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Ephesians 4:15-16 is the most important reference in the Bible concerning the building up of the church. The building of God is a major topic in the Bible, and the building up of the church is spoken of in many verses in the New Testament. However, it is not easy to find verses that speak in more detail about how the church is built up than Ephesians 4:15-16.
The first mention of the building of the church in the New Testament is in Matthew 16:18, when the Lord said, “Upon this rock I will build My church.” In His speaking the Lord spoke only of the church being built upon the foundation of Christ, the Son of God, and upon the revelation concerning Christ. He did not tell us how the church would be built. Romans 12:4-5 speaks of the coordination of the various members in the church, which is related to the building up of the church. Nevertheless, it does not speak of how such a coordinated building is produced.
First Corinthians 14:1-5 speaks of earnestly desiring spiritual gifts, especially that we may prophesy, in order to build up the church, but it does not say how these gifts build up the church. First Peter 2:4-5 speaks of the Lord being a living stone and of our coming to Him so that we, as living stones, may be built up as a spiritual house. However, these verses do not say how we are built up.
Ephesians is focused on the church. Of all the books in the Bible, only this book presents a thorough picture of how the church is built up. Although 2:11-22 shows that the church becomes the dwelling place of God by being built up, only chapter 4 provides the details of how this building up is carried out. Verses 11 and 12 speak of gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers—perfecting the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. Verses 15 and 16 then speak in detail concerning how the church is built up. Although verses 15 and 16 are not very long, they contain every necessary detail concerning the building up of the church. We need to see ten items in these verses in general and one item in greater detail.
The first item is love. Without love, the building up of the church is not possible. Verse 15 begins with holding to truth in love, and verse 16 ends with the building up of itself in love. Love is indispensable in the building up of the church.
The second item is truth. After love there is truth, or the holding to truth. When these two items—love and truth—are present, the church is balanced. Love balances truth, and truth balances love. The Bible is quite wonderful when it speaks of holding to truth in love. The building up of the church requires both love and truth.
The third item relates to the Head and how we practically experience the authority of the Head. The second half of verse 15 speaks of growing up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ. This shows that knowing the Lord as the Head is not a matter of knowledge or doctrine but of growing in life into the Head, Christ, in all the things in our daily life. Even though we are saved, there are many areas in our life in which we have not yet grown up into the Head. Many situations in our living expose the fact that we are still not joined to the Head. Hence, the fourth item speaks of our need to grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things. Growth is very important.
The fifth item relates to the joints of the rich supply. In order for the church to be built up, there must be some brothers and sisters who are joints of supply to the whole Body. The sixth item is the measure of each one part. Every member has a measure, and the operation in each member is according to this measure. The seventh item speaks of the operation in this measure. This is a great item involving practice. The eighth item is the Body being joined together and knit together. The ninth item relates to the Body causing the growth of the Body. Finally, the tenth item speaks of the Body building itself up in love.
These ten items are indispensable for the building up of the church. The building up of the church requires love as well as truth, the Head as well as the growth of the saints, the joints of supply as well as the measure of each one part, and above all, the operation in the measure of each one part. The building up of the church requires the joining together and the knitting together of these parts through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part so that the church can cause itself to grow. This growth not only builds up the church but builds up the church in love.
The building up of the church requires the believers to be joined together and knit together. If the believers have not been joined or knit together, the church cannot be coordinated and built up. When a house is built, the wood boards must be joined together and framed together. All the parts of our human body also are joined together and knit together. Whenever, for example, a part of our body is dislocated or suffering from a sprain, we are uneasy, uncomfortable, and troubled. This is a very good illustration of the need for the church to be fitly joined together. If there are brothers and sisters who cannot be joined with others in the church, the church will be troubled.
We need to ask ourselves whether we serve alone or whether we are joined with the saints in our service. This is a great matter. Even if we are joined with other saints, we still need to ask whether we are fitly joined. All the members of our body must be fitly joined with one another; that is, every member must be joined with other members according to their position in the body. Our eyes are not joined to our feet, nor are our feet joined to our arms. Similarly, every brother or sister should be fitly joined for the building up of the church. We should know our position, and we should know the function of the brothers and sisters to whom we are joined. This knowing is not according to human organization but according to the sovereign arrangement of the Holy Spirit. We have been joined to the brothers and sisters in life; we cannot be separate from them, just as they cannot be separate from us. Being fitly joined enables the church to be built up in coordination.
Ephesians speaks not only of being joined together but also of being knit together. Once we are joined together with the brothers and sisters, we are spontaneously knit together with them. When the saints are knit together, no external problems or internal factors can separate us. If this is our condition, the church will have a strong and powerful testimony in its locality.
Our physical strength depends on the knitting together of our body. When we run, every part of our body is intensely exercised, but no matter how much we exercise, our arms or feet will not fall off. The various parts of our body are always joined together and knit together; this is also the situation when the church is being built up.
