes. His knowledge was acquired through studying the Bible and reading various Christian spiritual books. During his 30 years of ministry, beginning in 1922, Nee traveled throughout China planting churches among the rural communities and holding Christian conferences and trainings in Shanghai. In 1952 he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison until his death in 1972.
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March 29, 2023
A few years ago, my childhood church decided to get rid of its library. I thought this was really sad, since I had fond memories of looking through all those shelves of books as a child, and checking many out over the years. They gave away all of the books, and my mom picked up a few. Some were passed on to me, and I finally got around to the final one: Love One Another, by Watchman Nee.
Yes, the author’s name is unusual. Watchman Nee was a Chinese church leader who lived from 1903 – 1972. During the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, which declared a doctrine of state atheism, Nee was arrested, imprisoned, and “re-educated” (yes, all this is sending chills down my spine as I think of current-day parallels). He spent his final 20 years in prison, where he died. His remains were cremated before his family was even informed of his death.
Nee wrote many books, and this one is the sixth in his “Basic Lesson Series,” in which he writes on various aspects of Christian life.
The book includes chapters on Governmental Forgiveness, the Discipline of God, Resist the Devil, Head Covering, the Way of the Church, Oneness, Love the Brethren, Priesthood, the Body of Christ, and the Authority of the Church. I found the book interesting since it’s always good to think deeply about topics related to God’s word — and in addition, many topics discussed here aren’t covered often today (at least they aren’t in my hearing).
In the chapter on governmental forgiveness, Nee urges believers to try seriously not to sin, since even though God will forgive us, “His governmental hand never changes.” In other words, though we are forgiven, the consequences of our sins remain and must be accepted. He mentions that Job’s sufferings could have been avoided, although I can’t remember his reasoning on that. “God’s governmental hand is truly most serious. Let us be fearful, for we do not know when the disciplinary hand of God will come upon us. God may allow some to get by all the time. Or he may overlook rebellion ten times but on the eleventh time bring his hand down … Whatever he wishes, He does.”
From the chapter on discipline: “God has arranged all kinds of environments, all sorts of happenings, and many sufferings with a view to creating in his child a certain nature and character. This is what God wants to do. Because of His desire to create a certain character in you, God arranges your environment for you.”
From the chapter on resisting the devil — “The special field of Satan’s work is man’s mind or thought life.” He discusses how Satan enters our minds through our thoughts, and that we must not think those thoughts. I often wonder how you can stop your thoughts. But Nee goes on at some length in a practical way, focusing on saying STOP whenever an ungodly thought makes its way in. Divert yourself to another thought, do something else, basically anything to stop dwelling on that thought. I found this chapter a good warning, since I live so much in my head and with my thoughts. I have tried stopping bad thoughts, worries, etc., rather than dwelling on them, which really is a luxury of sorts. I need to do this type of thing even more. “Fear is Satan’s calling card” and “whenever you accept his calling card, you receive a visit from him. If you reject his calling card, you send him away.” I think that this advice has greater validity coming as it does from someone who spent his final 20 years unjustly imprisoned.
The chapter on head coverings was interesting to me. Nee advocates that women wear head coverings to show their submission, “for the angels.” At the same time he notes that hardly anyone does this (probably even fewer do today than when he wrote this). It’s interesting to consider this type of thing. We are told to do it in the Bible, yet we don’t -- or at least when I see a woman with a little lace cap thingy that I take to be a head covering, it’s unique enough that it attracts my notice. How do we decide which parts of the Bible we take literally and which parts we don’t?
Nee is a dispensationalist, which means he sees church history as being divided into different eras or dispensations. He goes through each of these in the chapter on “The Way of the Church,” and the dispensations are related to the different churches written to at the beginning of Revelation. My husband is likely to hit the roof anytime he hears something related to dispensationalism since he thinks the theory is totally wrong. But I was raised in a church that taught that way, so it doesn’t bother me. It’s another topic (such as the age of the earth, how long creation took, pre/post/a-millenial rapture, etc) where it seems to me there are Bible verses that could support more than one view. On those topics that aren’t crucial to salvation, I tend to take a tread-lightly approach. Anyway, this chapter had some interesting thoughts. Nee mentioned some churches being national, such as the Lutheran church in Germany or the Church of England in England. Members of the country are welcome to be baptized and be members of the national church in that way. Nee feels that due to this “easy in” system, many of these church members are not truly Christians. He likens them to one of the churches in Revelation that are chastised. Oh how well I know the church of Laodicea, which it seems my childhood pastor preached on every other Sunday night. They were lukewarm, which Jesus was really not fond of. Nee cautions that any time we feel excited about our particular Christian denomination, we show pride and therefore have become Laodicea. He is not a fan of denominations within the Christian church.
The title chapter is one on loving other Christians. Nee says that to be a Christian, one must have faith (which is hard to see or prove) and we must love the brethren, ie other Christians. The way he described this love was a little odd to me. He writes that to see whether you are truly a Christian, ask yourself “do you have a special consciousness, a strange attraction toward the other children of God?” “an inscrutable sensation” to other Christians? I thought love was more an act of the will than a feeling, so this seeming emphasis on feelings was a little strange to me. I don’t know if he’s onto something here or not.
Nee writes in a compelling way. His writing is very basic, and he tends to repeat things a lot, but it works in helping to understand and underline the concepts he wants to make.
“Love One Another” gave me lots of food for thought and I’m happy to have read it.
