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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:13-16, 22-24; Col. 2:6-7; 3:10-11
We have pointed out that if we are going to have the proper function in the local church, we need first of all to be captured by Christ. Christ must exercise His victory over us. If we are not defeated by Him, it is impossible to have a real spiritual function in life. This is because the function of the Body is simply the expression of Christ. In order to have the expression of Christ, we must be subdued, captured, and taken over by Christ, and after being captured by Him, we must grow in Him. The more we grow in Him, the more we will receive of Him our function in the church.
The function must come completely out of Christ. If we are devoid and short of Christ, we may have many activities, but we do not have any function in life. Some dear ones in the church only have activity, but this is not the function of life. Activity is natural. Perhaps I am clever and capable in speaking; so I stand up to give a message. But this is not the function in life; this is an activity of the natural man. All such activities are not good for the church; they are only good for some social organization. They are not good for the expression of Christ, because the expression of Christ is simply Christ manifested through His members.
Therefore, we, His members, must be captured and taken over by Him. We must grow, not only in Him but also with Him. The real essence of growth in life is nothing less than Christ Himself. Then we will have the function with Christ in life.
The above verses in Ephesians and Colossians set forth a number of principles concerning our function in the church. One of the basic principles is the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new.
I am afraid that many of us have been Christians for years, but have never learned the practice of putting off and putting on. Some may ask, “Put off what?” We must put off the old man. Some may ask, “What is the old man?” The apostle Paul said that in the new man, which is the Body of Christ, there is no Greek, no Jew, no circumcision, no uncircumcision, no barbarian, and no Scythian. This means that there is no natural person, no religious or unreligious person, and no cultured or uncultured person. The natural person must be put off. If you are a religious person, you also must be put off. Some of us are still so religious. But in the church there is no circumcision or uncircumcision and no religious or unreligious. Many have the concept that as long as we are religious, it is sufficient. But in the church there are no religious people. The religious are really dreadful; they are a real damage to the church life. But the unreligious are even more dreadful. There is no circumcision or uncircumcision and no religious or unreligious in the church. There is also no Scythian. Scythian refers to those who are highly cultured. Culture or education, just as religion, means nothing in the church. Race means nothing, religion means nothing, and education means nothing. Whatever you are means nothing, and whatever you have attained means nothing. Do not think that you are something in the church because you have the highest attainment in education and religion. You must listen to the word of the apostle. In the new man, the Body of Christ, there are no Gentiles and no Hebrews, no religious and no unreligious, no cultured and no uncultured. All of these must be put off.
If we have never learned how to put off, we may be very active in the church, yet we are not functioning. There is a great difference between activities and functions. Activities are natural; they are something either of religion or of culture. In the church life we do not need activities. We need the functions which are the flow of life, the manifestation of Christ. It is not something of religion, nor of culture or education. We all must learn to put off all these things. Everything of religion, everything of culture or education, and everything of natural ability must be put off.
As a Christian, we may have learned how to be adjusted or corrected, but I am afraid that we have never learned how to put off. We must simply put off ourselves. We must put off our religion, and we must put off our education. Only then can Christ flow out. When we put off what we are and have, our natural being, our religion, our education, we can function and express Christ, who is the very life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit.
After we have been captured by Christ and are willing to grow in Him, we must learn how to put off all that we are and follow Christ within our spirit. Then we will become a functioning member in the Body, not just an active one.
The practical expression of the church is the local church, and in the local church there is the need of the functioning members. We do not have any clergy or laity, but we are all members of the Body. Therefore, we all must function. None of us should come to the Sunday morning meeting with the concept that we are going to “church.” What are we going to “church” for? Is it to attend “the service”? A service requires a church building with people sitting in the pews, a pastor to preach a sermon, and a choir to sing specially arranged music. We are absolutely against this. If anyone comes to us with this kind of concept, they are in the wrong “store.” They had better go elsewhere; we are not for this. We have no church service, no pews, no ministering pastor, and no choir.
Then what are we doing here? We are simply putting off religion, putting off Christianity. In the early days the church had to put away Judaism. Today we have to put off Christianity. For this, we all must change our concept. There is no pew, no pew members, no laymen, and no pastor. There are only the functioning members of the living Body. We all need to be captured by Christ, to grow in Him, and to walk in Him by putting off whatever we are and whatever we have attained. Only then can we become functioning members in the church to express the fullness of Christ in His Body.
We all must realize what a local church is. The local church is a group of believers who are the living members of Christ, who forget what they are, and give up all their attainments to walk daily in the spirit. No outsiders can understand what we are doing. It seems that we are quite religious, but in fact we are not religious. We are not in religion. All outsiders find it difficult to understand us because we have something so hidden. The Lord in whom we live is so hidden. He is hidden within us; yet to us He is so real and so practical.
How can you explain this to outsiders? Since they and we are absolutely in two different worlds, how can they understand what we are doing? If they can understand, we must be wrong. Then we are of the earth. As long as we are a mystery, we are right. The more mysterious we are, the more we are right. The Lord does not need a religious people, but a mysterious people. Everyone among us should not be religious, but mysterious. Apparently, we are Christians, yet we put off Christianity. Apparently, we are quite religious, yet we are not of the world of religion. This is really a mystery. Praise the Lord! A Christian should not be an understandable person, but a mysterious person. The church is altogether a mystery, because all of us function as living members of the Body of Christ. We have given up all that people can understand. All that the world estimates of value, we put off, and we put on something which no one in this world can understand. It is something mysterious, yet so real.
We do not want “pew” members; we want functioning members. So we all must be bold to function. We do not need to be bold in activities, but bold in functioning. The more we exercise our arm or any other part of our body, the more it will be strengthened, for the more blood that member will receive. So the more we function, the more we will enjoy Christ. The more we function, the more function we will have. Our function will increase all the time by functioning.
There is a brother in the church in Los Angeles who has been very active in functioning since the day he was saved six months ago. We all need to be like this. We must forget about our religious education. We all have some Christian background that has influenced us: we are used to coming to the church and sitting as pew members. But here is a brother who was one hundred percent a Gentile, without any influence of Christianity. After he was saved in the church, he immediately began to be a functioning member. I have encouraged him to function more, and we all must function too.
If we are going to function properly in the local church, we must be captured by Christ and then grow by opening ourselves and giving Christ more capacity to occupy and fill us. Then not only must we learn to put off worldly and sinful things, but also all our religious and educational attainments. Finally, we need simply to walk in the spirit day by day and hour by hour. There is no argument, no reasoning, no self-taste or self-choice. It is simply Christ Himself as all and in all.
To be in the spirit is not a matter of right and wrong; to be in the spirit is a matter of Christ. So we must learn to walk in the spirit and put off all that we are and have. Then when we come to the church meetings, we must be bold to function. We must not think much but simply function by releasing our spirit to express the Lord. Then we will grow in our function and be stronger and stronger, richer and richer.
May the Lord be merciful and gracious to us that the church here will be full of members who are so living and aggressive to function that Christ may be expressed in the spirit. This is the reality of the church life.