When the brothers and sisters are joined together and knit together, there are no individualistic actions in the church, and there is not even a sense that we are individuals. There is only a sense of oneness based on the saints being joined together and knit together. This is an issue of the church being built up. In order to partake of the service that builds up the church, we cannot act individualistically or be separated from the saints. If we are separated, our work will tear down rather than build up the church.
A genuine and proper work joins and knits the saints together. An isolated and solitary work creates problems because there can be no building up without joining. There can be no building up without joining and knitting; there can only be tearing down.
In our history in the church life, we have clearly seen a few saints who seem to love the Lord very much and who seem to be very spiritual. However, such ones often become separated from the church and isolated from the saints. In a way they seem quite spiritual, but they are problematic because their spirituality lacks the element of joining and knitting. The more spiritual they become, the more they are separated from the church and the saints. In such a condition, these saints cannot be joined with the other brothers and sisters; they are like oil in water.
When a drop of water falls into a bucket of water, it immediately blends with the water and becomes indistinguishable from the other water. However, when a drop of oil falls into the bucket, the drop of oil remains on the surface, apart from the water. No matter how much the water is stirred, the drop of oil remains unblended. The drop may break apart into many drops, but it remains “alone” and “isolated” in the water; it is never blended with the water. Some saints are always isolated from the brothers and sisters, they are never blended with others, and they are always separate and solitary. This is quite dangerous.
A brother once stood up and said to the saints, “I do not want to meet here anymore. During the Lord’s last days on the earth, He left Jerusalem to lodge in Bethany because Jerusalem completely rejected Him. The church here is like Jerusalem, where the Lord Jesus cannot dwell; therefore, I am leaving to go to Bethany.” By “Bethany” he meant a group that he considered to be more spiritual. According to the Bible, the house in Bethany was associated with Lazarus, who died and rose, with Martha, who was drawn about with much serving, and with Mary, who sat quietly at the Lord Jesus’ feet. Everyone in the house of Bethany loved the Lord, and these brothers viewed themselves as a similar group that loved the Lord. They said, “The brothers with us are like Lazarus, and the sisters are like Martha and Mary. Our small group in Bethany is in contrast to the meeting in Jerusalem.” They believed that the Lord was not in the meeting in “Jerusalem” but only in their small group in “Bethany.” Although this word sounds very spiritual and seems quite appealing, it is actually dangerous. Such a situation can easily result in the tearing down of the church rather than the building up of the church. In order for the church to be built up, the saints must be joined together and knit together. Building up does not involve tearing down. Everything that tears down is the result of individualistic actions.
I will insert a word here concerning the ground of the church. At a time of chaos in the church, we must judge whether a meeting represents the church by its ground, not by its condition. A family may be in a poor and unsatisfactory condition, but this does not negate the standing of the family. A family may not be well off financially, but it still has the standing of a family. Even if another family is quite well off financially, we cannot take it as our family, because such a standing would be wrong. Family situations can change at any time, but its standing as a family never changes. Our family will always be our family. Being a family is based on standing, not on condition.
Similarly, the church is built on the ground of locality, which is expressed locally without any divisive element. Among the many so-called assemblies or gatherings in Christianity today, we must determine whether any represent the church by considering only their ground. If we make such a determination based also on spiritual condition, our determination will be based on relative conditions. For example, what is the basis for saying that a particular gathering is “good”? How do we measure “good”? Some meetings are in the “heavens,” some are in the “air,” and others are barely “off the ground.” There is no standard for “good.” In addition, that which is “good” often changes. Some meetings may have been very good several years ago but now are very bad. Furthermore, the meetings may be very good a year from now. The ground of locality, the ground of the church, however, is not at all affected by condition and can never be shaken. The local ground of oneness for the church is absolute. The condition of a local church may be completely different from one year to the next and from one month to the next. The condition of a church can rise and fall suddenly, but the ground does not change and cannot be lost.
Hence, we must pay attention to the matter of the ground. Our being joined together and knit together can occur only on the ground of oneness; we must avoid any “joining” that is based on something other than the ground of oneness. It is possible to be joined together and knit together only on the ground of oneness. We cannot destroy the ground of oneness merely for the sake of being “joined” with other brothers and sisters. When we find a meeting that is according to the ground of oneness, and we acknowledge that the meeting is on the ground of oneness, we should be joined together with these brothers and sisters. We cannot separate ourselves from them for any reason. As long as the ground is right, we must be willing to be built up with them no matter what their condition is.
Our being joined together and knit together with the saints must be based on the ground of oneness. Being properly joined together depends on the proper ground. If the ground of a gathering is wrong, the “joining” that occurs will be wrong, and if the ground is right, there can be no basis for separation. The brothers and sisters may feel that this is too strict, but it is the only practice that matches the truth. There is too much confusion related to the church. If we do not pay attention to the ground, we will tear down the church rather than build it up.
