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Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Cor. 3:6; Col. 2:19; 1:28; Eph. 4:13; John 3:29-30a; 15:1, 5, 8; Eph. 4:16
I. The intrinsic growth of the church:
А. Through the feeding on the guileless milk and the solid food of the word by the members of Christ — 1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-14.
B. Through the watering on the Body of Christ by its gifted members — 1 Cor. 3:6b.
C. Through the giving of growth in life to the members of Christ by God — v. 6c.
D. By God’s growing in the believers — Col. 2:19.
E. Unto maturity in the divine life — 1:28; Eph. 4:13b.
F. Reaching the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ — the organic Body of Christ — v. 13c.
II. The organic increase of the church:
А. The increase of Christ in His organic Body as His bride — John 3:29-30a.
B. The increase of God in the growth of life within the members of the organic Body of Christ — Col. 2:19.
C. The multiplication of Christ in the fruit-bearing by the branches of Christ, the true vine in the universe, as the organism of the Triune God — John 15:1, 5, 8.
D. The growth of the organic Body of Christ, with the divine life as the growing element, for the organic building up of the Body of Christ — Eph. 4:16.
In the last chapter we saw the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence. Now we want to see the intrinsic growth of the church for its organic increase. The essence is for existence, and the growth is for increase. A child is organic, something of life, and its beginning is at birth. Following birth, every child’s greatest need is growth. The church is also something organic, full of life. It is not an organization, void of life. We should forget about the common concept of the church as an organization or some social body. It is true that the church is a corporate entity, but it is not something organized. It is something born.
The Bible calls this birth regeneration. Paul was regenerated over nineteen hundred years ago, and I was regenerated just about sixty-four years ago. Everyone who believes in the Lord was regenerated at some point in time. However, in God’s sight we all were regenerated at the same time. First Peter 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This is a crucial verse. It tells us God has regenerated all His chosen people. We were not regenerated separately. According to 1 Peter 1:3, we all were regenerated at the time the Lord Jesus was resurrected. We have been regenerated through His resurrection.
All the countless believers, regardless of how many millions there are, are as one man in the sight of God. This universal man is the new man (Eph. 2:15). The Head of this new man is Christ, and the Body of this new man is the church. The church is the Body of Christ. This is not the individual Christ but the corporate Christ, the enlarged Christ.
The essence of the church is the divine life, which is the processed and dispensing Triune God. We all have been regenerated with this divine life. The church is now growing in this life, by this life, with this life, and through this life. The growth of the church is its intrinsic growth, its organic growth. This organic growth has nothing to do with organization.
The intrinsic growth of the church is through the feeding on the guileless milk and the solid food of the word by the members of Christ (1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-14). An infant does not grow by self-effort. He does not grow by stretching out his feet and crying, “Let me grow!” He grows by eating. The more he eats, the more he grows. One of my grandchildren was very small at birth and had to be sustained by the use of an incubator. Today, however, he is a strong, big boy because he has been eating all these years. He has been taking in all the rich, nourishing American food. He has been drinking milk and eating all the rich produce of America.
As members of the Body of Christ, we should drink the guileless milk of the word that we may grow. Then we must eat the solid food of the word so that we may grow even more. Our eating of the word causes us to grow in a strong way. The Word is full of food, but some get only knowledge according to the letter when they read the Bible. This is a shame, because the sixty-six books of the Bible are a menu of Christ. Christ is our real food, and every page of the Bible is a description of this rich Christ. He is either expressed or implied throughout the whole Bible. Actually, the implied Christ is richer and more nourishing than the expressed Christ. When we come to the Bible, we should come with a seeking heart after Christ. We should pray, “Lord, I come to Your Word. I do not care for teachings alone, but I care for You. Lord, feed me with Yourself through this Word.” We all should have such a prayer.
The Bible is full of Christ. Without Christ, this book becomes empty. The Bible is like a peanut shell. It contains Christ as its kernel. Without Christ, the Bible is like an empty shell. If we have a heart toward Christ, He will nourish us with Himself when we come to the Word. When we come to the Bible, we must have the full faith that God exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). In the whole universe the most wonderful One is God. He is Spirit; He is invisible yet so real (John 4:24), and He is the content of the Bible.
I have studied the Bible for more than sixty years. I have also studied world history, and I have been observing the world situation very closely all these years. As a serious student of the Bible, I have come to understand many of the prophecies concerning the history of the world, including many things that are presently occurring. I have seen many of the biblical prophecies fulfilled in my lifetime. The fulfillment of these prophecies shows how wonderful and marvelous the Bible is.
