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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:2-6, 12-16
I. The oneness in reality — Eph. 4:3-6:
А. The oneness of the one Spirit as the essence with:
1. The oneness of the one Body — the one place to stay.
2. The oneness of the one hope of the believers’ calling — the one destination to pursue — vv. 3-4.
B. The oneness of the one Lord as the element with:
1. The oneness of the one faith — the one transfer into Christ.
2. The oneness of the one baptism — the one transfer out of Adam — v. 5.
C. The oneness of the one Father as the source, who is:
1. Over all.
2. Through all.
3. In all — v. 6.
II. The oneness in practicality — vv. 13-15:
А. The oneness of the faith — the object of the believers’ believing.
B. The oneness of the full knowledge of the Son of God — the full apprehension of the unlimited Christ — v. 13a.
III. The process from the oneness in reality to arrive at the oneness in practicality — vv. 12-16:
А. To be perfected by the gifts unto the work of the New Testament ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ — v. 12.
B. To grow from babyhood to a full-grown man:
1. No longer tossed by the waves — the turmoils.
2. No longer carried about by every wind of teaching — doctrine — v. 14.
C. Holding to truth in love to grow up in all things into the Head, Christ — v. 15.
D. To arrive at the oneness in practicality — a full-grown man — the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (the Body of Christ) — v. 13.
E. To be built in the Body of Christ by being joined together through every joint of the rich supply of Christ and by being knit together through the operation in the measure of each one part of the Body — v. 16.
IV. This being the best and the most effective way to keep the oneness of the Body — vv. 2-3.
Prayer: Lord, we are so happy that we have another time to look unto You for Your speaking. Lord, speak to us again. We need more unveiling. Lord, we are here. We want to see the invisible things, to see all the things in the heavens, all the things in Your heart, and all the things in Your understanding. Lord, show this to us. We are trusting in You. Thank You. Amen.
Ephesians unveils to us all the invisible aspects concerning the church as the Body of Christ. We need an intrinsic view of the Body of Christ. Even our physical body can be viewed in two ways. There is an outward, external view, and an inward, intrinsic view. Outwardly, we can see some aspects of our body, but what we see outwardly is not our entire body. There is much more to see inwardly.
In October of 1938 I was in the old capital of China, Beijing, and I stayed with someone who was working in the medical field. One evening he invited a group of medical doctors to eat with us. At a certain point, I asked these doctors if they believed in God. At first, no one answered. Eventually, one of them said that after studying the human body and analyzing it, they had to recognize that there must be a Creator. Otherwise, how could man have such a wonderful body with so many internal systems and organs? This doctor responded in such a way even though he was not yet a Christian. I told him that what he said was true. Even our physical body is an adequate testimony that there is a Creator.
Paul used the term the Body to define the church. The church is the Body of Christ. This term was not used by the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels. This is because in the four Gospels the disciples were too much in the outward view. They could not see much in an inward way. In John 14—16 the Lord tried to open up the inward things to them. In this portion of the Word, the Triune God is revealed. The Lord’s speaking shows that the Father is embodied and expressed in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reality of the Son. But in John 16 the Lord told them, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality” (vv. 12-13a). When the Spirit of reality, the Spirit of truth, would come, He would receive of the mysterious, invisible Christ and disclose all the invisible, mysterious things that He received of the Son to the disciples.
When I studied the Bible, I realized that the Spirit of truth came to Peter and his contemporaries, the early apostles, but the Spirit of truth disclosed only a certain amount to them. The main person to whom the Spirit disclosed the deep things of God was the apostle Paul. At one time his name was Saul of Tarsus. He was a strong persecutor of Christ. While he was on the way to Damascus to persecute the Lord’s disciples, the Lord Jesus, the invisible One, caught him. He called to him from the heavens, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Saul then said, “Who are You, Lord?” (v. 5a). He called Him “Lord,” even without knowing Him. By calling Him Lord in this way, he was saved (Rom. 10:13). In response to Saul’s question, the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (v. 5b).
