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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:14-16; 1 Cor. 3:1; Eph. 6:24
We saw in chapter 2 that the gifted persons were produced by the Head of the Body in His resurrection. They were once captives in the hand of Satan. Through His death and resurrection, Christ rescued them from Satan’s hand. These rescued captives, through the process of Christ’s full redemption, have been constituted into persons who are gifts. He brought them with Him in His ascension and presented them as gifts to the Father. The Father returned these gifts to Christ, who then gave them to His Body to perfect the saints for its building up.
We need to realize that the gifted persons do not build up the Body directly. Even the Head of the Body, Christ, does not build up the Body directly. In Matthew 16:18 He said, “I will build My church.” Yet in the real practice of the building of the church, Christ as the Head of the Body does not do the direct building work. The gifted persons have to perfect the saints. To perfect the saints is to build them up, to equip them, and to furnish them with whatever they need for their work. Then the saints do the direct building work. Neither the Head nor the gifted persons do the direct building work.
The gifted persons perfect the saints to do what they do. The saints are perfected to do the work of the ministry, the ministry that builds up the Body of Christ. The apostles perfect the saints to function as apostles. The work of the prophets is to perfect the saints to speak for God and to speak God into people. To prophesy is to minister Christ, to dispense Christ, into God’s chosen and Christ’s redeemed people. The evangelists perfect the saints to do what they do in the preaching of the gospel. The shepherds and teachers perfect the saints to shepherd with teaching. When we teach, we shepherd, and when we shepherd, we teach. Shepherding and teaching should not be separated; they must go together. First Corinthians 12:28 says that God has placed all these gifts in the church. Throughout the centuries of church history, Christ has given such gifts to His church again and again. Even today He is doing the same thing.
If there are some saints meeting together as a local church, there must be some among them who are the Christ-given gifts. Some of them know how to do the apostles’ work. Some know how to do the work of the prophets. Others know how to do the evangelical work. Still others know how to shepherd and teach. Not only should they function in these areas, but they should also spend their time and energy to perfect the saints. They should be like the professors in a teachers’ college who produce more teachers, more professors. This should be the situation of a local church. A group of gifted persons who have been given by the Head to the Body should not only do the work themselves but should also perfect others to do what they do.
Acts 13:1 says that there were prophets and teachers in the church in Antioch. The book of Acts also shows us that the apostles continued to go back to the churches after they had established them and had appointed the elders. They visited the churches or communicated with them by writing in order to perfect the saints. Through the perfecting work of the gifted members, all the members are equipped to carry out what the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers do for the building up of the Body of Christ. The Lord has shown us this, and we have to take this as our goal.
This perfecting work should be going on and on until we all arrive at the three items listed in Ephesians 4:13: the oneness of the faith, a full-grown man, and the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We need to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. The faith comprises the full redemptive work of Christ and the all-inclusive, wonderful person of Christ. This faith is the very contents of the New Testament teaching. The entire New Testament presents us with a picture of the incarnation of Christ through His resurrection, ascension, and second coming, issuing in the consummation of the local churches, the New Jerusalem. This is the faith in which we believe.
Some may say that their belief is Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Catholic, or Baptist. For Christians to have different kinds of beliefs means that they have different faiths. There have also been many councils throughout church history that have resulted in many creeds, or statements of belief. Every creed is a belief, so the many creeds indicate many beliefs. But the New Testament tells us that there is only one faith, the unique faith (v. 5; Titus 1:4). There is no other faith. A creed is not the faith. Only the reality of the contents of the entire New Testament is the faith. In Galatians Paul tells us that the law was everything in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament the faith has come to replace the law. Today we are not under the law, but we are in the faith, which is the very New Testament reality composed of Christ’s work in redemption and His person as the embodiment of the Triune God.
Paul said that the gifted persons are to perfect the saints until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith. Paul said this because even at his time there were other beliefs as substitutions for the unique faith. This is why the gifted persons have to work on the saints by perfecting them until the saints and all the perfecting ones, the gifted persons, arrive through a journey and at a goal. This goal is composed of the three items in Ephesians 4:13. The first of these items is the faith as the very essence and element of the oneness. We all arrive at the oneness of the unique faith composed with Christ’s work and person.
