Search
Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:15-16; 3:8-10; 1:10, 22-23; 5:23; 1 Cor. 11:3
Prayer: Lord, thank You for gathering us together into Your name and before Your Word again. We believe that we are one spirit with You. While we are speaking, Lord, do vindicate this matter. As we speak, may You speak in our speaking. Wash us in Your blood. We are all open to You and are hungry for You. May You speak to the depth of every one of us and open our eyes that we may enter into Your mystery and see the mystery of the new way and the mystery in Your economy. Grant us to see that the new way today is an advance in Your economy. Lord, remember that we are weak and poor. Unless You are with us, all our work and words are in vain. Lord, remember every brother and sister attending the meeting, that no one would return empty-handed and that everyone would be satisfied by You. Amen.
In the last two chapters we have seen Ephesians 4:7-16. First, it speaks of the ascended Head giving the gifts, with some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as shepherds and teachers. These gifts perfect the saints to do the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ. This building goes on continuously until we all arrive at three things: first, the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. This oneness is carried out in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. The knowledge here refers to the experience and the enjoyment. Hence, this oneness is a oneness in practice. Second, we arrive at a full-grown man. Third, we arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. If we arrive at these three things, we arrive at the peak. We will no longer be little children tossed by the waves and carried about by the winds of teaching. Rather, we will hold to truth in love and will grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things. When we grow up into Christ, everything will be in Christ, and something will issue out from Him to supply the whole Body. By this, all the Body will be joined and knitted together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causing the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. In this chapter we will cover specifically the last two verses of this portion of the Word.
Verse 15 says, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.” Today, if we want to build up the Body of Christ, we must love God, Christ, and the church in the love with which God loves us and in the love which He put within us. By this, we can hold to the truth in this love. According to the words of Solomon, everything under the sun is vanity; there is no reality (Eccl. 1:2). But there is One who is real in the universe, God Himself. If God occupies the proper position in everything, then everything is true. Otherwise, all things are but vanity of vanities. As Romans 3:4 says, every man is a liar; only God is true. In this true God there are three things: the economy of God, the Christ of God, and the Body of Christ—the church. In the whole universe only this group of things is true. If you take them away from the universe, the universe will become vain. For this reason, when you hear some rumors in the church, you should compare them with these words. Do they conform to God’s economy, to the all-inclusive Christ, and to the Body of Christ? If they do not conform to these three things, you should let these rumors go. In this way you will be holding to truth in love.
Love is not just an element; it is also a sphere. Element refers to the inward constituent. The constituent in the love of God is just God Himself. This constituent of love is in us, and we hold to truth in this constituent. This love is also a sphere. In this love and by this love, we are able to hold to truth.
When we hold to truth, the first item to hold to is God’s New Testament economy. God’s economy is His dispensation of the mystery hidden in Him. God is full within with an economy. He is full of a plan and purpose, and He made arrangements accordingly. In short, He arranged to create the heavens and the earth and to create man according to His image and likeness so that man would be like Him, be His vessel, and be prepared for the day when the Creator God would enter into man to be mingled with man, to become the many members of Christ, and to constitute the Body of Christ to express Christ, which is to express the Triune God in Christ. This is the economy of God. It is the dispensation of the mystery hidden in God. This is the first item that we have to hold to.
Second, we have to hold to the all-inclusive Christ. This Christ is the One who fills all in all. He is not only in all but also fills all. The universe is immeasurable, and Paul compared the breadth, length, height, and depth of the universe to the measure of Christ (Eph. 3:18). This shows us that the measure and riches of Christ are unsearchable. No doubt when Paul wrote the book of Ephesians he saw a vision. That is why he uses the highest expressions such as the breadth and length and height and depth (v. 18) and the unsearchable riches of Christ (v. 8) to describe Christ.
Third, we have to hold to the church. The church is the Body of Christ as the fullness of Christ to express Him. Hence, the church is not an organization but an organism. The reason why our body is so wonderful is that it is an organism. All the organs of our body, such as the teeth, the nose, and the ears, are all grown from our body and are part of our body; they are not installed there by addition. The church is the Body of Christ. It is constituted by those who are regenerated, saved, and have received Christ as their life. If a man does not have Christ in him, even if he is baptized ten thousand times, he is still not a member of the church. This is because the church is completely organic. All the genuine members are grown into the church; they are not added in by organization. We have to hold to this organism and not to any organized congregation.
To hold to truth is for the purpose of growing into the Head, Christ. According to our experience, the growth here is not our growth, but it is the growth of Christ within us. This is like the words of John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Before we believed in Jesus, it was we who were growing. After we believed in the Lord and began to love Him, we began to decrease, and Christ began to increase within us. In the end we will be like Paul who said that “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Moreover, when Christ grows within us, we grow in Him. Actually, our growth is just His growth. As a result, we decrease, and He comes in to gradually replace us, and we grow into Him.
