Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:12-16, 22-24
We have pointed out that the church is not only the Body, but also the new man. As the Body, the church needs Christ as life. But as the new man, the church needs Christ as the person. For example, trees have life, but they do not have a person and therefore have no personality. As human beings, however, we have both life and personality, for we are persons.
Because the church is not only the Body with Christ as life but also the new man with Christ as the person, Paul in Eph. 3:17 emphasizes the importance of Christ making His home in our hearts. Although our spirit is a vessel to contain God, the spirit is not the center of personality. The center of personality is the heart. The various functions of our personality — our mind, emotion, and will — are directly related to our heart, not to our spirit. Because all the functions of personality are concentrated in the heart, it is the place where Christ desires to make His home. Christ as the life-giving Spirit is now in our spirit. However, He wants to spread into our hearts and make His home there.
Through regeneration we have Christ as the Spirit in our spirit. But through transformation Christ will spread from our spirit into our heart. Every regenerated person has Christ in his spirit, but not many have allowed Christ to spread into their hearts. This is the reason Paul prayed that we would be strengthened into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:16). It seems as if Paul wanted to tell the Ephesians, “Because you have been saved and regenerated, you have Christ in your spirit. But I’m concerned that you have not allowed Christ to spread into your hearts. Therefore, I pray for you that you may be strengthened in your spirit by the Spirit so that Christ may make His home in your hearts.”
We need to take Christ not only as the life in our spirit, but also as the person in our heart. When Christ is in our spirit, He is our life. However, when He spreads into our heart, He also becomes our person. We all have Christ in our spirit, but I wonder how much Christ has spread into our heart.
Sisters, do you take Christ as your person when you go shopping? Do you allow Him to make home in your heart as you are deciding what to buy? For the most part, you are the one who makes these decisions, not Christ. You have Christ in your spirit as life. The problem is that you confine Him to your spirit. Deep within I am afraid that you say, “Lord Jesus, You are my life in my spirit. But when it comes to shopping, I want You to stay in my spirit. Let me shop according to what is in my heart. I want to buy the things I like. Lord, my spirit is Your sphere. But my heart is reserved for me.” When you pray, you may contact the Lord in your spirit, only to leave Him and go shopping according to your own desire and choice. Of course, the sisters may not put this into words, but this may be their attitude. I doubt that many sisters consult the Lord about their shopping. This indicates that in the practical matter of shopping they do not take Christ as their person in their hearts.
Simply having Christ as life does not produce the church life. In order to have the proper church life, we must take Christ as our person. Remember that the church is the new man as well as the Body. As the new man, the church needs Christ as the person. The main problem is not with the life, but with the person. There is no need to adjust the life, but there is the need for a change of person. Our mind, emotion, and will all need to be adjusted. With the church life, the problem is not only with our taking Christ as life; it is also with our taking Christ as our person. Very few saints take Christ as their person in an adequate way. To have Christ as our person is deeper, higher, and fuller than to have Him as our life. In Ephesians 3 Paul did not pray that the saints would have Christ as life. He prayed that they would take Him as their person by allowing Him to make His home in their hearts. This is our need today.
Whatever we do, we should do by taking Christ as our person. The question is not what we do, but who is doing it. Are we the ones, or is it Christ? Concerning shopping, it is not a matter of what we intend to buy; it is a matter of who is buying that particular item. Are we the ones buying it, or is it Christ? If we do not take Christ as our person, it may even be wrong in the eyes of the Lord to purchase a Bible. Hence, the question is not what we do or what we buy; it is who is doing that thing or buying that item.
The only way for Christ to be our person is for Him to make His home in our hearts. The need in all the local churches is for the saints to take Christ both as their life and as their person by allowing Him to make His home in their hearts. The churches are the Lord’s testimony on earth. But this testimony must have an inward reality. I am sorry to say that it is possible for the church to be an empty shell, a shell without content. The content of the church must be the very Christ whom we take as life and as our person. If we take Christ as our person, then as we come together in the meetings Christ will be expressed from our spirit and through our heart. All those who come will sense that Christ is present both as our life and as our person.
The meetings of a local church must be the expression of Christ. Christ is not only the victorious and prevailing life, but also a practical, present, living Person. Whenever we testify in the meetings, others will be able to tell whether or not we have been taking Christ as our person. If we are faithful to take Christ as our person, we shall enjoy the presence of the Lord Jesus in the meetings. In fact, the meetings will even be His presence, for He will be expressed from within us.
We need to pray for ourselves and for others to have the reality of taking Christ as our person in our daily living. Everything we do should be done not by the self, but by Christ. His tastes and preferences need to become ours. Then Christ will be not only our life, but also our person. The Lord will thus expand in our heart, take possession of our heart, and make His home in our heart in a full way. Eventually, He will saturate our whole being with Himself, and we shall live no longer by the self, but by Christ. The more this becomes our experience, the more the meetings of the church will be the presence of the Lord Jesus. In such meetings there is little need for preaching, teaching, or the exercise of gifts, because Christ is expressed through the saints. Because Christ is so rich, available, present, and practical in the experience of the saints, they will be able to share Christ with one another. What a difference between such meetings and the “services” in today’s Christianity!
In Ephesians 4 we see that when the victorious Christ ascended, He led a train of vanquished foes and constituted them into gifts to His Body. We have pointed out that we become gifts through experiencing Christ’s descending and ascending within us.
