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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:8-16; 1 Cor. 12:28; Acts 13:1; Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-11; 14:4b, 12; Eph. 1:23b
I. The intrinsic building up of the church:
А. By the ascended Head giving the gifts — Eph. 4:8-11.
B. By the Head-given gifts — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers — perfecting the saints — vv. 11-12:
1. In the local churches — 1 Cor. 12:28; Acts 13:1.
2. Unto the work of the ministry — the building up of the organic Body of Christ — Eph. 4:12.
3. Until all the members of Christ arrive at:
а. The oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
b. A full-grown man.
c. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ — the church as the organic Body of Christ — v. 13.
C. Through all the perfected members of the Body of Christ — vv. 14-16:
1. Being no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a system of error — v. 14.
2. But holding to truth in love to grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things — v. 15.
3. Out from the Head — v. 16a.
4. All the Body, being joined together through every joint of the rich supply and being knit together through the operation in the measure of each one part, causing the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love — v. 16b.
II. The organic function of the church:
А. In the organic Body of Christ — Rom. 12:4-8.
B. In the local expressions of the organic Body of Christ — 1 Cor. 12:28.
C. By the move of the Triune God:
1. In the operations of God.
2. Through the ministries of the Lord.
3. With the gifts of the Spirit in His manifestations to the members of the organic Body of Christ — vv. 12:4-11.
D. For the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all — 14:4b, 12; Eph. 1:23b.
In chapter 1 we saw the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence. In chapter 2 we saw the intrinsic growth of the church for its organic increase. In this chapter we want to see the intrinsic building up of the church for its organic function.
A physical building is built by putting together and fitting together various materials. Such a building, however, is lifeless. It is not organic. God’s building is organic, and the best example of such an organic building is a living person. A living person is a real building. God took a rib out of Adam’s side and built that rib into a woman (Gen. 2:21-23). This woman was a building. God created Adam, the husband, but God did not create a wife. God built up a wife for Adam. The man was created by God, and the woman was built by God. God’s building work is finer than His creating work. Man, as the one created by God, is rougher than the female, who was built by God. Males are rough, and females are fine. A female’s face, hands, voice, and actions are finer than the male’s. The female is much finer, because she was built by God. God built up a woman.
All the brothers are males in the old creation, but we are females in the new creation. In the new creation we are the bride of Christ; we are God’s building. The Body of Christ, the church, is a bride that was not created but built up. God’s building, of course, is much finer than a physical building. The church’s building is organic by the growth in life. Because it is organic, it is intrinsic. Anything that is intrinsic is fine. The building up of the church is typified by God’s fine work of building a woman for man.
The building up of the church is actually the growth of the church. Every full-grown person began as a small baby. The building up of that person over the years was accomplished by that person’s growth. When he ate, he grew, and this growth was his organic building up. If we mean business to have the church built up, we must take care of our growth in the divine life. This means that we must be those eating and drinking Christ. We grow with what we eat, and what we eat becomes our very constitution. We are what we eat.
We grow by what we eat, and what we eat eventually becomes us. We need to eat more of Christ. Some Cantonese people eat six or seven times a day. How many times do we eat Christ? We need to learn of the Cantonese in our eating of the spiritual food. The more times we eat Christ, the better. The more we eat Christ, the more we grow in Christ, and the more we eat Christ, the more we become Christ. When we eat Christ, we grow by Him. This growing is the building up. Therefore, what is built up is Christ. Eventually, the built-up church is just Christ.
The intrinsic building up of the church is by the ascended Head giving the gifts (Eph. 4:8-11). Ephesians 4:8 says, “Therefore the Scripture says, ‘Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men.’” We may appreciate the Lord’s coming down from the heavens, but we also need an uplifted appreciation of His ascension. In Ephesians 4:8 Paul points out that it is the ascended Christ who is able to give the gifts.
