Search
Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:11-16
As we have said before, on the one hand, the church is the Body, and on the other hand, the church is the new man. In the Body we are members one of another, but in the new man what are we to one another? I cannot say for sure, but you must understand that in the new man all of us are simply one man. This requirement is as high as the heavens. Loving one another is a basic requirement, being members one of another is a requirement that is somewhat higher, but the requirement that everyone be only one man is exceedingly high. Consider this: If we were merely a group of people, it would be enough for us simply to love one another, yield to one another, be kind to one another, and take care of one another. But if we are a Body, loving one another is not enough; we must also be members one of another. Today, however, we are not only one Body but also one new man.
God has an eternal purpose, which is to obtain the church. To the Father, the church is His house; to Christ, the church is His Body; with respect to God’s move in the universe, the church is a new man. It is very pitiful, however, that Christianity has never presented this to people. All that Christianity has presented is a religion with an object of worship and a set of related teachings to make people revere and worship God and to teach people according to their worship. This is too far off from God’s purpose. If it is religion that God wants, then the Chinese culture would be good enough. What God wants, however, far surpasses religion. What God wants is the church that is composed of regenerated persons. These regenerated ones are also reconstituted ones, or according to the biblical expression, transformed ones. The purpose of regeneration, reconstitution, and transformation is that we may become the church. This church is the Body of Christ that moves on the earth, and this church is also the new man who lives out God’s economy on the earth. This is something missing in Christianity today. We thank God that in these days He has opened up His Word to us.
Over the past few years God has repeatedly shown us this matter. I can say that I have been waiting for an opportunity to speak about this matter because it is very deep and very high, and it is beyond what we can imagine. This matter is concerning the church as the Body of Christ to be His fullness and concerning the church as the new man. In the Body, Christ is our life; in the new man, Christ is our person. Our moving is according to the Body with Christ as our inward life, and our living is according to the new man with Christ in it as our person.
In this training I hope that you will learn to speak accurately about the Body, the fullness, and the new man. I also hope that you will learn to speak the high things. Here there is no male or female. We know what it is that we are speaking. The church is the Body of Christ, and this is the fullness of Christ. In this fullness there is only Christ; there are no brothers and no sisters. In this new man there are not even any members, because members are a matter of the Body, not a matter of the new man. The new man is not about members; the new man is about the person. Who is your person? Is it you or is it the Lord Jesus? The Lord Jesus is your person.
In this chapter we must go on to see that in Ephesians, when the apostle Paul was writing this Epistle, within him he could not forget these two things: the Body and the new man. At the end of chapter 1 he referred to the church as His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Then in chapter 2 he said that Christ had slain the enmity between the Jews and Gentiles and created the two in Himself into one new man. Then he went on to say that through the cross both were reconciled to God in one Body. Therefore, you can see that the apostle always spoke of the Body and the new man together. When he mentioned the one, he could not forget the other; when he spoke about the other, he had to speak also about the one. Hence, it is always the Body and the new man.
The clearest example of this is in 4:13, where the apostle Paul put the two into one verse, saying, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man.” This full-grown man refers to the new man that has become full-grown. Then he said, “At the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Therefore, you can see that at the end of 4:13, Paul in his speaking put the Body and the new man together, but this time he first mentioned the new man and then the Body. The new man here is a full-grown man, and the Body here is the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Here we must continue to speak about these two things: the Body and the new man. It is hard for us to say which should be first and which is second. In some places we see that we need the new man first, and in other places we see that we need the Body first.
If we want to understand Ephesians 4:13, we must begin reading at 4:11. From 4:11 through 4:16 there are altogether six verses. In these six verses we see first that after the Lord ascended into the heavens, He gave to the church some specially gifted persons, such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. But these specially gifted persons do not build up the church directly; instead, they perfect the saints to build up the church. What does it mean to perfect the saints? It means to feed the saints one by one until they grow up. You might ask me how I know that perfecting the saints here refers to feeding. It is because according to the context, to be perfected is to grow. All mothers know that the most important thing in perfecting a small child is not education but nourishment. When a child is a newborn, the first thing we do is to feed him with milk and give him water to drink. As he gradually grows, we still need to keep giving him nourishment, and that is what we do until he grows up.
