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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:15-16; Col. 2:19
Ephesians 4:15-16 says, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, 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.” Colossians 2:19 says, “Holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.” Both of these portions are related to the building up of the church.
Both of these portions speak of the growth of the Body in relation to the building up of the Body, which is the church (Eph. 1:22-23). This shows that the building up of the church is not the same as building a physical house. In order to build a physical house, one needs only to sort and organize wood and then frame and build the house. In order to build up the church, however, one cannot simply sort and organize the saints. Just as human limbs cannot be artificially joined and knit together into a living body, the saints cannot be built into the church through outward organization.
The building up of the church is altogether a matter of life. How much the church is built up depends on how much the saints in the church grow in life and in the stature of Christ. Spontaneously, as life grows, the saints are fitly joined and firmly knit together. Many responsible brothers and sisters have a heart to serve, and they long for the building up of the church, but the only way for the church to be built up is to lead the saints to grow in life. With the growth in life, there is building up; without the growth in life, there can never be building up.
I have met some workers of the Lord who are quite sociable and who can easily bond with people. Often they need only to speak a few words to a stranger in order for him to become very congenial toward them. They have a disposition that many persons find quite agreeable. We may think that these saints are quite capable of building up the church, of joining the brothers and sisters together. In experience, however, the churches in which these ones serve often have problems, and the brothers and sisters among them are often in discord. This is because the church cannot be built up by man’s natural bonds or methods. The building up of the church is a matter of life. When we help the brothers and sisters to grow, to have the growth in life, they will be built up together. Man-made bonds do not last, and they often become a source of many problems. Only the growth in life brings in the building up of the church.
How can we grow in life? Simply speaking, growth in life is related to reducing the source of our problems, which is the element of our self, and to increasing the element of God in us. The story of God’s life in us is one of reducing, negatively, the element of our self and of increasing, positively, the element of God. The more we experience life, the more the divine life grows. This reducing and increasing work is through the operation of the Spirit. The Spirit leads us in many things toward the goal of God’s life growing in us and our being built up more with the brothers and sisters.
The Spirit needs our cooperation. God works on the brothers and sisters through those who have received the benefit of the Spirit’s operation. This does not mean that the Spirit cannot work on a Christian directly but that according to the spiritual principle, the Spirit works on some so that He can in turn work on others through them.
Some believers are full of the element of the self in everything they do. Although they are saved, they do not have much of the element of God, the element of building. In order for them to be truly built up in the church, there is a need for some who have been worked on by the Spirit and who have a certain measure of function. Through such ones, the Spirit has a way to build up the believers by reducing the element of their self and increasing the element of God. The Spirit works in the saints and arranges their environments in order to work on them, but God must gain a group of people who will cooperate with Him and work with Him.
The cooperation that a believer gives to God related to the work of the Spirit is his function in the church. The service that counts, the work that builds up the brothers and sisters, comes into being through our cooperation with the Spirit. Only this service has spiritual value, and only this service can build up the church. If we have been worked on by the Spirit and if we work according to the move of the Spirit, the brothers and sisters whom we serve will spontaneously accept the operation of the Spirit. Thus, they will have less of their natural element and more of God’s element, and they will grow in life, and the church will be built up.
Without the Spirit working in us, we will not be able to be subject to the authority of the Head, even if this is our earnest desire. Furthermore, our love for the brothers and sisters will contain mostly the element of our self, and even our zealous and diligent service will not manifest much function. Everything depends on how much we allow the Spirit to work in us. The more the Spirit can work in us, the less there will be of the element of our self and the more there will be of the element of God. Then as our life grows, the function of life will be manifested.
In the previous chapter we saw that a believer must pay attention to three matters in order for his function as a member in the Body to be manifested. These include having spiritual experiences, receiving a burden in fellowship with the Spirit, and obeying the inner leading of the Spirit. These three matters are three operations of the Spirit within us. If we have these three operations, our cooperation with the Spirit will cause the church to be built up.
The first operation of the Spirit is to cause us to learn lessons related to life and to have experiences of life. If we are under the authority of the Head and have touched the love of God, the Spirit will be able to operate in us so that we may be enlightened concerning our condition, be dealt with, and be broken. This is the initial step of the Spirit’s operation. If we allow the Spirit to operate in our inner being, we will have experiences of life and learn spiritual lessons. Then we will be able to help the brothers and sisters when they encounter similar problems.
For example, the Spirit may place a brother in a particular trial in order to reduce his natural element and to increase God’s divine element. This is the Spirit’s building work in him. But even though the brother is in the midst of a trial, he may have no realization of God’s operation. In fact, he may even blame others and blame his circumstances to the point that he becomes quite resentful. Although God has a specific intention, he has no awareness of it. Without a proper realization of God’s intention, his faith will waiver, and he will doubt God’s love and faithfulness. At such a time, he needs someone to help him to be subdued and to accept God’s dealing so that his natural element will decrease, and God’s element will increase for the sake of his being built up.
However, it is not possible to help such a one unless we have had some learning and experience in this matter and know that this trial is related to God’s will. Without this, the most we will be able to do is to sympathize with him and console him. We will not, however, be able to help him gain the element of God, because there has been no manifestation of function related to the Spirit’s operation in us. We can never manifest a function apart from experience; that is, our function can never exceed the lessons that we have learned from our experiences.
Some brothers and sisters are rich, yet they do not know how to make use of their riches. Although they do not spend their money on sinful things, they spend it as they please on trivial things. These things may be good in the eyes of men, but their self has the full ground because they have never accepted God’s dealing in the matter of spending. If we are to help them in this regard, we must be ones who have properly dealt with our finances.
