Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 2:11; Acts 20:20, 27, 31; John 21:16; Eph. 4:12-13, 15-16
We have seen that we need to cooperate with the Lord to save sinners and to nourish and cherish the newly baptized ones. In this chapter we want to see the crucial matter of the perfecting of the saints. This crucial item has been lacking among us, but Paul stresses this matter to the uttermost in the book of Ephesians, a crucial book concerning the Body of Christ. Paul says that the ascended Head, Christ, in His ascension has given some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers for the perfecting of the saints (4:11-12). Our concept may be only that the Head gave all these persons as gifts to His Body so that they could do their work. The apostles set up churches and appoint elders, the prophets speak for the Lord, the evangelists go out to preach the gospel to bring sinners to the Lord, and the shepherds and teachers do their shepherding and teaching work. It is correct to say that these gifted persons do their particular work, but according to the New Testament they do something additional to this. They perfect the saints.
To see this crucial matter of the perfecting of the saints, we have to look at the apostle Paul in the book of Acts. The apostle Paul went to Ephesus, preached the gospel there, and established the church in Ephesus. Then he appointed the elders in the church. Afterward, Paul came back to visit the church in Ephesus. At one time he stayed there for three years (20:31). According to human experience, three years is a complete course of time. Our concept may be that of inviting a gifted person to come to help us and then sending him away. We do not have the concept of a gifted person coming to us and staying with us for an extended period of time for our perfecting. Paul’s pattern in Acts 20 was that he stayed with the church in Ephesus for three years. This was after the church in Ephesus had been established and the elders there had been appointed. He stayed there to perfect the saints.
We must admit that we are short of the perfecting of the saints by the gifted persons. I practiced to perfect the saints in my hometown of Chefoo in mainland China from 1940 through 1942. I taught them publicly in big meetings on the Lord’s Day and on Wednesday evening. The rest of the time, day and night, I visited the saints. I visited them in two ways. Quite often a helper and I rode our bicycles to their homes. Also, on the evenings when there was no meeting, I invited twenty to twenty-five saints to come to eat with me in the meeting hall. I hired a brother to cook for us. I did this every week until after a period of time, I had invited quite a few hundred saints in Chefoo to eat with me. I ate with them and talked to them face to face. That was wonderful! In the day I went to visit them, and in the evening I invited them to come to eat with me. After three years of this kind of labor, a big revival broke forth on December 31, 1942. There was a period of revival for one hundred days. Paul’s example in Acts 20 and my experience in Chefoo showed me that we desperately need the perfecting of the saints.
In Acts 20 Paul says that he taught the saints publicly and from house to house, admonishing each one of them for three years night and day with tears (vv. 20, 31). The phrase from house to house, means “according to houses.” Paul went to all the homes of the saints in Ephesus to teach them. If we merely hold big meetings, we can only pass on general messages and do a general work, but we cannot do a particular work. The particular perfecting work can be carried out in the homes of the saints. If we go to visit the saints in their homes, we can talk to them face to face, discover their particular needs, and meet these needs in a particular way. This is what it means to perfect the saints.
To perfect the saints is to equip them and to furnish them. People who join the army are taught, equipped, and furnished with what they need to fight the battle. In other words, they are perfected to be fighting soldiers. An apostle’s perfecting of the saints is his equipping of the saints so that they are qualified to do the same work that he does. A professor of mathematics at a teachers’ college also has such an intention. He has a planned curriculum that he takes his students through so that they can graduate. His students are then perfected, equipped, furnished, to teach as he does. In the past many saints have been to “classes” year after year without ever “graduating.” In other words, many saints have attended meeting after meeting for years without being perfected to do what the gifted persons do. The reason why not many among us have graduated, that is, have been perfected, is that we have mostly had general meetings with general “lectures.” We have not had the particular perfecting work. Some saints who have been in the Lord’s recovery for thirty-three years could not give a word concerning the truth of justification by faith or the truth concerning our reconciliation with God. This indicates a lack of perfecting.
To perfect the saints is to equip them and furnish them so that they can do the same work as the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. Eventually, all the saints will have the ability of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. If the joints (the gifted persons) rise up to do their duty to perfect the saints, the church in our locality will spread to other localities, and there will be many churches in our area.
Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” The “ministry” here is the unique ministry, the New Testament ministry. According to the grammatical construction, the building up of the Body of Christ is the work of the ministry. The gifted persons perfect the saints, and the perfected saints do the direct building work. After being perfected, the perfected saints do the work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ directly. Many of us have not received that much perfecting by the gifts the Lord has given to His Body. In our speaking for the Lord to prophesy, the content may be good, but our presentation, tone, and style may not be suitable because we have not received that much perfecting.
We need to perfect the saints as the apostles do. Paul is a wonderful pattern to us of what an apostle should do. In 1 Thessalonians 2:11 we see that Paul exhorted the believers, consoled them, and testified to them as a father. Acts 20:20 and 27 tell us that Paul taught the believers publicly and from house to house, not shrinking from declaring to them all the counsel of God. Acts 20:31 says that Paul admonished each one of the believers with tears night and day. Paul spent much time to tell the Ephesians concerning God’s eternal economy. He even wrote a marvelous Epistle to them of six chapters telling them about the counsel of God’s will (Eph. 1:11). Paul did not just teach the saints publicly in big meetings, but he also went to all the homes of the believers, admonishing each one of them with tears night and day. Night and day means that the apostle was available to the saints according to their convenience. If the saints did not have the time during the day, Paul would go to them in the night. If they did not have the time in the night, he would go to them in the day. Paul was available to the saints, and he was flexible to visit the saints according to their convenience. Paul said that during the three years he was with the saints in Ephesus, he did not cease admonishing them. We all have to learn from Paul’s example.
On the one hand, all of us need to be perfected to do the work of the ministry. On the other hand, we have to realize that many of us have received some perfecting in our years in the church life. Actually, the church meetings are meetings of perfecting. All of us have been equipped to a certain degree, and we have been furnished with some knowledge of the Bible and with some experiences of Christ. Now we have to begin to do the same thing as the gifted ones do.
After we baptize some, we need to go back and have home meetings with them. When we go to visit the newly baptized ones, we should not shepherd them and teach them in the traditional, natural, and old way. We should not go to them in the type of a preacher. When we come to their door, we may be singing the chorus of a hymn, and we can ask them to join us. Of course, in the real situation everything will be living, flexible, and spontaneous. In our fellowship with them, we need to help them to talk about their enjoyment and experience of Christ and the enlightenment they have received from the Word.
We should not meet with them in a formal way. We need to talk with them in a living way to meet their need. We can use what they say to bring up a subject in a spontaneous way. Sometimes we may have a lesson from Truth Lessons or Life Lessons, but we should not come to the home meeting merely to teach that lesson. In our talk with the new ones, they may bring up a subject that is so fitting with the lesson that we choose. We can talk with them about the contents of that message and at a certain point let them read a certain paragraph. We do not need to speak too much, perhaps only fifteen minutes to give them one point. This is the teaching of the truth. In this way, gradually, the new ones can be fully established in two or three months. They will continually come to the meeting, and they will not be led astray by other groups. Spontaneously, we can group them with some other new ones in the neighborhood. Three or four families grouped together can become a small group.
In this small group meeting we can have fellowship together and prayer. Perhaps one person would say, “Brothers, one brother is not among us because he was in a car accident.” Based upon this brother’s report, we can pray. After this prayer we can have some fellowship. Then we will know the real situation of all the members of the group. After listening to the fellowship, we can realize that a certain brother may have difficulties in his financial situation. Then we can pray for him and take care of him. This brings in the mutual care.
Some of the new ones may ask some questions that will give an opportunity for the teaching of the truth. One brother may say that he used to smoke before he got saved, but now he does not have the peace to smoke. He may ask why this is the case. This opens up a door for us to teach the truth. We can tell him that he does not have the taste to smoke anymore because the Lord Jesus is in him. Many members in the group can share something on this point. We can help this new brother to follow the inner anointing. We can point out to him that his inner sensation and feeling of not having the peace to smoke is of the Lord and that this is the Lord’s moving in him, the inner anointing.