We also have to arrive at a full-grown man. A full-grown man is a mature man. Do you believe that all the members of the church have grown up into a full-grown, mature man? We have been in the church for many years, but in our constitution we may still be little children. If a brother becomes angry at his wife, is this the sign of a full-grown man? This is a sign of being childish. Even though I am quite old, I do not have much assurance that I am a full-grown man. We have to see what our real state is. Do we live an overcoming life every day? Do we live a victorious life throughout our day? We have to live a revived life every day. Every morning we have to receive a new revival. This is just like the sunrise in God’s creation. Each of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year has a morning, a new start, a new sunrise. We Christians who are seeking after the Lord should live a life in which we have a new revival, a new sunrise, every day. Every day Christ has to be our rising sun.
From the very moment that we rise in the morning, we have to call “O Lord Jesus.” We have to call on the name of the Lord continually and daily. We have to live Christ like the apostle Paul who said, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). Paul was a person living nothing but Christ. Are we daily living Christ? Occasionally we live Christ, but often we forget about Christ. This is a sign that we are still childish. Paul told the Corinthians that he did not give them the solid food for nourishment because they were still babes, infants, in Christ (1 Cor. 3:1-2). This is why we need the apostles’ perfecting, the prophets’ perfecting, the evangelists’ perfecting, and the shepherds’ and teachers’ perfecting.
Our daily life and our church life are full of signs that show we are not a full-grown, mature man. We need to consider our real situation in the light of the Lord’s word. In Matthew 28 the Lord said that all authority had been given to Him in heaven and on earth, and then He charged us to go and disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Triune God (vv. 18-19). The Lord’s word in Matthew 28 is to us. Are we going to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the Triune God? Some think that because they are not a pastor, preacher, or elder, they have no position or right to baptize people. This thought comes from degraded Christianity. In Acts 8 an Ethiopian eunuch received the truth of the gospel from Philip. As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and Philip baptized him (vv. 35-38). According to the Bible, anyone who believes in the Lord should be baptized immediately. Furthermore, the baptisms of the early believers were without regulations and rituals, but they did what was convenient according to where they were.
In John 15 the Lord Jesus told us that He is the vine and that we are the branches (v. 5). The branches have to bear fruit. The Lord said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain” (v. 16). In my earlier years as a Christian, I was seeking a book that could tell me how to abide in Christ. Eventually, I discovered a book by Andrew Murray on this subject. I have always appreciated Andrew Murray’s books, but all he said concerning how to abide in Christ was that we needed to consecrate ourselves to the Lord. The biography of Hudson Taylor shows us that he had a real experience of abiding in Christ. Seeking Christians today may like to talk about abiding in Christ. We may also talk about enjoying Christ, but I strongly feel that we have not paid full attention to the issue of the enjoyment of Christ by abiding in Him. The issue of our abiding in the vine is fruit-bearing. How can a branch abide in the tree and enjoy the tree’s riches without bearing any fruit? We may say that we are enjoying all the riches of the vine tree, but where is the fruit? If we are not bearing fruit, this is a strong sign that we are very childish.
Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians is very high and rich. In chapter 1 of this Epistle he talks about magnifying Christ and living Christ (vv. 20-21). But in chapter 2 he charges the Philippians to do all things without murmurings and reasonings (v. 14). We have to consider our situation in light of Paul’s charge. Between the husbands and the wives, there are murmurings and reasonings. Even in the so-called church life, is there not murmuring, gossiping, and storytelling? As seeking Christians who talk about enjoying Christ and living Christ, do we still gossip and tell stories? Are we the information desk of the church life? If these signs are among us, and we say that we are spiritual and grown up, we are self-deceived.
Another sign of our being childish is that we would talk about another brother behind his back. If we see that a brother is wrong in something, we have to love him, pray for him, and not expose him. We should not tell anyone about his situation. As we pray for him, love him, and cover him, we can seek an opportunity from the Lord to contact him. Galatians 6:1 says that if a brother is overtaken in some offense, we who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of meekness. We should not go to this fallen brother to rebuke or condemn him. We should not contact him like a lawyer or a policeman to imprison him. We have to love him, cover him, pray for him, and restore him in a spirit of meekness.
