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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:14-17a; 4:1-6, 11-16
In all of his writings the apostle Paul gave us few examples of his prayers. In the one short book of Ephesians, however, we have two prayers. Before Paul spoke concerning the vision of the church—what the church is and how God planned to produce the church—he prayed for us, realizing that we need a spirit of revelation, an inner openness, so that we may see the eternal things (1:15-23). This is the first prayer in this book. Then after unveiling the vision of the church, he realized that this is not merely a matter to be understood, a matter in the mentality. He realized that we need the real experience of what we have seen in the vision. Therefore, he prayed a second time, in the last half of chapter 3. The main point of this prayer is that our inner man must be strengthened so that Christ may make His home not in our spirit but in our heart. There is the real need to stress this. Today even among us there is a big shortage of knowing in our experience how to be strengthened into the inner man by the mighty Spirit of God so that Christ may make His home in our heart.
We are regenerated in our spirit, and Christ has come into our spirit to dwell there. There is no argument as to whether or not Christ is in our spirit. We need not only to believe but to realize clearly that Christ is dwelling in our spirit. However, this is only the regeneration of our spirit. There are three steps in the application of God’s salvation. The first step is regeneration, which is accomplished in our spirit. After this, we still have the problem of the soul. The New Testament clearly reveals that we may be fully regenerated in our spirit yet still be soulish, natural, and darkened in the soul. To be soulish is to be earthly and even to be related to the demons, to be demon-like. Therefore, the New Testament tells us that after being regenerated in our spirit, we need the salvation of the soul. Our soul needs to be saved; it needs to be delivered. Hebrews 10:39 speaks of the gaining of the soul, and 1 Peter 1:9 mentions the salvation of our souls. James 1 clearly tells us that we have been brought forth by the word of truth, but we still need the implanted, living word of God, which is able to save our souls (vv. 18, 21). After regeneration in the spirit, therefore, we need transformation in our soul.
As we have seen, repent in Greek means to turn the mind. The mind is the leading part of the soul. When we exercise our mind to turn to the Lord, our conscience follows, and we confess according to what the conscience perceives. Just as the mind is the leading part of the soul, the conscience is the leading part of the spirit. Therefore, to repent and confess is to exercise our mind and our conscience. When we open our mind and open our conscience, the Lord has an open gateway to fill us.
We have said these things before, but we must repeat them again. They are matters not merely in our human mentality but in the heavenlies. I am concerned that it is easy to receive other teachings, but even if we repeat the above matters many times, we may still forget them. In actuality, it is not simply that we forget. Rather, the enemy snatches these things away. On many occasions when we try to point out these things to people, their thoughts are distracted right at the crucial moment. Then when their attention returns, it is too late, and they receive no impression of them. This is why the New Testament indicates that not only the unbelievers but also the seeking, spiritual believers always need to repent. In the epistles in Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord commands most of the seven churches to repent (2:5, 16, 21; 3:3, 19). The first word of preaching in the New Testament is to repent (Matt. 3:2; 4:17). First John 1:9 also tells us to confess our sins, which implies repenting.
To repent is to turn our mind to the Lord, and to confess is to exercise our conscience. To repent and confess are to open our mind and conscience to the Lord. When our mind and conscience are open to the Lord, the gateway is open to Him, and He has the free way to fill us. Then the Lord comes, not from without but from within, to spread Himself in us to saturate all the parts of our soul. Romans 12:2 says, “Be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” The way for our mind to be renewed is by being saturated by the Spirit with Christ. When we open ourselves to the Lord, He comes in to fill us, spreading from our spirit within into all the parts of the soul. Jeremiah 31:33 calls these parts the “inward parts.” All our inward parts will be saturated by the Spirit with Christ. Then our mind will be renewed, and our will and emotion also will be renewed. All the parts of our soul will be renewed and saturated with Christ. In other words, all the parts of the soul will be occupied, taken over, by Christ. Then Christ will settle down in all the parts of our soul. All the parts of the soul, plus the conscience of the spirit, compose the heart. Therefore, Christ is making His home in our heart (Eph. 3:17).