Yes, the author’s name is unusual. Watchman Nee was a Chinese church leader who lived from 1903 – 1972. During the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, which declared a doctrine of state atheism, Nee was arrested, imprisoned, and “re-educated” (yes, all this is sending chills down my spine as I think of current-day parallels). He spent his final 20 years in prison, where he died. His remains were cremated before his family was even informed of his death.
Nee wrote many books, and this one is the sixth in his “Basic Lesson Series,” in which he writes on various aspects of Christian life.
The book includes chapters on Governmental Forgiveness, the Discipline of God, Resist the Devil, Head Covering, the Way of the Church, Oneness, Love the Brethren, Priesthood, the Body of Christ, and the Authority of the Church. I found the book interesting since it’s always good to think deeply about topics related to God’s word — and in addition, many topics discussed here aren’t covered often today (at least they aren’t in my hearing).
In the chapter on governmental forgiveness, Nee urges believers to try seriously not to sin, since even though God will forgive us, “His governmental hand never changes.” In other words, though we are forgiven, the consequences of our sins remain and must be accepted. He mentions that Job’s sufferings could have been avoided, although I can’t remember his reasoning on that. “God’s governmental hand is truly most serious. Let us be fearful, for we do not know when the disciplinary hand of God will come upon us. God may allow some to get by all the time. Or he may overlook rebellion ten times but on the eleventh time bring his hand down … Whatever he wishes, He does.”
From the chapter on discipline: “God has arranged all kinds of environments, all sorts of happenings, and many sufferings with a view to creating in his child a certain nature and character. This is what God wants to do. Because of His desire to create a certain character in you, God arranges your environment for you.”
From the chapter on resisting the devil — “The special field of Satan’s work is man’s mind or thought life.” He discusses how Satan enters our minds through our thoughts, and that we must not think those thoughts. I often wonder how you can stop your thoughts. But Nee goes on at some length in a practical way, focusing on saying STOP whenever an ungodly thought makes its way in. Divert yourself to another thought, do something else, basically anything to stop dwelling on that thought. I found this chapter a good warning, since I live so much in my head and with my thoughts. I have tried stopping bad thoughts, worries, etc., rather than dwelling on them, which really is a luxury of sorts. I need to do this type of thing even more. “Fear is Satan’s calling card” and “whenever you accept his calling card, you receive a visit from him. If you reject his calling card, you send him away.” I think that this advice has greater validity coming as it does from someone who spent his final 20 years unjustly imprisoned.
The chapter on head coverings was interesting to me. Nee advocates that women wear head coverings to show their submission, “for the angels.” At the same time he notes that hardly anyone does this (probably even fewer do today than when he wrote this). It’s interesting to consider this type of thing. We are told to do it in the Bible, yet we don’t -- or at least when I see a woman with a little lace cap thingy that I take to be a head covering, it’s unique enough that it attracts my notice. How do we decide which parts of the Bible we take literally and which parts we don’t?
Nee is a dispensationalist, which means he sees church history as being divided into different eras or dispensations. He goes through each of these in the chapter on “The Way of the Church,” and the dispensations are related to the different churches written to at the beginning of Revelation. My husband is likely to hit the roof anytime he hears something related to dispensationalism since he thinks the theory is totally wrong. But I was raised in a church that taught that way, so it doesn’t bother me. It’s another topic (such as the age of the earth, how long creation took, pre/post/a-millenial rapture, etc) where it seems to me there are Bible verses that could support more than one view. On those topics that aren’t crucial to salvation, I tend to take a tread-lightly approach. Anyway, this chapter had some interesting thoughts. Nee mentioned some churches being national, such as the Lutheran church in Germany or the Church of England in England. Members of the country are welcome to be baptized and be members of the national church in that way. Nee feels that due to this “easy in” system, many of these church members are not truly Christians. He likens them to one of the churches in Revelation that are chastised. Oh how well I know the church of Laodicea, which it seems my childhood pastor preached on every other Sunday night. They were lukewarm, which Jesus was really not fond of. Nee cautions that any time we feel excited about our particular Christian denomination, we show pride and therefore have become Laodicea. He is not a fan of denominations within the Christian church.
The title chapter is one on loving other Christians. Nee says that to be a Christian, one must have faith (which is hard to see or prove) and we must love the brethren, ie other Christians. The way he described this love was a little odd to me. He writes that to see whether you are truly a Christian, ask yourself “do you have a special consciousness, a strange attraction toward the other children of God?” “an inscrutable sensation” to other Christians? I thought love was more an act of the will than a feeling, so this seeming emphasis on feelings was a little strange to me. I don’t know if he’s onto something here or not.
Nee writes in a compelling way. His writing is very basic, and he tends to repeat things a lot, but it works in helping to understand and underline the concepts he wants to make.
“Love One Another” gave me lots of food for thought and I’m happy to have read it.
January 29, 2024
Chapter titles are
Governmental forgiveness
The discipline wGod
Resist the devil
Head covering
The way of the church
Oneness
Love the brethren
Priesthood
The body of Christ
The authority of the Church
This was the 6th of 6 books taken from Nee’s lectures in Kuling China in 1948. Exceptional and simple and good for layman and scholar alike.
I read this book over 40 years ago and reread it this week. I’m better off as a result.
Governmental forgiveness
The discipline wGod
Resist the devil
Head covering
The way of the church
Oneness
Love the brethren
Priesthood
The body of Christ
The authority of the Church
This was the 6th of 6 books taken from Nee’s lectures in Kuling China in 1948. Exceptional and simple and good for layman and scholar alike.
I read this book over 40 years ago and reread it this week. I’m better off as a result.
June 28, 2020
I was disappointed with this book. Not what I was expecting.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews