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Eph. 4:12-13, 15-16; 2 Cor. 4:1; 3:8-9; Rom. 5:18b; Jude 3b; Eph. 2:15b; 4:24; 4:1
I. Being willing and ready to be perfected
II. The saints being perfected by the perfecting gifts with the life supply as the nourishment for the growth in life
III. Unto the work of the ministry — unto the building up of the Body of Christ
IV. Until we (the gifted persons and the saints) all arrive
А. The oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God
B. A full-grown and mature man
C. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
[We have seen that God’s intention is to give the gifted persons — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers — to perfect the saints that all the saints may participate in the work of the building up of the Body of Christ. These gifted persons perfect the saints to be what they are. This is similar to the professors in a teachers’ college who perfect their students to become teachers like they are. A local church may be likened to a teachers’ college, and the gifted persons are like professors teaching different courses. They perfect the saints to be what they are — apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. The gifts’ perfecting of the saints results in a proper local church.]
[The Lord desires all the saints to be perfected (Eph. 4:13), but the Bible shows us that the Lord is calling for overcomers. In the seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord is sounding the trumpet for overcomers. His call for the overcomers indicates that not all the saints will be perfected. Just some of them will be perfected. The ones who are willing to be perfected will be the overcomers. These overcomers will eventually constitute the bride of Christ, and this bride will be the fighting army, following Christ to fight against and defeat the Antichrist (Rev. 19:11-21). According to Revelation 17:14 the army of overcomers that follow the Lamb are “called and chosen and faithful.’’ The choosing of the Father in eternity past was for salvation, but the choosing in Revelation 17 at the end of this age is for overcoming. Thank God that we have been chosen by Him in eternity for salvation, but now we are under the test to be approved. If we are faithful to follow the New Testament teaching to run the course, to pass the test to be approved, we will be chosen to be the overcomers who constitute the army and the bride of Christ. The army is formed in Revelation 17. These chosen ones constitute a ready-to-fight army. Then these ready-to-fight chosen overcomers will be the bride in Revelation 19 to attend the wedding feast of the Lamb (vv. 7-9). After the marriage feast, Antichrist will fight directly against the descending Christ. Christ will fight him with His bride, who is the chosen army.
I am concerned for some of the saints because they are still not willing or ready to be perfected. By the Lord’s mercy and under the covering of His blood, I would ask you as you are reading this book — are you willing and ready to be perfected? If you are not willing and ready, you will make yourself a dropout. The door is open for everyone to be perfected. I hope that we all would have a hearing ear to hear the calling of the Lord. Everyone who is contented with the present situation of the church life is not ready to be perfected, to go on with the Lord. This means that they are in the risky situation of becoming a dropout. In these days, I believe that the Lord has given me a vision with a burden for His churches, His recovery. Our present situation is not something with which we should be contented. We should feel sorry for our present situation. The recovery has been in the United States for over twenty-five years. During this period of time, we may have heard many messages, yet our situation is not up to a level with which we can be satisfied. We have to realize that we are far off from the goal. We need to say, “Lord, I am ready and willing to be perfected by You. I will take the perfecting word through Your gifted persons.’’
All the members of the Body of Christ are parts of the one organism. What a privilege, what a mercy, and what an all-sufficient grace that we are now in the one organism of the Triune God! As living members of this organism, we need the organic perfecting. We need to be perfected to do what the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers do. We have to be perfected so that the entire Body of Christ functions in the same way that the gifted members do.