There is no doubt that we have Christ in our spirit, but there is much doubt as to whether Christ has any place in our soul. There may be no place, no room, and no ground for Christ in our mind, emotion, and will. If this is the case, our spirit is not a residence for Christ but a prison to Him. Christ is imprisoned by our soul. At the time we believed, we exercised our mind to repent. We turned our mind, which means that our mind was open. At the same time we also confessed our sins. Along with our believing there is always our confessing. In this way both our mind and our conscience were opened, so we received the Lord Jesus, and He came into us. After this, however, many believers close their mind and conscience. The Lord Jesus came into them, but they enclose Him within their spirit. To say it in another way, they imprison Him by their conscience, mind, emotion, stubborn will, and self. Christ is in our spirit, but He may be imprisoned. This is the reason why the apostle Paul, after revealing the vision of the Body in the first part of Ephesians, realized that we need our inner man, our spirit, to be strengthened that Christ may make His home in all the parts of the heart—the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience. This means that Christ will occupy all the inward parts of our human being and settle down in them.
In recent years both here and in the Far East, brothers and sisters have been speaking much about Christ as life and the building up of the church. However, my observation and impression cause me to be sorrowful. Unless the soul is broken and transformed, there is no possibility of having the real church life. This is the reason why even up to the end of his ministry Brother Nee still spoke on the breaking of the outer man for the release of the spirit. The outer man, the soulish man, needs to be broken so that the inner man, the spirit, can be released. People today appreciate Brother Nee’s book The Normal Christian Life, but that is only the “ABCs.” Those were the messages he gave more than twenty-five years ago. In the early years, the first years after I met him, he always stressed those matters. After this, however, he was placed into trials for a long time, and following the Second World War his messages almost always stressed the breaking of the outer man.
Before Brother Nee returned to the public ministry after the war, he had a number of times of fellowship with a few brothers. In those long talks he stressed only one thing. Whenever I or someone else raised a question, he always answered in one way—the outer man must be broken. All the problems come from the fact that the outer man, the soul, is not broken. The soul is too strong. The mind is too natural, the emotion is too worldly, and the will is too human.
A brother may love the Lord, but his mind may never have been renewed; it is still natural. Likewise, his emotion is earthly, and his will is too human and selfish. We can check ourselves by the way we talk. When the brothers and sisters come together to talk, they are very strong, but when we ask them to pray, they are weak. This is because talking is something in the mind, but praying is something in the spirit. If the brothers and sisters are talking and someone says, “Let us be silent,” they will not stop talking even after being asked several times. The best way to quiet people down is to say, “Let us have a time of prayer.” Then everyone will be as quiet as a cemetery. This is because to pray requires us to exercise our spirit, and many saints are not prepared to do this. Even if they do pray, they exercise only their mind, and that is what comes out of their mouth. Their prayer does not touch their heart or their spirit.
Many saints simply do not pray at all, not even for several weeks. They come to the church meetings without a life of prayer, yet they are very active in their mind. If we discuss or simply fellowship with one another, eventually we will fight with one another. You have your opinion, I have my idea, and everyone has something to say. We are very strong in the mind. However, when we ask people to pray, the weakness in their spirit is immediately exposed. This is why we are stressing this matter once again.
Similarly, this is why Paul, when he comes to the matter of experience in Ephesians, prays, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father...that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts” (vv. 14, 16-17a). Christ is indwelling our spirit, but He may not be occupying all the inward parts of our soul. This is a very vital matter.