We need to break all formalities and arrangements and avoid any kind of program. The small group meeting should be very living and flexible. We need to meet in these small groups week after week. After about one year of meeting in this way, everyone can be edified and perfected. Everyone will be growing in life and will be advancing in the knowledge of the biblical truths. After a year of these group meetings, we can encourage the new ones to bear the burden to carry out the church life. We may say, “Brothers, we have been meeting this way for about one year. Now we all have to go out to get new ones. Maybe ten of us can go out to gain people. After we gain these new ones, we can raise them up in the same way that we were raised up. We can have home meetings with them and group them together for small group meetings.” In this way the church will be increased from one generation of saints to another generation. One small group meeting can branch out into eleven small group meetings. Ten of the saints can go out to carry out the same work of saving sinners, having home meetings with them, and forming them into group meetings. In this way everyone will be occupied in the Lord’s service, and spontaneously the entire church will be the universal priesthood.
In the past we did not see clearly the scriptural way to carry out the Lord’s recovery. As a result, we did a lot of groping in our service. If I do not know where the light switch is in a room, all I can do is grope in the darkness. But if I know where the switch is and turn it on, I can do things in an efficient way. Because the Lord has shown us His scriptural way to practice the church life, we will be successful if we rise up to cooperate with the Lord. Within three or four years we will see the increase of the church and the evidence of the growth in life. After about a year the new ones can be perfected to repeat our work. This is the reality of the gifted ones perfecting the saints unto the work of the ministry, which is the unique ministry of the New Testament to build up the Body of Christ.
We also need to perfect the saints as the prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers do. We need to prophesy to others; that is, we need to speak for the Lord, ministering the Lord into others. We also need to teach and instruct the believers to prophesy. We need to perfect the saints as the evangelists do by stirring up the believers to have a burning spirit for the gospel and by teaching and instructing the believers to preach the gospel. Finally, we need to perfect the saints as the shepherds and teachers do. The shepherds and teachers shepherd the believers by feeding and taking care of them that the believers may grow up in life (John 21:16). They also teach the believers in the knowledge of spiritual things and the things concerning God and His New Testament economy. Week after week we have to teach the new believers as Paul did. Paul did not shrink from declaring to the saints all the things that were profitable to them. He declared to them all the counsel of God. We should do the same thing. I believe that within about one year, most of the attendants of these small groups will be edified, joined together, and perfected. Then they can repeat the New Testament work to build up the Body of Christ as the gifted persons do.
We need to gather the believers into small groups and have group meetings with them regularly for fellowship, prayer, raising up, building up, and carrying out the practical church life so that they may arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:12-13). This means that in the small group meetings, the believers are on the way to arriving at a destination. This destination is first the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. The faith refers to Christ’s redemptive work, and the Son of God refers to Christ’s person. We should not care for different teachings. We should only care for what Christ did for us and for what Christ is to us today. All the other teachings should be let go. Then we will not be tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching (v. 14). Even though some teachings may be good and scriptural, they can carry us away from the central lane of God’s New Testament economy concerning Christ and the church. We should only care for Christ’s redemptive work and His unique person. We need to arrive at this oneness.
We also need to arrive at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, by holding to truth in love that we may grow up into Christ the Head in all things (v. 15). We should not care for vain talk concerning doctrines, but we should hold to truth. In the universe there are three items that are true things: God, Christ, and the church. Only these three items are real and true. All things other than God, Christ, and the church may be vain. We should care only for Christ’s redemptive work and His unique person. Then we can grow by holding to the true and real things in love. We can grow up into Christ, the Head, in all things.
Out from the Head all the Body, joined closely together through every joint of the rich supply and knit together through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the organic growth of the Body unto the organic building up of the Body itself in love (v. 16). The joints are the gifted persons—the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. When the joints exercise, the whole Body is supplied. Our physical body is full of joints so that it can act and move in many ways. For the joints of the Body there is the need of joining. For the parts of the Body there is the need of knitting. In a physical building of stones there is the joining and the knitting. The frames of the building need to be joined closely together. The knitting is the interweaving of the stones. The stones of the building are put together by being interwoven. In the Body of Christ the joining together is through the joints, and the knitting together is through the operation in the measure of each one part. The parts can eventually become joints by being perfected. After being perfected, the parts will be enabled to do what the gifted persons do, and they can become the joints. Through the joints being joined closely together and the parts being knit together, the Body will be built up in love by the growth in life. This view should revolutionize our way of meeting, our way of serving, and our way of working. Let us abandon the old way and take the new way for the building up of the organic Body of Christ.
