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Rom. 12:3-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; 1 John 3:14; Heb. 13:17
I. Being conscious of the Body
II. Loving the brethren
III. Having no division
IV. Being delivered from independence
V. Staying in fellowship
VI. Learning to be a member
VII. Submitting to authority
VIII. Having no ambition
In this lesson, we need to consider our attitude in the church life. Having the proper attitude helps to build up the church. Having the wrong attitude helps the devil to destroy the church life. Some may say that they see the Body, yet their attitude is wrong; having a wrong attitude creates problems in the church. Therefore, the young people must learn to have the proper attitude for the building up of the church.
We were saved as members of the Body of Christ; therefore, we must be conscious of the Body. Many who do not see this vision, consider themselves as individual Christians, saved by the Lord from going to hell so they can go to heaven. They do not realize that God’s purpose is the church, nor do they realize that they are members of the Body; therefore, they are not conscious of the Body. They live as individuals separate from the Body. They care only for themselves and their own spirituality. They live independently from other believers, acting as though they are not needed. It is pitiful for a believer to have such an attitude. We must pray and study the Word until we fully see the vision of the Body, and are conscious of the Body of Christ.
[Let us first approach it from the standpoint of love. One thing is quite marvelous when we contemplate this verse: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren’’ (l John 3.14). All who have passed out of death into life love one another. All who have become members of the same spiritual Body love one another. Such love comes from life and it flows spontaneously. Could a person be considered a child of God if, after answering affirmatively in a church meeting that he is a Christian and after being reminded that as a Christian he ought to love other Christians, he then says, “I will start to love other Christians tomorrow if you say so’’? Oh, let us see that everyone who is truly born from above and has the life of God spontaneously loves all who are members together with him in the Body of Christ. Whether he is reminded or not, he has a consciousness of loving the brethren. He unquestionably needs many times to be reminded to love the brethren. Yet this reminder does not add anything to him which is not already within him, it instead merely stirs up into more fervency what is already present in him. If the love of God is present in a person, the love of the brethren is there. And if God’s love is absent, brotherly love is not there. It is that simple. Nothing can be created or manufactured. When a believer meets another person who belongs to God he strangely but quite naturally loves him because he has that inner consciousness within him which must express itself in love towards that other person.]
All of us who were born of God and have been baptized into the Body of Christ cannot help but love one another. When we live in the flesh, we have the tendencies to insult others by our offensive remarks. We need to repent from such behavior. We must take care of one another’s feelings by living in the spirit.
[One who has seen the Body of Christ and who thus possesses the consciousness of the Body feels unbearable inside when he does anything which may cause division or separate God’s children. For he loves all who belong to God and cannot divide His children. Love is natural to the Body of Christ, whereas division is most unnatural. It is just as in the case with our two hands: no matter for how many reasons one hand may be raised against the other hand, there is no way to sever their relationship: division is simply impossible.]
[The Body of Christ will deliver us from sect and sectarianism; it will also save us from self and individualism. How sad that the life principle of many is not the Body but the individual self. We may discover this principle of individualism in many areas.] For example, [sometimes three or five, even ten or twenty brethren at a meeting will all speak only whatever concerns themselves, without showing any interest in the affairs of the others or listening to the others’ thoughts. Or, as the case might be, as you or others sit with such a person as has been described, he may talk with animation for an hour or two about his own business; but when you or the others talk, he does not pay the slightest attention — for if you ask him afterwards, he evidences the fact that he hardly seems to have heard anything. In small things such as these, you can tell if a person has truly discerned the Body of Christ.
The plague of individualism can grow from simply expressing one person’s individualism to that of several persons. You may notice in the church that three or five, perhaps even eight or nine persons will sometimes form a small circle. Only these few are of one mind and love one another. They do not fit in with the other brothers and sisters. This indicates that they too have not perceived the Body of Christ. The church is one, it cannot be severed. If a person has really known the Body, he cannot endorse any kind of individualism. He cannot form a party or any small circle.
