How Did the Early Believers Meet in 1 Corinthians 14:26?

    Tradition isn't always a good thing especially when it causes people to deviate from the truth in God's word. This was really apparent to me when I was reading some of E. H. Broadbent's book The Pilgrim Church.   I noticed hat God always kept a group of believers who faithfully followed the practices of the New Testament church revealed in Acts.

    I thought about this when I was reading the chapters in the Life-Study of 1 Corinthians  that covers Chapter 14. In thees verses I saw a window into how the early church actually met. My favorite verse in this chapter is verse 26 which says:  What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.  Let all things be done for building up. I liked what Witness Lee shared on pages 564-565 in chapter 63 of the Life-Study of 1 Corinthians on this verse.  Here's just one part:    

"Before coming to the meeting, we should prepare ourselves for the meeting with things like these from the Lord and of the Lord, either through our experience of Him or through our enjoyment of His Word and fellowship with Him in prayer....In verse 26 the word "has" is very important.  According to Paul, whenever we all come together to meet, we should have something.  Paul does not say "shall have" or "should have" he speaks in the present tense to denote the fact and says that we have something, that each one of us has something.  Furthermore, he does not say that just a few have, that many have, or that most have; he says that "each one has" something" (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of 1 Corinthians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1981, Print). 

What I see here in 1 Corinthians is a lot different from what I've seen in many churches today.  In the church I went to when I was a kid, I saw one man doing almost everything.  It touches me that as believers and members of the Body of Christ, we all have a responsibility to come to the Lord, read the Bible, and receive something that we can share with other believers to encourage and strengthen them.  

Here's a link so you can listen to any of the programs on the Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee that are on the book of  1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians.

Other Blogs on the Life Study of 1 & 2 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians:
How did the Lord Solve the Problem Among the Believers in 1 Corinthians?
The Fellowship of the Believers in 1 Corinthians 1:9
What is God's Farm in 1 Corinthians 3:9?
What is God's Building in 1 Corinthians 3:9?
From the Life-Study of 1 Corinthians - How Do the Believers Build With Gold, Silver, & Precious Stones in 1 Corinthians 3:12?
Seeing the Revelation of the Body in 1 Corinthians 12
How Did the Early Believers Meet in 1 Corinthians 14:26?

2 Corinthians:

How Can You Be Like A Letter of Christ in 2 Corinthians 3:2?

What are the Sufferings For in 2 Corinthians 4:7-15?
How Does Transformation Happen in 2 Corinthians 3:18?
From the Life-Study of 2 Corinthians - Did You Know Pressures Cause Renewing in 2 Corinthians 4:16?
Why Do Believers Need to Be Reconciled in 2 Corinthians 5:18?
Giving in 2 Corinthians 8 & 9
Why Didn't the Lord Remove Paul's Thorn in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9?