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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:12-13
After seeing the types of the tabernacle, the altar, and the Ark, which signify the outward form of the church, redemption, and Christ, we must see how to measure the church. In other words, we must see how to measure the spiritual worth, weight, and position of the church. Since the Ark represents Christ as the inner substance of the church, we can measure the church only by Christ Himself. Ephesians 4:11-12 also speaks very clearly of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers who perfect the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. All the gifts that Christ gave to the church are for the building up of His Body; the goal of the building up is for the Body of Christ to become full grown and to attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (v. 13).
We need to see what it means to build up the church. To build up the church is to build up the Body of Christ. The goal of the building up of the Body of Christ is for the Body of Christ to become full grown and to attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that is, for the church to arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Hence, the matter of the church involves Christ. If the church does not have Christ inwardly, the church is void, empty, and without reality. Consequently, if we want to evaluate the church, we must not do it according to anything other than Christ Himself, and we must see that a group of Christians has the inward stature of Christ.
Anything that does not match Christ and is not of Christ should not have any place in the church; it should be completely eliminated and destroyed. In the church there are only Christ’s position, ground, and element. If we look at the church from the outside, there are many persons and matters, but these persons and matters should be mingled with the element of Christ. This means that every responsible brother and serving one should be mingled with Christ inwardly. In other words, all the responsible brothers and serving ones need to submit to Christ and allow Christ to mingle with them. In this way, even though we are still human, we will have the mingling of Christ within; we will be humans who are mingled with God. All our service and work should be mingled with the element of Christ.
Sometimes we hear people from certain Christian groups saying that they are truly God’s church because their beliefs are orthodox and their worship is according to the way of the Bible. However, if we examine them more deeply, we may discover that Christ is not mingled with them and that the Holy Spirit does not have the ground to rule in them. On the contrary, we may be able to touch only people and things. When we genuinely want to live in the Spirit and allow Christ to be the law of life in us, some may attempt to “pour cold water” on us by saying that this will not work. In such circumstances, however, it is not we who are being blocked and hindered; rather, the Holy Spirit is being blocked and hindered.
We should never be like this in the local churches. No local church should allow man to overstep Christ and the Holy Spirit. No local church should prevent a person who lives in the Lord from working with them. If a local church cannot enable someone who lives in Spirit and who follows the Holy Spirit to go on together with them, such a church is undoubtedly ruled by man, allows man to have the top position, and has more of the element of man than the element of Christ. The Lord does not approve of such a situation.
We must adhere closely to this principle: the normal condition of any local church is to establish Christ so that Christ can be built up in the church, so that the stature of Christ can grow daily in the church, and so that the Holy Spirit can become more active in the church as He lives more in the church. In a normal local church the Holy Spirit is able to lead people to learn and accept the breaking of the cross, to put themselves aside, and to submit to the authority of the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, a normal church life involves living in Christ and allowing Christ to lead us to learn the lesson of the cross so that we can learn how to build up the church as the Holy Spirit increasingly lives in us.
The standard of the church is simply Christ. We cannot conclude that the church has made progress and has grown simply if a church in a certain locality increases from four hundred brothers and sisters to six hundred in one year. In reality, the church may not have grown at all. Even when a church increases in number, we cannot determine whether the church has been enlarged and made progress merely by looking at these outward numbers. We must see whether Christ Himself has increased within a church. When Christ increases within a church, it has truly been enlarged and made progress.
When we visit a church, we may discover that even though it has increased in number, the element of man has increased as well so that the church is full of man’s ideas and opinions. According to the proper measure, this church has not made any progress. Even though these saints may have some experience and do not directly confront or offend one another, we can sense that they have their own opinions. Such saints do not submit to the Holy Spirit and do not allow the Holy Spirit to reign in them; instead, it is possible to meet people who are only experienced in the ways of the world. In other words, we can touch only man’s element and self-cultivation but not much of the element of Christ. It is possible for saints to be very weak even when a church increases in number.
