(Ed. note:The following is a transcription of an address given at Cedar Falls, Iowa, on August
27, 1972.)

Let us look first of all at the last chapter of the book of Job and the tenth verse:"And Jehovah
turned the captivity of Job when he had prayed for his friends" (JND). That seems to me to be
significant:The Lord did not turn the captivity of Job at the time Job repented of the wrong
thoughts that he had, when God showed him more clearly what he was. His captivity was turned
when he prayed for his friends.

I think this bears on the fellowship we have in Christ with one another. In James 5:16 we read:
"Confess your faults [offenses (JND)] one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be
healed." There has been a good deal of prayer at this conference asking the Lord for expressions
of unity; that God would in practice make us one, of one mind; that we would show forth the love
of Christ to one another. I think that the best way we can do this is to pray for one another.

Also, I believe that the first part of this verse pertains to our personal attempt to do away with
what is of the flesh when it says, "Confess your faults [offenses] one to another." We all have
faults. And we do not like to admit it, but our faults often offend and irritate each other. Our
response in the flesh to this is to gossip about each other, to criticize each other, and to accuse
each other.

Because of our pride, it is not easy to confess our faults to each other. It is our natural tendency
to hide our faults from each other; to pretend that we are better than we really are; to pretend that
we have more spiritual strength than we feel we really have; to pretend that the Lord is leading
us when in fact He may not be.

Among us it can be an "in" thing to be led of the Lord or to act spiritually. And I confess for
myself that there have been times when I have deceived others, letting them think that I was at
their spiritual state because that seemed to be what they expected of me. But what do we have
here? It says, "Confess your faults one to another."

No doubt if we follow this verse we will be greatly strengthened. We are, as we have also prayed,
very weak. We can see this feebleness moment by moment in our activities in fellowship with each
other. I think here not so much of faults that we can take offense at, but of little failings in the
conduct of our fellow believers that allow us to think less of them. Yet if our response to this is
a spiritual one, our first instinct will be to pray for them, not to belittle them.

Something else that has been very striking to me is simply that we are encouraged to pray. We
think of that verse which says that God will give us above all that we shall ask or think (Eph.
3:20). If this is so, why pray? If God already knows our needs, and if He already has made the
means of providing them, why do we then need to ask Him for things? There may be better
thoughts than this, but my judgment is simply that it keeps us in dependence on Him. We need
to be dependent on Him through prayer for everything that we need in our natural life; so also in

our fellowship, we need to be dependent on Him through prayer for every aspect of this
fellowship.

In this connection, let us look in Luke 12. In verse 22 we find that Christ has just finished telling
a parable about a very rich man who was concerned only with his material goods here on earth.
"And he said to his disciples, For this cause I say unto you, Be not careful for life, what ye shall
eat, nor for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than food, and the body than raiment.
Consider the ravens, that they sow not nor reap; which have neither storehouse nor granary; and
God feeds them. How much better are ye than the birds? But which of you by being careful can
add to his stature one cubit? If therefore ye cannot do even what is least, why are ye careful about
the rest?" (JND)

This, too, is very striking. It seems to be a great thing to add a cubit to our stature; it seems to be
a great thing to work miracles, because we do not have the power to do them. But we little realize
that neither do we have the power to feed ourselves or to clothe ourselves. We do not realize it
because God, in His love, has provided these things for us within easy grasp. Yet it is more of a
miracle that He provides these things than if He might cause us to grow in stature. That is why
it says here, "If ye cannot do even what is least, why are ye careful about the rest?"

If we can be thus dependent on God for even what we consider to be the smallest details of our
life, our daily food and clothing, surely we can also depend on Him for the smallest details of our
fellowship.

In connection with our dealing with the offenses of others, I think too of that verse in Titus 3:"A
man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject." The word that struck me here
is "admonition." It does not say "accusation"; it does not say "rebuke." It says "admonition." That
is a very gentle word for one that is a heretic.

Now why are we told to admonish him rather than to rebuke him? I believe it is because the Lord
knows us. He knows our nature and He knows that our response in the flesh to law is rebellion.
And he knows what our response to each other is when we try to lord it over each other. A word
is sufficient, as we have had in our Bible readings, "a word of wisdom" (1 Cor. 12:8). If the Lord
gives us a word of wisdom, and it is for correction, we can consider this to be an admonition.

Why is it not necessary to do more than admonish such a person? It is because God has that person
in His power. If that person is one of God’s own, ha is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and God can
deal with that person in a far more effective way than we ever can. That is why it says in James
5:16, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed."

If you are offended by one of your brothers, I believe that your first duty is to pray for him. (The
next step, as given in Matt. 18:15, is to "go and tell him his fault"_Ed.) If you have offended one
of your brothers, your first duty is to confess it to him. This is very simple, yet how often do we
fail to carry it out.

What greater way is there to weld the fellowship together into one body than moment by moment

bearing the needs of our brethren before the Lord? And if there is any weakness or division among
us, I think we can lay it to the fact that we have not been following this verse (James 5:16).