It was to this one, later to be called Paul, that the Spirit of truth eventually disclosed many mysterious things. Paul says that he received an assignment, a charge, and a burden from God to complete the word of God, the divine revelation (Col. 1:25). It would be a great loss if Paul’s fourteen Epistles were taken away from the Bible. Without his Epistles we would not be able to fellowship anything concerning the Body of Christ. The Lord Jesus did not have the opportunity to reveal this in the Gospels.
Matthew 16 tells us that one day Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (v. 15). Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). No doubt, Peter received a heavenly revelation of who Jesus is. The Lord went on to say that He would build His church upon this rock, upon this revelation concerning Christ that Peter received. This revelation of Christ and the church in Matthew 16 is wonderful, but it is not as intrinsic as the revelation of the church as the Body of Christ. The Lord did not tell Peter that the church was His Body, because He knew that Peter would not be able to apprehend it. Even though Peter became the top apostle in Jerusalem, he did not receive such a revelation. It was not until later that Paul received this revelation. In Paul’s fourteen Epistles we can see all the mysterious things, all the hidden things, of God’s economy. This economy was a mystery hidden in God who created the universe (Eph. 3:9), but it was revealed to Paul.
As we read Paul’s writings, we cannot help but wonder where and how he saw so many mysterious things. We would not be able to understand all the typology in Leviticus without his writing in the book of Hebrews. Furthermore, the Body of Christ is mentioned only in the writings of Paul. The more I have studied Paul’s Epistles, the more I have wondered what kind of person he was and how he received his revelation. How could Paul see all these things? Who told Paul of the one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father with one hope, one faith, and one baptism (Eph. 4:4-6)?
Paul saw that in eternity past before the foundation of the world, God selected us in Christ that we might be made holy (1:4). Who told this to Paul? In Ephesians 1 Paul tells us that Christ accomplished redemption with the forgiveness of sins, and this redemption brought all of God’s chosen people into Christ as a realm, a sphere, and an element. With this element we saved ones will be made God’s inheritance, and eventually the entire universe will be headed up in Christ (vv. 7-12). Who told Paul this? We need revelation to see all the wonderful things revealed to Paul concerning the Body of Christ in the book of Ephesians.
In the previous chapter we saw two sections of Ephesians 4. The first section of verses 4 through 6 shows that in this universe there is a wonderful, marvelous mingling of three divine persons with one human person. These verses speak of seven “ones” — one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father with one hope, one faith, and one baptism. These seven “ones” describe a universal, marvelous, wonderful mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed and uplifted people. The Spirit, the Son, and the Father are mingled with the Body through baptism and faith, with a hope of something to come.
Paul went on to speak more in Ephesians 4 concerning the building as the consummation of the Body (vv. 11-16). This building is by Christ as the Head, not directly but indirectly. Christ as the Victor won the battle. According to Ephesians 4:8, He captured all of Satan’s captives, and He made Satan’s captives His own captives. We became Christ’s captives, and He brought us to the heavens. The Amplified New Testament says in Ephesians 4:8 that He led a train of vanquished foes. He led us all to the heavens. We Christians want to go to the heavens. Actually, though, we were there once already. When Christ went there, we were brought there. Christ led us all as captives to the heavens, and He presented all of us as a present to the Father. Then the Father returned us to Christ as gifts (Psa. 68:18). Christ received these gifts, one of whom was named Saul of Tarsus. The Head, Christ, then gave these gifts to the Body to perfect all the saints (Eph. 4:11-12). The apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers are for the perfecting of the saints. They perfect the saints to do the work of the New Testament ministry, that is, to build up the Body of Christ.
Instead of perfecting the saints, however, the traditional practice of Christianity annuls all the functions of the members of the Body of Christ. This is why the Lord showed us the new way, the God-ordained way, to build up the Body of Christ. Thank the Lord that we have seen such a vision. We have come back to the pure Word, and we are here practicing the new way, in which everyone is being perfected to function.
The burden of this ministry is to perfect the saints to be living, active, positive, functioning members of the Body of Christ. We need to be perfected to prophesy, to speak something for God and to speak something of Christ forth into others. This builds up the church as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 14:4b). My burden is to perfect the saints to do what the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers can do, to accomplish, to consummate, God’s New Testament economy to build up the Body of Christ.