In all things means in everything big or small in our daily life and in our work. Whether they are big things, small things, spiritual things, or things in our daily life, we have to allow the Lord to grow in us. We must decrease, and He must grow. Once He grows and we decrease, we will grow into Him.
The meaning of growing into the Head, Christ, is acknowledging the authority of the headship of Christ. We have to acknowledge Him as Lord and Head. He has the authority over us. In all things big or small we have to allow Him to be the Lord. This lesson is not easy. In our eating out in restaurants and in our shopping, seldom do we allow Him to be the Lord. Since we lack the practice in our daily life, it is not a surprise that when we come to the meeting, we find it difficult to prophesy for the Lord. The key to prophesying is to allow Jesus to be the Lord. In your daily life you have to allow Jesus to be your Lord. Only then will you have the experience, and only then will you have something to say in the meetings. Christ is not only the Head of us individually; He is also the Head of the church and the Head of all things. We should acknowledge the authority of His headship in our Christian life, in the church life, and in everything. By this we will grow into Him.
When we grow into the Head, Christ, we are allowing Christ to increase and grow in all the inward parts of the members. Today our common problem is that we reserve a big part within us for ourselves and give the Lord only a little place. Therefore, it is impossible for Him to increase and grow within us. When He cannot grow, we cannot grow. There are many Christians on earth today, but there are few who would allow the Lord to grow within them. We must allow the Lord to have the proper place in us. We must allow Him to increase, grow, and occupy our whole being, part by part. In this way when you grow in the Lord and I grow in the Lord, the sum total will be the growth of the Body of Christ. In other words, when Christ grows in you and me, the Body of Christ will grow. Hence, the growth of the Body of Christ is the growth of Christ in His members.
The purpose of our practicing the new way is for the perfecting of the saints. The meaning of the perfecting of the saints is to allow Christ to have the proper place in us and to increase in us day by day. If you allow Christ to grow in you, your gift will be manifested. As a result, Christ will not only be your life and living but will be your gift as well. In other words, Christ will be everything to you. It is the same with our physical life—as the body grows, so does the function. We are the members of Christ. As such, we must allow Christ to grow in us so that we can be perfected. This cannot be achieved by the meetings where one speaks and the rest listen. The way to be perfected is through the practice of the new way, which is according to the Bible. Every point of this new way makes man decrease and supplies man with Christ so that Christ would grow in man. The more you decrease, the more Christ will increase and you will be perfected. Hence, perfecting and growth in Ephesians 4 refer to the same thing. To be perfected is to grow in Christ.
In order to perfect others, we must first have the experience ourselves. We must first learn the lessons and know God’s economy. Then we can help others to see God’s economy. It is not a matter of improving and cultivating ourselves. It is a matter of denying our self and knowing the crucified and resurrected Lord as the Spirit who abides in us to be our life. We should live with Him, move with Him, and allow Him to be the Lord in everything. This shows us that, on the one hand, the cross has terminated our old man. On the other hand, it shows us that Christ is the Spirit of life who is now our life. The cross decreases us, and the resurrecting Spirit supplies Christ into us that we would be equipped. This is the perfecting. In the church meetings all the prophesying should be based on this and should have this as the focus. This kind of word should be spoken frequently in the meetings. The more we speak this kind of word, the more perfecting there will be. We have to speak until all the brothers and sisters are affected in their daily lives by this kind of word. In this way they will receive the genuine perfecting.
Ephesians 4:16 begins with out from whom. The expression out from in the original language carries the sense of “originating from.” When we grow into Christ in all things big or small, and when we become men in Christ enjoying Him, we will spontaneously have something originating from Him that is for the building up of His Body.
Verse 16 goes on to say, “All the Body...through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body.” The growth of the Body of Christ is first through the joints of the rich supply. These are the gifts described in verse 11: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. They are the joints, which are joined together by the sinews (Col. 2:19), for the rich supply to every member of the Body of Christ. Second, this growth is through the operation in the measure of each one part. Each one part refers to every member in the Body. Every member in the Body of Christ, whether great or small, has a measure. Because of its measure, it has an operation. Through the rich supply of every joint and through the operation in the measure of each one part, the Body of Christ grows gradually.
Verse 16 says, “All the Body, being joined together and being knit together.” To be joined, fitted, together is like the joining together of the frames and beams of a house. Hence, to be joined together is for all the parts of the frames to be joined as one structure. To be knit together is like the filling up of the holes in between the frames by the rocks and the bricks, which are stacked up on top of one another and interwoven together. Hence, to be knit together is for all the other parts to be joined to the frames and to be knit together with one another to form one Body. In this way the whole Body is built together.
The end of verse 16 says, “The building up of itself [the Body] in love.” The building up of the Body of Christ is in love and by love. This love is not our natural love. Rather, it is the divine love. We are building up the Body of Christ in the element and sphere of the divine love. At the same time this is the direct building up of the whole Body of Christ by the many members of this Body. The Head does not build directly, nor do the gifted ones do the direct building work. Rather, it is we, the perfected members, who build up the Body of Christ directly.