If you are wrong or if you wrong me, I should not tell anyone. I should immediately have a loving heart to cover you. I should not even let my wife know. I should pray for you and follow the Lord’s leading to come to you. This is according to Matthew 18. The Lord Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you, go, reprove him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother” (v. 15). We need to exercise a spirit of meekness to fellowship with a fallen brother and do the best to restore him. Our practice in our church life, however, may be just the opposite of this. We may gossip behind others’ backs. This is a sign that we are still childish. May the Lord have mercy upon us.
I have to be honest and faithful to the Lord by speaking the truth to present the real situation among us. We all have to admit that we need to live a victorious life. We must mean business to live Christ without gossiping, murmuring, or reasoning. We need to live Christ until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. What a goal this is!
Ephesians 4:14 continues with the result of our reaching this goal: “That we may be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a system of error.” Paul uses the phrase that we may be, indicating that he included himself. Even Paul himself had the possibility of being a little child. How can we be so confident that we are no longer little children? If we are tossed by waves, this is a sign that we are little children. A little child is unsteady and easily shaken. Tossed by waves indicates that the church life with all the saints is sailing on the stormy sea. Every sea has waves and storms. The church is sailing like a boat on the sea, and the sea has many storms. I have been in the church life for over fifty years, and I was with Brother Nee for eighteen years. Throughout these years in all the places that I have been, I have seen storm after storm.
When I began to see these storms, I had some doubts about the work. Among all the churches that have been raised up through my ministry, there were always storms. Then I realized that according to Paul’s Epistles, there were not any good churches. If the churches were as good as we imagine, Paul would not have needed to write his Epistles to them. His Epistles were written to churches with problems. When I was young, I heard someone say that the church in Philippi was the best church. The first chapter of Philippians talks about the bountiful supply of the Spirit for magnifying and living Christ. But in the second chapter Paul charges them to do all things without murmurings and reasonings. This shows that among the Philippians there were murmurings and reasonings. When I considered the situation among the churches recorded in the New Testament, I was comforted. Even among the churches that Paul raised up, there were problems and storms. I could not expect to do better than he did. No sea can avoid the storms. We are sailing on the sea. At one time the weather may be fine. Suddenly a storm, a problem, arises. When a storm comes, would you be tossed by the waves? If you would, this is a strong indication that you are childish.
The stormy sea is stirred up by the wind. The goal of the wind is to carry us away from God’s central purpose. Paul says that we can be carried about by winds of different teachings. In 1 Timothy 1:3 Paul told Timothy to remain in Ephesus and charge certain ones not to teach different things. By that time, Ephesus was an established church with elders. This can be proved by Acts 20, which tells us that Paul sent word to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church there (v. 17). Paul’s calling for the elders and his fellowship with them proves that once the elders had been established, the apostle still had the position to charge them to do things. Paul charged, warned, and advised them to shepherd the flock because wolves would come in among them (vv. 28-30). Later, he asked his co-worker, a young apostle, to remain in Ephesus, where elders had already been established, in order to charge certain ones not to teach different things. First Timothy 1:3 and 4 indicate that these teachings were different from God’s economy. To teach anything other than God’s New Testament economy is to teach different things. Paul would not allow different teachings to be taught within the limit of his work. He would not allow anything to be taught that was different from God’s New Testament economy.
Three major categories of heretical things invaded the early church to distract the saints from God’s economy: Judaism, Gnosticism, and Greek philosophy. These three major items are dealt with in Paul’s Epistles. In Galatians, Judaism was dealt with. In Colossians, Paul deals with Gnosticism and Greek philosophy. These three items were troubling the saints and distracting them from God’s New Testament economy, which centers on Christ and His Body, the church. Today there are many different teachings distracting the believers. The winds of different teachings are teachings that deviate from the all-inclusive person and the full redemptive work of Christ and from the church. Any teaching that would cause us to deviate from Christ’s redemption and His wonderful person and from the church should be considered as a teaching different from God’s New Testament economy.