When Paul says that Christ “ascended to the height,” he quotes from Psalm 68:18. Height in this verse refers to Mount Zion (vv. 15-16), symbolizing the third heaven, where God dwells (1 Kings 8:30). Psalm 68 implies that it was in the Ark that God ascended to Mount Zion after the Ark had won the victory. Verse 1 of Psalm 68 is a quotation of Numbers 10:35. It indicates that the background of Psalm 68 is God’s move in the tabernacle with the Ark as its center. Wherever the Ark, a type of Christ, went, the victory was won. Eventually, this Ark ascended triumphantly to the top of Mount Zion. This portrays how Christ has won the victory and ascended triumphantly to the heavens.
In His ascension Christ “led captive those taken captive.” The redeemed saints had been taken captive by Satan before being saved by Christ’s death and resurrection. We were captives under Satan’s hand through sin and death. But Christ defeated Satan, solved the problem of sin and death, and rescued us out of the hand of Satan. Then He led us to the heavens as His captives. He took these captives and made them gifts to men.
One of these gifts was Saul of Tarsus, who later became Paul, the apostle. He had been a captive of Satan and a top sinner. In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul said that he was the “foremost” sinner. He was a big captive of Satan under sin and death, but one day Christ rescued him. He was on the way to Damascus to arrest those who called on the Lord’s name (Acts 9:1-2, 14). Then the Lord Jesus seized him and rescued him out of the hand of Satan. Saul was Satan’s captive, but he became Christ’s captive.
Saul of Tarsus had been opposing Christ and devastating the church. Suddenly, he became a gift. Christ took this one and made him a gift by the name of Paul. He became a gift who could expound the Old Testament, who could preach the gospel, teach the saints, and prophesy. How could Paul become such a gift? He himself tells us with a parenthetical word in Ephesians 4:9-10: “Now this, ‘He ascended,’ what is it except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended, He is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things.”
Paul was a wonderful writer. He wrote this portion in describing Christ’s death and resurrection to accomplish His full redemption and impart life to us. Christ first descended to the earth from the heavenly throne in the third heaven. He did this through the process of incarnation. He lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He entered into death, and in death He descended further. In the second step of His descension, He descended into the lower parts of the earth. This refers to Hades, underneath the earth, where Christ went after His death (Acts 2:27). The first step of Christ’s descension was for His incarnation. The second step was for His redemption. His descension was the means to accomplish His all-inclusive, full redemption, which has saved us from sin, death, Satan, and the lake of fire. In the first step of His ascension, He ascended from Hades to the earth in resurrection. In His resurrection He imparted life into us. His descension accomplished redemption, and His ascension accomplished the impartation of life. In the second step of His ascension, He brought us to the Father in the third heaven.
When He ascended before His disciples into heaven (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9-11), they did not fully understand what was going on. They only saw Jesus ascending. But the Scriptures reveal that when Jesus was ascending, He was ascending with a train of vanquished foes. The Amplified New Testament renders “He led a train of vanquished foes” for “He led captive those taken captive.” When He was ascending, He was a returning General who had won the victory over Satan, sin, and death. He defeated all His enemies, and He had many captives. He brought these captives with Him in a procession to celebrate His victory.
Peter and John did not see this when the Lord ascended before their eyes, but the angels saw a tremendous and great train of vanquished foes as a procession for the celebration of Christ’s victory. We were there in that procession, Satan was there, and death was also there. What a procession that was! The Lord then presented us, the redeemed saints, His defeated and vanquished foes, as a present to the Father. It is as though He said, “Father, here are the persons You have given to Me. They were dead captives of Satan. Now I have captured them; I rescued them out of the hand of Satan, out from under sin and death. I have also imparted My life into them through My resurrection, the first step of My ascension from Hades to the earth. Now they are not dead but living presents. I give them all to You as a big, corporate present.”
This present included all of the redeemed saints. It included Peter, Paul, Martin Luther, John Nelson Darby, and Watchman Nee. I am honored to be included in this present. We were all included there in Christ’s ascension as a big, living present to the Father. The Father, no doubt, was so happy. He could have said, “I am so happy for My redeemed people. They were dead and captured by Satan. But My Son, through His death and resurrection, rescued them and imparted life into them, making them living.”