The Body of Christ is built up by our holding to the truth, the reality (Eph. 4:15). In the whole universe what is truth? What is the reality? These four persons in Ephesians 4 — the Body, the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father — are the reality. Everything other than these four persons is vanity of vanities. Everything else is vain. In the whole universe only God the Father is real, only Christ is real, only the Spirit is real, and only the church as the Body comprising all of us is real. This is the reality to which we must hold. We must hold to God the Father, to the Son, to the Spirit, and also to the church as the Body. We must hold to this truth, to this reality, in love. Then we all will grow up into the Head, Christ. We are now in Him, but truthfully speaking, we are not in Him enough. We need to be more and more in Him. This is why Paul says that we have to grow up into the Head, Christ, in everything (v. 15).
We need to grow up into Christ in the way that we comb our hair. For many of us, the way that we comb our hair is not up to the standard of being in Christ as the Head. We comb our hair in ourselves, not in Christ. Some of the sisters spend a great deal of time to style their hair, and yet they say that they do not have time for morning revival. This shows that they need to grow up into Christ in combing their hair. When the brothers buy a pair of shoes or a tie, they should buy them in Christ. We should be in Christ even regarding the shoes and ties that we wear. We need to be those who are growing up into the Head, Christ, in all things.
When we grow up into the Head, something proceeds out from Him. Ephesians 4:16 says, “Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” To grow in life is to grow into the Head, Christ, but to operate in the Body of Christ is to operate out from Him. First, we grow up into the Head; then we have something that is out from the Head for the building up of the Body.
The Body is joined together through the joints of the rich supply and knit together through each one part functioning in its measure. Even a physical building needs steel frames as the joining factor. Then material needs to be knit together to fill up the holes between the frames. Through this joining and knitting, the building becomes a solid entity. The Body of Christ is joined together and knit together by two groups of believers — the joints and the parts. Through the functioning of all the members, all the Body causes the growth of the Body, and this growth is for the building up. The Body is built up by itself through all the members.
The first section of Ephesians 4 shows us that mingling is going on, and the second section shows us that building is going on. Thus, Ephesians 4 shows us mingling and building. Mingling is going on with the Body, the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. The Spirit, who is the realization of God the Son, is the essence of the divine mingling with the believers; the Son, who is the Lord and the embodiment of the Father, is the element of this mingling; and the Father, who is over all, through all, and in all, is the origin, the source, of the divine mingling. This mingling is the constitution of the Body of Christ.
The mingling is going on, but we all can testify that our being mingled with the Triune God is not thorough. Much of the time, the Triune God cannot get through in us. Our mind is too strong, and our emotion is either too hot or too cold. How can the Triune God have the full way to mingle Himself with us? The three of the Godhead are fellowshipping among Themselves for the purpose of mingling with us. They are finding a way to mingle Themselves with persons who are so strong in their mind and fluctuating in their emotion.
The things in our environment are sovereignly arranged to help us to be mingled with the Triune God. After being married, some couples may think that their marriage was a mistake. During the time of courtship the brother thought that the sister was wonderful, and the sister thought the same about the brother. After their marriage and honeymoon, however, both of them may feel that their marriage was wrong. This is according to the human viewpoint. But the Lord knows that the husbands need their wives, and the wives need their husbands. This is God’s assignment. Many times only the wife has a way to break the husband. This dear wife, the “wrong” wife, is Christ’s cross to her husband.
Do we believe that it is easy for the Triune God to mingle Himself with us? If I want to mingle flour with oil, the flour does not struggle with me. It is “obedient” and “submissive.” But when the Triune God comes to us to mingle Himself with us, do we agree? Most of the time we are like naughty children. When a mother wants to give a dose of medicine to her child, the child may refuse to take it and struggle with her. We are like this with the Lord. Who is submissive among us? Do we submit ourselves to our circumstances? Do we submit ourselves to our environment? Usually, we do not go along with our circumstances. We are not submissive. Instead, we are altogether rebellious. This is why the divine mingling of the divine persons with us does not go quickly. I can testify that the Triune God has been mingling Himself with me for over sixty-six years, but this mingling has not yet been consummated. The mingling revealed in Ephesians 4, the mingling of the Divine Trinity with us, does not go so smoothly.
