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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 3:6, 9-12; 1 Pet. 2:2, 5; Eph. 4:11-16; 2:20-22
Life grows, transforms, saves, and renews for God’s building. Thus, life builds up the church of God. The verses in the Scripture reading show that the growth of life is for the building.
First Corinthians was not written to individual believers or to the so-called church in the heavens. Paul said in 1:2 that this book was written to the church of God which was in Corinth, to the church in a locality, a local church. Thus, if we want to understand, to know, to realize, and to apprehend this book, we have to be in the local church. This is a book to the local church. Thank the Lord that we are in the local church, and we are positioned to receive this book. If we are in the right position, it is easy for us to see certain things. Because we are in the local church, it is easy for us to see a book written to the local church.
In this book Paul said that he planted, Apollos watered, and God caused the growth (3:6). The planting, watering, and causing the growth are not for individual believers. In 3:9 Paul said, “You are God’s cultivated land [God’s farm], God’s building.” The you in this verse is plural, not singular. The planting and the watering are for the farm. They are not for individuals but for the church, for the Body.
In today’s Christianity nearly all the teachings are for individual believers. Christianity tries to create spiritual giants, but this is wrong. God has no intention of building up spiritual individuals. God’s intention is to build up the local churches for the building up of the Body of Christ, God’s farm, God’s building. The planting and the watering are for the growth, and the growth is for the building. We are not only God’s farm but also God’s building. The farm comes first and then the building. This means the farm is for the building.
A farm is a plot of land for growing things. The church is God’s cultivated land to grow Christ, not in an individual way but in a corporate way. In the church we are the plants, planted by God to grow Christ. Something of Christ will grow up in each of us. This is the farm of God, and the growth on this farm is for the building. It is by the growth that the material for the building is produced. To say that the church is God’s farm and God’s building seems very simple, but actually it is not that simple. The planting on the farm, of course, is related to the vegetable life. But eventually the growth of the plants issues in gold, silver, and precious stones (v. 12). How can the plants grow to produce gold, silver, and precious stones? The plants produce minerals.
This thought is not only in 1 Corinthians but also in Genesis 2. The tree of life is a plant. Along with the tree of life there is a river, and this is the watering. Thus, we have the planting and the watering. Then at the flow of the river there are gold, bdellium [pearl], and onyx stone, a precious stone (vv. 9-12). The thought in 1 Corinthians 3 was there already in Genesis 2. The growth of the cultivated land produces minerals. Actually, this is very scientific. Something of the mineral life is in the plant life. When we eat the plant life, we also receive something of the mineral life. We receive minerals such as iron, salt, sulphur, and zinc. Our physical body is built up with a number of minerals.
The church is not something that is organized or formed in an outward way. The church is a body built up with Christ, yet this Christ is of the plant life and the mineral life. If you want to know more about this, I would ask you to read The All-inclusive Christ. In that book I point out a number of aspects of Christ which are typified by both the vegetable life and the mineral life (see chapters 5 through 8). Christ is the vegetable life to us to produce all the minerals. The farm of God, the cultivated land of God, produces the precious materials — gold, silver, and precious stones.
Now in the church we, the laborers of God, are planting and watering with the expectation that God’s farm will produce the precious materials for His building. Christ as the vine in John 15 produces the fruit for the Father’s glorification (v. 8), but if we have just the fruit, we do not have the materials for the building. We cannot build a house with clusters of grapes. The cultivated land of God’s farming is for producing gold, silver, and precious stones for His building.