If you have genuinely experienced the Body of Christ you will be conscious of something wrong whenever you begin to show your individualism, and obviously you dare not take any action. Or else, when you or several others should make a wrong move, this Body consciousness will cause you to be aware of being disconnected from the other children of God, thus preventing you from proceeding further. There is something in you which restrains, speaks, reproves, warns, or hinders. This consciousness of life can deliver all of us from any taint of division.]
[If we have Body consciousness we will comprehend immediately that the Body is one. Thus, in spiritual work, it cannot be individualistic in its scope. In order to participate rightly in the Lord’s work, it is imperative that we deal with this matter of independent labor. In the thinking of some people, a person must lay his own hand on things or else that person will consider those things to be good for nothing. Whatever is done by him is deemed as having spiritual value; what is not done by him has no value at all. When he preaches and nobody is saved, he feels depressed. When he preaches and people are saved, he shows pleasant surprise. This is because he looks at the work as his own personal labor. But the moment God’s children perceive the oneness of the Body, they immediately comprehend the oneness of the work. The instant they see that the Body is one, they are delivered from their individual endeavor since they now see the work of the Body. This does not imply that a person can no longer labor as an individual. It simply means that he can no longer consider work as belonging solely to himself. Whether the work is done by him or not is no problem anymore, so long as it is done by someone.
As Christians, we should admire and seek for spiritual things, but we ought not have any emulative pretensions nor any trace of jealousy. Our attitude individually towards spiritual work should be: What I can do I hope others can also do; and what I cannot do I wish someone else can do; I would like to do more as well as I would expect other people to do more. How I need to realize that I can only be a single vessel in the work; I cannot monopolize it. I dare not consider the work and its result as altogether mine. If I insist that everything must be done by me, I have not apprehended the Body. The moment I apprehend the Body, immediately I realize that both my labor and that of others mean gain to the Head as well as to the Body. And let all glory be to the Lord and all blessings be to the church.
The Lord distributes His work to all, and everyone has his share. We must not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We should be faithful to the portion which the Lord has given each of us; but we should also respect the portion He gives to others. Many young people possess a kind of competitive attitude in which they are always comparing what they have with that which others do not have and what they do not have with that which others have. Actually, such comparison is absurd. How can we add a chair to a table? Are they one or two? A table plus a chair equals a table and a chair. If we are asked which is better, the hand or the eye, we can only answer that the hand and the eye are both good. He who has seen the Body recognizes the functions of all the members. He looks at himself as only one among many members. He will not project himself to a distinctive position in order to compare himself favorably with others or even to occupy another’s place.]
[He who sees the Body of Christ most spontaneously sees not only the stupidity of independent action but the need for fellowship as well. Fellowship is not an external exercise in social intercourse; it is the spontaneous demand of body life. What is erroneously but commonly assumed to be fellowship by God’s children is a visiting of homes of some brothers and sisters at times of leisure and chit-chatting with them a while. In actuality, fellowship means realizing the total inadequacy of my own self. I am desirous of doing all things with the other members of the Body. Although for doing many things I am not able to gather all the brothers and sisters in the church, I still can do them with two or three brothers and/or sisters according to the principle of the Body.
Oftentimes we need to learn fellowship in prayer, to learn fellowship in difficulties, to learn fellowship in seeking God’s will, to learn fellowship concerning our future, and to learn fellowship regarding God’s word. What fellowship means is that, knowing that I am inadequate in the matter of prayer, I seek out two or three others to pray with me. I by myself am incompetent in solving difficulties, hence I ask two or three brethren to deal with the situations together with me. Alone I am unable to know God’s will, therefore I solicit the help of two or three others. I in myself am rather confused as to my future, consequently I request two or three brothers and sisters to fellowship and decide with me what my future should be. I cannot understand God’s word alone, so now I study the word of God with two or three brothers and sisters. In fellowship, I acknowledge my insufficiency and incompetency, and I also acknowledge my need of the Body. I confess that I am limited and liable to make mistakes; for this I plead with those brothers and sisters who have spiritual discernment to help me (and not just ask those to help me who are affectionate towards me). I am inadequate, and hence I need the help of other brethren.