If there is an increase only in number, we will touch only weakness and activity in their service. We will not touch the authority of the Holy Spirit, and we will not find people who are under the Holy Spirit’s authority, who abide in life by the Holy Spirit’s operation in them, and who serve the Lord by allowing Him to rule. Such a church will not have much of the stature of Christ. They may increase in number, and the responsible brothers may be full of human experiences and not argue with one another; however, we cannot touch Christ in them. This kind of church is a church in name only; it lacks reality.
If the responsible brothers and the saints remain like this, sooner or later the Holy Spirit will be forced to raise up another group of people. The Lord will raise up a group of people who will submit to the Holy Spirit’s authority and who will have much fellowship with Him. Then when people contact them, they will sense the Lord’s presence and taste the flavor of Christ in them. Thus, the Ark — the testimony of God — will be among this group of people.
David was a man who knew God’s heart, and he brought the Ark to the house of Obed-edom because he knew God’s heart (2 Sam. 6:11-12). However, the house of Obed-edom was neither the beginning nor the destination. The beginning was the tabernacle, and the destination was the temple; Obed-edom was only a part of the building process.
Over twenty years ago the meetings that began in many places in mainland China were like the house of Obed-edom. When I first started serving God, the local church where I met was a “house of Obed-edom.” The house of Obed-edom, however, can last only a short period of time. Those who know God will not leave the Ark in the house of Obed-edom; instead, they will bring the Ark and set it in the city of David. The Ark can stay in a certain person’s house for a short time, but eventually it needs to enter into the temple. Thus, it is not sufficient simply to have the Ark; we also need to build up a temple for God’s Ark.
The stature of the church is Christ. When we build up the church, we cannot build with anything other than Christ; we can build only with Christ. Several years ago we visited a certain church and realized that the brothers did not know very much of the truth and were not clear about God’s Word. When we visited them this year, all the brothers were able to stand at the podium and speak for the Lord. Some might say that this church has made progress, but we can say only that they have made progress in the truth; we may not be able to say that the church has made progress. A church has made progress only when there has been an inward increase and growth of Christ. A church may increase in the knowledge of the truth outwardly, but she may not have much increase of Christ inwardly. We need to be able to discern this difference.
Many Christian organizations have studied the truth and published magazines for many years, but they have merely human views and ideas. It is difficult to find anyone among them who is under the breaking of the cross, who allows Christ to rule, and who lives in the Holy Spirit. If our church is like this, we have not grown much in Christ; instead, we have grown only in our mind. Even the truth cannot be used to measure the church; we can measure the church only by Christ.
Sometimes even the truth can replace Christ. The church in Taipei has been in the exercise of the four stages of the spiritual life, in which the third stage concerns the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Many saints have the concept that the discipline of the Holy Spirit involves losing something, being physically injured, having a car accident, or becoming sick. However, few of us truly see that the discipline of the Holy Spirit causes us to experience the breaking of the cross in order to allow the Holy Spirit to have ground in us and rule in us. Often we have the doctrine of the discipline of the Holy Spirit but not the reality of being ruled by the Holy Spirit. Hence, the stature of Christ may not be established in us. Among today’s Christians there are too many substitutes for Christ; anything can be a substitute for Christ. However, only the things that come out of Christ have the element of Christ and are of Christ Himself.
Some Christians pay more attention to spiritual cultivation than to Christ, but spiritual cultivation is not Christ. Similarly, the things we think are related to the discipline of the Holy Spirit may be unrelated to Christ. Sometimes we visit seminaries and see people holding Bibles in their arms, walking slowly, and looking up to the heavens every few steps. It seems as if they are very pious. Such a pious demeanor conveys a sense of spiritual cultivation, but spiritual cultivation is not Christ. The result of this kind of spiritual cultivation is not spiritual growth but the growth of the flesh; instead of the spirit, the flesh is strengthened.
Spiritual cultivation may seem very real outwardly, but actually it is very false. Many seminary students and preachers behave and conduct themselves very differently at school than at home. When they are at home, their true nature is manifested, and they act like different persons. We can be like this as well; we can act like two totally different persons when we are with the saints and when we are at home. Just as our natural life can be expressed in our pride, it can be expressed in our meekness. Just as our natural life can be expressed in our “wildness,” it can be expressed in our refinement. All the things that people think are good and virtuous may not be spiritual or of Christ.