These different teachings are in the sleight of men. Sleight indicates a deceiving method. The word in Greek signifies the cheating of dice players. The different teachings are used by the evil one, Satan, through man’s deceiving method. These teachings are in the deceiving doctrines instigated by Satan in his subtlety with the sleight of men to frustrate God’s eternal purpose to build up the Body of Christ in the growth of life. We need to check whether what we hear is making us alive to grow in life or deadening us. Anything that makes us alive to grow in life is organic and is something of God. Anything we hear or read that deadens our spirit is something satanic in the sleight of men to carry us away so that God’s eternal purpose to build up the Body of Christ is frustrated.
These winds of teaching are also in craftiness with a view to a system of error. Sleight is a deceiving method. Craftiness is a subtle activity. The different teachings are of a system of error. We may feel that these teachings happen only occasionally, but in actuality they take place according to a satanic system. Satan has systematized the crafty, dividing teachings, causing errors that damage the practical oneness of the Body life.
In addition to the many different teachings, there are also the different opinions from those who claim that they love the Lord and love the church. They do not realize how much damage their opinions have done to the church. This does not mean that we Christians should not have any opinion. In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul says that he had no commandment of the Lord, but he gives his opinion (v. 25). It is permissible to express our opinion, but we have to consider what the result of our opinion will be. The result of Paul’s opinion in 1 Corinthians 7 was the edification of the saints and the building up of the church. Paul was one with the Lord in giving his opinion (v. 40). Does our opinion build up or destroy? Is it a constructive opinion or a destructive opinion? If it is destructive, we should be careful. We will stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). It is a serious thing to damage the church or any saint in the churches. When we talk about other saints, is this constructive or destructive? Romans 14 reveals that the destruction of God’s work comes from opinion (vv. 15, 20). We may behave in a destructive way because we hold a destructive opinion.
Whenever we hear something, we have to check whether what we hear is building us up or destroying us. Is it making us alive or deadening us? Whether or not you accept someone’s word should depend on this principle. We will preserve ourselves from being destroyed if we check whether someone’s teaching or talk kills us, deadens us, or makes us alive.
Despite our situation of being childish, we can be those who are fully growing up into our Head, Christ (Eph. 4:15). All of us believers are persons in Christ, but to what extent are we in Christ? To enter deeper into Christ, we need to grow into Him. Ephesians 4:15 says that we have to grow up into Him in all things, that is, in every aspect of our daily life. What is it to grow into Christ? To grow into Christ is to let Christ grow in us. When He grows, we get into Him more.
In Ephesians 3 Paul bowed his knees to the Father that the Father would grant us to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man (vv. 14-16). The result of being strengthened into our inner man is Christ making His home in our hearts (v. 17). Our heart is composed of all the parts of our soul — mind, emotion, and will — plus our conscience, the main part of our spirit. Christ is in us, but He is not settled in us. He is in our spirit, but around our spirit there are the main rooms of the heart — the mind, emotion, and will. Christ is in you, but He may not be in your mind, emotion, or will. This is why we have to grow into Him, and to grow into Him is to let Him spread. We have to let Christ spread from our spirit to our mind, emotion, and will so that He can take over, possess, and occupy our heart.
When a person moves into a new house, he needs to get settled down there. If this person occupies only the living room, and every other room in the house is locked, he is not yet settled down in his house. Is this the condition of Christ in us? Does Christ have the freedom in our mind to think everything with us and for us? Does Christ have the way to occupy our emotion? Does Christ have the liberty to take over our will? If He did, He would be able to do whatever He likes in us and with us. Do we choose things by ourselves apart from the Lord? Christ may be limited, restricted, and even imprisoned within us. If there is no spreading or increase of Christ within us, how can we grow in Christ? To grow in Christ is to gain more of Christ. The more of Christ that we have within us, the more we grow into Him.
Christ needs to make His home in our hearts in all the practical aspects of our daily life so that we can grow up into Him in all things. Shopping is a real temptation to all of us. Some of us may like to read the newspaper to see what is on sale. We may like to spend our money apart from Christ on unnecessary things. When we are considering to go shopping, is Christ in our mind, emotion, and will? If Christ were in our mind, emotion, and will, we might not even go shopping for the things that we were considering to buy. In our shopping, have we grown into Christ?
