Search
Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:4-6, 11-24
Ephesians is a particular book in that it gives us a full revelation of the church and also shows us the way to experience the church, which is to experience Christ. In the previous chapters we have seen that Christ is the mystery of God and that the church is the mystery of Christ. Ephesians 3:3 refers to something called the mystery. The church comes out of God, who is a mystery, and who is embodied in Christ. Christ also is a mystery. Even according to history, Christ is a mystery. In the six thousand years of human history, no one is as mysterious as Christ. He was God, yet He became a man. He is both God and man. He is one person of two natures and two lives — human and divine. Our mind cannot grasp how one person could have two lives and two natures, how Christ could be God and man at the same time. As a mystery, Christ has been embodied in the church. Thus, the church is the mystery of Christ, just as Christ is the mystery of God. Like God and Christ, the church is a mystery. Most people do not understand what the church is. Many think that it is a building with a cross on it, but this is not the church. As the church, we are a mystery. There is a mystery in us, and this mystery is Christ, who is the mystery, the embodiment, of God.
The mystery mentioned in Ephesians 3 includes the unsearchable riches of Christ, which are being dispensed into us (v. 8). Verse 9 calls this dispensing the economy of the mystery. Something mysterious is being dispensed into us. We experience the economy of the mystery daily and hourly as the riches of Christ are dispensed into us. In every situation and at every moment, while we are eating, washing, and talking to others, Christ is dispensed into us.
The economy of the mystery produces the church. The church, which comes out of this dispensing, is not material or physical but altogether spiritual and mysterious. It is the expression of God Himself. Verse 19 tells us that the church is the fullness of God, the outflowing and overflowing of the riches of God, which result from a constant filling. We Christians have the privilege of being filled with the Triune God until we overflow Him. To overflow God is to manifest God, to express God. The church as the fullness of God is the expression of God.
The church is not a physical building but the expression of God. Because we are constantly filled with God, He overflows from us. The overflowing of God from us is the church. If a group of Christians is not filled with God, they will not overflow or express God. We need to be Christians who are filled with God so that we are flowing out God in whatever we do. When we function in a meeting, God flows out. When all the saints function, the church becomes the fullness of God, God’s flowing out.
Paul composed Ephesians 3 with seven main points: the mystery, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the economy of the mystery, the church, Christ making His home in our hearts, the dimensions of Christ, and the fullness of God. These seven points show us what the church is. The church comes out of the mystery, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the economy of the mystery, and Christ making His home in our hearts. When the church experiences the immeasurable dimensions of Christ, it becomes the fullness, the expression, of God.
Ephesians 3 can be described by the word rich, and Ephesians 4 can be described by the word deep. Chapter 4 reveals mingling, growing, and renewing. We need a thorough understanding of what is meant by these three words.
Verses 4 through 6 mention the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. These three are the Triune God, the three-one God. This does not mean that there are three Gods. There is one God, yet He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Verse 4 begins, “One Body and one Spirit.” The Body and the Spirit being mentioned together in this way indicates a mingling. The Lord and the Father are also grouped with matters related to the believers to show the Triune God mingled with our being. Ephesians 3 reveals the church as the fullness, the outflow, of God. Chapter 4 goes on to reveal something further — that the Triune God mingles Himself with us to cause us to become the Body. The Body, which is the fullness, the expression, and the overflow of God, comes out of God mingling with us.
In order for the Triune God to mingle with us, we first must believe in the Lord. When we call on the Lord, we spontaneously believe in Him. By calling on the name of the Lord, faith comes into us, we believe in the Lord, and the Lord enters into us. Immediately, we are joined to the Lord in an organic union. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
Ephesians 4:5 says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” We are united with Christ, joined to the Lord, by believing. However, many worldly things or things of the old creation still hinder us. Therefore, we need to be baptized. By being baptized, we are freed from the world and cut off from the old things. We are one with the Lord and are members of His Body, which is filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 4:6 says, “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Over all refers to the Father as the source, the origin; through all refers to the Son as the course; and in all refers to the Spirit, who abides in us. The Triune God is over us, through us, and in us. Thus, we are full of God. This is the mingling of the Triune God with the believers, causing the believers to become the fullness of God, the church. According to Ephesians 4, the church is produced by God being over all, through all, and in all. The Triune God mingled with us is the genuine church.