Others cannot overcome poverty and lack. Although riches can corrupt a person, so also can poverty. There was a brother who was rich and proud, but when he became poor, he was not humbled. Instead, he used his skills to seek a way out of his poverty; he did not trust in God or look to God. If he had allowed the Spirit to operate in him and had been subdued, his natural element would have decreased, and God’s element would have increased. However, he could not stop himself; instead, he kept seeking for his own way out. His efforts even brought shame to God’s name. In this situation he needed to learn the lessons that are brought about by poverty, and he should have experienced accepting God’s hand in the midst of poverty so that he could be built up. There is a need for ones in the church who have experiences like Paul, who can say, “I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack” (Phil. 4:12). We need the Spirit to operate in us and give us such rich experiences.
There are so many people in the church who need help in order to be built up. Every person has problems, and each one needs to be sustained and guided. However, only those with actual experiences of letting the Spirit operate in them can genuinely help, build up, and meet the needs of others.
I once met a brother who was in quite a difficult situation before he was saved. He had the burden of a large household as well as large debts. Later, he had a definite experience of salvation. He loved the Lord, feared the Lord in all things, and even brought his family to salvation. His business became increasingly prosperous, and he was able to repay all his debts. He was very happy and told everyone he encountered how God had blessed him and guided him to expand his business. At the beginning of one year, he told me excitedly, “The Lord truly blessed my business last year; my year-end accounts show that I made a very good profit. My family offered prayers of thanksgiving, and I even asked the Lord to guide me concerning what to do with the money. Soon the Lord gave me an excellent opportunity to buy a large piece of land and open a factory. The Lord is wonderful indeed; He does not abandon His children, but He leads and guides us in everything.”
Although the brother spoke to me in grateful and sincere terms, I was quite grieved within because I knew that the church in his locality was needy financially and that no one was taking care of the co-workers there. I was grieved within when he told me that the Lord had guided him to buy land and open a factory. I do not believe that the Lord would guide him to buy land and open a factory but not move him to care for the needs of the co-workers in his local church. In the matter of spending money, he was altogether for himself and in himself. Although he became rich, there was no decrease in his natural element and no increase in God’s element. Furthermore, he was not built up in the church. After a short period of time he became very proud and began to despise everyone. He eventually became a great problem in the church. He did not let the Lord operate in him, and he did not learn any lessons. Although he became rich, he was not built up.
Another brother once held a thanksgiving meeting related to his new house, and everyone who came thanked God. When the brother insisted that I say something, I could only quote Haggai 1:4 with great grief, saying, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled-up houses, while this house [God’s house] lies waste?” I could not rejoice with them; I could only throw cold water on them.
Many Christians today do not know the true meaning of God’s grace. They believe that grace is God giving them good clothes, good food, a good house, a good wife, a good husband, good children, or a prospering business. If we consider these things to be grace, then many unbelievers have been graced much more than we have been. In Philippians 3:8 Paul refers to such things as “refuse.” How can God possibly give us refuse as grace?
The brothers and sisters truly need someone to lead and care for them. There is much difficulty, discord, and strife in the local churches today due to the lack of those who can help to build others up. This requires some of us to put ourselves in God’s hand, to be dealt with, and to pass through spiritual experiences so that a proper function can be manifested for the sake of others.
The second operation of the Spirit is to burden us in our fellowship with Him. Not only are spiritual experiences required to manifest a building up function in the church, but the Spirit must also be allowed to operate and impart a genuine burden into us. Some people are experienced in the Lord, but they can be slothful at times and unwilling to receive a burden from the Spirit. Thus, their function is limited in operation.
A responsible brother in a district used to exercise his spirit actively in the bread-breaking meeting; he was burdened to function at almost every meeting, but as soon as he was not bearing some responsibility, he no longer exercised his spirit so actively in the bread-breaking meeting. This diminished the manifestation of his function.
If all the brothers and sisters were burdened to serve actively before the Lord, the church would be much stronger than it is today. It is regrettable that some do not let the Spirit operate in situations where they can learn spiritual lessons, but even fewer allow the Spirit to impart a burden into them. Some people are so slothful in the exercise of their spirit that it seems as if they are always asking the Lord for a “leave of absence.” Even though they know that this is wrong, they cannot respond. Instead, they ask the Lord only for forgiveness. Once a believer’s spirit is in a slothful condition, the Spirit has no way to use him so that his function can be manifested.
When the Lord comes, He will rebuke some of His servants. The Lord speaks of these servants as being evil and slothful (Matt. 25:26). Although slothfulness can refer to many things, I believe that it primarily refers to slothfulness in the exercise of our spirit. If people are slothful in spirit, they will have no burden and will have even less manifestation of function. We must deal with this matter so that we can be burdened by the Spirit to help others to be built up.
The third operation of the Spirit is to guide us. After we have received a burden, we still cannot serve as we please. We should follow the guidance and the restriction of the Spirit in every matter. For example, whom we speak to, what we say, and when we stop speaking should all be according to the inner leading of the Spirit.
In order for the church to be built up, we must have a living service, a service of life. This requires that we have the living guidance of the Spirit when we serve others. We cannot help and lead others according to our feeling, simply speaking to them about our experiences and knowledge. This will inevitably become dead regulation and will not impart a living leading that causes the definite growth in life and the practical building up of the church. We must live in fellowship with the Spirit, accept the guidance of the Spirit at all times, and apply what we have experienced under the Spirit’s direction to lift the burden in our spirit so that people may be truly built up.
We must experience these operations of the Spirit in order to participate in the service for the building up of the church. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the word operation in Greek relates to the exertion of a strong, driving power that energizes us (Eph. 4:16; 3:7; Col. 1:29). The Spirit’s operation in us energizes us to manifest our function. May we all manifest our function according to the operation of the Spirit so that the church may be built up.