Colossians 1:27 says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” There is no doubt that Christ is in us, but our soul is too strong, natural, earthly, and human. Therefore, eventually, whether intentionally or unintentionally, we imprison Christ by our soul. It is the same with all of us. We all have Christ, but our Christ has been imprisoned within us. The church life is Christ realized, expressed, and experienced by all the saints in a corporate way. This Christ comes out of all the persons and mingles us together. However, if Christ is imprisoned by the soulish life in you, and He is imprisoned by the soulish life in me, how can we have the church life? Christ is within us, but He cannot be expressed, and He cannot be realized by us because of our soul. One person’s soul is strong, and another person’s soul is even stronger. One person exercises his mind, and another exercises his mind even more. Yes, we are brothers, and we are the members of the Body, but all these members are covered and concealed with a layer of soulish “wax.” This soulish “wax” is very strong. We are too strong in our mind, in our emotion, and in our will. This is why we need to be strengthened into our inner man. Then Christ will fill us and spread from within to take over our heart. Then the soul will be subdued and broken, and all the parts of the soul will be renewed. Then Christ will be expressed, and it is by this Christ that we are one.
The greater part of the tabernacle was the forty-eight standing boards, which were overlaid with gold. On the overlaying gold were golden rings, and within the golden rings were golden bars (Exo. 26:18-29). It was by this overlaying gold that all the boards were joined together as one. If we could have taken away the gold and left only the forty-eight boards, they would immediately have fallen apart. This signifies that in ourselves there is no oneness. The oneness is in the overlaying gold, which signifies divinity, the divine nature. It is in this divinity, in the Triune God as the overlaying divine gold, that we are covered and joined together. This type gives us a clear picture. It is not possible for us to be one with each other in ourselves. We are only the wooden boards. In ourselves there is no joining element. The uniting element is the gold, the divine nature. Therefore, we need to be overlaid by, with, and in the Triune God. In the Triune God there is the joining power. The golden rings and bars also signify the joining power in the divine nature. When Christ possesses us and makes home in all the parts of our being, He becomes our oneness. Only Christ is the oneness, and we all are one in Him. John 17:21 says, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” We are one “in Us,” that is, in the Triune God.
The secret of the oneness is first with our spirit, our inner man, and then with our soul. Our inner man must be strengthened, and our soul must be subdued, renewed, taken over, occupied, and possessed by the indwelling Christ. Then Christ will be freed, and we will be under Him and in Him. It is through this indwelling and released Christ that we are one. In this way we can have the church life.
We all need to bring these things to the Lord and spend some time with Him to pray for this matter. I believe that one day the Lord will open our eyes to see this clearly. These things are spiritual facts, but not many people have realized them. The unbelievers cannot realize them, and not many believers realize them either, or else there would have been no need for the apostle to pray in Ephesians 3. He prayed for us to this end, and we also need to pray for this.
After his prayer in Ephesians 3, Paul proceeds to chapter 4. The first part of this chapter reveals the proper way to practice the church life. Today we hear many voices speaking in different ways about the church, but many people have forgotten Ephesians 4. In the short passage from verse 1 to verse 16, the apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote something very profound. All the aspects of the church life are here. Many who talk about the church life today have neglected and forgotten this portion of the Word. In order to practice the church life, we must realize all the main aspects, the main points, concerning the church in Ephesians 4.
Paul begins by saying, “I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord” (v. 1a). Paul realized that he was a prisoner not merely in a prison but in Christ. He was imprisoned in Christ. In order to have the church life, we need to be a prisoner in Christ with no freedom of the self. We must lose our liberty to be imprisoned by Christ. The church is a “prison” to us. We need to be imprisoned in the Lord in the church.
Paul continues, “To walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love, being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace” (vv. 1b-3). Whenever we talk about the practice of the church life, we must remember that the first thing needed is to keep the oneness of the Spirit. This requires that we forget about everything else. The third stanza of the traditional hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” says, “One in hope and doctrine, one in charity.” This is not an accurate concept. Christians can never be one in doctrine. If someone has a certain understanding about a particular portion of the Bible, he may hold to that portion without caring for the oneness. Many Christians insist on baptism by sprinkling, some insist on a single immersion, and some insist on three immersions. Some immerse in warm water, others immerse in cold water, and still others baptize in other ways. In this one matter alone there are many opinions. In order to realize the church life we need to forget about doctrine. If we pay attention to doctrine, we may become a “three-immersions” church. Praise the Lord, the Spirit is in you and in me, so we all are one in the Spirit. Therefore, it is better to sing the above line as, “One in faith and Spirit, / One eternally” (Hymns, #871).