We may have the term the discipline of the Holy Spirit without any real knowledge and experience of it. This can be a substitute for Christ in us. As a result, we may receive some discipline, but we do not gain Christ or experience Christ. We need the discipline of the Holy Spirit in the church life, but we cannot use this item to measure the church. We cannot use anything but Christ to measure the church; we can use only Christ to measure the church. The degree to which a person knows Christ, allows Christ to rule in him, gives ground to Christ, and allows Christ to operate in him is the degree to which he has gained Christ.
In the church the goal and purpose of the gifts are to build up the church so that the church would have the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The church has no other work.
In the church there is not only the matter of life but also the matter of authority. Some may ask where the matter of authority in the church is spoken of in the Bible. It would require much time and effort to list every reference in the Bible. Here we will use only Romans 12 as a proof. Romans 12:3 says, “I say,...to everyone who is among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith.” This means that one may receive grace to be a hand, someone else may receive grace to be a finger, yet another person may receive grace to be an arm, and some other person may receive grace to be a foot. Although every member is different in size, everyone is a member. We should not be proud and think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. If one is a hand and thinks more highly of himself by considering himself to be an arm, he will cause trouble. This is because the hand serves under the arm and also functions above the fingers. Thus, the arm is above the hand, and the hand is above the fingers; this is to be balanced and in order.
The more a church receives the Lord’s grace, the more she has the element of Christ within, and the greater is her stature of Christ; at the same time, more authority is manifested in that church. Today we live in an age of democracy, and people everywhere talk about democracy. However, there is neither a dictatorship nor a democracy in the church. In the church there is only the order of life and the authority of the Holy Spirit, because the church is not an organization; the church is an organism. Worldly society is a matter of organization; consequently, people either talk about autocracy or democracy. The church, however, is not an organization but an organism; therefore, the administration of the church is not a matter of organization but a matter of life.
In the Bible the church has a very good name: the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23). It is very easy to understand the Body. Let us use the members of our body as an illustration. If all our members want to hold a meeting to discuss equality, would they even have a way to be equal? The only way that they can be equal is for the body to die and for all the bones to be detached and scattered.
We all know that a living body stands upright. When a person stands up to speak, his body must be upright. The stronger and more active a person is, the more upright his expression is. When a person becomes sick and lies down, he becomes flat. The members of his body are on the same level only when he is dead and his bones are detached.
Sometimes when we look at the condition of a so-called church, it seems like a bunch of scattered bones. The brothers speak about being equal among themselves, and the sisters do not submit to the brothers. Everyone talks about equality, but this is actually a situation of scattered bones. The church is the Body of Christ. On the surface the body seems to be organized, but in reality it is an organism. All the different members of the body cannot talk about being equal, and furthermore, they must stand upright. Once the members stand upright, however, there is surely a matter of order. There are some who are above and some who are below. Consequently, there is the matter of authority.
I hope that the saints who are responsible and serving in a locality could receive this word. This does not mean that a person who receives this word wants to be in control in the church. Anyone who wants to control others will assuredly not receive grace from the Lord. Everyone who has received grace and who knows God does not like to control others. When we first spoke of the matter of order and authority in life, an older sister asked, “Will the brother who ministers the word use this message to cause others to submit to his authority?” Actually, the person asking such a question may be the first not to submit to authority.
Those who want others to submit to them do not know grace. Those who truly know grace do not hope or desire that others would submit to them. In the church we should not have people who desire to control others, and we should not have people who do not have a heart to submit to authority. Both such people lack grace. The church is the organic Body of Christ, and it should not have people who want to control others.
