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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:23; 4:10, 13
In these days I have been very happy because for many years I have been waiting for an opportunity to release some messages specifically concerning the Body of Christ. Now I feel that I have such a good opportunity for us to focus on the Body. If we do not know the Body well enough, we will never be able to thoroughly know the church. Until now, very few Christians have known what the church is. It is important that we all have a clear knowledge of the church.
I must first paint a background. The worst kind of concept Christians have concerning the church is that the church is a chapel, to consider that a building, a chapel, is the church. We all know that this is a great mistake. This kind of knowledge is not even worth mentioning, and we can throw it aside. The Brethren rose up in the last century to strongly teach that a chapel, as a building for worship, is not the church. They told people that the church is not a place but a group of people. They found the light in the New Testament to prove that the church is a gathering together of the redeemed ones. In Greek the word for church means “the gathering together of the called-out ones.” On the surface it is right to say that the church is not a place or a hall but a gathering together of the ones called by God. Yes, such a gathering is the church.
There is, however, a problem here. I can describe it by means of an example. We may be a group of about one hundred people. All of us have been called, and we have the opportunity to gather together at this time. Of course, according to the letter, all of us gathered together are the church. However, suppose that none of us lives in the spirit, that all one hundred of us are living in one hundred different minds. Some are from Singapore with a Singaporean mind; some are from Tokyo with a Japanese mind; some are from Seoul with a Korean mind; and some are from Germany with a German mind. None of us knows what it means to live in the spirit. We all have our own opinions, our own views, and our own backgrounds; the only thing we have in common is that we have all believed in the Lord Jesus and have become Christians. With regard to our sins having been washed away by the precious blood, we all are the same. With regard to the Lord Jesus being our Savior, we also are the same. Concerning our belief of the Bible, we all are carrying the same Bible. We all say that we are those who belong to the Lord. Apparently, we are the church when we gather together, but what about the reality of this? Three Christians may be totally French, another three are completely German, and another eight are wholly Singaporean. We all feel that our sins have been washed away, and we have been saved; we also feel that the Lord loves us, and we belong to Him. However, none of us lives in the spirit or by the Spirit. On the one hand, we are the church, but on the other hand, we cannot say that we are truly the church. We are not the church, because we are all in our mind. Although we have Christ, our Christ is on the throne in the heavens and in our mind, but He is not in our spirit or in our living. We do not live by Christ, and we cannot say, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Moreover, when we come together, we cannot say that here there is no French, no German, no Singaporean, no Filipino, but all are one in Christ. You can see that apparently we are the church, but in reality we are not at all the church.
It is true that we are the assembly of the called-out ones, and based on this we acknowledge that we are the church. In reality, however, we are not the Body of Christ. This word is hard. How can we say that we are the church but not the Body of Christ? I tell you that according to reality this is the case. Apparently, we are all Christians, and we are the church when we come together; however, from the viewpoint of the Body, we are not the Body of Christ, nor are we the fullness of Christ. Some of us are the fullness of France, some of us are the fullness of Germany, and some of us are the fullness of Singapore, but we are not the fullness of Christ.
If you have this light and use it to carefully examine today’s Christianity, you will say that the Body of Christ is nowhere to be found. The reason is the condition of today’s Christianity. When I was young, I studied at an English-speaking college in Chefoo that was managed by the American Presbyterian Mission Board. I knew the situation with that mission board and the Presbyterian Church. The American Presbyterian Church sent some American missionaries, who also taught at my school. When these Western missionaries and the Chinese pastors of the Presbyterian Church held a meeting, they were clearly divided into two groups of people. The two sides frequently argued with each other, sometimes even throwing brush pens or Bibles at each other. Is this the Body? No, this is not the Body but the flesh. This is why I say that apparently it is the church, but in reality it is not. That was definitely not the church.
Do not forget, however, that while the situation among us is obviously stronger and better — when we come together, we do not have outward quarreling, nor do we throw pens at one another — we still have to go one step further to ask ourselves whether our meeting together is according to Christ in our spirit or according to something else. If instead of being according to Christ in our spirit, we are according to our meekness, our speech, our maneuvering, our diplomacy, or our clever answers, then in principle this is still the flesh. This is merely a slightly more civilized flesh, a more refined flesh.