I am concerned that we may hold on to something that is not an element of the saving faith or of the oneness of the Spirit. Some believers have their favorite item, a matter that they love. In a sense, they are addicted to that thing. Some, for example, are “addicted” to speaking in tongues. If they hear someone speaking in tongues, they do not consider whether it is genuine or false. In the same principle, we too may have something to which we are addicted. Whatever someone is addicted to is a dividing element. It may seem that he is one with others, but there is still something within him that divides and keeps him from others. He may come to the meetings, but inwardly he is not one. Something within him is secretly and subtly dividing.
The Lord can testify that by His mercy I always try my best to forget about everything else in order to keep the oneness of the Spirit. When certain dear ones brought tambourines to play in the meetings, I was not bothered. Although I do not prefer this, I did not insist on not having them. I told the brothers, “As long as they worship God, it is all right with me. Let them play the tambourine.” However, those dear ones eventually insisted on their practice in a divisive way, and they frightened others away. We should not have anything within us as a dividing element. The practice of the oneness exposes where we are. The problems we have faced in Los Angeles for the past two and a half years are due to some dear ones insisting on something other than the oneness of the Spirit. We need to care for keeping the oneness of the Spirit and not for anything else. If someone says that the Lord Jesus is not the Son of God, we should sacrifice our life to fight for the truth, but if someone wants to play the tambourine in the meeting, we should simply say, “Brother, if you feel free to do that, then do it, but please also take care of others.” Whether or not to play the tambourine means nothing. We must forget about everything else and keep only one thing—the oneness of the Spirit.
Verses 4 through 6 go on to name all the elements of the oneness—one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one Father—that is, the Triune God in us to make us one Body. The Father is in the Son, the Son is the Spirit, and the Spirit is in us (John 14:11; 1 Cor. 15:45; Rom. 8:9, 11). Now we are one Body, which is the real mingling of the Triune God with man. In all the above matters we are one. There is no argument about these items; they are what we need to hold. To keep the oneness of the Spirit is the first aspect for the practice of the church life.
Following this, Paul goes on to speak in Ephesians 4 about the functions of the gifted persons. On the one hand, we all are one in the Spirit, in the Triune God, in the saving faith, and in all the matters in verses 4 through 6. On the other hand, though, the ministries of the gifted persons seem to be different. There are the apostles’ ministry, the prophets’ ministry, the evangelists’ ministry, and the ministry of the shepherds and teachers. There are at least these four categories of ministries. Nevertheless, the purpose of all the ministries is still one. All the different ministries are for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Consider the situation today. Do the evangelists care for the Body? Many evangelists forget about the Body and neglect the Body; they are only for evangelism. This is why there are divisions today. A prevailing evangelist with his prevailing preaching may spontaneously form a division. Likewise, a great teacher may live and work only for his teaching and not for the Body, and eventually a division may come out of his teaching. Instead of being for the building of the Body, these ministries often create divisions.
We should apply all these things to ourselves. If many of us go out to work for the Lord, some may be more evangelical, but others will care more for teaching. It may be that the evangelists will form something for their evangelism, and the teachers will form something for their teaching, both neglecting the building of the Body. We need to see the vision that all the different ministries are for one purpose. If someone preaches the gospel, he should not keep the result, the fruit, of his preaching in his own hand. He must keep his own hand away from the result of his preaching and let the fruits of his preaching be for the building up of the church. Likewise, regardless of how much we help people by our teaching, we should not keep the result of our teaching in our hand. We must let the fruits of our teaching be for the local church. This is not a small matter.