Every person who has received grace and lives in the Spirit of life will find his place in the Body of Christ, and he will find his order among all the members. There is no hierarchy in the church, but there is an order; there is no control of others in the church, but there is submission to one another (5:21). Ephesians does not speak of the rank of each member, but it does speak of functioning according to the operation in the measure of each one part (4:16). How can we give our arm and wrist hierarchical names? There is no hierarchy with respect to the hand and the arm, but there is an order between them. If the hand could speak, it would say, “If I offended everyone in the world, I would not be afraid, but I am afraid of problems between my arm above and me. If there is a problem, I will be in trouble.” If we live in life, we will surely know our position.
The authority of the church that we speak of is entirely different from the authority of the pope in the Catholic Church. If someone asks who our authority is, we should reply that it is the brother next to us. The brothers who coordinate and serve with us are our authority; we do not have a leader among us like the pope who has authority over everyone. We have no such thing. Our only Head is Christ; He is our unique authority, and we are members one of another (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 4:25). The only difference among us relates to the matter of order and authority in the Body. We need to realize that the saint closest to us is our authority; he or she is our authority. Because the closest member to the fingers is the hand, the hand is the fingers’ authority.
If we come into a normal, living church that lives in the Spirit and has the full-grown stature of Christ, we can see immediately that the members have the expression of the Body. They are members one of another, they are joined to one another, and they know their own order. Everything is upright and full of life, not flat and weak.
When there are many opinions in the church, there is no solution other than to submit to the cross and receive its breaking; only then can we know whom we should listen to according to the authority and order in Christ. A proper church is an upright church, and the brothers and sisters serving there know their position and relationship to one another. When we go to some local churches, the elders are sitting in the business office like department or section heads in a government agency. When the deacons come to see the elders, they behave like subordinates coming to receive orders from superiors. This kind of situation makes us sad. Actually, this is the condition of degraded Christianity.
In the church there are elders and deacons, but the elders should not put on the airs of an elder, and the deacons should not consider themselves lowly and insignificant. My arm is higher than my hand, but my arm does not show off its strength, thinking that it is higher than my hand. Similarly, my hand does not think that it is smaller and without much use. Some deacons have this concept when they are with the elders; they think that they should simply take orders from the elders. This erroneous concept comes from Hades and the world.
If God appoints us as elders, we receive the eldership through His grace in life; therefore, we do not have anything to boast in or any reason to feel lowly. We should realize that we are people under the ordering of life in the church, the Body. This is what is spoken of in Romans 12:3, which says that we need “to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith.”
There is no dictatorship or autocracy in the church; neither are there democratic or hierarchical positions. In the church the brothers and sisters coordinate as one organic body. The church is not organized but organic. The proper church life is the move of an organic body. Apostles, elders, and serving ones are all members, and each functions according to his portion and stands in his position in one organic entity. They all know life and authority, and they all keep the order of life.
I hope that all the brothers would learn the lessons of knowing life, knowing our order in life, and knowing authority by learning this order. We do not have a centralized authority among us. Instead, the brothers around us are our authority; the members who serve the Lord with us are our authority.
If five brothers who coordinate together want to preach the gospel, do they need to hold an election to see who will be the director and leader? We may be concerned that if they do not have an election, there will be no one leading them and no one who will be responsible and give the message. So what should they do? They should submit to one another and work together. Activities in human society always require prior arrangements, such as voting for a president and a vice-president. However, it is not the same in the church life; all the brothers and sisters should live in life and allow the Holy Spirit to be the Ruler. Everyone should submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit and keep the order of life. If this is the case, each one will know his position and what to do.
If there are five brothers in a family, it is not necessary for them to come together and vote on who is first and who is second. The order among the five brothers in the family is determined by life. The first brother does not need to feel proud, and the youngest brother does not need to feel inferior. Their order is based on a natural course. The oldest brother is the oldest brother, and the youngest brother is the youngest brother. This is the order of life.
Similarly, when we are with the brothers, we immediately know our place. A sensible child obeys his father, mother, oldest brother, second oldest brother, third oldest brother, and so on. Marvelously, this is the way in every healthy and normal family. The oldest child knows that he is the oldest child and that he should have a certain responsibility and conduct; at the same time, when he gives a command, all the rest of the children obey him because they know their birth order. In a healthy family, not only is the father the authority, but the mother is an authority as well. Furthermore, the oldest brother is an authority over the second, the second brother is an authority over the third, the third brother is an authority over the fourth, and the fourth brother is an authority over the fifth. There is a certain order in the whole family.