We all must realize that we have already been to the heavens. We were there with Christ because He brought us, as His present, to the Father. He did not go empty-handed. He went to the Father with all His redeemed ones, including you and me, as a corporate present to the Father. The Father then gave us back to the Son as gifts for His Body (Psa. 68:18). Thus, through His descension and ascension, Christ rescued us, enlivened us, and made us gifts with His resurrection life.
Paul was such a gift. Sometimes I have wondered how Paul received such great revelations, such as the revelation in Ephesians 4. Undoubtedly, Christ spent some particular time with Paul. After he was saved, Paul went to Arabia and stayed there for a period of time (Gal. 1:17). No one knows what he did there, but, no doubt, during this time there was much contact between him and Christ. I believe that the Lord used this time to constitute Paul into a big gift to His Body. When Paul returned from Arabia, he was able to preach and to speak wonderful things. That means he became a big gift to the church in the category of the gifted persons mentioned in Ephesians 4:11. This is why he was able to describe Christ’s death and resurrection in the marvelous way of verses 8 through 10.
We all should learn to preach the gospel in such a rich way as that portrayed in Ephesians 4. We may speak in this way to our unbelieving contacts: “I would like to tell you that our Savior descended in two steps. He descended from the heavens to the earth and then from the earth to Hades. In the first step of His descension, He accomplished incarnation; He became a man. In the second step of His descension, He entered into death and even went into Hades, dying for us to save us from sin, death, and Satan. As sinners, we were captives of Satan, but through the death of Christ we were forgiven and even rescued from Satan. Then the Lord ascended from Hades to the earth in resurrection. In His resurrection He imparted Himself into us as life. He accomplished redemption through His death and life-impartation through His resurrection. Then we were made alive. In the second step of His ascension, He led us as a train of vanquished foes to the third heaven to give us as a present to His Father.” Sometimes we should preach the gospel in this way when we go out to visit people.
During the time of the Roman Empire, when a general gained a victory, all his captives became a procession in the celebration of his victory. Eventually, some of these captives were put to death, and some were given life (2 Cor. 2:15-16). The ones in this procession who were put to death were Satan and his fallen angels, and the ones who were made alive were us, the redeemed saints. After we were presented to the Father as a present and the Father gave us back to the Son as gifts, the Son gave us all as gifts to His Body for its building up.
Every saint, great and small, is a gift to the church. Every member of the Body is a gift to the Body. We may be only a small member, like the little finger, but still we are very necessary. My little finger works so well to comfort my ear when I have an itch inside of it. We should never consider ourselves as too small to be a profitable gift to the Body. The practice of Christianity with one man speaking and the others listening spoils the gifts and kills the functions of the saints. Some Christians in the denominations do not even know how to pray because their function has been annulled by the clergy-laity system. In this system only the trained “professionals” learn how to function, and the rest are laymen. There is a Chinese proverb which says, “If you are sick, go to a doctor. If you have a lawsuit, go to a lawyer. If you want to pray, go to a pastor.” According to the biblical revelation, however, all the believers should be living, functioning members of the Body of Christ.
I am so happy that, in the Lord’s recovery, many of the new believers are able to pray for others. We are neither the clergy nor the laity but the New Testament priests. Christ has made us such by His descension and ascension. He, as the Head of the Body, gave us as gifts to the Body. If someone were to ask us if we are gifts, each of us should declare, “Amen! Hallelujah! I’m a gift!” We were captives, sinners, and enemies of God, but through Christ’s descension, we were redeemed and rescued from Satan out of sin and death. Through His ascension He imparted Himself into us as life, so now we are living. In His ascension He made us gifts to His Body.
Many of the saints can testify that I am a gift to them. In like manner, many of the saints are gifts to me. Many times I need the small gifts to comfort me in the way that my little finger can comfort my itching ear. We should not regard the newly baptized ones as “burdens” to us. They are new gifts to the Body. When we go out as New Testament priests of the gospel to visit people, we should have the assurance that we are going to gain more gifts. These gifts are not only for Christ but also for us.