The Body of Christ is a life, and there is therefore also a consciousness involved. You yourself will become conscious or aware of the fact that without fellowship you cannot live.]
[If a person has Body consciousness he at once recognizes his place in the Body; that is to say, he sees himself as being one of its members. Each member has his distinctive usefulness. A member of a physical body is different from a body cell. Lacking a cell does not matter much, but the lack of a member in a body is unthinkable.]
[Because we are members of the Body of Christ and members each in its part, we must seek how to help the Body in gaining life and strength. In any gathering, even if we do not open our mouths, we may pray silently. Even though we may not speak, we can still look to God. This is Body consciousness. If we have seen the Body, we cannot say we are a person of no consequence. We will rather say: I am a member of the Body, and hence I have a duty to perform. I have a word which I should speak, I have a prayer which I should utter. When I come to the meeting I must do whatever God wants me to do. I cannot afford to be a spectator. Such things as these are what we will say or do if we truly apprehend the Body. And as we all function, the life of the entire gathering will swallow up all death. Many meetings fail to exhibit such power to overcome death for there are too many spectators.]
[Whoever knows the life of the Body of Christ and is conscious of being a Body member will invariably sense the authority of the Head, who is Christ Jesus the Lord.
We must not only submit to the direct authority of the Head, we need also to submit to the indirect authority of the Head. My physical hand is under the direct authority of the head of my body, but when my arm moves, my hand moves together with my arm — for my hand submits to the head through the arm. Consequently, whoever sees the Body of Christ sees also the authority which God has set in the Body of Christ for him to submit to.]
[If you truly perceive the authority of the Head, you will also perceive that one or more members of the Body are ahead of you, and that to them you must learn to submit. Hence you recognize not only the Head but also those whom God has set in the Body to represent the Head. If you are at odds with them, you will also be at odds with God.]
[If a person does not know what authority is, how can he say he knows the Body of Christ? Let us see that the one who knows the Body can discern — even when only three or five people are assembled together — who among those assembled is his authority; because there is manifested in their midst the authority of the Head to which he needs to submit. How natural and how beautiful it is in the human body for the fingers to submit to the wrist, the wrist to the arm, the arm to the shoulder, and so on. And this same beauty can be displayed in the Body of Christ.
Certain Christians are so careless in action as well as in speech that they will not listen to anyone. They seem to regard themselves as being the greatest to such an extent that they fail to recognize anyone to whom they could submit. This proves that such believers have never known the restraint of the Body nor have ever submitted to the authority of the Head. May God have mercy on such members. If we have genuinely been dealt with by the Lord and if our flesh has received such dealings as to have had the backbone of the natural life broken, we will immediately acknowledge how neither our hands nor our mouth have unlimited freedom — since all are under the control of the body — and how we cannot fail to submit ourselves to the authority which God has set in the Body of Christ.]
According to our experiences over the past years, ambition has been the source of all the problems in the church life. Ambition leads to power struggle. The source of ambition is Satan. His ambition is to rise above God and His authority. Satan was cast down and judged because of ambition. Today, you can see power struggles everywhere. You see it among your friends. Once you try to rise above others to have authority over others, you will create problems in the church life. We do not mean that there should not be authority in the church life. The foregoing lessons have already described the matter of authority in the church. The more life of God one has, the more authority he has. Authority does not come by struggling, back-biting, or arguing. It comes from God and it comes with the life of God. God is the source. Satan was created by God. How then can Satan rise above God? This is Satanic ambition without the capacity to exercise the proper authority. We must learn to submit.
The Lord humbled and emptied Himself to be a slave unto death. How about us? Paul said that we should let the mind of Christ be in us (Phil. 2:5). If we would do this, there will never be any Satanic ambition in us. Rather, we will always serve as a slave in the church life to build up the church.
