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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:1-4; 1 Cor. 1:10; 3:1-4; Phil. 2:1-4; John 17:21, 23
The genuine Christian service is based upon the building up of the Body of Christ. The base, the foundation, of all genuine Christian work is the building up of the Body. The real Christian service stands upon the basis of the Body. God’s unique intention in this universe is to have a corporate Body to serve Him. God wants us to serve Him, but He does not want us to serve Him in an individualistic way. God’s intention is to have a priesthood, a priestly body, a corporate people built together, to serve Him. Therefore, we need to see clearly that if there is no building up, there is no possibility of having the genuine Christian service. We should not consider what has been called service in the history of the church as something normal, and we should not take what we see among today’s Christians as a pattern. Most of what we find in the history of the church and in the present situation is something out of order, something altogether contrary to God’s way. God’s intention is to have a Body serving Him. Therefore, He has not regenerated us to be perfect units, each complete in ourselves, but He has regenerated all of us to be members of one Body. How much we all need to see the Body!
You may presume that you have seen the Body because you have heard messages on the Body or because we have spent so much time on this one point in these days. However, I do not have the confidence that you have seen the Body. I have a deep question concerning this matter; I doubt that you have really seen the Body.
During a period of at least two years, from 1940 to 1942, Brother Watchman Nee gave a message each week on the seeing of the Body. His word was not on the Body but on the seeing of the Body. Have you seen the Body? Every week during that time he gave a message, and every week he spent one morning with us, the trainees. In that morning training time of more than three hours, Brother Nee did not do much speaking in the way of a message. Rather, when we came together with him after he had given a message to the whole congregation, he would ask each of us to give a testimony one by one concerning how we had seen the Body. After each testimony he would shake his head and tell us that we had not seen the Body. Then he would point out how our own words exposed us, how our own words proved that we had not seen the Body. Out of so many trainees there may have been only one or two who received his approval in the matter of seeing the Body. Brother Nee could be very bold with us as trainees because we had given him our permission when we were accepted for the training. I am not as bold as Brother Nee was, but I do ask you to consider seriously this question of whether or not you have seen the Body.
There are some simple ways to test yourself to see whether or not you have seen the Body. I encourage you to test yourself by these few means. In the first place, I would say that if you have seen the Body, you will never be divisive. To be divisive means that you have not seen the Body. If you have seen the Body, you would never be divisive, and you could never be divisive from now on. Divisiveness means that you have not seen the Body. Could there be more than one Body in this universe? There is only one. Have you seen this one Body, the unique Body? If you have seen this unique Body, this vision will bind you so that you could never be divisive.
The reason there is so much division among Christians today is that they have not seen the Body. When Christians who meet together are not happy with each other, often some stop meeting with the others and start a meeting of their own. This is division, and it indicates that the ones who do such things are divisive. They have not seen the Body. Anyone who has seen the Body could no longer be divisive.
There is only one Body, and I am a part of this Body. It is impossible for me to be separated from this Body and impossible for me to separate myself from this Body. It is crucial that we all see the Body. However, there is the possibility that we will think we have seen the Body when we have not seen it at all.
From the time I began my ministry in this country in 1962, I heard many people talking about the Body life and the Body ministry, but within me I realized that they were talking about something which they had not seen and which they did not know. Of course, I was not so bold as to tell them that they had not seen the Body, but I would ask you now to check whether or not you have seen the Body. Have you seen the Body? If you have seen the Body, you have seen the oneness, and you could no longer be divisive.
Seeing the Body very much involves the matter of the ground of the church. The Body is one, and this unique Body is expressed in and by the local churches. Where is the Body? Where is this unique Body? The Body is in the local churches. Both the reality of the Body and the practicality of the Body are in the local churches. If you do not have the local churches, you do not have the reality of the Body. You may have the terminology, the teaching, the concept, of the Body, but you do not have the reality. Before the New Jerusalem comes, the reality of the Body will not be in the so-called heavenly church or the universal church but in the local churches. Today the reality and practicality of the Body are in the local churches. We could only put the Body into practice by having the local churches. The local churches are the practicality of the Body.
What is a local church? Some of the denominations and Christian groups consider themselves local churches, but they may have several groups independent of one another all meeting within the same city. Although these groups may consider themselves local churches, each one would have to be the church on a particular street, not the church in a particular city. Therefore, according to the Scriptures, we have to say that these are not local churches. In the Bible there is the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), the church in Antioch (13:1), and the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1). The apostle Paul appointed elders in every church (Acts 14:23), and he told Titus to appoint elders in every city (Titus 1:5). In the Bible there are the elders of the church and the elders of the city, but there are no elders of a church on a particular street. Others may use the same terms that we use, but they use them according to different definitions.