When I was a young man of about nineteen in 1925, I found out about the prophecy in the Bible that the nation of Israel would be restored (Matt. 24:32). I knew that the Jews had lost their homeland and that they were scattered throughout the earth. They were dispersed and scattered to such an extent that they had become citizens of many different countries. I believed the Word of God, but still in my mind there was a question. How could such a race be recovered to become a nation once more? This seemed to be impossible, yet the Bible clearly indicated that this would happen. In 1948, forty-one years ago, I was working in Shanghai when the news said that the nation of Israel had been restored. I was very excited when I heard this news because I knew that it was a fulfillment of the Lord’s prophecy.
The Bible also prophesied in Luke 21:24 that the city of Jerusalem would eventually be returned to the people of Israel. Jerusalem was taken over by the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, about twenty-six centuries ago, in approximately 600 B.C. The Lord Jesus prophesied in Luke 21:24 that “Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” From the time of Nebuchadnezzar, Jerusalem was trodden under the feet of the Gentiles throughout the centuries. I wondered how it would be possible for the Jews to regain Jerusalem. Nineteen years after the nation of Israel had been restored, in 1967, the city of Jerusalem was reclaimed by the Jews. This was another wonderful fulfillment of biblical prophecy. When I heard this news, I was greatly excited, for I knew the prophecy in Luke 21:24.
Another wonderful fulfillment of prophecy can be seen in the interpretation of the image in Daniel 2, which was a part of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Daniel’s interpretation of this image is actually a prophecy concerning the nations of the earth. Daniel 2:31-34 says, “You, O king, were watching, and there was a single great image. This image, large and its brightness surpassing, stood opposite you; and its appearance was frightful. Concerning this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its abdomen and its thighs of bronze, Its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.”
All biblical students who are familiar with prophecy know that the image illustrates the world political situation beginning with Nebuchadnezzar. The head of gold symbolizes Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and thus the Babylonian Empire (vv. 37-38). The breast and arms of silver symbolize Medo-Persia (v. 39). The abdomen and thighs of bronze symbolize the empire of Macedonia and Greece under Alexander the Great (v. 39). Following the Greek Empire is the Roman Empire (v. 40). It is symbolized by the two legs of iron, indicating its tremendous strength. The two legs signify that the Roman Empire was divided into two parts, the eastern Roman Empire and the western Roman Empire.
The four kingdoms are symbolized by gold, silver, bronze, and iron. The first is gold, indicating that its beginning is more glorious. The glory reduces with each succeeding metal, yet it remains very strong. Finally, the feet of the image are part iron and part clay, signifying the nations in the period after the fall of Rome and before the second coming of Christ. These nations would be part autocracy and part democracy.
In the early part of this century, communism crept into human society. The Soviet revolution occurred in 1917. After World War II communism took control in China. The philosophy of communism was their boast. Actually, they simply practiced dictatorship, or autocracy. Today it has been about seventy years from the time communism had its beginnings in Russia. Communism is like the iron in the feet of the image. It is strong to crush whatever stands in its way, but God has a way to weaken the iron. His way is to mix it with clay. In these days the people of Eastern Europe, who are the clay, the dust, are rising up to deal with and weaken the iron of communism. Eventually, the iron cannot deal with the dust, and it becomes paralyzed, crippled. This demonstrates the fulfillment of prophecy in Eastern Europe and that we are in the iron-clay stage of the image. Millions are rising up in Eastern Europe. Recently, millions rose up in Red China in a desire for freedom. As the clay rises up, the strength of the iron is weakened.
At the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, a stone, cut out without hands, struck the image at its feet, which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces (v. 34). This is a prophecy concerning Christ. He is the stone, cut out without human hands, which will come down from heaven to smite the image, the kingdoms of the earth, and break them into pieces. Then He will become a great mountain, the kingdom of God, which will fill the whole earth (v. 35; Rev. 11:15).
Whatever is recorded in the Bible is eventually related to Christ. Even when we read these prophecies, we can find nourishment. Christ, as the content of the Bible, is food to us. The Bible is a book inspired by God. This means that any time we come to the Bible with a seeking heart, the Spirit of God will be with us.
The Triune God is involved with the Bible. This is why this book is so unique. I recall a story that occurred in the past century. An unbelieving American citizen was visiting a country in Latin America and observed a native of that country sitting and reading a Bible. The American began to ridicule that person because he was reading the Bible. That native had been a cannibal before being saved, and he responded in this way: “Sir, if this Bible had not gotten into me, you would have been inside of me already.” His eating the Word of God had transformed him, and he was no longer a wild cannibal. Only the Bible could do this.
