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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:22-23; Rom. 12:5; Eph. 4:15-16; Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:12; 1 Cor. 3:12; Eph. 3:9; 1:10
I. The Body of Christ, as the church of God, being an organism like the human body — Eph. 1:22-23:
А. Constituted with all the living members of Christ — Rom. 12:5.
B. Needing to grow for its building up.
II. The growth of the Body of Christ:
А. Through the members growing into the Head, Christ, in all things by holding to truth in love — Eph. 4:15.
B. Out from the Head, Christ, all the Body causing its growth — v. 16.
C. With the growth of God — Col. 2:19b.
III. The building up of the Body of Christ:
А. By the Body’s growth:
1. By its members being perfected to do the work of the New Testament ministry — the building up of the Body of Christ — Eph. 4:12.
2. In the life of God — Col. 2:19.
3. In the process of transformation — 1 Cor. 3:12.
B. By the building up of itself:
1. By being joined together through every joint of the rich supply — Eph. 4:16b.
2. By being knit together through the operation in the measure of each one part — v. 16b.
3. In love — v. 16c.
IV. The fulfillment of the eternal economy of God — 3:9; 1:10:
А. By carrying out the New Testament ministry — 4:12.
B. To complete the building up of the church for the consummation of the New Jerusalem.
The subject of this chapter is the building up of the Body of Christ. Growth is one thing; building up is another. It seems that growth is mainly for the individual believer and that the building up is something corporate. However, we should not consider this to be true absolutely. Strictly speaking, growth is for the building, and growth equals the building. In the physical realm there are two kinds of building up. One is by putting pieces of material, such as wood or stone, together to form a building. This is a building by lifeless materials.
We also use the word build in reference to our physical bodies. This kind of building does not take place by putting lifeless pieces of material together. In this kind of building, the physical body is built up organically by growth. When an infant is built up to be a young boy of thirteen years of age, he is built up not by having things added to him. Rather, he is built up by growth organically. Our eyes, ears, and teeth were not built into our body by the addition of lifeless materials. They are present at birth, and they grow in a gradual way organically.
The building of the church as the Body of Christ is organic, by the growth in life. The Body of Christ is like our physical body. It is built up by its growth. Ephesians 4:15 says, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.” Then verse 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.” First, we must grow up into the Head in all things. Then from the Head something will come out to cause the growth of the Body. By this growth of the Body, the Body builds itself up in love. Growth equals building. The Body builds itself up by growing. This growth of the Body is not for any particular member. The Body grows for the entire Body.
In the recent rebellion in the Lord’s recovery, a teaching was promoted which said that all the local churches are autonomous. Immediately, I recognized this as the wrong teaching of G. H. Lang, a teacher who was once among the Brethren. In correcting this wrong teaching, I posed the question: “Can any part of our body be autonomous? Can the arm say that it is autonomous from the rest of the body?” The obvious answer is no. Any member of our body that decides to become autonomous will die. The members of the body are not autonomous.
Apparently, growth is for individual believers and building is corporate. Actually, both growth and building are corporate. The feet do not grow at one time, and the hands at a later time, as if the two were autonomous. The entire body grows together as a corporate entity. Therefore, the teaching concerning autonomy is nonsensical. Many years ago we discarded this teaching. There is no such thing as autonomy in the Body. Some in the recent rebellion taught autonomy in order to keep others away. They said, “Don’t come to our place to bother us. We are a local church. We have our own jurisdiction. No one has any right to touch us.” If this is true, where is the Body?
The Lord has made it clear to us that the building is the growth. Yes, growth is for the building, but building and growth are not two different things. As human beings, if we do not grow, we can never build ourselves up. In order to be built up, we need to grow every day and even every moment. It seems that this growth is so slow that we cannot tell any difference from day to day. However, after fifteen years, a small babe is built up to be a strong young man. This takes place not by addition but by growth.
Few Christians today know what the genuine building is. Therefore, it is easy to understand why, on the earth today, there is very little building among the children of God. In order to realize what building is, we must look at our physical body. Not one member of our body is separate. All the members stay together and grow together as a complete body.