Therefore, the first thing in perfecting the saints is to feed them so that they may grow, and the second thing is to teach them. We all know that mothers have to teach small children even how to eat. Therefore, I am not saying that doctrines and teachings are useless. What I am saying is that it is wrong to keep teaching your children and yet not know how to feed them. It is after they are nourished that you teach them.
Furthermore, as the child gradually grows, you must equip him according to the level of his growth. If you want to teach him to write, then you have to prepare for him a good pencil, a good writing brush, or a good fountain pen; this is to equip him. Thus, perfecting the saints includes three matters: feeding, teaching, and equipping them to be useful.
When I visited the different localities in America, I stayed mostly in the homes of the saints. In the American homes there is one thing that very much impresses me, and even though it is a small thing, it is very practical when applied to the church life. It is that they know how to perfect their children. For example, in one family, one child was only two or three years old, but the father perfected him to do one thing: every morning after the child rose and washed up, the first thing he did was to open the front door, bring in the newspaper, and put it into the newspaper box. This two- or three-year-old boy had been perfected to do this one thing. For six months nothing changed; he did only this one chore. This family had another boy who was assigned to watch over the family’s pet dog. Every day the boy watched what the dog ate and how much it ate. The parents fed the boy, and he fed the dog. They also had another boy who was a little older. Every Monday morning he vacuumed the carpet in one room, then on the next day he vacuumed the carpet in another room, and on the following day he vacuumed the carpet in the third room. The oldest child had to cut the grass in the front and back yards. When I stayed with that family and saw the situation, I was very touched. Those saints really knew how to perfect their children. They not only fed them and taught them, but they also equipped them. The result is that the children of that household, whether big or small, all exercised their own function. I feel that a local church should be like this family, with the gifted members perfecting the saints one by one until they all exercise their own function.
This does not mean, however, that we will arrive at the goal instantly, because verse 13 says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man.” We thank the Lord that the young people are progressing, but according to my feeling, you are still very immature and have not yet become grown up. You have stepped on the right track for growth, but you have not yet grown very much. You still need to grow until all arrive at a full-grown man.
However, we know that the higher a life is, the longer it takes to grow; and the lower the life is, the less time it takes to grow. The lowest life grows the fastest; the higher the life is, the slower it grows. A dog does not need seven years to mature; at most it takes three years. A human child, however, needs twenty-one years to grow to maturity. How long will it take for the new man to become full-grown? I cannot tell, but I want you to know that the life of the new man is higher than the life of our old man. The higher the life, the longer it takes to mature. You young people have risen up to pursue the growth in life today, and that makes me very happy, but you should not have a certain expectation, saying, “Brother Lee has come to give us a training, so we are going to grow up instantly.” There is no such thing. Growth requires time because life has a law. However, you should not be disappointed. In any case, you must keep growing.
At the time the church arrives at a full-grown man, it arrives at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. A full-grown person certainly has the proper measure of the stature of his fullness; these two things are equivalent. There are some particular points here. In this passage the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is not mentioned first; rather, it speaks first of the full-grown man. Why is this? For anyone who wants to pursue the growth in life, the first requirement is to take Christ as your person, and the second is to take Christ as your life. A full-grown man needs Christ as his person, and a stature with its proper measure needs Christ as life. Taking Christ as our person is the first thing, and taking Christ as life is the second. We all need to learn to go to the Lord and say, “Lord, today I have received mercy and grace to learn to take You as my person. Furthermore, I want to learn to receive grace and mercy with all the brothers and sisters as the one new man, taking You as the person in all of us.” This is the highest requirement.
I must take the opportunity at this time to speak a word on taking care of the universal new man in our daily walk. If we have all seen the vision of the new man and have seen that all the churches are not merely individual local churches but the one new man, we will be willing to say, “Lord, I want to receive grace and mercy with all the saints as the one new man, taking You as the person in all of us.” If you take Christ in this way as the person of this corporate new man, you will not decide anything in your life by yourself. Because you see that you are a part of the churches as the new man, you will not be able to decide anything merely by yourself. Since you are a part of the new man, your decisions and your living should not be yours; they should be the decisions and the living of the corporate new man. Dear brothers and sisters, this is the ultimate requirement. This is why I say that Christianity has failed the Lord. If the Lord goes to Christianity to look for this new man, He will never find him.