Some may just want to be the fruit, which is soft and sweet, but ultimately our growth is for God’s building. I have met a number of sweet saints, but there is nothing good in them for the building. Today in God’s house, God needs the hard, solid material. You and I have to be so solid, not so soft and sweet. If we are so sweet, the building is gone. Today in all the places, we need some hard ones. The grapes are good for appreciation but not good for the building. God today needs some solid material to be produced out of the growth of God’s cultivated land. Paul planted, Apollos watered, and God caused the growth, not to produce fruit but to produce gold, silver, and precious stones. The Lord has to change our concept, to turn our natural understanding to His revelation. Gold signifies God’s divine nature, the nature of the Father. Silver, in typology, signifies redemption, the redeeming work of the Son. Precious stones are transformed material, signifying the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. This is the work of the Triune God to produce gold, silver, and precious stones, which are the materials to build up God’s house.
We all need to grow in life for the transformation in life. Some of the sisters among us are wild and bold. This is natural. Other sisters are so timid. This is also natural. We need to grow so that we will become so strong and solid in the Lord’s testimony. In the church life all the timid sisters have to be strong, not in a natural way but in a spiritual way. When the time comes for a sister to give a testimony, her testimony should be solid. At that time she should be so strong, solid, and hard, like a diamond.
The brothers should be the same. Some brothers testify in the meetings in a dying way. They are not living and exercised in their spirit. Other brothers are so naturally bold. When they shout, “Hallelujah,” this is in the flesh, not in the spirit. We need the growth in life to make us solid and precious material for God’s building. Life grows, life transforms, and life produces the precious material. We should not excuse ourselves by saying that we are timid by nature. There is no excuse, because the church is God’s farm and we are under the planting and watering. We are now growing so that we might be transformed into precious material.
Through all our experience, we have learned that no human being is trustworthy. This is because every human being was made of clay and is a piece of clay. When the clay is dry, it seems solid. But when water is poured upon it, it dissolves. Not one human being is a piece of solid stone. Therefore, we are not trustworthy. We cannot trust in a piece of clay, so we need transformation.
When Simon came to the Lord, the Lord immediately changed his name to Peter, which means “a stone” (John 1:42). He would no longer be Simon, but Peter, a stone for the building up of the church. Have you ever seen a building with two columns of clay to support the building? Of course not. Any piece of clay is not trustworthy. In my early years, I had complete trust in every brother. Eventually, I learned the lesson that no human being is trustworthy. This is why we need transformation by the growth in life. The church as the house of God is built not with pieces of clay but with pieces of stone. How strong a local church is depends upon how much transformation has been produced.
It is not just a matter of saying that we love one another and of embracing one another. We need transformation. Without transformation we may embrace one another today, but later we may criticize and condemn one another. I am happy to see the young people seeking the Lord, but I am waiting to see something more. I want to see how much transformation can be carried out. This is the need. The church needs the solid building, not anything of mere emotional affection but something solid in God’s transformation with all the fullness of the Godhead. The nature of the Father has to be built into us, the redeeming work of the Son has to be wrought into our nature, and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit has to be accomplished within our whole being. Then we become solid and trustworthy. Then God can put His trust in us because through His transformation we have become the material for the building up of the church.
This is why I have always said that you can never build up a local church by your teaching, by your doctrine. The local church can be built up only by the transforming life. What we need is to minister life to people, and this life will carry out the transforming work. Then this transforming work will produce the real, solid, precious material for the building up of the church.
I am happy and thankful to the Lord that within these past years, I have seen the growth of many saints. In this growth I have also seen the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. When the saints in a local church have experienced a good measure of transformation, that church becomes very solid and can stand against any kind of storm. Nothing of our human nature, nothing natural, is good for the building up of the church. The building material must be of the Father’s nature, of the Son’s redeeming work, and of the Spirit’s transforming work. We all need to be renewed and transformed. The Lord is moving on to do the building work among us.
In 1 Corinthians 3 there are the planting and the watering for the growth, and the growth is for the producing of precious material for the building. So on the one hand, we are the farm, and on the other hand, we are the building. The farm is for the growth, and the growth is for the building. Thus, the farm is for the building. The church is a farm to grow Christ so that precious material might be produced for God’s building. For this building, we need the growth in life.