The Body of Christ, as the church of God, is an organism like the human body (1:22-23). The difference between an organism and an organization is life. A table is an organization with pieces of wood joined to other pieces. At first, all the material for a table may be piled in one place without any organization. But when the craftsman puts the pieces together, he organizes them into a table. A table is an organization, but a man is an organism. As an organism, every man was conceived as a child in his mother’s womb and remained there for nine months before being born out of that womb. The various parts of a child’s body are not added to him along the way; they are already present and develop by the organic growth of his body. Thus, a man is altogether an organism, not an organization.
The Body of Christ is an organism. Thus, when believers, the constituents of the Body, do not live Christ, the church cannot be built up. Today there are many different kinds of Christian groups, but among these groups we cannot see one organism. Strictly speaking, even among us it is difficult to see a proper organism. What I have seen is mostly organization. Today among Christians, organizations are mushrooming. It seems that to begin a so-called church is easier than setting up a restaurant. There are street churches, home churches, state churches — all kinds of organizations. This is not the Body, because the Body is organic. As believers, we all have Christ in us, but we must live Christ. As we all live Christ, an organism is produced. The aggregate, the totality, of this kind of living of Christ is an organism, the Body of Christ.
The Body of Christ is not only built but is constituted with all the living members of Christ (Rom. 12:5).
If we do not grow, there can be no building up of the Body of Christ. The building of the Body of Christ depends absolutely on our growth. We grow in the growth of God within us (Col. 2:19). When He grows in us, we grow in His growth, and this growth is the building up of the Body. Today Christians easily come together, and they are also easily scattered. At first they are happy to come together, but after a while they begin to be unhappy with each other. Eventually, they separate from one another, and in some cases they become enemies.
Our eyes need to be opened and enlightened to the revelation in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, concerning the church as the Body of Christ. According to this revelation, the church as the Body of Christ is altogether a matter of life. First, it must be born of God. Then it must grow, and by growing, it builds itself up. The growth is organic, and the building is even more organic. It is not organic in us, because we are not organic, but it is organic in God. Plants themselves are organic, but the soil in which they grow is not organic. Even the nutrients of the soil are not organic. Being organic is a matter on the side of life. The church as the Body of Christ is organic on the life side, that is, on the side of God. Before we were regenerated, we did not have God. Today, however, we have God. Through regeneration God has been born into our being. Hence, we not only have God added into us; we also have God born into us organically. From the time of regeneration we have an organic union with Him.
The growth of the Body of Christ is through the members growing into the Head, Christ, in all things by holding to truth in love (Eph. 4:15). We, the members of Christ, must grow into the Head. We can be a Christian, a member of Christ, and yet have many aspects in which we are not in Christ. Our gossiping, our reasoning, our murmuring, and our arguing are all outside of Christ.
It is difficult to deal with the young people concerning their talking on the telephone. If their parents ask them to do something, they may say, “I have no time. I am busy.” After a short time the telephone may ring, and one of them may answer it. After a while one of the parents may inform this one that he needs to use the telephone. The young one may respond by saying that he will be on the telephone for only another five minutes. Eventually, five minutes turns into fifty minutes. Is that kind of talking on the telephone in Christ? We all need to grow into Christ, particularly in the matter of using the telephone. I am the same as you are. I like to talk to people on the telephone. But while I am speaking on the telephone, my Partner within me often says, “It is sufficient. Stop.” This word stop is continually being spoken within me while I am speaking. My response to the One within me is, “Just one more minute.” But my Partner continues to say, “Stop.” After such a telephone call I need ten minutes to make a confession: “Lord, forgive me. I deliberately sinned against You. You were within me stopping me, checking with me, but I would not listen. I lied to You more than ten times by saying that I would stop in just one minute, but I did not keep my word. What a sinner I am! Lord, forgive me.” Such a confession could not easily be forgotten. Thereafter, if another telephone call comes, I am fearful and even trembling that I may speak too much. In this way I learned the lesson of growing, particularly in the matter of handling telephone calls.