There are many cases of people being changed just by reading one portion of the Bible. This was the situation with one brother who eventually became a co-worker among us. When he was young, he was a very patriotic, active, and capable nationalist. He hated the foreign countries and their foreign religion, Christianity. One day he went sightseeing to a certain mountain and entered an idol temple. To his surprise, someone had left a large Bible there. It had been there for a long time because it was covered with dust. This Bible was opened to Psalm 1. He began to read Psalm 1 out of curiosity. As he read, he thought, “Is this what is in the Bible?” As he read on and on, he eventually began to weep and rolled on the ground repenting. Reading the Bible caused him to get saved. He was changed to such an extent that he decided to drop his political associations and become a follower of Christ. He became burdened to take the Bible throughout China in order to preach the gospel of Christ. He told this to me personally, and he later became one of our co-workers. This shows the effectiveness and wonder of the Bible.
Many Christians can testify that the Bible has had such a wonderful impact on their lives. For us to grow, we need the milk and the solid food that is in this book. If we do not eat physical food for a period of time, we will starve and eventually die. If we do not read the Bible for a whole week, we will starve spiritually. When we read this book with a desire to seek after Christ, we will be fed. Thousands of Christians can testify that when they read the Bible, they do not receive mere knowledge according to the letter, but they get Christ into them. This Christ, as the life-giving Spirit, is food to us (John 6:57; 1 Cor. 15:45b). As the life-giving Spirit, He is dispensing Himself into us and supplying us with Himself as life.
When we open any page of the Bible, we should read with a seeking heart and pray, “Lord, I love You, so I come to Your Word. Be my drink and be my food.” When we pray in this way, we will realize that Christ, who is now the life-giving Spirit, is within us dispensing Himself and supplying us with Himself as our food. This supply of life will cause us to grow. I believe that we all can testify to this. This is the wonder of the Bible. It is not just a book. It is a book filled with Christ. It is a book in which our God is fully involved. When we touch this book with a seeking heart for Christ, we touch the Spirit, we receive the very life-giving Christ, and we grow organically.
The church grows through eating and also through the watering on the Body of Christ by its gifted members (3:6). We believers are living plants who have been planted into Christ (vv. 6a, 9b). Christ is our good ground, our earth. He is the rich soil into which we have been planted and in which we grow. Once a plant has been planted, it needs to be watered. Southern California used to be very dry with very little plant life. Then Southern California began to receive water from the state of Nevada, and the result is that it has become very green and beautiful. The sprinklers in many yards in Southern California water the lawns to keep them green and growing. In a spiritual sense we need such watering so that we may grow. Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered” (v. 6a). We need the watering by the gifted persons. For our spiritual growth, we need the food that the Word provides, and we also need the watering that the gifted ones provide.
If you are in the meetings of the church, you will be blessed with much watering. Regardless of how much time you spend reading the Bible in your home, it cannot replace the meetings of the church. Some saints may become unhappy with the elders or with some brother or sister in the church. They may reason, “I do not need to go to the church meetings. I have the Bible, so I will stay home and read my Bible. The Lord is omnipresent, so I will dedicate the meeting time to stay at home and read my Bible for two hours.” However, they will find that such an attempt leaves them short of the great benefit received in the church meetings.
You may say that you do not like the meeting, but whether you like the meeting or not, the “sprinklers” are there “sprinkling.” Regardless of how much you endeavor to get something in your home away from the meeting, there is no “sprinkler” watering you in your home. The church meeting may not seem so good to you, but you will still be watered in the meeting. Sometimes some saints may sleep in the meeting, but they still experience the watering.
In the meetings of the church we are always dealing with the Bible. As we have fellowshipped, God the Spirit is totally involved with this book. When we go to the meetings of the church, we are always touching His Word, so we are always receiving something of God. Some have said to me, “Brother Lee, you should not ask the saints to read so many verses. It seems that sometimes there are fifty verses.” I responded that even fifty verses is not that many. Psalm 119 has one hundred seventy-six verses. It would be wonderful if we could read this entire psalm in some meeting. Years ago when the saints were still meeting at Elden hall in Los Angeles, they came together for a prayer meeting and pray-read the entire book of Ephesians. The saints who were in that meeting testified how wonderful it was. When we are in the meetings of the church, we get thoroughly watered because we are under the “sprinkling,” the watering.
