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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:3-32
We have seen that the issue of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity is the Body of Christ for God’s full expression. God made a plan, an arrangement, to carry out His dispensing, and this arrangement was hidden in Himself as a mystery. In the New Testament age He revealed this mystery to His apostles, making them stewards with a stewardship to distribute the unsearchable riches of Christ. Their distributing work is the divine dispensing. To distribute the riches of Christ is to dispense the Divine Trinity into God’s chosen people that God may have a church for the exhibition of His multifarious wisdom to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies, especially to Satan and his angels. On the one hand, God made a plan, a divine arrangement. On the other hand, He commissioned His apostles with a stewardship to carry out His plan to distribute all the riches of Christ.
The apostles distribute the riches of Christ by preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to the God-chosen sinners. These chosen sinners, after hearing the good news and believing in the Lord Jesus, received Him as their Savior, Redeemer, forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation. They were regenerated to participate in the divine life as one item of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Outwardly, when these believers come together, they are the called-out congregation, the church. Inwardly, they are the organic issue of the Triune God to be the Body of Christ.
For these new believers to hear only the initial preaching of the riches of Christ so that they could receive Christ and become His members is not complete. This is why the apostles continued to teach the truth to the saved members of Christ. The apostles established them and raised them up as local churches in different localities. After establishing the churches, the apostles then returned to perfect the saints that they might grow in the life of Christ in order to participate in the work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ. The apostles must minister more and more riches of Christ into the living members of the Body of Christ in order to perfect them.
The apostle Paul prayed that the saints would experience Christ in all of His riches for the building up of His Body. In Ephesians 3 he prayed that the Father would grant these members of the Body of Christ to be strengthened through the Spirit into their inner man (v. 16). The inner man is our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God to become a mingled spirit. Now we are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). How wonderful this is! But we must confess that we do not spend most of our time in our spirit. Although we are the organic members of Christ, we still spend too much time in our mind, emotion, and will. After becoming members of the Body of Christ, we have been bothered, troubled, and confused by our ugly mind, emotion, and will. Because we spend so much time in our mind, emotion, and will, we are troubled by anxiety. The brothers are mostly in their mind, the sisters are mostly in their emotions, and all of us exercise our independent will.
Our inward being is like a building composed of four rooms: our mind, our emotion, our will, and our spirit. The spirit is the unique room, the wonderful room, the room that joins earth to heaven and brings heaven to earth. It is the room that makes us one with the Lord. We all have to admit, though, that we do not spend much time in this room. This is why Paul was so burdened to bow his knees to the Father to pray that the Father would grant us to be strengthened with His divine power through His Spirit into the inner man. Because we are mostly in the rooms of our mind, emotion, and will and not in our spirit, the wonderful room, we need to be strengthened into our inner man. To turn to our spirit is to come back to our inner man. Whenever we turn to our spirit, everything is ready for Christ to move, to work, to spread, and to root Himself in our entire being. Christ desires to spread within us, to work Himself and to root Himself deep down into every part of our inner being, our heart (Eph. 3:17a).
The three main rooms of our heart are our mind, emotion, and will. Christ is now in our spirit, but our heart may be devoid of Him. The rooms of our heart are short of Christ. They are full of other things such as anxiety, vain thoughts, imaginations, and self-decisions. What is in our heart? Things other than Christ, such as department store sales, a Master’s degree, a better car, or modern fashions, may fill up our heart. You are a Christian, a member of Christ, but what are you thinking about? Do you have Christ in your mind, in your will, and in your emotion? Where is Christ? He may be imprisoned in your weakened spirit. You may be so strong in your mind, emotion, and will but so weak in your spirit. After rising up in the morning, some may immediately be thinking about a sale at a certain department store. Their spirit is weakened by all the things in the other rooms — their mind, emotion, and will. This is why Paul prayed for us. His prayer was unique.
Not only did Paul pray for us, but also our High Priest in the heavens is interceding for us and within us (Heb. 7:25-26). While you are thinking about other things, something is there reminding you to turn to the Lord and to call on Him. You may say, “O Lord Jesus, I do not love You, but Lord, make me willing to love You.” Then you may continue to pray, “Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me. Lord, fill me with Yourself. Take me over, Lord. Occupy me and spread Yourself within me.” If you prayed in such a way for ten minutes, you would be strengthened into your inner man. You would no longer be in your mind, emotion, or will but in your spirit. Your prayer would make a way for Christ to make His home deep down in your heart. In your prayer you have the sensation that you are rooted for growth and grounded for building up in the divine love, the nobler love, the very agape (Gk.) of God (Eph. 3:17b).
When you are strengthened into your inner man through prayer, Christ has a way to make His home in your heart, and you are strong to apprehend the dimensions of Christ, not individually but with all the saints (v. 18). You have to come to the meetings of the church to meet with all the saints so that you can apprehend the dimensions of the universally extensive Christ — the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth. No one knows how broad, how long, how high, or how deep Christ is. His dimensions are the dimensions of the universe. They are immeasurable. We need to be strong to grasp with all the saints the extensiveness of Christ. We need to explore the universally extensive field of the Christ whom we are in. When we apprehend the extensiveness of this universal Christ, we are led to know the knowledge-surpassing and unlimited love of Christ that we may be filled with the extensive Christ unto all the fullness of the Triune God (v. 19), which is the church as the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ, the church, is the result of our being filled with the extensive Christ to be the very expression, the manifestation in full, of the Triune God.