We also need to consider the matters of gossiping, reasoning, and murmuring. Each day how much time do we spend gossiping? Some saints are very free in passing on information about others. Too much time has been wasted and too many dollars have been spent in talking vainly on the telephone. In such activities we have been outside of Christ. In this kind of situation it is impossible to have the building up of the Body of Christ. We need the building up in Christ and the building up into the Body of Christ.
Very often I do not have the freedom to speak certain things even to my wife. The One who restricts me is my Partner, Christ, who is within me. I do not have the freedom to tell my wife everything. If I tell my wife some unnecessary thing, my talk becomes gossip. This question rises up within me when I speak to my wife about another brother: “Why do you have to tell your wife about this brother? Is it for shepherding or for taking care of the saints?” If it is for shepherding, it may be all right. But quite often the matter of shepherding is used as an excuse, a covering. Our appetite may not be for shepherding or taking care of the saints; rather, our taste may be to talk about others. We may even tell our wife to keep something we have said about another brother confidential, yet we must realize that such a saying cannot be kept confidential. If we had not given the charge of confidentiality to our wife, she might have been slow to tell others. But because of our charge, what we have said will be spread to various places. Eventually, I learned the lesson: to grow into Christ, do not speak about others. In the church life the saints’ gossiping, reasoning, and debating have wasted much time and money. Concerning the vital groups, we have charged the saints to go out to visit people two hours a week. To budget two hours every week to go out may seem to be very difficult. But if we add together all the time spent on the telephone in one week, we may discover that we have spent more than two hours on the telephone.
My burden is not to minister doctrines to the saints. My desire is to transfuse you with the very Christ whom I have experienced. When I am on the telephone, He is in me. As I am talking to the other party, He is instructing me within. Then after the telephone conversation, many times I have to kneel down to confess to Him. This is my real experience of Christ.
According to Ephesians 4:15, the members of the Body grow up into Christ in all things by holding to truth in love. In this verse the word truth refers to anything that is real. By this word alone I have learned that many telephone calls are not true. There is much vain talk on the telephone. Such talk is vanity, not truth. What is truth? God is truth, Christ is truth, the Spirit is truth, the divine life is truth, the Body of Christ is truth, the gospel is truth, and salvation is truth. By holding to these true things, we grow into Christ. If we hold to these real things, we are actually growing into the Head, Christ, in all things. Otherwise, we are not growing into Christ.
Dear saints, if this word impresses you and you take it, practice it, and live it, you will receive much blessing. It will save you time and energy. Instead of speaking vainly about others, it is better for you to shut your eyes and sit down to rest awhile in the Lord. The amount of time you spend talking vanity can be used to sit before the Lord. You do not even need to speak to the Lord; just sit with Him and rest. If you try this, you will have the real growth into the Head in all things, by holding to truth in love.
The phrase in love is very meaningful. When we speak something to others in vanity, this indicates that we do not love the Lord and we do not love the one of whom we are speaking. We do not have the right to expose others, but we still expose them. Instead of exposing others’ mistakes, we should cover them, not telling anyone about them. This is love (1 Pet. 4:8). Yet we are just the opposite. We like to tell people about others, exposing them to others. To inform is not to love. To love is to cover others’ shortcomings and weaknesses. To talk in vanity to everyone indicates that we do not love the church. The church has been damaged very much by this kind of exposing. If everyone in a church refrains from exposing others and is full of prayers, singing, and praises to the Lord, that church is beautiful.
After growing up into Christ, the Head, in all things, we will surely remain in the Head. Then, out from the Head, Christ, all the Body will cause its growth (Eph. 4:16).