In 1977 I encouraged all our young people to do their best to get a proper education. One young brother among us took my fellowship and went back to school. Eventually, he graduated with a Ph.D. in linguistics and specialized in Greek. In these past few years he has rendered a great amount of help to me in helping us to improve, to revise, our present Recovery Version. I was bearing a heavy burden to revise our version, but my knowledge of Greek is inadequate for this task. This young brother, who took my fellowship twelve years ago to go back to school, has become a great gift to me. He has been like an arm or a shoulder to me. We all can be such gifts. Thank the Lord for the gifts given by the ascended Head to His Body for its intrinsic building up.
The intrinsic building up of the church is by the Head-given gifts — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers — perfecting the saints (Eph. 4:11-12). These are particular gifts such as Paul, Peter, Martin Luther, John Nelson Darby, and so forth. These Head-given gifts perfect the saints in the local churches (1 Cor. 12:28; Acts 13:1). When they are perfecting in the meetings, they are watering the members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 3:6b). If we come to these meetings, we will receive much watering.
The perfecting of the saints by the gifts is unto the work of the ministry — the building up of the organic Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). This perfecting should go on and on until all the members of Christ arrive at three things: at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, and at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (v. 13). The oneness of the faith does not refer to our believing action but to what we believe in. It is the objective faith, which is the entire contents of the New Testament. The entire teaching of the New Testament is what we believe, so this New Testament teaching is our Christian faith, our Christian belief.
If we are still babyish, we may be holding on to different opinions from our background which cause us to lose the oneness of the faith (v. 14). If our background is Muslim, it may be hard for us to drop some of our Muslim philosophy. The Chinese may want to keep some thought from the teachings of Confucius. Those from a Catholic background may find it difficult to be freed of their idolatrous statues and pictures. One brother who had been newly saved went to help his mother to receive Christ. Pointing to a so-called picture of Jesus on the wall, she replied, “I have had Christ on my wall for years.” This is nothing more than a Catholic superstition. However, if one is babyish, he may not be able to drop the things of his background to keep the oneness of the faith. The different opinions that Christians hold may even cause them to fight.
In order to arrive at the oneness of the faith, we all need to grow. Our different opinions and different teachings, the winds of teaching (v. 14), are like toys. As we are growing, we will drop all the toys. The younger we are, the more we like toys. As a person over eighty years of age, I have no interest in any toy. The toys that we hold on to cause us to be dissenting with one another. We have to grow to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. We need the proper realization of the New Testament faith. We also need the proper and adequate knowledge of Christ. The full knowledge of Christ, the Son of God, will save us from the toys.
We also need to arrive at a full-grown man. We may feel that we are far away from this point, but thank the Lord that we are growing. We are traveling on the way to arrive at a full-grown man. We also are on the way to arriving at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The fullness of Christ is the Body of Christ (1:23). We grow until we arrive at the measure of the stature of the organic Body of Christ, which is the church. The living Body of Christ has a stature, and this stature has a measure. When we grow, the measure increases, and we are on our way to arriving at the stature of the Body of Christ.
In order for the church to be built up intrinsically, the ascended Head must first give the gifts. Second, the Head-given gifts, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, perfect the saints. Then the perfected saints build up the Body directly. Some have taken the Lord’s promise in Matthew 16 — “I will build My church” — to say that it is not we who build the church but Christ. They say that we are not qualified to build up the church. This concept and teaching is absolutely wrong.
Matthew 16 is not the only chapter in the Bible. The Bible also includes Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4 reveals that the Head, Christ, builds up the church by making the saints gifts, and by giving these gifts to the church for the building up of the Body of Christ. This shows that the Head does not build up the church directly. Furthermore, the gifted persons, who are used by the Head to perfect others, do not build up the church directly either. They perfect the saints, and the saints do the direct building work. Many of us in the Lord’s recovery who have been under the watering, the perfecting, for a number of years have been enabled to build up the church in our locality directly. The perfected saints are the direct builders of the church.