It is a shame to say that even among us there is a secret trend of certain gifted persons keeping the result of their work in their hand. This is not for the building up; rather, it is a tearing down. In order to practice the church life, we must be clear about this. In the same way, all the saints should not be for any one ministry. They must be for the church. Someone may say, “I have received much help from this teacher. I am for him.” However, if you are for this teacher, he should not receive you in that way. Some in Corinth said, “I am of Paul,” but Paul answered by saying that he was for them (1 Cor. 3:4, 21-22). We should not be for any one person or his ministry. Rather, we are for the church where we live. We should forget about any minister who does something for his own ministry.
However, we should not blame the gifted persons. We need to blame ourselves, the congregation. It is too easy for people to be the followers of an idol. To say, “I am of Paul; I appreciate him,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Peter” is fleshly (1:12; 3:4). We must not say that we are for someone. We should say, “I am for the church in my locality.” If the saints are clear about this, no one will be able to create a division. If anyone tries to create a division, he will be by himself. No one will follow him. Rather, we will all go along with the local church. We may be kind to that brother and say, “Brother, we do appreciate your ministry. Praise the Lord! However, we are not for your ministry. We are for the local church. Moreover, we believe that you also know that your ministry is for the church.”
When people said, “I am of Paul,” Paul was not happy. However, today people like to hear this kind of statement. If someone would tell us, “I am for your ministry,” we might be very happy, but if they would say, “I am not for your ministry; I am for the local church,” we might be disappointed. To be this way is shameful. Nevertheless, we must blame ourselves because it is too easy for us to follow a ministry. We all have to share the responsibility of the wrongdoing. To receive a ministry is right, but we are not for the ministry, and we do not follow that ministry. We are for the local church. From now on, wherever we are, we must be only for the local church. Then no gifted person will be able to create a division among us.
The reason there is nearly no real practice of the church life today is simply that people are not clear about these points. On the one hand, some always keep something other than the oneness of the Spirit. On the other hand, others too easily follow certain ministries. As a result, there is no church life. These two items alone are sufficient to annul and destroy the church life. First, we should not have anything within us that divides. We must keep only one thing, the oneness of the Spirit. Second, we appreciate all the helpful ministries, but we must not be for any one of these ministries. We must be for the church.
The gifted persons do not build up the church directly. On the one hand, the Lord told us in Matthew 16:18, “I will build My church,” but on the other hand, even Christ the Head does not build His church directly. The Head builds the church through the gifted persons—the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. Likewise, the gifted persons also should not and do not build up the church directly. Ephesians 4:11 mentions the different gifted persons. Then verse 12 tells us that all these gifted persons are not for the building up of the church directly but are for the perfecting of the saints. If you are a gifted person, you should not build up the church directly. Your responsibility is to perfect all the local brothers, who build up the church directly. What you need to do is perfect others, train them, qualify them, enrich them, empower them, and teach them. Then let them do the work of building. Your duty is not to build up the church directly. Your duty is to perfect the saints. Let the perfected saints do the building work directly.
This is a very important matter. Many times I do not do much in the meetings because I do not want to give the impression that the meetings are my business. They are not my business. When I come to the meetings, I come as a guest. The saints are the host, so they need to serve, and I simply enjoy. I must say this because of our background in Christianity. In the Catholic Church there are priests, in the denominations there are ministers or pastors, and among the Brethren there are responsible brothers. We may compare these different persons to styles of clothes. I may put on Western clothes today, Japanese clothes another day, and traditional Chinese clothes the next, but I am still the same person. Likewise, whether we call certain ones pastors, ministers, or responsible brothers, they are the same kind of clergy. We should not have any clergy or laity among us.