In 1958 I went to a certain place in England and stayed there for one month. While I was there, they did not arrange for me to speak only at conferences; they also wanted me to speak in the Lord’s Day meetings and other regular meetings. Two days before I was to leave, it was to be my final weekly evening meeting there, and I did not even consider that I would need to speak. When I walked into the meeting hall, however, their responsible brother came forward and said, “Brother Lee, we would still ask you to speak tonight.” I said, “I have not even thought about doing this.” He insisted that I speak, so I agreed. I had had no intention of speaking, nor was I prepared, but as I was going up to the platform, the burden came. I released a strong message, saying, “The ministry is for the local churches; the local churches are not for the ministry. Regardless of how experienced, how high, how rich, how spiritual, or how heavenly the ministry is — perhaps like the ministry of the apostle John, and regardless of how poor or how unbecoming the local churches are — maybe like five of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the ministry is still for the churches, and the churches are not for the ministry.” The word I spoke that day hit the mark concerning their condition. They were altogether for having the meetings for the ministry instead of having the ministry for the meetings.
My point is that when I was staying there, not one of them was wild; instead, they were all very civil and refined. Yet each of them would make an appointment to come talk with me in the room where I was staying and use that time to criticize others in a very refined way. They were not barbaric; rather, they were all very proper. That was the refined flesh, not the Body. Do we want that kind of refinement among us? We do not. That is being diplomatically refined. It is like a situation in which behind the scenes the airplanes and cannons are all ready for war, while the diplomats are still here shaking hands with one another. I am describing these things to show you that today’s Christians do not have the Body.
What is the Body? The Body is not merely a composition of a group of the called-out ones; the Body is the fullness of Christ. The Body is not only the expression of Christ but also the fullness of Christ. How does this fullness come into being? It is by your receiving the riches of Christ into you to be enjoyed and assimilated by you and even to become you. We may compare this to eating fish, chicken, and bread. After about five or six hours, they are digested into you to become you. It is at this time that you are the fullness.
At this time I have been in Taipei for more than ten days. Let us suppose that for the past seven days I did not eat any food or drink any water but instead I only laid in my bed at home. In this case you would have to carry me to the meeting, and as I stand all thin and pale, my whole body would be shaking. What would that be? That would not be the fullness. However, for these past ten days I have eaten the riches of Taiwan, including fish, chicken, and many other things; I have eaten a great amount of the riches of Taiwan, and these riches have been assimilated into me and have become me. Now, therefore, I can stand here full of life and energy. This is the fullness. The church is the fullness of Christ. This is what the Lord wants today.
Today the Lord has an urgent need on the earth. He needs the reality of the Body to be expressed in each locality. At this time, by the Lord’s own doing, there are brothers and sisters gathered together here from six major continents of the world, representing at least eighteen countries. We are not conferring, negotiating, or bargaining. We are here for only one thing, that is, to be in spirit. What does it mean to be in spirit? To be in spirit is to be in Christ. Today the Lord needs this kind of testimony on the earth. In locality after locality, no matter how many people there are in the church life, all are one in spirit. “There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there cannot be slave nor free man, there cannot be male and female” (Gal. 3:28). Here there is only Christ. We all have become one in Christ. This is what the Lord wants today. This should not be the case only in one locality, but even when many localities come together, all are one. When Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Chiayi all come together, they are also one. Here there cannot be Taipei or Tainan; there cannot be Kaohsiung or Chiayi; there can only be Christ. In Christ we are all one. The same is true not only among a few localities but even when many countries are gathered together. When all those from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Taiwan come together, they also should say, “There cannot be Indonesia or the Philippines; there cannot be Malaysia or Hong Kong; there cannot be Singapore or Taiwan. There can only be Christ.” This is the Body that the Lord wants. The Body is not only local but also universal. In principle it is one, whether in its local aspect or in its universal aspect. Thus, we can all see that these few passages of the Bible are extremely demanding.
“[The church] is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). This verse of the Bible is a great problem to the translators. Colossians 3:11 says, “Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” If you have a Greek Bible in your hands, you can compare these two verses. You will see that the same words are used in both verses. In Colossians 3:11 all refers to all the saints. In the new man there cannot be Greek and Jew, and so on, but Christ is all the believers and in all the believers. According to this verse, Ephesians 1:23 should be translated: “the One who fills all people in all people.” However, if you continue your reading to Ephesians 4:10, you will see that there are still some particular details. There it says that the Lord Jesus first descended to the earth to be incarnated, and then after His death and resurrection He ascended far above all the heavens. This ascension was “that He might fill all things.” All things here and all in 1:23 are the same word in Greek, so it is not proper to translate it as “all people.” We see in 4:10 that there is the earth as well as the heavens. Hence, it is not a matter only of people; it truly is a matter of all things. The reason He first descended to the earth and then ascended above all the heavens was that He might fill all things. Therefore, according to Ephesians 4:10, Ephesians 1:23 should be translated, “the One who fills all things in all things.” According to the meaning of the original language, both translations are correct. If we go by the second translation, Christ today is the One who fills all things in the universe.
