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John 1:12; 1 Cor. 12:27; Matt. 7:17-18; John 14:6; 15:16; Matt. 28:19; 1 Pet. 2:2; Eph. 4:3, 11-12a
I. Life issues in the building up of the Body of Christ
II. The Body of Christ being an organism not an organization
III. The way to build up the Body of Christ
А. By the gospel
B. By the growth of life
C. By keeping the oneness of the Spirit
D. By perfecting the saints
E. By the functions of the perfected saints
The second issue of life is the Body of Christ. When we first believed, we received the life of God into our spirit. On the one hand, we became the sons of God (John 1:12). On the other hand, we became the members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27). As the sons of God individually, we need to grow up in life and bear the two categories of fruit in our daily living. As the members of the Body of Christ, we need to be constituted with Christ as our life and be built up in oneness so that corporately, we may become the fullness of God. Therefore, the Body of Christ, the church, is not an organization of people, but an organism, a body of life. Without these two issues, there is no proof of our experience and growth of life. These two issues become the manifestation of the amount of life that is in us.
Young people must be clear about this. Many say that they enjoy the Lord, or that they have grown in the Lord, yet what outward proof do we have to substantiate their claim? Our proof is with the two issues of life. How is their daily living? Is it just like the people of the world, or is it like Christ? Is their character still loose, or has it gone through transformation? Are their friends and relatives getting saved or are they still barren? Is there a building up with the saints through fellowship and prayer, or is there murmuring, reasoning, complaining, and even divisive talk? It is not what one says, but whether one’s living bears the two issues of life. We can tell the tree by its fruit (Matt. 7:17-18). Evil trees bear evil fruit. Good trees bear good fruit. A person living in himself cannot bear fruit of life. Only a person of life bears fruit of life.
The Body of Christ, the church, is not an organization but an organism, an issue of the dispensing of the Triune God into us as life. [Not many of the Christians throughout the generations have entered into this realization. We may think that the church is just a collection, or a gathering, of all the believers as a kind of collective entity which can be considered as an organization. This is absolutely wrong. The concept of the church being an organization has led the Christians throughout the centuries into confusion, misunderstanding, and a deceived condition. Our burden today is to point out, according to the pure, divine revelation in the New Testament and especially in the book of Ephesians, that the issue of the dispensing of the divine Trinity is the church as an organism, the Body of Christ.]
[A wooden stand is organized with pieces of wood, but a living person with a body is something organic. A robot is an organization of lifeless material, but a living person is an organism. The church should be an organism not an organization. The teaching of Ignatius in the second century gave the ground for organization to come into the church.] [Today’s Christianity is under the influence of this concept of hierarchy and has been corrupted by it. The teaching, practice, and concept of hierarchy has led many Christians away from the church as an organism to an organization.]
[Every aspect of the church must be organic because the church is the issue of the living Trinity. The Bible tells us that the embodiment of God, Christ, is life. Christ told us in the Gospel of John that He is the life (John 14:6). Christ is not something organizational. As the embodiment of the Triune God, He is the totality of the divine, eternal life. The totality of life, the living Triune God, issues in one thing — the Body of Christ. Since the Triune God is the totality of life, the Body of Christ is altogether a matter of life. We should put anything that is not of life under our feet. We do not like hierarchy because it is altogether a matter of organization and has nothing to do with the organic Body of Christ.]
Because we are the Body of Christ, we can never be independent of one another. Independence shows a lack of life. [In God’s economy and in the Body of Christ, independence is a devilish word. We Christians should never be independent. We should not be independent of God or of one another. We cannot go on in the Christian life if we isolate ourselves from one another.] All the local churches, all the saints, all the elders, and all the workers should never be independent of one another. The life of God in all of us maintains this oneness. Any independence and division represents a lack of life, is not of life, and is not a part of the organic Body of Christ.