However, we ourselves must also be careful. We say that we are in the Lord’s recovery, but if the Lord were to come among us, would He find this new man? This is not merely a matter of individual localities and individual churches; it involves all the churches on earth corporately. Are all the local churches on the earth in the Lord’s recovery today truly the one new man? Because the church is a lampstand, you may say that each locality is a lampstand. However, concerning the church being the new man, can you say that each locality is a new man? No, you cannot. All the churches on the earth are the one new man.
In the past we lacked this light, and we did not release this kind of message. Therefore, I do not believe that among us there is one brother or sister who has taken into consideration all the churches on the earth in his or her decision making and living. Let me ask the brothers from Hong Kong: When you are deciding about a certain matter and living a certain kind of life, as you fellowship, pray, and consider together, do you think about the churches on the whole earth? Have you ever thought of the churches in Australia or in New Zealand? Have you thought of the churches in Germany, England, and other places in Europe? Have you thought of the church in Ghana, Africa? Moreover, have you thought of the churches in Brazil, South America, and the churches in Canada and the United States, North America? Have you ever thought about them in this way? I would dare to guarantee that you have never thought anything like this. At most you have thought about the brothers and sisters in Hong Kong, and you have considered how the brothers and sisters in Hong Kong would feel about your decisions. Although this too is a requirement, it is not a very high one. However, when you put yourselves into the new man and realize that the new man is not only the church in Hong Kong but includes all the churches on the whole earth, you will see that the requirement is extremely high as you consider your decisions and your living.
Thus, I truly hope that from now on every local church, when it is considering, praying, and fellowshipping about a certain decision, will take care of all the churches on the earth and will realize the fact that we are all one new man. Then your decision and living will certainly be of a high standard, requiring you to pay the highest price. Brothers and sisters, may we have eyes to see that this is a requirement we have never had before.
I feel that it is the Lord’s good pleasure that we have this gathering. Although there are not many from Ghana, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, there are at least a few representatives from these places. Thus, every continent is represented here, giving us the position to say that the new man is here. The saved ones in all six continents have representatives here.
Everything is according to the Lord’s good pleasure. Two thousand years ago at the time of the apostle Paul, it was quite difficult to speak of the new man being universal. At that time communication and transportation were not well developed. It would have taken several months to go by sailboat from Jerusalem to Rome. Also it would have taken a long time for news from Jerusalem to reach Rome and another length of time for news from Rome to get back to Jerusalem. Even in the 1800s, when the American missionaries came to China to preach the gospel, they had to spend six months at sea on a ship before they arrived. Today, however, it takes only a short time for Taipei to know what has happened in New York. Anything that happens anywhere in the world is immediately known everywhere else. I feel that this is something well pleasing to the Lord. We should know how the brothers and sisters in Ghana live, and they also should know how we brothers and sisters here live a spiritual life in righteousness and holiness. We are one new man; we have put on the new man. This new man is not individual, nor is it local; rather, it is universal. When we put on the new man, we put on the universal new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality. We must ask all the brothers and sisters in all the places: As you are living the church life in your locality and putting on the new man in the Lord’s recovery, do you have holiness and righteousness? We all must have the righteousness and holiness of the reality. That righteousness and that holiness are the life of the new man.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you want to grow? In the past because of our lack of knowledge, our requirements for growth were very low and limited. We said that in order to grow we first would need to go into the Lord’s presence to confess our sins. I am not saying that this is wrong. We should first ask the Lord to enlighten us and then confess our sins one by one and apply the Lord’s precious blood. After confessing our sins, we need a consecration. Then after consecration, we need to daily ask for the Lord’s leading in all matters, great and small. These practices are also right. However, these requirements are not high enough. What should the requirement be? The requirement that is high enough is that we would be for the universal new man. We need to take the Lord Jesus as our person; this includes everything, such as dealing with our sins, consecration, and seeking the will of God.