First Peter 2:2 says that as newborn babes we should long for the guileless milk of the word (not the knowledge of the word but the nourishing element, the milk, of the word) in order that by it we may grow. Verse 5 says that we are living stones. These stones come out of the growth, and the growth comes out of the pure milk of the word. The more we drink the milk of the word, the more we grow, and the more we grow, the more we become the living stones, which are for the building up of the spiritual house. Again, the growth in life is for the building of God’s house. Life builds.
Ephesians 4 says that the Head of the church, Christ, gave the gifted persons — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. All these gifted persons were given by the Head to His Body, not for a direct building of the Body but for the perfecting of the saints (vv. 11-12). The gifted persons are not the direct builders, but they are the perfecters to perfect the saints. They perfect the saints, not by teaching them but by nourishing them in order that they may become a full-grown man. To become a full-grown man, we need the nourishment in order that we may grow. Any teaching that nourishes us is good. Any teaching that just teaches us is not good. The teaching must be a nourishing teaching, something that ministers the nourishment of life to us so that by it we may grow.
Ephesians 4 also tells us that we need to be perfected to arrive at a full-grown man so that “we may be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men” (v. 14). This is to be carried away from Christ and the church, the Head and the Body, by some kind of distracting teaching. Many Christians today are like little children tossed to and fro and carried away by the wind of doctrine. We want to be those who are being inwardly nourished for the growth in life in the local churches for the building up of the Body. No teaching should be able to shake us or carry us away. We should just care for the spiritual nourishment in order that we may grow into a full-grown man.
Then we hold the reality in love and grow up into Christ in all things (v. 15). By this the Body is built up directly, not by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, but by all the functioning members. According to 4:16, the Body builds itself up in love by the members themselves. The members are the direct builders of the Body. The practical building of the local churches must be by the local members, who are the direct builders of the local church. The gifted persons are the perfecters of the members. They help the members grow. They are for the perfecting of the saints until all the saints are full-grown. Then every member will function; that is, every joint will supply, and every part will operate according to its measure. In this way the Body builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 2 says that we are no longer strangers and sojourners but members of the household of God (v. 19). The members of the household need to be built together upon the foundation, Christ. Verse 21 says that in Christ “all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.” The building up of God’s temple is by the growth of the Body. Again, the growth is for the building, and the building depends upon the growth.
Verse 22 says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” In verse 21 the holy temple is universal. In verse 22 the dwelling place of God is local. Life grows, and this growth is for the building of the house of God. Thus, life builds. The more we call on the Lord by saying, “O Lord,” the more we take Him in as our life, and this life works within us to build up.
We may be very good people, but if we do not allow the life within us to grow and transform us, we cannot become the material for the building. Our being good is leaven. If I love you in a natural way, this kind of love is leaven that corrupts and ruins the Body. If two brothers have a close friendship in their natural life, this is not the building up. This is the leaven that corrupts, that damages the fine flour (Matt. 13:33). So we have to condemn this. We have to put this on the cross; we have to bury and get rid of this.
We need transformation. The more that life grows within us, the more we realize that natural affection and natural goodness have to be put on the cross and buried. Whatever is of the natural man can never build up the Body. We may have fellowship in the spirit, but we should not have friendship in the emotion. Friendship in the emotion is leaven that corrupts the Body life. Until we hate everything of our natural being, we cannot be built up together. The real building, the solid building, is in the spirit through the working of the transforming Spirit.
I believe that we have seen the way for the building up of the local church. The leading brothers, who by God’s mercy and grace are laboring among the saints for the building up of the local churches, have to realize that the local churches can never be built up by mere teaching. What we need to do is minister life to the saints so that the saints may be perfected by being nourished. They need to be perfected in feeding on Christ to be nourished by Christ. Then they will grow, and this growth will produce gold, silver, and precious stones for the building of God’s house. May the Lord be merciful and gracious to us so that we who are in the Lord’s present recovery may know the way of life. It is by this way that there is the possibility for the building up of the local churches. Life builds.