The church as the Body of Christ is like a wonderful gem without any foreign particles, or blemishes. Matters such as autonomy, federation, organization, regulation, and control are foreign particles in the church, the wonderful gem. We should not bring in any foreign particles to the Lord's recovery. The church as the Body of Christ is a gem as the issue of the wonderful, marvelous, excellent divine Trinity. Who can tell of the excellency of this gem? It is shameful to bring in foreign particles to this gem such as autonomy, federation, organization, regulation, and control. We need to reject these foreign particles. "Lord Jesus, thank You for such a gem, the Body of Christ as the very issue of the wonderful, marvelous, excellent divine Trinity, the fullness of the Godhead embodied in You."
In Ephesians 1 and 2, Paul tells us what the church is. The church is the desire of God's good pleasure that issues out of Himself as the divine Trinity. The materials of the church were sinners, dead in offenses and sins. But God, through His incarnation, went to the cross to accomplish an all-inclusive death, passed through resurrection, and entered into ascension. Through these processes, these chosen sinners were remade, re-created, regenerated, to be persons who were made alive, resurrected, and ascended with Christ to be seated with Him in the heavenlies in Christ. They were made into God's masterpiece as the new man. In Ephesians 3 Paul shows us that this masterpiece comes out of God's plan with God's stewardship. Now in Ephesians 4, Paul shows us another aspect of the church. He talks about the Body of Christ from another angle, the angle of the building up of the Body of Christ. This organic Body of Christ needs to be built up.
We must understand the Bible in an organic way. The church needs to be built up organically in the same way that a newborn child needs to be built up. The child needs to be perfected, completed, and developed. This babe is built up by growing. Mothers know that they cannot build up their children by organization. A child's growth does not depend on any outward arrangement or organization. It depends upon life and the growth in life. For a child to grow adequately he needs sunshine, fresh air, and proper food and water. As long as he is regularly fed with the proper food, he will grow. When he grows, he is being built up. A child cannot be built up without growing. In like manner, the basic factor, the basic element, that is needed for the building up of a young church, a baby church, is for it to grow. The church cannot be built up by organization or arrangement. The church can only be built up by being fed, not with doctrines but with the riches of Christ.
Before the Lord's recovery came to the United States, we had not heard about such things as enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ, or Christ's becoming a life-giving Spirit in His resurrection. We did not know that Christ as the life-giving Spirit is in our spirit. We did not even know that we had a human spirit. We also did not know about God's dispensing, the mingling of God with man, or the crucial revelation of life in the Scriptures. The Lord has brought us into the realization and enjoyment of His unsearchable riches, and we are still on the way in the Lord's ministry to distribute more and more of His riches.
We studied church history and the biographies of many spiritual saints. We spent many years to study the teachings of the church fathers and the top teachings throughout the history of the church. The Lord has granted us a merciful discernment to discern what we should receive that matches the divine revelation in the holy Scriptures. We have picked up the top positive, scriptural, and spiritual things to present to the Lord's children. Some have gone back to past writings and have picked up G. H. Lang's teaching of autonomy from his book The Churches of God. We were warned in the past concerning this erroneous teaching of autonomy. Is any part of a living person autonomous? Can we say that his eyes, ears, or nose are independently autonomous from the rest of his body? Of course not. There is no possibility of either autonomy or federation in a person's body because they are organizational matters. The initial aspect of the church is that it is the called-out congregation, the assembly, the ekklesia. The church is also the kingdom, the family, and the temple, the dwelling place of God. But these aspects of the church are not the peak of the revelation concerning the church. The peak is that the church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all, and a masterpiece as the new man. The church is the new man! The parts of a man's body are not federated together nor are they independently autonomous. Autonomy and federation have nothing to do with the church, the organic Body of Christ and the new man. We need to be warned concerning teachings that distract us away from God's central purpose to build up the organic Body of Christ.
The Body of Christ is one unique Body with one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father of all (4:3-6). This one Body is the expression of the all-inclusive Christ (1:23). The one Spirit is the essence of the one Body. The Triune God expresses Himself in the one Body, and the essence of this Body is the one Spirit. The one Lord is the object of our faith and baptism. We believed into Him and we were baptized into Him. Now we are in Him. The one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all, is the source of life and the object of our worship. We came out of the Father, and now He has to be our unique object of worship. The thought of the Trinity is implied in the fact that the Father is over all, through all, and in all. Over all mainly refers to the Father, through all to the Son, and in all to the Spirit. One Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father of all are the elements of the very oneness of the Body.