When we use the term the local church, we use it according to the Scriptures. In Revelation 1:11 John was told, “What you see write in a scroll and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” To send something to the seven churches means to send it to the seven cities, and to the seven cities equals to the seven churches. John was not told to send the book to a certain street and then to another street. He was told to send it to the seven cities of the one province of Asia. The revelation in this verse is very clear. We treasure the book of Revelation, and we especially treasure this revelation in chapter 1: seven churches equal seven cities.
What is a local church? A local church is the Christians meeting on the unique ground of oneness in their locality, in their city. Christians who meet as a group on a certain street, in a certain area, on a certain campus, or in a certain home cannot be considered a local church. A local church is the Christians who live in a city meeting together on the ground of oneness, the unique ground of oneness, not on any other ground. This is the local church in that city, and the reality and the practicality of the Body are in such a local church. If you have seen the Body in such a way, you will no longer be divisive.
We need to see this one point—how the vision of the Body keeps us from divisiveness—in a detailed way. In these days all the meetings of the church here have been very living, very uplifted. But suppose the level of the meetings goes down, even to a very low level, and the meetings do not seem to be living but are slow and even very poor. Then what would you do? Would you talk to another brother about the poor condition of the meetings and consider starting another meeting in his home? Just to have such a consideration proves that you have not seen the Body.
Sometimes the physical body is very healthy and very strong, but at other times it is weak and sick. Even though I have a strong physical body, not long ago I was sick for several weeks. However, when my body became weak, it was still the same body as it was when it was strong. I could never say that I would give up that weak body because of its weakness and start to have another body that would be strong. To have such a consideration would mean that I did not know what my body is. If I have seen and know what my body is, no matter whether it is strong or weak, I will realize that my body is my body and that it is the only one I have.
Beginning in the fall of 1943, I was seriously ill for thirty months. During that time, I did not work at all; I absolutely rested. Nevertheless, my weak body was still my body, even though it was weak to the uttermost and very sick. I did not give up my weak body. Rather, I did whatever I could during those thirty months to nourish it, to cherish it, and to love it more. My body has never been so precious, so dear, and so valuable to me as it was in those thirty months. I have never loved my body more than I did during that time.
Today do you love the church here in Los Angeles? All of us surely love the church here very much in these days. But I would check with you to see why you love the church. It is easy to love the church because it is very living, very encouraging, very uplifting, and the meetings are wonderful, even marvelous. If the church were merely a physical building, it could remain the same year after year, with very little change. However, the church can be compared to our physical body, sometimes living and strong and at other times weak and not so living. We need to love the church because it is the Body; it is even our Body. If you love the church because it is wonderful and very living, I would ask what you would do if the condition of the church is not so good after a period of time. Would you go somewhere else where the situation is not so poor? If you would, this proves that you have not seen the Body.
If you have seen the Body, it will make no difference to you whether the meetings are living and wonderful or weak and poor, and it will make no difference whether or not the ones who take the lead are good in your eyes and according to your feeling. Whatever the condition, you will acknowledge that this is the Body. At the present time the leading ones in the church here are learning how to take the lead. We praise the Lord that they are willing to learn and they do not presume that they are the best leaders. However, if a day should come that the attitude of some of the leading ones is not so proper, you would be tested by that situation to see whether or not you have really seen the Body. If you could leave and start another meeting because the situation is poor, it is clear that you have never seen the Body. When my physical body is strong, it is my body. When it is weak or sick, it is nevertheless my body. I cannot give up my body because of its weakness. Have you seen the Body? If you have seen the Body, it will be impossible for you ever to be divisive again.
We should not expect the church life to be like a honeymoon all the time. In the married life a honeymoon lasts only a short time. According to our experience, it may be the same in the church life. I have been in the church life for more than thirty-seven years. Do you think that I have been having a honeymoon all these years? Do you think that everything has been wonderful and even marvelous in the church life all this time? Nevertheless, no matter what has happened in all these years, I can testify strongly that this is the Body. I have seen the Body, and I cannot say that I have not seen it. Whether it is good or bad, whether it is strong or weak, rich or poor, fruitful or unfruitful, it is the Body. Oh, I have seen the Body! I have no choice. There is only one Body in the whole universe.