There is much hope that we can be perfected to do what the gifted members do. In a local church, some can do the apostles’ work to preach the gospel, teach the truth, establish churches, and appoint elders. The Lord needs many apostles, not just one or two. God’s intention is to perfect every saint to do what the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers do. Some saints will do the apostles’ work. Some will be perfected to do the prophets’ work to speak God, speak for God, and speak forth God, ministering Christ to all the people. They will be perfected not merely to give a testimony but to give a living word of revelation. Some of the saints who were not evangelists may be perfected to be evangelists. They will be those who are on fire and burdened for the preaching of the gospel. They will have the ability and the knowledge to talk to people about sin, the fall of man, the love of God, the person of Christ, redemption, forgiveness, and regeneration. Then there will be no need for the saints to bring their unbelieving contacts to a gifted person because the saints will have been perfected to do the work of an evangelist. Some of the saints also need to be perfected to shepherd. Today very few of the ones that we baptize are under the proper care because of a lack of shepherding. This is why we lose many of the ones that we baptize. But if the saints are perfected to be shepherds, every baptized one will have a nursing mother (1 Thes. 2:7). Immediately after the new ones are baptized, the saints will pick up the burden to care for them. They will care for the new ones as they would care for newborn babes, nourishing and cherishing them.
The saints in a local church must be perfected to do the same work that the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers do. Because the situation is not like this today, we have to strive and to struggle by fighting. There are many resistances that we have to fight through. We all should pray, “Lord, make me willing and ready to be perfected. I will receive the perfection from the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. I am not content with my present situation.’’ This is my intimate fellowship with you all. I hope that you are willing to accept my fellowship.]
[The saints are perfected by the perfecting gifts with the life supply as the nourishment for the growth in life. Proper mothers feed their babes nourishing food. We have to perfect the saints with some solid food supply that they may be nourished. This food supply actually is the life supply. Christ Himself is not only our life but also our life supply.] The gifted persons must perfect the saints that they may know how to minister Christ as life to sinners and then know how to minister life to supply the saved ones. The gifted persons help the saints by feeding them with solid food. The gifted persons not only teach people, but feed people.
The gifted persons perfect the saints, not by Bible teaching, but by nourishing them. [Bible teaching has been going on for centuries with very few of the Lord’s children being perfected. What is needed today is the nourishment of Christ. Do not tell people what is right and what is wrong. Even if something is right, that does not mean anything in the sight of God. Only life means something. Only life counts.] The saints need to be perfected not by something, but with something, that is, with the very life of God, with the very Christ whom the gifted persons enjoy. This is what nourishes the saints to perfect them.
[Ephesians 4:12 says that the gifted persons are “for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.’’ According to the grammatical construction, the work of the ministry is the building up of the Body of Christ. The perfecting is unto the work of the ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ. The word “unto’’ in Greek in Ephesians 4:12 means in view of, for the purpose of, resulting in, issuing in. The perfecting of the saints is in view of the work of the ministry, which is the unique ministry in the New Testament. Thousands of believers may be doing a work of a thousand parts, but every part should be for the unique work of the unique ministry to build up the Body of Christ. Paul referred to the building up of the Body of Christ, not to the building up of the church. Paul’s stress was not on the building up of the church as a congregation but on the building up of the Body as an organism. The saints are perfected unto the work of the ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ as an organism. The New Testament ministry builds up an organism not an organization.]
[All the members of the Body of Christ who do the work of the ministry participate in the unique ministry of God’s New Testament economy (2 Cor. 4:1; 3:8-9). This unique ministry is the ministry of the Spirit, who gives life (2 Cor. 3:8). The unique ministry of the Old Testament was the ministry of death because that was the ministry of the law which condemns and kills us (2 Cor. 3:7a, 9a). But the unique ministry of the New Testament is altogether a life-giving, organic ministry. This ministry is the ministry of righteousness, which brings in justification unto life (2 Cor. 3:9; Rom. 5:18b). The ministry of the law was the ministry of condemnation unto death, while the ministry of the faith, the New Testament, is the ministry of justification unto life, so it is altogether organic. The work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ is directly by the perfected saints in the growth in life (Eph. 4:15-16). The saints grow up by being nourished, and this growing up is the building up.]
[The saints are perfected unto the work of the ministry, the building up of the Body of Christ, until we (the gifted persons and the saints) all arrive 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. The building up of the Body is a continuous matter. We are under the process of building and we are on the way of building until we arrive at the practical oneness.]