Paul is the most useful gift given by Christ to His Body. Before being constituted a gift to the church, Paul was an enemy of Christ and a persecutor of the church. Nevertheless, when the Lord Jesus appeared to him, Paul was defeated. He fell to the ground, and said, “Who art thou, Lord?” By calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, he was saved, and the Lord came into him. At that moment, Saul of Tarsus became a vanquished foe. In the years to follow, he went on to experience Christ’s descending and ascending within him. Eventually, through this experience of the traveling Christ, Paul became an outstanding gift to the Body.
The principle is the same with us. Although we were once enemies of the Lord, one day He met us, perhaps as we were on our road to Damascus. The Lord vanquished us, captured us, and put us in His train of vanquished foes. Now, by descending and ascending within us, He is constituting us into gifts to His Body.
Many Christians think only the leading apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers are gifts to the church. However, if we read 4:7 in context, we shall see that every member, including every one of us, is a gift to the Body. In 4:16 Paul speaks of every part, that is, every member. Every member of the Body may be a gift if he is constituted by the descending and ascending Christ.
Ephesians 4:12 speaks of the perfecting of the saints. To perfect the saints is not mainly to teach them; it is to minister Christ to them. What the saints need is not the knowledge of doctrine, but the ministering of Christ. Whenever someone ministers Christ to us, we spontaneously have the sense that we are fed and nourished, that we have received Christ as our food supply. Through this supply we are strengthened and enlightened.
However, it is altogether different when someone comes to us with enticing questions. When the serpent contacted Eve in the garden, he asked, “Has God said?” In like manner, negative ones often raise tempting questions. We need to realize immediately that such questions do not come from the Lord. Those who contact us in this way do not minister Christ. They do not supply us with food, they do not water us, and they do not strengthen, enlighten, or equip us. The effect of their questions is darkness and death. As soon as we are aware of this kind of speaking, we must close ourselves to it and refuse to take it in.
What the saints need is to have Christ ministered into them. This is necessary for the church life. In all our contact with the saints there should be the ministry of Christ as the life supply. The leading gifts are to perfect the saints through such a ministry of Christ. The more the saints are supplied with the living Christ, the more they are perfected.
As the saints are perfected through the ministry of Christ, they will grow up into Christ. We have Christ within us, but in many matters we are still in the self. Hence, we need the growth that will bring us out of ourselves and into Christ. Teaching cannot do this. This can be done only through the ministry of Christ as food and nourishment.
The growth into Christ in 4:15 is equal to the putting on of the new man in verse 24. The only way to put on the new man is to grow up into Christ. The more we grow into Christ, the more we put on the new man. To put on the new man is to be in the proper church life. We cannot be in the church life if we do not grow into Christ. We need to grow up into Christ in all the details of our daily living, for example, in shopping and in talking. Often our talk is natural and devoid of Christ. The only way to be free from such a natural way of speaking is to grow out of it by growing up into Christ. If we grow in Christ in the matter of talking, our talk will eventually be in Christ. By growing up into Christ in this particular matter, we spontaneously put on more of the new man.
In some localities the saints love the Lord very much; however, they are quite natural. Nearly everything about them — their behavior, their virtues, their way of speaking — is natural. With them there is no sign of having grown up into Christ. This is disturbing to the indwelling Spirit, who longs for the church to be realized as the new man. In order to put on the church life as the expression of the one new man, we need to grow out of everything natural by growing up into Christ. If we have the perfection with the growth spoken of in 4:13 and 15, surely we shall put on the new man.
As we grow into Christ, we shall also put off the old man, especially regarding the former manner of life. The manner of life of the old man is the old social life, the old community life. By creation, every human being needs a community life. Before we were saved, we had a certain kind of social life. Now that we are saved our social life needs a change. This means that we need a change of community. The church life is the best “social life.” We can testify that in the church life our former social life has been exchanged for the best community life. Praise the Lord for the “social life” in the church!
However, if we proclaim that the church is our community life but we do not grow into Christ, we shall not be stable in the church life. Some say that they are for the church life. However, when they are disappointed with something in the church, they leave. This indicates that they have not truly put on the church life by growing up into Christ. The only way to put on the church life is to grow up into Christ in all things. Suppose a sister does not grow up into Christ in her shopping. As long as she lacks growth in this matter, her church life will not be altogether secure. The security of our church life depends upon our growing up into Christ in particular matters. If we do not grow up into Christ, we may be in the church life one day and gone the next. For a steady church life, we need to grow up into Christ in particular ways. Once again we see that to put on the new man is to grow.
What we need is not growth in a general way, but in particular ways. For example, a brother may need to grow up into Christ in the way he cuts his hair or in the way he deals with his wife. If we do not show any growth in such aspects of our daily life, others may rightfully question the security of our life in the church. Only by growing in particular things will our church life become steady, stable, and secure. The more we grow in Christ, the more of the church life we put on.
The church life is not a matter of good character or good works. It is altogether a matter of growth into Christ in particular things. By growing day by day in Christ, we gradually put off the old social life and put on the church the new man as the new community life. As we grow, we take Christ both as our life and as our person. Growth depends upon Christ making His home in our hearts. If we do not give Christ the opportunity to make His home in us, we can neither take Him as our person nor have the genuine growth in Christ. We grow in Christ only by taking Him as our person. The more we take Christ as our person, the more we grow up into Christ in particular things. The result is that we put on more of the church life.
It is possible to be in the church life merely in an outward way. However, if we do not grow in Christ by taking Him as our person, we are not in the church life in reality. The reality and practicality of the church life consists in growing up into Christ, which in turn is based upon taking Christ as our person in particular matters. As we take Christ as our person and grow up into Him, the church life is constituted into our being, and we become part of the church. This is the proper church life.