We truly need message after message to unveil every one of us so that we can see that today in the Lord’s recovery we need to become the universal new man, and that we all need to rise up together to take Christ as our person. The brothers and sisters from Japan, the South Sea Islands, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand should all take Christ as their person. Whether we are from Europe, North America, South America, or Africa, we all should take Christ as our unique person. When this happens, the new man will be manifested on the earth in righteousness and holiness of the reality. This is the church and the new man. Those of us who are gifted, whether apostles or prophets or evangelists or shepherds and teachers, should all take this as our goal. We must perfect the saints in locality after locality so that they may all enter into a situation where they take Christ as their person.
Brothers and sisters, I am truly burdened for this. My hope for you tonight is that you will see in the Bible something that is very high, something which not only Christianity but even we have not as yet touched. We can say that in this training we have only begun to touch this high matter. What is this high matter? It is that the church is not merely the assembling of a group of Christians; the church is the fullness of Christ and the one new man on earth. There is a great old man on this earth, and this old man is the adamic race, the descendants of Adam. Today on this earth, however, God wants to have another man, the new man.
As I have said, today due to all the technological advances in transportation and communication, which are making progress monthly and even daily, all the peoples of the adamic race on the entire earth have almost become one. When Hollywood produces something, it becomes popular all over the earth. When America comes out with something new, Hong Kong and Japan get it immediately. This is the universal old man. The adamic race today has become the universal old man. All the components of this old man are the same in their corruption, evil, filthiness, fornication, and disorderliness. Just as New York is a mess, so also are Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Copenhagen. Every place is in an equally bad condition. When a new dance comes in, it becomes popular everywhere for a period of time. Consider clothing as an example. Because I am one who travels frequently to many places in the world, I often marvel at what I see. Something that has only recently come into the market in the United States is immediately available in other places. What is this? I tell you, this is taking the devil as the person to bring in the old man, who is dark, evil, and corrupt.
We thank the Lord, though, that today He wants to gain the one new man on earth. Today’s Christianity absolutely cannot meet this need. Christianity is full of divisions, and everyone is independent. The Lord’s desire is to have the one new man on the earth, so we all need to rise up to take Christ as our corporate person. If we want to make a decision or live a certain kind of life, we cannot decide merely in ourselves; instead, we must take Christ as our person in the new man and with the new man. This requirement is great and high. In this way the new man grows and matures, and we will arrive at a full-grown man.
I repeat, I am very happy to see that most of you brothers and sisters from the Far East are a new generation, and I can tell by listening to you that you have eaten to the full. This is a good sign. In other words, you have gotten onto the proper track for growing. However, you must not forget that this is only the beginning; you must arrive at a full-grown man.
If there is a full-grown man, then there will definitely be the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. If you take Christ as your person, then you will surely take Him as your life. Taking Christ as your person is for the new man, whereas taking Christ as your life is for the Body. If you take Christ as your person, then you will be able to grow and mature. The result will be that the Body of Christ will grow and have the adequate measure of stature as the fullness of Christ. Thus, you can see that as long as we grow and mature, there will be the necessary measure of the stature of the fullness. In other words, if you take Christ as your person, then you will certainly have Christ as your life. Christ as our person is for the growth of the new man; Christ as our life is for the increase of the measure of the stature of the Body.
After this, Ephesians 4:14 continues to say that we should no longer be little children. Let me ask you young brothers and sisters, have you grown up? If you have not grown up, then you are little children. Verse 13 says, “Until we all arrive...at a full-grown man.” Then verse 14 says, “That we may be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching.” If you are little children, you will be easily carried about by every wind of teaching, but if you have become a grown-up person, you will not be tossed by waves and carried about by the winds of teaching.
What does it say here about where the winds of teaching come from? How do they blow? The winds of teaching blow out of the sleight of men in craftiness. In this verse Paul used words with very deep connotations because he had much light and was able to see through the devil’s subtleties. We need to see that much of Christianity is in craftiness. If you have the Lord’s view and light, you will absolutely say Amen to this word. You will see through today’s Christianity and realize that it has the sleight, the deceit, of men and that it is involved with craftiness.