Suppose that during the day we all live loosely, telling stories to one another. We all need to realize that this kind of storytelling brings death to us. In the evening when the time of meeting comes, we all will come and sit down in a deadened condition. If everyone is dead, the meeting also will be a dead meeting. There will be no singing, praising, or giving of thanks, because all were killed during the day. But suppose there is no such storytelling and no gossiping, reasoning, or debating in the church. This situation will keep everyone in a living condition with praising and singing to the Lord. Then when we come to the meeting, the meeting will be uplifted, high, full of the Spirit, full of singing, and full of Amens.
Because all the attendants in the meeting are deadened, sometimes it is difficult for the speakers to begin the meeting. The deadening atmosphere is in the meeting because the church has been deadened. Yet many do not have any consciousness of the deadness. They do not feel that they have done anything wrong, yet they have been so free to expose others. This might be the reason that we have been in one city meeting regularly week by week for ten years and yet have very little building. We need to hold to truth and allow no vanity to come out of our mouths (v. 29). Then we will maintain a living atmosphere, and whenever we come together, we will be very living, organic, full of praises, full of thanks, and full of prayers. Everyone will be able to pray and everyone will be able to open his mouth.
If we are living, when we open our mouth, our prayer also becomes living. But if we are deadened, even though we may struggle to pray, “Lord, I thank You. Lord, You are so good,” there is still nothing but deadening. Even our prayer is deadening. This kind of deadening affects the ministers of the word. Eventually, the church is annulled. The reality of the church is taken away by our looseness, carelessness, and vanity in different matters. As a result, we do not have the growth, and without growth, building is impossible. The building up of the Body of Christ should not be merely a term on our lips; it should be something carried out in our daily life that builds up. That is building up by growth, and that is to grow up for the building up.
Be assured that when we live in the way of holding to truth in love, God will always be added into our being. Colossians 2:19 says that the Body “grows with the growth of God.” In Himself God does not need to grow; He is altogether complete and perfect. But in us He needs to grow. The measure of Christ in us is too short, and the quantity of Christ is too little. We need more Christ. We need God to be increased within us. We grow with this kind of growth.
The building up of the Body of Christ is by the Body’s growth. We all need to grow so that the Body may be built up. If we grow, the Body grows, and the Body grows for its building up.
The growth of the Body is by the Body’s members being perfected to do the work of the New Testament ministry — the building up of the Body of Christ (v. 12). Not only in Christianity but also among us, very often the saints cannot function in the meetings. The reason for this is that we are short of growth. If we are growing day by day, we will be living. Then when we come to the meetings, either we will offer a prayer or we will say, “Praise the Lord!” This indicates that we are living. But today’s situation is for the most part not like this. I have attended prayer meetings where the saints and even the leading ones came in five, ten, or fifteen minutes after the scheduled time. As a result, the entire meeting was deadened. It is impossible for a church in this condition to be built up. We all need to be living, to be growing, day by day. Then the whole church will grow, and this growth equals the building.
Through the growth of the Body all the members are perfected to do the work of the New Testament ministry. This work is done not by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, or shepherd-teachers but by the ordinary, common members of the Body of Christ. When each member is perfected to do the work of the New Testament ministry, all the members will know how to build up the Body. The building up is the New Testament work. If all the saints are carrying out the work of the ministry, the meetings will become living, and we will escape the deadened situation of today’s Christianity.
The building up of the Body is by the Body’s growth in the life of God (Col. 2:19). Therefore, it is organic.
The building up of the Body also takes place in the process of transformation (1 Cor. 3:12). Today as we are growing, we are in the process of transformation. Spontaneously, we are being transformed. To be transformed is not to change, to adjust ourselves, or to correct ourselves. These are mere outward changes. Transformation is metabolic, something within in life.
During every meal, as we take food into our stomach, digestion, a metabolic process, immediately begins to take place. For the stomach to move metabolically, it must be filled with some element. I have experienced this metabolic process in eating many times. One day after speaking in a meeting, I was physically exhausted. Twenty minutes after eating some food, I was vitalized. A metabolic process had begun to go on within me. After another ten minutes I was even more vitalized. I was not only vitalized; I was transformed by the metabolic process within me. This is an illustration of transformation. We need to grow so that we may be transformed. After being transformed, we are suitable for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:16 says that the Body grows unto the building up of itself. This means that the growth of the Body is the Body’s building up of itself.