This universal Christ, the Christ who fills all things, the Christ who is both in the heavens and on the earth, needs a Body to be His fullness. When He was on earth as Jesus the Nazarene, He could not be in Judea at the same time that He was in Galilee, nor could He be in Jerusalem when He was in Samaria. This was because He was a small Jesus. He was limited by His flesh. But what about today? He has risen from the dead and ascended to the heavens, so He fills all things. He can be in the heavens and on the earth simultaneously; He can be in one place in the heavens, and at the same time He can be in millions of places on the earth. He is such a One who fills all things, so He needs a great Body as His fullness. Thus, today we can say that because He has such a great Body on earth, He is in heaven and He is also in Taipei, in Hong Kong, in Manila, in Singapore, in London, in Germany, in the United States, in Africa, in North America, and in South America. His Body is everywhere. What is this Body? It is His fullness, His universal fullness.
Dear brothers and sisters, you should not merely listen to this word and take it as doctrine. You must see that today the actual church (I am not speaking of the genuine church alone but the practical, present church) is the fullness of Christ in each locality. In other words, the actual church today is a part of Christ. The church in Taipei is the part of Christ that is in Taipei. The church in Singapore is the part of Christ that is in Singapore. Christ today is not a local Christ but a universal Christ, and this universal Christ has a part of Himself in every locality. The part in Taipei is called the church in Taipei, the part in London is called the church in London, and the part in New York is called the church in New York. Every local church is a part of Christ. All these parts constitute the Body.
But, and this is a big “but,” suppose the brothers and sisters in Los Angeles apparently are meeting in the name of the Lord as the church in Los Angeles, but when they live, they all live by their natural being, their flesh, their self, their individuality, and their peculiarities. If this is their condition, do you think the so-called “church in Los Angeles” is a part of Christ? No. Then what is it a part of? It is one hundred percent a part of Adam.
Next, let us talk about Hong Kong. In Hong Kong there are also some brothers and sisters who have seen the light; they are standing on the ground of locality and are meeting in the Lord’s name. Are they the church? Yes, they are definitely the church. They have believed in the Lord and have been washed in the precious blood. They love the Lord very much, and they also love the brothers and sisters. However, what if they love only those brothers and sisters who suit their taste and “spit out” those who do not? As they are such a group of people, are they the church in Hong Kong? Yes, they truly are, but among them some brothers and sisters are still living entirely in their natural being, while others have a character that is harder than steel. They all live by their individualities, politics, cleverness, preferences, and peculiar dispositions. When they come together to meet, this one disapproves of that one, and that one disagrees with this one. They have all seen that for the sake of the local ground they have to meet together. Yet when they come together, they are not willing to drop their politics, individualities, dispositions, and preferences. Is this the Body? No! What is this? We may boldly say, “The flesh!”
Some brothers and sisters might say, “Brother Lee, your preaching is wrong. How can you say that the church is not the Body? Does not Ephesians 1 say that the church is His Body? Since the brothers and sisters in Hong Kong are the church, how can they not be the Body? How do you answer this?” Yes, in name they are the church, but in reality they are not the Body but the flesh.
In 1947 and 1948 I was in Shanghai, and Brother Nee was also in Shanghai. We often talked about the condition of the churches in the entire country. Sometimes we talked about certain people, and Brother Nee made a joke, saying, “Those people have been saved but have not been regenerated.” I said, “Brother Nee, this is not right according to the truth. How can you say that a person has been saved without having been regenerated?” He also laughed at himself. He said, “Because they believe in the precious blood, they are saved. But ever since I have known them and contacted them many times, I have never touched their spirit. They believe in the Lord’s name and His precious blood, and they also pray, but whenever I contact them, I can never touch their spirit. It seems as if they are saved but are without the Spirit; is this not being saved without being regenerated?” Doctrinally speaking, this cannot be. To be sure, a saved person is regenerated, and a regenerated person is surely saved; salvation and regeneration cannot be separated. However, you cannot deny that some have called on the Lord’s name, believed in the cleansing of the Lord’s blood, and confessed that they are Christians, yet you cannot touch their spirit. They have their views, opinions, skills, and devices; they can do everything, but they do not have the Spirit. Have you ever seen this kind of situation? In the same principle, there are places where the church is as if it has been saved without ever being regenerated. In some places the so-called church is the church without being the Body. In some places it is the church, but only fifteen percent is the Body while eighty-five percent is not. In some places it is the church, but only forty-five percent is the Body while fifty-five percent is not. Truly and strictly speaking, there is hardly any church that is one hundred percent the Body.
What is the Body? The Body is the fullness of Christ. In doctrine the church is the Body, but as to reality there is still a question of how much element of the Body is there. Brothers and sisters, we should not condemn others; we must see our own condition. At this time we all must confess in the light of the Lord that even we ourselves up to this day may live only thirty percent by the Spirit, leaving seventy percent that we live by ourselves. Have you seen this? This is the Lord’s need today. The Lord does not merely need a church in each locality; He needs a Body. As soon as we do not live by Christ, as soon as we are not living by the Spirit, we are not the Body. In name we are still the church, but in reality we are not the Body. Why? Because the Body is the fullness of Christ.