The first thing we must do to build up the Body of Christ is to preach the gospel. One of the definitions of life is: God the Father in the Son as the Spirit flowing into us, through us, and out of us. Therefore, before the Lord was crucified, He charged His disciples to bear fruit (John 15:16), and after His resurrection, He commissioned His disciples to go and disciple all the nations (Matt. 28:19). As we enjoy life, experience life, and grow in life, there must be the issue of the gospel. The gospel preaching will result in more members of the Body of Christ. There are so many unsaved people living in our city, but how many are in the church? The number in the church is so small compared to all the people around us. How many students are in your school, and how many are in the church? We must preach the gospel to our friends, our relatives, and our neighbors so that they may be brought into the Lord and into His Body. Without the preaching of the gospel, nobody would be saved. Without people getting saved, there would not be many members. Therefore, we must first preach the gospel to bring sinners to repentance, resulting in more members for the Body of Christ.
These newly saved members and we must grow in life for the Body of Christ (1 Pet. 2:2). Since the Body is not an organization, mere numbers mean nothing. We must have more members enjoying life, experiencing life, growing in life, filled up with life, and constituted with life. Growth in numbers coupled with growth in life is necessary. Therefore, we must grow by practicing all the points in the foregoing lessons and help the new ones to do the same. The main practices are: 1) call on the Lord and pray to maintain a strong regenerated spirit; 2) pray-read, read, study, and memorize the Word of God to be equipped with the truth; 3) live by the sense of life within our spirit every day; 4) be filled with the Spirit every day all the day by confessing and dealing with all hindrances; 5) preach the gospel; and 6) attend meetings in homes, in small groups, and with the whole church to prophesy and to testify. By these practices, you and your new ones will grow in life to be proper members of the Body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:3 says, “Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.’’ Without oneness, there is no way to build up the Body of Christ; therefore, we all must be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit. This oneness is of the Spirit. We have the Spirit and we have the oneness of the Spirit. The oneness of the Spirit is not something we have to pray for, rather, we must exercise our spirit to keep it. Sometimes we may want to say something against the decisions made by the elders, talk back to our parents, or gossip about a brother or sister in the church. These things divide the Body. We must turn to our spirit and drop these things so that we may keep the oneness of the Spirit. This is the way to build up the church. Negative talk tears down; the Spirit builds up. A person not living in spirit is not in oneness. A person of life is always in spirit and in oneness.
Ephesians 4:11-12a says, “And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints.’’ There are certain ones in the Body of Christ that are gifts to the Body. They have special functions, that is, to perfect the saints. Perfecting means nourishing, training, and enabling. When a baby is born, it may have all the innate capabilities to play the piano, yet without training, it will never play well. Training is needed for human beings to do things proficiently. In the same way, every Christian is regenerated with the divine, eternal, and indestructible life. Yet this life needs training in order to build up the Body of Christ. It needs training to preach the gospel, nourish others, teach the truth, speak forth God and build up the Body of Christ. Are you trained? We all need to be trained by the gifted ones in order for us to build up the Body of Christ.
All the saints are needed to build up the Body of Christ. Although there are special gifted ones in the Body, these gifted ones do not build up the Body directly. They can only build up the Body indirectly by perfecting the saints. The perfected saints must function according to the extent they have been perfected to build up the Body of Christ. Do you know how to pray? If you do, you need to pray to build up the Body. Do you know how to preach the gospel? If you do not, you must be trained, because we all must preach the gospel. If you know how to preach the gospel, then you must function by preaching. Whatever you do not know, you must learn. Whatever you know, you must function accordingly. By your functioning, the Body will be built.
If you want the Body to be built faster, you should perfect others based on what you have been perfected in. For example, if you have been trained in gospel preaching, you can in turn train younger ones to preach. You then become a small evangelist, a small gift to the Body. If you were trained in pray-reading, you may train a new one to pray-read; then you become a small shepherding teacher. If you have learned to compose a prophecy during the week and to prophesy in the Lord’s day meeting, then you may help a shy one to learn to prophesy by showing him or her how you pray, read, see light, then write a prophecy and prophesy in the meeting. Those that are helped by you will become perfected ones, functioning to build up the Body of Christ. The more the saints are perfected and the more they function, the sooner the Body of Christ will be built. If you perfect others as well as function to build up the Body, then you are a small apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher. When you grow up in life both spiritually and physically, you will become a full-grown apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher.
In summary, the issues of life are the fruit of virtues, the fruit of saved persons, and the building up of the Body of Christ in oneness.