Here we have a clear test concerning the seeing of the Body. Nothing is so binding as the Body. When you hear others who are still very free talk about the Body, you may realize that they have never seen the Body because they are so free. They have no restriction. If you have seen the Body, you could never be divisive. The members of the Body could never be replaced. It would be impossible to change the position of the ear in your physical body even a little bit. The vision of the Body will keep us from divisiveness.
Now we come to another point. If you have seen the Body, you could never be individualistic; you could never be independent. As a Christian, you will realize that you cannot live without the Body. You cannot move, you cannot work, you cannot serve without the Body, because you have seen the Body, and you realize that you are simply one member of the Body. In the physical body it is impossible for the nose to exist, function, or serve without the body. Neither could the hand live, move, or work without the body.
I praise the Lord that, by His mercy, in my service for over thirty-seven years, as a brother among you, I have never been independent and have never been individualistic. I may feel that I am one hundred percent right, and the others are one hundred percent wrong, but I have to go along with the feeling of the Body. Whenever the Body feels that something should not be done, I do not do it. It is not a matter of right or wrong but a matter of either being individualistic or being in the Body.
If you keep in mind all these tests, you will realize that you have not seen the Body because you are so individualistic. It seems that you can do anything you like independently. If you see the Body, it would be impossible for you to behave yourself in an independent way.
During that time from 1940 to 1942, all of us were surprised when Brother Nee shook his head and told us that we had not seen the Body. We had given strong testimonies to prove that we had seen the Body. Right away some of us asked Brother Nee how we could see the Body. He was not one to answer our question directly. He simply replied, “If you have seen it, you have seen it.” Then we would ask him to tell us how we could see the Body. “If you see it, you see it. If you don’t see it, you don’t see it.” Then he would ask another one, perhaps a sister, to give a testimony about seeing the Body. We thought we had already seen the Body. Likewise, if you test yourself, you will realize that you have not seen the Body. If you see the Body, it would be impossible for you to be individualistic.
Whether we see the Body, or we do not see it, is all a matter of the Lord’s mercy. Eventually, this was the ultimate answer Brother Nee gave us. He told us not to try by ourselves to see it but to look to the Lord’s mercy. If you see it, you see it; if you do not see it, you do not see it—that is all. I believe that this is absolutely true. May we all look to the Lord for His mercy to be brought into the seeing of the Body.
At this time I have the burden from the Lord to take away your self-confidence in this matter of seeing the Body. You think you have seen the Body already, but actually you have not seen it. Be prepared to be a little disappointed, and recognize that you have not seen it yet. Look unto the Lord for His mercy, and trust in Him for His mercy; He will show you His Body.
How could you know that you have seen the Body? The strongest proof that you have seen the Body is that you can no longer be individualistic. When you cannot be individualistic, you have seen the Body. As long as you are not restricted, as long as you are free, as long as you are independent, as long as it is so easy for you to have your own choice, no matter how much you know about the Body and how confident you are that you have seen the Body, you have not seen the Body.
Now we come to a further test concerning seeing the Body. If you have seen the Body, you will be willing to be blended together. Paul used the word blended in 1 Corinthians 12:24: “God has blended the body together.” A lack of willingness to be blended is another proof that you have not seen the Body. God has not only placed us together in the Body, but even the more, He has blended us together.
There is no way for two believers to be one in a practical way without being blended together. In our experience many times the blending together comes out of practical situations in working together in coordination. For example, a brother and I worked together to prepare the hymnal. There were many details that required fellowship and many decisions to be made. In point after point we depended on one another, and neither of us worked in an individualistic way. We selected hymns written by others to be included, we translated a number of hymns from Chinese into English, and we improved the meaning in the lines of many hymns. The brother I was working with had certain preferences because of his background, and I had a number of difficulties because English is not my mother tongue. There were problems with the meter, problems with the accents, and problems with the rhymes. In the process both of us made many mistakes, and many times we corrected each other. In the detailed coordination necessary to prepare the hymnal, we two brothers learned many lessons, and we were very much blended together. I cannot tell you how much blessing we two received through the blending together in that work on the hymnal.
In practical work together such as this, there are many lessons for us to learn. We all need to learn not to insist too much on a certain way. There may be some mistakes made, but that is not the crucial point. The church life is a life of being blended all the time. Even if you are one hundred percent right, you still need to be blended.