For the past two years we also have had leading brothers. All the leading ones in the meeting must be careful about the way they act, not giving people the impression that they are taking the lead. Here again there are two responsible parties. On one side, the leading ones may carelessly act in a way that gives people the impression that they are taking the lead. On the other side, many of the dear brothers and sisters are weak and not right in their spirit, and they also have a wrong concept, coming to the meetings in a passive way, not in an active way. However, now we need to be clear. In order to practice the church life, the gifted persons should not build up the church directly. What they must do is perfect the saints and let them build up the church directly. This is the third aspect for the practice of the church life.
Verse 13 is a very important and practical verse. It says, “Until we all 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.” This verse speaks of arriving at three things. First, there is the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. This oneness is related to the oneness of the Spirit. We may illustrate these two kinds of oneness in this way. Three brothers may be saved all in the same night. After they are saved, they all have the same Spirit, so they have the oneness of the Spirit. At that time they are innocent and do not know much. They are newly saved, they have the Holy Spirit within them, and they love one another. After a short while, however, the first brother meets a pastor from a Southern Baptist denomination who is very devoted to the Lord and renders him much help. The brother appreciates him very much, and after a few months the brother is indoctrinated by him.
Similarly, the second brother receives much help from a Presbyterian at his place of work, and soon he too is indoctrinated with the Presbyterian teaching. At the same time the third brother receives help from someone in the Methodist denomination. After a few months these brothers meet again, and they begin to fight. The first brother fights for the Southern Baptist way, the second for the Presbyterian way, and the third for the Methodist way. The more these brothers learn, the more they are divided. Moreover, one brother changes and begins to meet with the Brethren. Then when he learns their ways and practices, he picks up even more divisive elements. This is a pitiful situation. All three brothers think that they are growing. However, they are growing only in their mind, not in the Lord. They are growing in doctrinal knowledge and not in the spirit. This situation will persist until some proper gifted persons perfect these three brothers and help them to grow. Perhaps after half a year by the Lord’s mercy they will have more growth. Then the more they receive the proper help and grow, the more they will be able to drop the things they picked up after they were saved. Then all three brothers will arrive at the oneness of the faith. In actuality, this means that they will come back to the oneness they once had.
Verse 13 also speaks of arriving at a full-grown man. To arrive in this way is a matter not of knowledge or gifts but of growth. We should not consider if a person is right according to teachings, gifts, or other matters. Rather, we should check to see if he is growing. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ in this verse is also related to growth. The gifted persons need to perfect the saints in the above three matters. They must help the saints to grow that they may arrive at the oneness of the faith. Many saints have picked up many things due to receiving the wrong help. Now the gifted ones must render them the proper help that they may drop all these wrong things, grow, and arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, and at maturity in the life of Christ.
Verse 14 says, “That we may be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a system of error.” Faith is different from the teaching, or doctrine, mentioned in this verse. As long as we believe that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God who was incarnated as a man, died on the cross for our sins, and resurrected, we are saved, regardless of whether or not we believe in a particular doctrine. This proves that the teaching spoken of in verse 14 is not a part of the faith. Rather, it is a wind to blow us away from Christ and from the Body. Today many different winds of doctrines are blowing people away from the church life. We need to keep the faith, but we must drop the doctrines. When I say this, some may say, “This man teaches heresy. The Bible tells us to learn doctrine, but this man says we should forget about doctrine.” Nevertheless, if we will leave the doctrines, the winds of teaching, we will be blessed by God.
We need to drop the mere doctrines and love the Lord, contact Him, testify for Him, and live in the spirit with Him. We need to fight the battle, not against people but for the recovery of the Body life. We must testify to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies that we are here for nothing but Christ and His Body. If we are not, then we will not be able to face the situation when we go out. The winds of teaching are seducing and subtle. When I read certain teachings, I sense the seducing spirit. They seem very convincing. If we have not laid a basic foundation, I am afraid that we will not be able to withstand them. We too will be blown away.