In Ephesians 4:14 Paul expresses his desire that the saints would be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching. If we remain as little children, we cannot bear any responsibility. We can only burden others. Whether or not we are little children will be tested. The tests will come in the form of storms. The storms have winds and waves. Are we being tossed by waves and carried about by the winds of teaching? If we are being tossed and carried about, we are little children. If we are not tossed and carried about, we are no longer little children.
The little children are carried about by every wind of teaching “in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a system of error.” Actually, craftiness is sleight. The word in Greek for sleight signifies the cheating of dice players. This craftiness is with a view to a system of error. Both sleight and craftiness are related to man, but the system of error is related to Satan. This system is not a human system but a satanic system. Satan has made a system of all the winds of teaching to catch the little children, to distract the younger ones away from the practical oneness of the Body and the building up of the Body.
Rather than being little children, we must be those holding to truth in love to grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things (v. 15). Holding to truth means holding to what is real. According to the entire book of Ephesians, the real things in the universe are Christ as the Head and the church as His Body. We have to hold to these two things in love so that we may grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things. To grow up into Christ in all things is to build up. The growing up is the building up.
We grow up into Christ, the Head, and then something issues out from Christ, the Head. “Into Christ” is for our growth. “Out from Christ” is for our function, our usefulness. On the one hand, we are growing up into Christ. On the other hand, what we do is out from Him as the source for our function, our usefulness.
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.” The Body is joined closely together through every joint of the rich supply. These are the gifted persons such as the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. Our physical body has many joints. We need many joints in the local churches. If we do not grow up into Christ, He has no way to make us a joint. In order to become a joint, we need to pray more, seek the Lord more, read the Bible more, feed on Christ more, etc. Everything with us related to Christ and the church should be “more.” We would have morning watch more. Some may have a five-minute morning watch, but we would have a fifteen-minute morning watch. With this kind of exercise over a period of time, we may become a joint in the Body.
In the Body some are joints, like the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. Others are parts, who operate according to their measure. Through these two categories of members, the Body grows, and this growth is unto the building up of itself in love. If we are not a joint, we must be a part. None of us can escape from being either a joint or a part. We should not think that only the joints are useful. Every part in the Body is also useful. The thighs in our physical body are not joints, but they are great parts. We need our thighs to stand because they bear our weight. No member of the Body of Christ should despise himself. We all should praise the Lord that we are either joints or parts in the organic Body of Christ.
If you are a joint, you should supply the Body with the riches of Christ. Through your contact with the Lord, you have become a joint, so you have the riches of Christ with which you can supply the Body. If you are a part, you should operate. The Body is supplied by the joints and enjoys the operation in the measure of each one part for its growth. Through the joints supplying and the parts operating, all the Body causes the growth of the Body, and the growth of the Body results in the building up of itself in love.
In the organic Body of Christ, there are organic functions (Rom. 12:4-8). Because we are in this organic Body, we should be organic. Do all of us function organically in the church life? Instead of functioning organically in the church life, we may do things mechanically. We must function either as joints of supply or as parts operating. We must have something with which to supply others, or we should operate in our measure. We must function organically for the building up of the organic Body. When the entire Body is operating, the Body causes the growth of itself, resulting in it being built up in love.
The organic function of the church is in the local expressions of the organic Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:28) and by the move of the Triune God in the operations of God, through the ministries of the Lord, and with the gifts of the Spirit in His manifestations to the members of the organic Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:4-11). While we are functioning either as supplying joints or as operating parts, the Triune God, who is within us, moves together with us. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, the Triune God is mentioned. There are God the Father’s operations, God the Son’s ministries, and God the Spirit’s gifts. The gifts of the Spirit are to carry out the ministries of the Lord, and the ministries of the Lord are to accomplish the operations of God the Father. The Triune God does not move apart from us. He is waiting for us. When we move, He moves. When we speak, He speaks. If we do not speak in a meeting, God cannot speak. The Spirit exercises His gifts, the Lord carries out His ministries, and God operates while we are functioning. The organic function of the church by the move of the Triune God is for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ, the fullness of the all-inclusive One who fills all in all.