If we have really seen the Body, we would not murmur or criticize any of the other members. Even a little murmuring that shows your dissatisfaction proves that you have not seen the Body. Even a little word of criticism about a certain member of the Body proves that you have never seen the Body. If you have seen the Body, you would never complain, murmur, criticize, or say anything against any of the members. The condition of some of the members may be quite poor, but, on your side, for you to say that their condition is poor is a proof that you have not seen the Body. This is a real test. A little complaint, a little dissatisfaction, or a little criticism proves that you have not seen the Body. For this reason, Paul speaks of lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering in Colossians 3:12-15 and in Ephesians 4:2-4. We need long-suffering to bear our dear fellow members in love. Long-suffering in Ephesians 4:2 is not toward the persecutors but toward the fellow members, and it is suffering over a long period of time, not a short period of time.
If we have seen the Body, there will be no more complaints, no more quarrels, no more murmurings, and no more criticism. In the place of all these there will be forgiveness. This does not mean that no one will be offended. Many times someone may be offended, but all the offending will be swallowed up by forgiveness. There will be no complaining, but all the offending will be chased away by forgiveness with love and with sympathy. A brother may offend me, but I would sympathize with him. I would realize that he has a certain kind of disposition, a certain kind of natural makeup, and I would sympathize with him. Instead of criticizing and complaining, we would have sympathy and forgiveness. Instead of condemnation, we would have love. I would forgive my brother, and I would love him.
Although many people think that it is the youngest child in a family who is loved the most, my mother told me years ago that parents always love the weakest child the most. Now that I am a father, I agree with what she said. The strong ones do not need the parents to love them as much, because they are able to take care of themselves. The weaker ones, however, have many problems. They need the parents’ sympathy, and they need their love.
Nevertheless, many times in the church life we love the strong ones, and we fail to care for those who may need our love more. In our eyes, there are some in the church life who are weak and poor. Their disposition may not match ours, and perhaps they have some peculiar trait. You should not complain about them, for they were made this way. If you want to complain about them, you will have to complain to God, for He created them the way they are. We all need to learn to sympathize with the weak ones, with those who have a peculiar trait. I need to sympathize with you, and I ask you to please sympathize with me, for I have my own peculiarity.
If we learn this lesson and are willing to suffer even the wrongdoings of the fellow members of the Body, this means that we have seen the Body. We are willing to suffer the wrongdoings of the fellow members because they are members of the Body. If we have seen the Body, we will experience the long-suffering, the suffering that extends over a long period of time, even until the New Jerusalem. This suffering is not related to unbelievers or to things but to the fellow members of the Body. If a certain member of my physical body is weak, it is nevertheless a member of my body. I need to love this member, protect it, and do everything I can to keep it in good condition.
In this chapter I have given you three tests concerning seeing the Body. If you have seen the Body, you will no longer be divisive, you will not be individualistic, and you will be willing to be blended, without any complaining, murmuring, or criticism, but with love, forgiveness, sympathy, forbearance, and long-suffering. If such is the case, you will have the Body life. It is with such a Body life that there is a real impact in our service. Although there may be times that the Body is weak, it is only out of the genuine Body life that there can come the service to the Lord with a real impact. In John 17:21-23 the Lord Jesus said that if all the believers would be one as the Triune God is one, as He and the Father are one, the world would believe. This is the impact of the oneness. If the believers are perfected into one, by this the world will know that the Son has been sent by the Father. The oneness is the impact that will cause the world to believe. Being blended together is the power of the service; the real power in the service comes out of being blended together.
Suppose there are three brothers serving together, coming together to preach the gospel and take care of the new believers. However, the first brother has been somewhat critical of the second, and the second has been somewhat dissatisfied with the third. When they come together, they cannot pretend that they are one. Sooner or later, the lack of harmony among them will be exposed before the unbelievers and the new beginners. A small amount of criticism will tear down whatever has been built up by their preaching, and the impact will be lost.
However, if we have the genuine oneness with love for one another, this oneness with the love is the impact of our preaching. Praise the Lord, today here among us in the church in Los Angeles there is a genuine oneness and love. Many reports have come back from others who have been influenced and impressed with the love and the oneness they have experienced here. However, what if a day would come that we would lose this oneness and yet still claim to be the church here in Los Angeles? We would still be the church in Los Angeles, but we would lose the impact in our service. There would be no power, because there would be no ground, no base, no foundation, for our service. We would have lost the foundation of our service. May the Lord be merciful to us.
We all need to see the Body. For the service it is necessary for us to see the Body. May the Lord reveal this matter to all of us.