I thank the Lord for His sovereignty. I was born into Christianity, and I learned all the things of Christianity. I also learned under the Brethren, so I know what they teach. However, I realized by the Lord’s mercy that this is not the right way. This is not the way of life, and it is not the right way to practice the church life. From now on, may we know nothing but Christ as our life, and may we come together in Him and with Him to practice the church life, walking, acting, working, and serving in the spirit, and being limited by the Body. This is all we need to do. In the fear of God and in the love of the Lord we would not touch anything sinful. Moreover, we would forget about the mere doctrines, interpretations, and similar matters. We read the Word not for the understanding of doctrines but to partake of the life in Christ through the spirit. Day by day we read the Bible to feed on the Lord, not to learn the mere doctrines.
Verse 14 speaks of the wind of teaching, not the wind of heresies. It seems that teachings and doctrines are good. Nevertheless, from now on, all the brothers who feel burdened to minister among us must minister in a way to feed people with life, not to teach people to know certain expositions and interpretations. The sisters likewise should learn not to speak in a doctrinal way. Whenever someone is speaking mere doctrines, we should pray, look to the Lord, and tell him, “Let us come back to Christ. Let us come back to contact Him, follow Him, and feed on Him. Forget about the mere mental understanding of the letters.” The letter, the doctrine, kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6). We all need to exercise in this way.
If you go to the Far East and contact the brothers, especially in Taipei, you will have the sense that they do not pay much attention to mere doctrines. They simply pay their attention to love the Lord, live Him, and serve Him. We must build up this kind of atmosphere among us. To not pay attention to doctrines does not mean that we are careless with the proper teaching. We are not careless with the proper teaching, but we do not pay our attention to mere teaching. Of course, we do not go along with anything that is sinful or that damages the Lord’s Body. However, we pay our full attention mainly to the living Lord, to the Spirit, and to His church.
The winds of teaching include many matters. If we argue about teaching, we will miss the mark. Instead of arguing, we need to always keep to the mark of Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. We must love Him, contact Him, walk with Him and in Him, and be willing to be joined with others. Then we will have the church life and minister Christ to others. This is all we need, and this is what the apostle teaches in Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4:15 continues, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.” We not only speak the truth, but we hold to the truth. Truth here does not refer to mere teachings. To hold to truth means to hold to the reality. We must not argue about teaching or forms. Rather, we need to hold the reality, which is Christ. We should not argue with people about baptism by sprinkling or immersion, for example. Instead, we simply need to hold the reality of baptism. The reality of baptism is our identification with Christ. We have been crucified, buried, and resurrected with Him. This identification with Christ is the very reality of baptism. Similarly, the sisters should not argue with people about the outward head covering. Rather, they should keep the reality of head covering, which is the headship of Christ.
Verse 15 says that if we hold the reality, we will grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ. When we hold the reality, we grow into Christ. This proves that the truth we hold, the reality, is Christ. We keep Christ as the reality in all things. That we need to grow up into Christ in all things indicates that in some things we have not yet grown up into Him. To grow up into Christ in all things is to be taken over by Him. In every aspect of all things we need to be possessed by Christ.
Verse 16 says, “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.” With every member, that is, every part, there is an operation in a measure. Each one has a part, and each one’s function in its measure must be applied to the church life. The growth in this verse is for the building up of the Body in love. This means that the Body builds itself up not directly by the gifted persons but by all the different parts, the different members. The gifted persons take the responsibility to educate, train, qualify, empower, enrich, and perfect the members, and the members themselves build up the local church directly by their function.
This verse says that the Body is joined together and knit together. Even today some say that the church will be built up only in the heavens, that this cannot be accomplished on the earth in this age. If this were the case, there would be no need for us to come together. According to verses 1 through 16, the building is something that is accomplished today on this earth. Unless this goal is realized on the earth, the Lord Jesus will not be able to come back. There is the real need of the building up. Wait and see—if not the whole Body, at least a small number, a remnant, a part of the Body, will be recovered for the building up. This recovery will be a preparation for Christ’s return. In order to practice the church life, we must not neglect any of the matters we have fellowshipped in this chapter. We need to keep all these points. Then we will know the way to practice the church life.