[We need to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. The faith refers to the full redemptive work of Christ as the object of our believing (Jude 3b). The Old Testament ministry was a ministry of the law, whereas the New Testament ministry is the ministry of the faith. The law was the very center of all the teachings in the Old Testament. When the New Testament came, the faith replaced the law. The entire teaching of the New Testament is centered on the faith. Galatians 3 tells us that the law was there in the Old Testament but faith came (vv. 23-25). Now we are not under the law but in the faith. As the law is the center and reality of the Old Testament, so the faith is the center and reality of the New Testament.
The faith implies the entire teaching of the New Testament. The New Testament record is a record of the full redemptive work of Christ. The New Testament begins with the incarnation of Christ and continues with His death, resurrection, and second coming. His death and resurrection with His second coming issue in the New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate consummation of the church. We believe in Christ’s full redemptive work that is recorded in the entire New Testament. This full redemptive work is of Christ as a person.
We need to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, which is the full knowledge of the person of Christ. The person of Christ is so marvelous and all-inclusive. This person is the embodiment of the Triune God and the perfect, transformed, tripartite man. He is also the processed Triune God as the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, sevenfold, indwelling Spirit. He is the reality of every positive thing in the universe. We need to know in full the all-inclusive person of Christ.
When we arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of this all-inclusive person, we will not care for minor things. In Romans 14 Paul was very general in his attitude toward doctrinal matters that did not concern the faith or Christ’s all-inclusive person. Things such as whether to observe the Sabbath and whether to eat meat or vegetables did not matter to Paul. As long as a person believed in Christ, Paul recognized him as a brother in Christ and received him. When I was a young Christian, I was so much for the truth of baptism by immersion that it affected the way I received the believers. If a believer was sprinkled instead of being immersed, I did not care that much for him. Baptism by immersion was my first “Christian toy.’’ Children like to play with toys. Some Christians receive other believers on the basis of what they believe concerning the Lord’s second coming and the rapture. They will not receive those who have a different view than they do regarding the rapture. This is another “toy’’ that Christians like. Humanly speaking, an older person does not like to play with toys. Only the children like to play with toys. If we are still playing with minor doctrinal matters and practices other than the faith and the person of Christ, this is a strong sign that we are still babes. A grown-up person does not care for minor things. He only cares for the marvelous, full redemptive work of Christ and the all-inclusive person of Christ.
We have to learn the aspects of Christ’s person in His death on the cross and the things that He terminated and took away on the cross. We have to know Christ as the very embodiment of the processed Triune God, the complete God and the perfect, tripartite man. We also have to know how this wonderful One is being dispensed into His chosen and redeemed people for their full salvation and for His glorious expression. His chosen and redeemed ones are regenerated, they are being transformed, and eventually they will be glorified. Matters such as these should occupy us and be the subjects of our talk at home and with the saints. Anything other than these things are toys that divide us.]
[Ephesians 4:13 tells us that we need to arrive at a full-grown and mature man. All of us need to grow up to reach this state. This full-grown and mature man is the church as the new man (Eph. 2:15b; 4:24). We are growing up in full measure through the direct building of all the saints perfected in the growth of life by the gifts. This means that each member’s growth is a part of the building. The growth of all the saints equals the building up of the Body.]
[Ephesians 4:13 also says that we need to arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The measure is the size, and this measure is of the stature. The stature is of the fullness of Christ. The fullness of Christ is the very expression of the Triune God, which is the Body of Christ (1:23). This Body has a stature, and the stature has a measure. We can arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ by the growth in life.]
Christ, the Head of the Body, prophesied in Matthew 16 that He will build the church. But He cannot build the church directly. The way He builds the church is to recapture many men from Satan’s usurpation by the power of His crucifixion and resurrection. Then He brings these men to the heavens in ascension to offer them to God the Father. God the Father in turn gives them back to Christ to be constituted as gifts for the Body. These gifts include apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. These gifts are not for the direct building up of the Body. They are given to the Body to perfect all the saints, not to replace the saints. Every saint perfected by the gifts directly builds up the Body of Christ. Therefore, all the young ones need to be willing to be perfected, trained, and equipped by the gifts to the Body so that they may participate in the great work of building up the Body of Christ.
