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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:3-6, 11-16
The ultimate goal of God’s economy, as revealed in Ephesians, is for us to be filled unto all the fullness of God, to attain to a complete mingling of God and man so that God may be our content and we may be His expression. This is not a goal that is at all individual. God’s filling is not for an individual expression; He desires to gain a corporate expression, which is the Body of Christ.
God’s economy is to gain the Body of Christ; consequently, Ephesians 4:3 speaks of “being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit.” The phrase the oneness of the Spirit means that the Spirit is the oneness. The Triune God today is the Spirit, and He is mingled with our human spirit as one. There is a Spirit in your spirit and my spirit, and this Spirit is mingled with your spirit and my spirit. This Spirit is our oneness. Whenever we give heed to our spirit, not to our mind or our feelings, we are one.
The manifestation and building up of the Body of Christ are what Satan fears the most. Satan is not too concerned with people being saved, loving the Lord, or even being spiritual. His greatest fear is the manifestation of the oneness of the Spirit. This oneness is the Body, the building, and the church. Satan is put to shame when we are in oneness. Verse 3 speaks of the oneness of the Spirit, and verses 11 through 16 point out the secret of this oneness, while exposing the craftiness of Satan at the same time.
Verses 11 and 12 say, “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” Verses 13 and 14 then speak of arriving at a full-grown man and of no longer being little children. According to the context of these verses, the perfecting in verse 12 causes people to grow. A child may have ears, eyes, a mouth, a nose, and four limbs yet be only two feet tall. How can he be perfected? In order to be perfected, he does not need another hand or another eye, because he already has two hands and two eyes. His real need is to grow, and in order to grow, he needs to eat food in abundance. The more he eats, the more he will grow. In 1 Corinthians 3:2 Paul says, “I gave you milk to drink.” In the church life today we need more feeding than teaching. The church needs those who can perfect by feeding.
As the saints are perfected, they spontaneously function. A newborn babe cannot function, even though he has all four sensory organs and four limbs. Therefore, if the saints are not functioning in the church, this shows that there is a need for growth and that there is a lack of feeding. When the saints are perfected through feeding in order to grow, they are able to function, and this function results in the building up of the Body of Christ. The Body is not built up directly by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers but indirectly by the perfected saints. The Lord Jesus does not build up the church directly, and neither do the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. The church is built up by the functioning saints who have been perfected by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers.
Regrettably, this matter is completely reversed in Christianity today. Those who attend “church services” are “unemployed” and do not function at all. All the Bible study, preaching, and prayer are undertaken by a pastor. This is a degraded situation; it is the result of Satan’s craftiness to annul the function of the saints. I am afraid that even among us some are still under the influence of this kind of pastoral system because they feel that they cannot do anything and need the help of a full-time worker. May the Lord deal with these concepts so that each of us would function. Functioning occurs gradually, just as growth occurs gradually. Almost as soon as a child is born, he can scream and cry, but when he is one or two years old, he can speak a few simple phrases. Similarly, we should be able to speak a few things after being saved, but after growing, we should be able to speak more or give a testimony. It is abnormal to not be able to speak something after being saved for fifteen or twenty years.
Ephesians 4:13 tells us that we need to grow until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. We need not only to have the oneness of the Spirit but also to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. As we grow, gradually we will arrive at a oneness in which there is no dispute over doctrines but only the oneness of the faith.
The faith in verse 13 refers to the things in which we believe, such as the Lord Jesus being God, His becoming flesh, and His being crucified, resurrected, and becoming the life-giving Spirit. The faith concerns the person and work of the Lord Jesus. In contrast to the faith, doctrines are related to teachings concerning lesser matters, such as whether or not sisters should wear head coverings and how a believer should be baptized. In regard to these matters, some believers have one view, and other believers have a different view. Christianity is divided among many different denominations, such as the Baptist Church and the Presbyterian Church, because of a strong emphasis on a particular doctrine. When a doctrine is elevated to the level of the faith, there is division. The faith produces oneness, but doctrines produce divisions.
We each received the one faith when we were saved. However, Christians often add doctrines to the faith that has been received. Most of these doctrines are received through teachings that the believers hear after being saved. When they receive these teachings and consider them equal to the faith, the result is a loss of the oneness. Although they truly believe in the Lord, the many additional teachings that they hold on to cause them to be divided from those who hold a different teaching. The believers who hold on to doctrines are like little children who hold on to their toys and fight with other children over who has the better toys. Today many childish Christians come together only to discuss and quarrel over doctrines. Just as a child drops his toys as he grows older, we must grow in order to be delivered from doctrinal disputes. We need to grow until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
Ephesians 4:14 says, “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.” This verse shows that those who hold on to doctrines are like little children who are tossed by waves and carried about by winds of teaching. If someone gives a good message on foot-washing, even a message that is according to the Bible, we need to be cautious in order to not be swept away by this teaching. Those who are carried about by winds of teaching are carried away from the Lord and from the Body of Christ as well. Being carried away is manifested with division. Any concern related to the correctness of a doctrine should not outweigh the consideration over whether or not an emphasis on such a doctrine will carry us away from the Body and frustrate the building up of the Body. Whatever carries the believers away from the Body is a wind of teaching involving craftiness, which carries people about and causes them to fall into a system of error.
To avoid being carried away, we must hold to truth in love (v. 15). Truth is Christ. We need to say, “Lord, I love You; I do not love doctrines. You are my truth; I do not care for doctrines.” Then we need to grow up into Christ, who is the Head, in all things (v. 15). This again refers to the matter of growth, not to the matter of doctrines. We need to grow up into Christ in all things.
Even what we have spoken today should not be treated as a doctrine; we must bring this before the Lord for mutual fellowship. We need a renewed consecration to live practically in the church life as a growing member with manifested functions. Through the operation in the measure of each one part, the Body will grow and be built up (v. 16).