Ephesians 4 shows us the divine mingling and the building up of the Body of Christ. On the one hand, the divine mingling is going on. On the other hand, the building is taking place. Mingling and building are inseparable. They are like two feet. If the divine mingling stops, the building stops. From God’s side we need the mingling. From our side we need the building.
Much of the time we resist the Triune God’s efforts to mingle Himself with us. This is why it is so difficult for the elders in the churches. To be an elder is very demanding because all of us children of God are naughty children. Sometimes I wondered why God begot so many naughty children. It seems that God chose all the naughty ones of mankind. In a meeting we may behave ourselves as ladies and gentlemen, but when the meeting is dismissed, we immediately begin to misbehave.
Since this is the case, how can the churches be built up? When can we see the building consummated? The mingling cannot go smoothly, and the building is very difficult. Is everything so sweet and pleasant in the local churches? Are the mingling and building going on smoothly? Is every day a clear day or a cloudy day? I would say that it is probably more than cloudy. In the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we have periodic storms. This shows that we need to give ourselves to the Lord so that the divine mingling can proceed and so that the building of the Body can be consummated.
Paul received a vision of this mingling and building. He received a trance, and in that trance he saw all these things. Therefore, he prayed for us that we might also have a trance, that is, that we might have a spirit of wisdom and revelation (1:17).
Now we come to the oneness of the Body. The oneness of the Body is also taught in Ephesians 4. In chapter 4 Paul uses the word oneness twice. In verse 3 he tells us to diligently keep the oneness of the Spirit. Then in verse 13 he says that we all need to arrive at the oneness of the faith. We have the oneness of the Spirit, but we have not yet arrived at the oneness of the faith.
The oneness of the Body is the Triune God Himself. We have seen from Ephesians 4:4-6 that the Body, the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father are one. The oneness of the Body is constituted with the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. The three of the Godhead are one, and these three are now working in the Body to mingle Themselves with the Body. One Spirit, one Lord, and one Father are working in the Body.
In the Lord’s prayer in John 17, He revealed that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the three of the Divine Trinity, are one. The oneness of the Body is the one Triune God. The Spirit is the reality of the Triune God, so the oneness of the Body is called the oneness of the Spirit. When we are all in the Spirit, we are one.
We need to be those who are diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit. In a meeting a husband and a wife may sing together in oneness, but when they return home from the meeting, they may fight with each other. In some churches the elders may fight with one another. From 1936 to 1938 I helped the church in Beijing, the old capital of China. The elders in that church could not be one with one another. They called me to come and help them. When I stayed with them, they were so happy, but when I left, their problems with one another returned. I am not speaking something lightly. This is why it is hard to see a church that has been really built up among us. The mingling and the building have been held back because we are not diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit so that we can arrive at the oneness of the faith.
Paul puts the mingling and the building together in Ephesians 4. On the one hand, he presents the mingling of the Divine Trinity with His redeemed people. On the other hand, he shows us the building of the Body through the functioning of all the members. In the section of Ephesians 4 on the building, Paul speaks of his desire that we would be no longer children, no longer babes (v. 14). As we are being perfected, we are on our way to arriving 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 (v. 13). When we arrive at this destination, we will be full-grown. Today in the recovery, many still remain in babyhood. According to Ephesians 4:14, the little children are tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching. We need to grow in the divine life until we arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
In 1984 I realized that the churches in the Lord’s recovery were in a dormant situation. Thus, I began to minister to bring the churches into the new way, the God-ordained way, to build up the Body of Christ. Because of the practice of the new way, however, some among us began to fight. Some said they were for the new way, whereas others said they were for the old way. Of course, the new way is the scriptural way, but the new way is not our faith. Neither the new way nor the old way is our faith. Whether or not we practice the new way does not determine our eternal salvation.