Every authority is a protection, a support, and a supply. For example, when a family eats together, the youngest child typically gets the most food because everyone loves him. The older children often envy him and feel that he is the most privileged. Nonetheless, the youngest child may say, “I am not the most privileged, because everyone regulates me.” This illustration shows that there is an order of life among the members of the body. Although order comes with restrictions, it also comes with a supply. If we live in life, keep our position, and respect the position of others when we do anything in the church, we will be able to coordinate with one another in a proper way.
When the brothers and sisters take care of the cleaning service in the church life, we have discovered two kinds of situations. Some saints have truly made progress. When they clean, they have no ideas and opinions. They simply follow the responsible one who tells them how they should clean, what they should use, and what their responsibility is. This shows that they have truly learned some lessons. However, when other brothers and sisters clean, they do not fellowship even though they do not argue. When the responsible brothers try to tell them how they should do it, they may say, “I will do my part, and you should do your part. Please do not bother me.” Of course, some people may not say this, but they display this kind of attitude when they clean. This represents a lack in knowing the order of life and a lack of learning the lessons of life.
The more a person lives in the Holy Spirit and in life, the more he knows his position, the order of life, and the authority in life. Such brothers and sisters are a definite strengthening to the Body of Christ. If my little finger rebelled and refused to stay in its place, wanting instead to become a foot and to walk, what kind of situation would this be? The entire church often suffers loss when a small brother or sister refuses to keep his or her place in the church. On the contrary, if a person keeps his place, he will be a strengthening to the Body. In other words, the members who strengthen the Body are those who keep their place.
Ephesians 4:16 says, “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.” Every joint in the body has its own measure, which is developed through life, and it is able to supply all the members richly. When everyone functions according to his function, the body is built up. A church becomes strong and is built up when all the saints know the order of life and stay in their place.
Thus, the matter of the church involves strict requirements; it requires us to be separated from the world, to reject the self, to deal with the flesh, and to deny the natural life. It also requires us to be separated from independence and individualism. It is not sufficient for us to be separated from the world, the self, the flesh, and the natural life, because we may still live according to our independence and individualism. Independence and individualism are the main factors that cause the Body of Christ not to be built up. In order to have the church, we cannot have individualism, and in order to have the Body, we cannot have independence. In the Body there is no individualism, no individual idea, judgment, decision, inclination, choosing, or preference. Anything individual hinders the building up of the church and damages the Body of Christ.
Every believer has his own personality and characteristic; God’s salvation does not nullify our personality and characteristic. On the one hand, we have been shown mercy to be in God’s family. In a family an older brother may be bigger, but he is still a person, and a younger brother may be smaller, but he is also a person. This is the situation in a family. On the other hand, when we speak of the church as the Body of Christ and ourselves as the members in this Body, our person does not exist. In the Body we have only one person, and this is the person of Christ the Head. If all the members in our body were their own person, we would be in great trouble, and we would not be able to live.
Although a body has many members, there is only one person, the head. When our head feels tired and wants to sleep, all the members lie down together. If our head feels tired and wants to lie down to rest, but our hands do not want to rest and instead keep moving and working, our whole body will become sick.
There are always two sides to a truth. As far as being a brother in God’s family, every believer is a person; however, as far as the Body of Christ is concerned, his person does not exist because there is only one Body. Consequently, there can be only one person. Some brothers and sisters insist on being their own person in the Body, and as a result, they prevent the Body from moving. They must realize that they are members in the Body. If they try to be an independent member, they will become the ugliest members in the Body, but if they remain in their proper order, they will be the most beautiful members.
The key to all these points depends on the level of life in us. If our life is sufficiently abundant, it will require us to give up our individual person and give up our individualism, independence, prejudice, and pride. This is the way for the church to reach the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, the way for the church to be strong, and the way for the church to express the fullness of Christ.