The gifted members of the Body of Christ, the servants of God, are like the sprinklers on the lawns; they have the ability to sprinkle us with water. The more they talk to us about the Bible, the more they sprinkle us with water. We can testify that when we come to a ministry meeting and listen to the speaking of the gifted persons with all the Bible verses, we can never be the same. Whether or not we understand everything, we always go away from such meetings with the water of the Bible. I do not have much knowledge in fields other than the Bible, but by the Lord’s mercy, I somewhat know this holy book. I can open this book and water the saints. My speaking in the ministry of God’s word is the sprinkling. We need to come to the meetings of the church and of the ministry to take a “shower” or a “bath” in the water of the word.
The intrinsic growth of the church is through the giving of growth in life to the members of Christ by God (1 Cor. 3:6c). The gifted ones may do the planting and the watering, but it is God who gives the growth in life. This is why I must always take some time to pray before I come to speak in a meeting. I pray that the Lord would be one with me and infuse me with Himself so that whatever I speak would be in Him. I believe that He has richly answered these prayers because quite often, as I am speaking, I feel supplied within to speak with new light and instant utterance.
We need the feeding from the Bible directly, and we need the watering from the ones who know the Bible more. God goes along with our reading of the Word and with the speaking of the gifted members to give us the growth. The feeding and the watering are the top means used by Him to give His life to us. When we get into the Word, we are feeding. When we get under the speaking of the word, we receive the watering. Then God gives the growth.
The intrinsic growth of the church is by God’s growing in the believers (Col. 2:19). We were reborn by the divine life, which is God Himself. Now we are being fed and watered, and God is causing us to grow. This growth is God Himself growing in us (v. 19). When God gives us the growth in life, this means that He is increasing Himself within us. As we are feeding on the Word, and as we are being watered by the gifted ones, God Himself is moving and growing within us.
The last part of Colossians 2:19 tells us that the Body “grows with the growth of God.” We grow by God’s growing within us. Of course, God in Himself is not growing, because He is complete and perfect. His growing is within us, and how much He grows within us depends on how much room we will give to Him to grow. We may be full of the world, of ourselves, of our own interests, but by reading the Bible, little by little the word of the Bible takes away some part of our worldliness, some part of our self-interest, and some part of our love for things other than God Himself. Then within us more room is given to God; He takes this room and expands and increases within us. This increase is His growth in us. His growth becomes our growth because we and He are one. The growth of the church is God’s growth in the church. By our feeding on the Word and being watered by the gifted members, the negative things within us are taken away, and there is more room for the very God who dwells in us. When He gets more room, He grows within us. This issues in the church’s organic growth.
God’s growth in us is unto our maturity in the divine life (1:28; Eph. 4:13b). As we are growing, we are maturing until we reach the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (v. 13c). The fullness of Christ is the organic Body of Christ (1:23); thus, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is the measure of the stature of the Body of Christ. Christ fills all in all, and He needs a great Body as His fullness. The Body of Christ, which is His expression, has a stature, and this stature has a measure. The church grows with the growth of God until it reaches maturity. When it reaches maturity, it arrives at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (4:13). By then the church will be Christ’s expression in full. This is the highest peak of the church’s growth.
The church grows until it reaches maturity, which is the measure of the stature of the Body of Christ for His expression. This growth is for the organic increase of the church. This organic increase is the increase of Christ in His organic Body as His bride (John 3:29-30a). The fullness of Christ is His Body, and the Body of Christ is His counterpart, His bride. This is based on the type of Eve being the counterpart of Adam.
God in His wisdom did not create a couple but a single man, a “bachelor.” God brought all the living creatures to Adam, and Adam gave names to all of them, but among these Adam did not find his counterpart. Finally, God put Adam to sleep, opened his side, and took out a rib. In typology, this is a picture of what happened to Christ in His death. His death on the cross was His being “put to sleep” by God. In the Bible sleep means death (1 Cor. 15:18; 1 Thes. 4:13-16; John 11:11-14). When Christ was sleeping on the cross, a soldier pierced His side, and out came blood and water (19:34). All that came out of Adam’s side was the rib without the blood. At Adam’s time in Genesis 2 there was no sin, so there was no need of blood for redemption. When Christ was sleeping on the cross, however, there was the problem of sin, so His death had to deal first with this sin problem. The blood came out of Christ’s side for redemption. Following the blood, the water came out. The rib taken out of Adam’s side and the water that flowed out of the side of Christ at the cross both signify the divine life. God used this rib, which was a part of Adam, and built a woman to be Adam’s counterpart. Now God builds up the church with the divine life, the resurrection life of Christ.