When a husband exchanges words with his wife, he does not care for Christ. If he were to let Christ into his emotion, he would not be angry with his wife and argue with her. We need to allow Christ to take over our feeling in our emotion, our thinking in our mind, and our deciding in our will. When Christ takes over the three major rooms around our spirit — the mind, the emotion, and the will — He is spreading in us and we are growing into Him. We need to grow into Christ in the way that we talk to our wives. We need to be willing to let Christ take over and occupy our inward parts — our mind, emotion, and will. This is the way to grow into Christ.
Someone in the church life may have offended us, and we may want to talk about this person to someone else. But at this juncture the very Christ who is living in our spirit desires earnestly to get into our mind, to control our thinking. When we open our heart to the Lord, He may say, “Do not think this way. Even if he wronged you, he is your dear brother. You should pray for him.” When someone offends us, we may struggle with the Lord. We may agree with the Lord not to talk about him, but we still may want to forget about him. The Lord will remind us, however, that this is not the character of a Christian. A Christian is one who loves his enemies and prays for those who persecute him (Matt. 5:44). If we are to love our enemies and pray for them, what about this dear brother who offended us? Sometimes the Lord will say that this brother only did something wrong in our eyes; then He will show us that we were more wrong than he was. If we do not cooperate with the Lord in this matter to allow Him to make His home in our hearts, we are not growing into Christ.
We can grow up into Christ by holding to truth. Holding to truth is in contrast to being carried about by the winds of teaching in sleight and craftiness. We may be easily shaken, moved, tossed, and carried away because we would not hold to truth. Truth denotes the true things, referring to Christ and His Body. Only Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, and the church, the organism of the Triune God, are the true things on this earth. Everything else is vanity. We should hold on to and care only for Christ and the church. If we hold on to only Christ and the church, nothing will be able to shake us. We will be steady in Christ, on Christ, and with Christ. We will be steady in the church and with the church. We will not be tossed or carried about by any storm or wind.
We hold to truth in love, the love of God, with which we love the Lord in incorruptibility (Eph. 6:24). Our natural love is vain. Only one kind of love is true — the divine love. With this divine love, we love the Lord in incorruptibility. We can love the Lord in incorruptibility by holding on to Christ and the church. Only Christ and the church are incorruptible. To love God in anything other than Christ and the church is to love Him in corruption. We should love God with His divine love in Christ and the church. The love that will remain is the love in incorruptibility, the love in Christ and the church.
To grow up is to have Christ increase in us with the nourishment, the life supply (4:16). We cannot help the saints merely by teaching them. Rebuking or condemning does not help them either. To give Christ the way to increase in the saints, we must feed them with Christ by ministering Christ, imparting Christ, dispensing Christ, to them. When we receive the supply within, Christ increases in us. The increase of Christ in us transforms us. It changes our mind, emotion, and will. As Christ increases in us, we are transformed by growing up into Him.
To grow up into Him in all things means that we grow up into Him in every way and in every aspect of our daily walk. If we would let Christ take over our mind, emotion, will, and conscience to get Himself settled down in all our inward parts, we will grow into the Head, Christ, in everything and in every aspect. To grow into the Head is to grow into Christ by subjecting ourselves to Him as the Head. When we are not letting Christ increase in us, we are not taking Him as our Head by subjecting ourselves to Him. To grow into Christ is to subject ourselves under the headship of the Head of the Body, Christ. Then we are absolutely under the direction of the indwelling Christ, and Christ has the full freedom to get Himself settled down in our whole being. He has the way to make His home deep down in our being. By this way we can grow into Christ in everything.
Our growing is the real building up of the Body of Christ as an organism. As parts of this organism, we need to give Christ the way to grow in us. The entire organism of the Triune God is built up by all of us living in a way so that Christ can increase Himself in every part of our being. The building up of the Body of Christ is not by organizing. How is the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God built up? The Head gives the gifts, the gifts perfect the saints, and the saints grow in life. Their growth in life is the direct building up of the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God.