What does this mean? God’s eternal purpose is that His redeemed ones may become His one Body for Him to obtain His fullness and that they may also become the one new man for God’s economy to be lived out on earth. This is God’s intention, and this is the Lord’s eternal purpose. However, everything Christianity does today completely destroys this purpose. You must know that many zealous Christians today who are working for the Lord do not mean to be crafty or deceitful. In their love for the Lord, their desire is to be zealous, but they have been tricked by the subtle one. Behind them is a deceiver with his sleight. It is very evident that today’s Christian workers have caused Christians to become divided. How do they do this? It is by preaching good doctrines to them. A certain good-sounding doctrine can divide a group of Christians. Many have absolutely no concept concerning the Body of Christ and the new man. On the surface they are preaching biblical doctrines to people, which is a good thing. Nevertheless, underneath and behind this good thing is the sleight of Satan.
From this point of view, you can see that there are many groups in Christianity, each of which seems to be doing good things because they are preaching the gospel, teaching the truth, saving people, helping people, and teaching people to know the Bible. Who would have thought that underneath and behind these good things there is Satan’s craftiness and sleight? By this sleight many Christians are fully divided. Many members of these groups do not have an ear to hear when you try to talk to them about the truth of the Body or the new man. Not only do they refuse to listen, but they also turn around to oppose and condemn you. Is this not craftiness? Is this not deception? Many doctrines, many teachings, many groups, and many practices in today’s Christianity appear to be for Christ, but in reality they are simply the sleight of men and craftiness that divide the Lord’s people.
Here I must use as an example an event that took place among us fifteen or sixteen years ago. At that time a few among us were influenced by a certain spiritual man, and these few shouted the slogan that they had seen the full Christ; they claimed that they were those with a vision. Some of the brothers and sisters at that time were shaken by what was said. Today almost twenty years have passed. History has become facts, and the facts prevail over everything. Look around; where have those people gone who shouted that they had the vision? They have divided again and again on this island. I cannot tell you how many times they have divided. During the ten years from 1957 to 1967 they damaged at least one or two hundred useful young people. During this time their craftiness was not to damage the useless ones; they sought to damage only the promising ones. On the surface they said that they had seen the vision of the full Christ, but secretly they were doing this kind of damaging work.
At this time I must expose Satan’s craftiness and show you that this is today’s Christianity. Therefore, I would advise you not to readily follow those who shout various slogans nor quickly listen to what others say. No liar will ever tell you that he is lying. Every liar will tell others that he is speaking the truth. All of Christianity today is in a deception, in that so-called Christian workers put people under their control and thus divide the Body of Christ. As long as they can arrive at this goal, they do not care about their methods. This is why you must be clear about one matter: Do not listen when others tell you this or that. Ignore any slogans, and remember only one thing — one Body and one new man. If anyone wants to make them two, we cannot agree. How many new men are there? One new man. How many Bodies are there? One Body. There is one Body and one new man. If anyone tries to produce two, that must be false; if anyone tries to divide, that must be a deception. One Body and one new man. It is one in all of Indonesia, one in all of Thailand, one in all of Southeast Asia, and one on the entire earth. If someone makes another one, regardless of how real it looks outwardly, it must be false because there is only one Body and one new man.
This is why Ephesians says that we should no longer be little children carried about by the winds of teaching, which are not necessarily the winds of heretical teaching but may be winds of proper teaching. How do those winds of teaching blow? They blow in the sleight of men and in craftiness to bring people into a system of schemes and error. The system here is Satan’s system, and the schemes and errors here are systematized. All divisions and damage are plots, made not by men but by the devil, who is behind men. The devil utilizes the craftiness and sleight of men to bring people into his system of schemes and error.
From this we all can arrive at the conclusion that by having been enlightened and seen a vision, we know that today the Lord wants nothing other than one Body and one new man. For the Body we must take Him as our life; for the one new man we must take Him as our person. When we all truly take Him as the person of the universal new man, we will be willing to pay any price. We will grow, and we will also experience Him as our life. Then the stature of the Body will grow in its measure. Then at this point we will have to be on guard against the craftiness of the enemy.
Over the past ten or more years it seems that we have become seriously ill due to that incident that happened among us. You must know that after your body goes through a serious illness and recovers, its resistance to that particular sickness is strengthened. We thank the Lord. I believe that today the churches in the Lord’s recovery all have such a resistance against that kind of thing. If it happens again, we certainly will know how to swallow up that craftiness and not be deceived by it again.