Verses 11 through 16 deal with our growth in life. The growth in life is the increase of Christ in us. Christ is already in us, but He needs to grow in us. Christ in Himself does not need to grow, for He is perfect and complete. In Himself Christ is fully mature, but in us Christ may still be very small. We need to gain more of Christ.
When Christ increases in us, we grow in Him. According to verse 15, we may grow up into Christ in all things. In our thinking, our loving and hating, our likes and dislikes, and all our decisions, we may grow up into Christ. Even when we get a haircut, buy a pair of shoes, study, or work, we may grow up into Christ. Most brothers and sisters are in Christ in some things but not in all things. In everything and at every moment, we need to grow up into Christ by having Christ increase within us.
The Body is built up by the growth in life of all the members. The church is not like a physical building, which is built by pieces being fixed together. The building up of the Body of Christ is like the grafting of branches to a tree. The grafting together of two living things involves growth. Two pieces of stone that are fixed together do not grow together. As living members of the Body of Christ, we are built together by growing together. The church as the Body of Christ is built up by the growth in life of all the members.
Once we are built into the Body, it is difficult to leave, because we are joined to the Body by life. If a member of our physical body is offended or unhappy with another member, it cannot leave the body. Wherever one member goes, the other members follow. It is difficult for anyone to leave the real church, because we are not stones placed upon one another but living members growing together. For a member of a body to become separated or divided from the other members results in death. Spiritually speaking, anyone who leaves the church brings death to himself.
The way to help people grow is to feed them. No one can grow without eating. All the gifts to the Body — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers — do one work, that is, to feed the believers. The co-workers who care for the churches and speak in conferences should be like waiters in a restaurant, ministering food to all the saints, feeding them with Christ. Real ministry is to feed the saints. Even proper teaching is a feeding. After hearing a message, the saints should be satisfied and nourished.
We grow by eating, drinking, and breathing. For this reason, we need to call on the name of the Lord, read the Bible, and pray with the words of the Bible. To read the Bible with prayer is to eat, to pray with the words of the Bible is to drink, and to call on the name of the Lord is to breathe. Eating, drinking, and breathing are crucial for our growing. When we grow, we are built up together.
Ephesians 4 first reveals the Triune God mingling Himself with us. Next we see the Body growing with Christ and growing into Christ. Last, in verses 17 through 24, we see the matter of renewing. The church needs mingling, growing, and renewing.
Renewing comes from growing. Two trees of the same age may be completely different. If one tree is growing, it will be new and fresh every day. However, if the other tree is dying, it will become older all the time. Thus, when we are growing, we are being renewed.
To be renewed means to discharge the old things and to replace them with the new things. Our old man was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6) and buried in baptism (v. 4a), but we may still have many of the old things — old thinking, old emotions, old decisions, old ways of doing things, old ways of speaking, and old habits and customs. All these old things need to be discharged and replaced. For this, we need the supply of the new element.
The metabolism in our physical body comes mainly from eating. We eat new food, which is our supply of a new element. This new supply discharges all the old things and replaces them with a new element. In this way our bodies are renewed every day. If we do not eat for one week, we will quickly become old because there will be no discharge of the old things and no supply of the new material. The principle is the same with the Body of Christ.
We need to be renewed by putting off the old man and putting on the new man. The new man is Christ applied to and experienced and enjoyed by the believers. As the fullness of God, the church is the expression of God. As the Body of Christ, the church is the organism of Christ, growing with Christ. As the new man, the church is one with Christ, having Christ as its person. The Body of Christ is a matter of life, and the new man is a matter of a person. The Body of Christ needs Christ as its life, and the new man needs Christ as its person.
The church should be not only the fullness of God and the Body of Christ with Christ as its life but also the new man with Christ as its person. As the Body of Christ, the church lives Christ and expresses Christ, but as the new man, the church is Christ. The Body and the new man are produced by mingling, growing, and renewing. By daily growing and being renewed, we will become the Body and the new man. As we are being renewed, we put off the old person, our old man, and we take the new person, Christ. As our new person, Christ makes us the new man.