The Body builds up itself by being joined together through every joint of the rich supply (v. 16b). These joints of the rich supply are the gifted persons, as mentioned in Ephesians 4:11: the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. These gifted persons are rich joints, full of Christ as the life supply. They are a factor to join the saints together. This is the first kind of joining together.
The Body builds up itself also by being knit together through the operation in the measure of each one part (v. 16b). This is the second kind of joining. The first kind of joining, the joining through the joints of the rich supply, is like putting pieces together to form the frame of a building. After framing a building, there are many openings that need to be filled. The second kind of joining, the knitting together through the operation of each one part, is like filling in all the openings after a building has been framed. Knitting is to interweave until all the openings are filled up by the interwoven pieces.
The parts of the Body that are knit, or interwoven, together are not the gifted persons but the common members of the Body. The gifted persons are joined together to form the frame; the common parts function in their measure to be knit and interwoven in order to fill up all the holes. This is not merely a doctrine; I have practiced this, I saw this, and I experienced this. It is possible. If you have the heart, pray to the Lord, “Lord, have mercy upon me and grant me the adequate grace. I want to live You organically.” Then go and meet together with the saints in your place. There may be a number of other saints who are the same as you are. As you meet together, there will be a growth among you. This growth equals the building. Some gifted persons will be joined together to form the frame, and the rest will do their part by functioning in their measure. In this way the church is built up.
The Body of Christ also builds up itself in love (v. 16c). The little phrase in love is used in the book of Ephesians six times (1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15, 16; 5:2). God chose us in eternity in love (1:4). His predestinating us unto sonship in eternity past was also in love (v. 5). Without love God would not have chosen or predestinated us. Today we need to grow in love, and we also need to build up the Body in love. We love the Lord, we love the church, and we love every member. Regardless of how weak certain members may be or even how evil they may be, we love them because they are members. Our attitude should be that we do not like to expose them. We desire instead to cover them in love. This is growth, and this is building.
The building up of the Body of Christ will usher in the fulfillment of the eternal economy of God. God’s eternal economy is referred to by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1 and 3. In Ephesians 3:9-10 Paul says, “To enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is...in order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church.” In Ephesians 1:10 Paul says that the church carries out the economy of God so that all things can be headed up in Christ. Today the whole universe is in a state of collapse. But, since the church will be headed up in Christ, the church will be used by Christ to head up all things in the universe in Christ. This is to fulfill God’s economy.
In the building up of the Body of Christ, the fulfillment of the eternal economy of God is accomplished by carrying out the New Testament ministry (4:12).
By the carrying out of the New Testament ministry, the building up of the church will be completed for the consummation of the New Jerusalem. The built-up church will usher in the New Testament consummation, the New Jerusalem, to fulfill God’s economy.
We all have to realize that the church as the Body of Christ is an organism, an organic constitution constituted with divinity plus humanity. Ephesians 4:4-6 says, “One Body and one Spirit...one Lord...one God and Father of all.” The church is the Body; this is the human frame, on the human side. In this frame there is the Divine Trinity as the divine constituent for the Body’s constitution. The Spirit is the essence of the Body, the Lord is the element, and God the Father is the source. From the source the element comes, and within the element is the essence. This essence is the Spirit. The church as an organism is constituted on the human side as a frame and on the divine side as the contents. The divine essence, element, and source are mingled with the human frame. The church is such an organism. This is what God is after today, and this is according to God’s desire. God is expecting to have this, but there is not such a thing on this earth today. Yet we must believe that if we are faithful to all that is revealed in this book, such a thing will take place on this earth as a testimony of God Himself and as a declaration against God’s enemy, Satan. May the Lord have mercy on us and grant us the grace we need so that such a wonderful building can be seen on the earth today.
Hymns, #840 is a very practical song concerning the building up of the Body of Christ.