Over a decade ago in a church in northern China, a few were focused on spiritual pursuit to the point that they felt the church was lacking in spirituality and was only according to the will of man and the flesh. Consequently, these “pursuers” stopped coming to the meetings. Instead, they began to meet in a home. They said that when they met in a home, everyone touched their spirit, and everyone said Amen to the prayers of those who were in their meetings. However, they said that when they met in the meeting hall, they felt oppressed and weighed down in their spirit as soon as they arrived and that they could not release their spirit in prayer. They left because they felt that the Lord was not present.
When I came to this locality, the “pursuing” brothers and sisters asked, “What do you think, Brother Lee? Can we meet like this?” I was very cautious and fearful lest I say too much and incite them even more toward a situation of division. I did not challenge them or rebuke them. I did, however, stand firm on one crucial point. I said, “Brothers, if you are only having some prayer and pursuit at home for mutual encouragement, there is no problem with this in principle. But you can never establish another church or another table to break bread. There can be only one church in one locality; there can be only one church here. I cannot say that the church here is spiritual or perfect according to its condition, but one thing is certain: there is only one ground for the church. Therefore, we must honor the principle that God has ordained regardless of the condition of the church. There can never be two churches in one locality.” I did not say who was right or who was wrong; I answered their question only by standing on the ground of the church. I said firmly that we could not divide a local church into two because of differences in spiritual pursuit. We should never do anything that tears down the church.
In a local church there may be some who love the world and others who are spiritually weak, but there is no valid basis for any separation. In order for the church to be built up, we must learn to be joined together and knit together with others. Even if we feel that a certain brother is fleshly or that a certain sister has a strange temperament, we should still be willing to be joined together and knit together with them.
Is there any brother or sister who has no element of the flesh or no strangeness in temperament? We must admit that we are all the same. At the most there is a difference only in the degree of our blackness as “pots” and “kettles.” Consider the different preferences that we have for food. Some like spicy food, and some like lightly seasoned food; some like soy sauce, and others like garlic. There are many different preferences for food; similarly, there are many different brothers and sisters in every local church.
There was a brother in Shanghai who would come to every meeting and pray without any inspiration of the Spirit. When the responsible brothers asked him not to pray, he did not get angry. Instead, he came to the next bread-breaking meeting and prayed, saying, “Lord, the responsible brothers asked me not to open my mouth, but no one is praying. Therefore, I must open my mouth.” Then the responsible brothers again asked him to not pray, because his prayers were not edifying. Nevertheless, he continued to pray in the meetings. We should not think that this brother is strange, because everyone is strange in some way. Our strangeness varies only in terms of degree.
It is impossible for people to be joined together and knit together naturally. Man is by nature a loner. If we live by our natural man, sooner or later we will be separated from the brothers and sisters. In the building up of the church, being joined together and knit together are a great test. Even though there are many things that can stop us from being joined together and knit together with others, we need to be joined together and knit together with the brothers and sisters in the church. This joining and knitting involves two points that I will speak of briefly.
First, we need to forbear all things. The time that we need to fellowship with particular saints and to forbear them the most is when we feel that we are not getting along with them. God often arranges for some particularly strange saints to be around us in the church so that we can learn the lesson of forbearance. In any case, we should make demands only on ourselves, not on those who are around us. We should not make demands on others, no matter what their condition is. On the one hand, we should be willing to ask ourselves whether we are the source of our inability to be joined with other brothers and sisters. On the other hand, we must forbear the genuine problems of others; we should make no demands on them. Their strangeness should not be a limitation on our forbearance. Without forbearance we cannot be joined together and knit together with others.
Second, we need to accept the Lord’s breaking. Even if we have a meek and kind nature, we will eventually have problems with people. In our natural life we have no way to be joined with others. Ultimately, we must let the Lord break our natural life.
To speak of our natural life being broken may seem rather abstract. Let me explain with a practical example of serving in the church. Some people can serve only in a “new” way, in a way that completely disregards the ways of others. They feel that their way is the best and the most effective. If others do not take their way, they become unenthusiastic and cease to serve. Still others must do everything by themselves when they serve, and they trample upon others. Overthrowing others and trampling upon others are manifestations of the natural man. In the natural man there is no way to be joined with others; there is only isolated service that tears down rather than builds up. In order to be joined together with others, we must let the Lord break our individualistic, natural self. We should learn to respect others and enable others to serve. We should accommodate the views of others rather than disregard them. This is a great test; it requires us to consider others more excellent than ourselves, to trust others, to accommodate others, and to hand ourselves over to others.
This is the greatest key to the building up of the church. In order to be joined with others in the Lord, we must learn many lessons before God. If we are willing to accept the Lord’s breaking, to allow Him to deal with our natural and individualistic elements, and to coordinate with others in one accord in every service, the church will have no problems, and the saints will be joined together and knit together and will be genuinely built up. Then the church will be immensely useful in the Lord’s hand.