The Body is built by one ministry of many gifted persons perfecting the saints to do the same one building-up work (4:7-16). The ministry mentioned in Ephesians 4:12 is referred to by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 where he also tells us that the Old Testament had one ministry, the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of death, which is the ministry of the law (vv. 7-9). In the Old Testament age there were many priests, prophets, and kings, but they all participated in the one ministry of the law, which was the ministry of condemnation unto death. In the New Testament there is another ministry, the ministry of grace, which is the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righteousness unto justification of life (vv. 8-9; Rom. 5:17-21). All the ones who served the Lord and ministered Christ for the building up of His Body throughout the centuries had different ministries, which were all a part of the unique New Testament ministry. The Body is built up by one ministry, the unique New Testament ministry.
For the building up of the Body, the Head has given some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11-12). Their work is “for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ” (v. 12). Therefore, the saints are perfected by the gifted ones to do the work of the ministry also. In Ephesians 4:12 unto the work of the ministry is in apposition to unto the building up of the Body of Christ. Thus, the work of the ministry is the building up of the Body of Christ. The gifted persons have the same one ministry to build up the Body of Christ. The one Body is built up by one ministry.
In today’s Christianity so-called ministries that are different from the apostles’ ministry build up denominations. One so-called ministry builds up the Presbyterian denomination. Another so-called ministry builds up the Baptist denomination. Still other so-called ministries build up the Episcopalian and Methodist denominations. In Christianity there are many different ministries outside of and other than the one unique ministry, and these issue in division after division.
When I refer to “one ministry,” I do not mean that this one ministry is my ministry. But I would say that my ministry is a part of the one ministry. Each member of the Body of Christ has a ministry that is a part of the unique New Testament ministry. Some sisters may be burdened organically to clean the hall. This cleaning of the hall is their ministry, which is a service for the work of the building up of the Body of Christ. The saints who go out to preach the gospel are carrying out their ministry as a part of the New Testament ministry to build up the Body of Christ. The Head has given all the gifted persons to perfect the saints so that they may participate in the ministry which the gifted persons are carrying out for the building up of the Body of Christ. To perfect the saints is to develop their organs, equipping and furnishing them with functions through the growth in the life of Christ. Eventually, all the saints do the same one building-up work as the gifted members. The saints are perfected to do the work of the ministry for the direct building up of the Body of Christ by their growth in Christ.
Verses 17 through 32 of Ephesians 4 is another section showing us how to build up the Body of Christ by the growth in Christ. Verse 15 says that we need to grow up into Christ in all things, and then the rest of chapter 4 unveils the details of this growth in Christ to have a life that is suitable and adequate for the building up of the Body of Christ. Paul tells us that we should no longer walk as the Gentiles, who walk in the vanity of their mind, alienated from the life of God (vv. 17-18). When we walk according to the life of God within us, we do not have a hardened heart, we are not in darkness, we care for the consciousness of our conscience, and we would not give place to the devil (v. 27). We also need to walk in truth, that is, in the reality as it is in Jesus (v. 21). God is the truth, the reality. Ephesians 4 also says that we have put off, regarding our former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit (v. 22). Deceit is personified. It refers to the deceiver, the devil, from whom are the lusts of the corrupted old man. For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to put off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of our mind (v. 23). This renewing is for our transformation to the image of Christ. Our regenerated spirit is mingled with the indwelling Spirit of God. Such a mingled spirit spreads into our mind, thus becoming the spirit of our mind. It is in such a spirit that we are renewed for our transformation.
In our baptism we put off the old man and the old manner of life, and we put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth (v. 24; 4, Rom. 6:6a; Col. 2:11-12). Righteousness is being right with God and man according to God’s righteous way, and holiness is being separated unto God from anything common and being saturated with God’s holy nature. We need to live a life of righteousness and holiness. This is the way that Jesus lived on this earth to set up a pattern of One who lived a life of always doing things in God, with God, and for God, ministering Himself as grace to others. We learn from Him according to His example, not by our natural life but by Him as our life. We need to live a life that gives grace to others for the needful building up. This is a life that ministers Christ to others as their enjoyment and supply for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:29). We should not let any corrupt word proceed out of our mouth but only the words that give grace to others. In all our speaking, we should distribute the riches of Christ.
To build up the Body of Christ, we must also learn not to grieve the Holy Spirit so that He can keep sealing us unto the day of the redemption of our body (v. 30). We should always make the Spirit happy. Everything in our behavior should be pleasant to Him. The sealing Spirit is continuously sealing us with the essence and element of the Triune God. When a piece of paper is sealed with a seal, the paper receives the ink essence and also the likeness and the shape of the seal. The sealing Spirit brings the essence of the Triune God into us and causes us to bear the likeness of the Triune God.
A life that builds up the Body of Christ is also a forgiving life. To practice the Body life, we need to forgive one another, forgetting one another’s offending, as God in Christ forgets our offenses (v. 32b; Heb. 8:12). To forgive means to forget. Because we are still in our old man much of the time, we make mistakes and offend others. This is why we need to forgive others by the life of God in the Spirit of God.
Ephesians 4:17-32 gives us a picture of a life that can carry out the work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ. There is much, much hope, promise, and potential that all the churches in the Lord’s recovery could be built up in this way. May the Lord bring us into the reality of the one Body built up by one ministry with thousands of saints perfected to live a life that is adequate and qualified to do the work of the building up of the Body of Christ.