Do not forget the word is in Ephesians 1:23: “[The church] is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” This means that the church is the Body, and the Body is the fullness. These two levels of “is” are in succession rather than in parallel. It is not that on the one hand the church is the Body, while on the other hand the church is the fullness. Rather, it is that the church is the Body, and the Body is the fullness. According to doctrine, the fullness equals the Body, and the Body equals the church. But according to reality, a man can be in the church and still not live in the Body. All the brothers and sisters who meet in Hong Kong are in the church, but who is living in the Body? This becomes a big question mark. Strictly speaking, that which can fulfill God’s eternal purpose is not the church in name but the Body. The Body is the fullness of Christ. I repeat that if you look from this angle and measure with this yardstick, you will see that today on earth in the churches there is not much of the element of the Body.
Ephesians 4:13 goes one step further; there is not only the fullness of Christ but also the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The phrase the measure of the stature includes two concepts: one is the stature, and the other is the measure of that stature. For example, if you look at Brother Chang, you can see that his stature is tall and big. This stature certainly has a measure. The combination of these two things is called “the measure of the stature.” The fullness of Christ has a stature, and this stature has a measure. Simply speaking, it is called “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” If Brother Chang stands before us, we can see his body. We all have learned to say that this body is the fullness of Brother Chang. Moreover, his fullness has a stature, and this stature has a measure. Let us say, for example, that he is six feet two inches tall and over two feet wide; this measure is the measure of his stature. This is called “the measure of the stature of the fullness.”
However, let us suppose that Brother Chang has not yet arrived at the measure of the stature of his fullness and that he is only four feet five inches tall and fourteen inches across the shoulders. In this case you would see that there is a lack in him. When you read Ephesians 4:13, you can see that the church as the Body of Christ does not become full instantly; instead, it grows continually. Do not forget that 4:13 first says, “Until we all arrive...at a full-grown man.” A full-grown man is a man with the measure of the stature of his fullness. Now Brother Chang is a full-grown man, a man with the measure of the stature of his fullness; he is six feet two inches tall and over two feet wide. However, has the church in Taipei today arrived at a full-grown man? It has not. Has the church in Taipei arrived at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ? It has not. Suppose the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is eighteen feet tall, but the church in Taipei is only nine feet tall. Then it still lacks one-half the height.
Please remember that the shorter the measure of the stature of Christ is, the more opinions everyone has. The lack in the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ indicates that the believers are more in their natural man. Once the believers stay in their natural man, they are full of opinions. Now the church in Taipei is “nine feet tall,” but if in the next six months it grows to ten feet tall, that would mean that the natural aspect has been reduced by one foot. When the natural aspect reduces by one foot, then the spiritual aspect increases by one foot. If in another year the church is twelve feet tall and after another year it is thirteen feet tall, that would mean that the spiritual aspect has kept increasing while the natural aspect has kept decreasing.
In any case, the measure of the stature of the fullness is not attained in an instant; it needs to grow. We must grow! First this verse says that “we all arrive...at a full-grown man,” then verse 14 says that “we may be no longer little children,” and verse 15 says, “But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.” This measure of the stature requires growth.
We all know that the measure of the stature of a child needs growth. I have a small grandson who was born in January of this year. When Sister Lee and I went to visit him, he was pitifully small. But when we went again in October, in those few months he had grown from a small baby to a naughty little child who could greet us and make faces at us. This little child grew much in just a few months. We may illustrate our problem in this way: Some churches were a certain height when I visited them ten years ago. Then on a visit eight years ago they had shrunk a little, and on another visit three years ago they had grown about half an inch, but on my visit last year they had again shrunk two and a half inches. How can they become shorter and shorter? Does this not make us disappointed? If I were to go next year and find that my small grandson is shorter than he is this year, I would be disappointed and angry. I would not dare to throw him out, but I would surely not be happy. However, if I go next year and see that he has grown at least five inches, as his grandfather I would be very happy and want to come again and again.
Therefore, do not think that we have only Ephesians 1:23: “[The church] is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” You still must go on until you come to 4:13: “Until we all arrive...at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” We must grow. How do we grow? We grow by putting off the old man and putting on the new man. That is to say, we grow by putting aside our natural man. Instead of living by our natural man, we live by Christ and in the spirit. This is the way we grow. Every day we put off our natural being and live in the spirit. There is no natural person here; only Christ is here. We are all one in Christ. What the Lord wants today is not only the churches on the ground of locality — one locality, one church — but also the Body as His fullness. What the Lord wants today is the Body, the fullness.