If we take the proper, scriptural way, however, we can gain the increase, and we can receive a reward when the Lord comes back. This reward is in addition to our salvation. If we take the old way and do not bear fruit, the Lord will ask us to give Him an account when He returns. In the parable for faithfulness in Matthew 25, the slave did not make any profit for his master and told his master that he was a hard man. The master responded by telling this slave that he was evil and slothful (vv. 14-30). This parable speaks of the reward and punishment in the coming kingdom. The profitable slaves will enter into the enjoyment of their Lord in the coming kingdom, but the useless slaves will be cast into the outer darkness.
Whether or not we take the scriptural way in this age may determine whether or not we are rewarded in the next age. But our taking the new way or the old way does not determine our salvation. Our salvation is secured, guaranteed, and eternal. Our eternal salvation is based upon the person of Christ as the Savior and upon His work of redemption with His redeeming blood. The divine person of Christ and the redemptive work of Christ are the items of our faith. If we contend for anything other than the items of our faith (Jude 3), we will be divided, and we will even become divisive.
In order to arrive at the oneness of the faith, we have to grow. All the different doctrines and practices are like toys. The new way may be one brother’s toy, and the old way may be another brother’s toy. One brother has his toy, and another brother has his toy. They are babyish; they are still children. They hold on to their preferences, their likes and dislikes. The more we grow, however, the more toys we drop. When I was a young Christian, I contended for some doctrines and practices as toys. But when I grew, I dropped these toys. Today I can boast that I do not have any toys.
There are many ways to drive from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. We should not quarrel about which way to take. As long as we agree with the destination, that is all that matters. The way that we take to Washington D.C. can be likened to our toy, and the destination of Washington D.C. can be likened to our faith. We should not contend for anything other than the faith.
The Southern Baptists say that you must be immersed by them in the water in their baptistery to become a member of their denomination. The doctrine of baptism has become their toy. Today we should not care where someone is baptized, and we should never contend with people about the method of baptism. If we have seen the vision of the oneness of the faith, we will drop all the toys. We should not fight about the old way or the new way, because these ways are not our faith. We must keep the oneness. The troubles come because of the immature saints being carried about by the winds of different teachings, doctrines, concepts, and opinions.
The God-ordained way, the new way, is not a toy to us in our ministry. This way is the scriptural way, the organic way, to build up the Body of Christ. I have received a burden from the Lord to tell His people that the old way annuls the functions of the members of the Body of Christ. In the old way, the Head is cut off, and the parts of the Body are annulled. All that is left is a relatively small number of clergy. This is why we have to put the old way aside. We want Christ, but we do not want the religious system of Christianity. The “anity” should be cut off, and we should take only Christ. We must come back to Christ and to His Body with all the members functioning. This is not my preference. This is the God-ordained way to build up the Body of Christ.
We all have to see that the Triune God is mingling Himself with the Body. This mingling is still going on. Furthermore, the faithful gifts — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers — are doing their best to perfect the saints. They are doing their best to teach the saints, to instruct them, to equip them, and to give them some direction, some way, so that they can do the work of the New Testament ministry to build up the Body of Christ. Then the whole church will be geared to function. The joints will be supplying to join the Body together, and the parts will be operating to knit the Body together. Then the Body will be built solidly.
The building matches the mingling. Actually, the mingling and building are one. Without the mingling, we cannot build. Without the building, the mingling can never be consummated. The mingling and the building will result in the completed, consummated church as the Body of Christ.
I hope that we all can see this. Paul saw a vision. He had a proper, actual trance, to get out of the old concept and into the new concept. He saw all these things, and we have to thank God that what Paul saw was put down in writing. We thank the Lord for this book of Ephesians! If we did not have this book, we would have no guide, no direction, and no light concerning the details of the Body of Christ. We would not be able to see the intrinsic view of the Body of Christ. But thank the Lord that we have the guide, the direction, and the light. We can see the mingling of the processed Triune God with the regenerated believers and the building up of the Body of Christ. We can also see the oneness of the Body of Christ with the oneness of the Spirit and the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. May the Lord have mercy upon all of us that our eyes would be fully opened to see the intrinsic view of the Body of Christ.