Eve was built to match Adam in his image and likeness. When God brought Eve to Adam, he said, “This time this is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). Eve became the counterpart of Adam and the increase of Adam. The man is not complete without the woman. The wife is the other half of the man, making him complete and being his increase. The church as the bride of Christ is the increase of Christ, the Bridegroom. This is clearly revealed in John 3:29-30: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.” John the Baptist was saying that the bride is for the Bridegroom and that the Bridegroom is increasing. He, John the Baptist, should not be considered, because he is decreasing, being reduced to nothing. All our attention should be focused on the increasing Christ, who is now increasing all over the earth.
Christ is increasing, and God is increasing in the growth of life within the members of the organic Body of Christ. Colossians 2:19 says, “Holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.” To grow is a matter of life, which is God Himself. As the Body of Christ, the church should not be deprived of Christ, who is the embodiment of God (v. 9) as the source of life. By holding Christ, the Head, the church grows with the growth of God, with the increase of God as life.
The organic increase of the church is the multiplication of Christ in the fruit-bearing by the branches of Christ, the true vine in the universe, as the organism of the Triune God (John 15:1, 5, 8). All the Christians are the duplication and the multiplication of Christ. We, as the many grains, are a multiplication of Christ, as the one grain, which fell into the earth to die (12:24). This multiplication of Christ is in the fruit-bearing by the branches of Christ. As His branches, we must go forth to bear fruit. The Lord Jesus said that He appointed us to go forth to bear fruit and that our fruit should remain (15:16). The fruit borne by us is the multiplication of the vine tree.
The vine tree with all its branches and all its fruit is the organism of the Triune God. The Triune God in His organism is the focus of chapters 14 through 16 of the Gospel of John. This organism is the increase of the church. As branches of this divine organism, we have to live an increasing life, which is a fruit-bearing life. If we say that we enjoy Christ and abide in Christ according to John 15, we must be bearing fruit. If we are not bearing fruit, and we say that we are abiding in Christ, we are deceiving ourselves. Genuine abiding in Christ will cause us to bear fruit. Our enjoyment is vain if we are not bearing fruit. We are branches, and fruit-bearing is the duty and responsibility of the branches. The fruit borne by the branches is the multiplication and the duplication of the vine tree. The increase of the vine tree is the increase of Christ, and the increase of Christ is the increase of the church.
The organic increase of the church is the growth of the organic Body of Christ with the divine life as the growing element, for the organic building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:16). In the Body of Christ there are two categories of members: the joints and each one part. The joints and the parts can be compared to the two categories of materials in a building. The steel beams of this big meeting hall are joined closely together into a steel frame. Then the stones and wood of this building are put together, knit together, by being interwoven. God’s building, the Body of Christ, needs to be joined closely together through every joint of the rich supply and knit together through the operation in the measure of each one part.
The joints are equal to the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11: “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers.” There are many joints in a human body, and a healthy body needs the proper function of all its joints. If a person’s fingers did not have joints, his hand could not function properly. A simple task, such as picking up a fork to eat, would be quite awkward. The joints are all necessary so that a person’s body can operate normally.
The church, as the Body of Christ, also needs the proper function of all the joints. In the church we need many joints. If a local church has only two or three joints of supply, and these joints are only the elders, that is a poor local church. A proper church will be full of joints. In every church there should be many joints providing the rich supply. The rich supply that the joints supply to the Body is Christ Himself. Ephesians 4:16 says, “Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” This verse speaks of “the rich supply.” The use of the definite article the indicates that there is a particular supply of Christ that each joint has for the benefit of the Body.
The second category of members in the Body is “each one part.” In a person’s physical body there are many parts. The joints do not constitute the whole body, so there is the need for all the parts to match and complement the joints. As the joints in the Body of Christ are supplying, the parts should all be operating. Thank the Lord that every member is useful. This is why we all need to endeavor to pick up the God-ordained way of serving, which brings all the members of the Body of Christ into function. This is such a contrast to our old way, which annulled the function of most of the members. Every local church should be full of joints supplying and parts operating. This is accomplished by the intrinsic growth. If we are growing in the divine life, in the Divine Trinity, we will not be useless. We will be very useful. All of us will be active, living members of the organic Body of Christ.
When the Body of Christ is functioning properly through the active participation of the joints and each one part, “all the Body...causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” It is quite marvelous that all the Body causes the Body to grow. In Greek the word unto means “with a view to,” “for the purpose of,” or “resulting in.” The growth of the Body results in the building up of itself in love. This is the intrinsic growth of the church for the church’s organic increase, issuing in the organic building up of the Body of Christ.
