Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:17-32
We have seen that in chapter two we have the creation of the new man and in chapter four, the growth of the new man. In order for the new man to grow, we need to experience the crucified, resurrected, ascended, and descending Christ. This means that the all-inclusive Christ must be wrought into us to be our everything. Then the organically perfect new man will also become perfect functionally.
The new man is not perfected mainly by teaching. Teaching may actually be a frustration to our growth in life. Before the new man could be created, all the ordinances had to be abolished. Now for the new man to grow, we must be careful about doctrine. Ordinances are obstacles to the formation of the new man, and doctrines are frustrations to the growth of the new man. I hope that all those who take the lead in the local churches will realize that we should not place our trust in doctrine to produce growth in the saints. Growth only comes through the experience of Christ. The degree to which we can minister Christ is in direct proportion to our experience of Christ. The more we experience Him, the more we can minister Him to others. As we minister Christ, others will be nourished.
The very Christ who was crucified and resurrected and who has ascended to the third heaven is now working within us to constitute us into functioning members of the Body. He carries out this work by making His home in our hearts and by saturating us with Himself. As He saturates us, we are sanctified, purified, nourished, cherished, and transformed. The result is that we become perfected functionally. In this way the Body grows and builds itself up. The Body is not built directly by the Head or by the gifts mentioned in 4:11; it is built up directly by those members who have been perfected by the gifted ones.
Concerning this crucial matter, I pray that we all shall have a clear sky. I can testify that the sky above me is crystal clear regarding the growth of the new man. In these days may the Lord make all His faithful seeking ones transparently clear about the one new man. How blessed we are to be living at a time when the Lord is recovering these things! Ephesians 4 has never been as clear to us as it is in these days.
All those who desire to migrate for the spread of the church life must realize that migration is not a movement. It is the move of the one new man, that is, the move of the all-inclusive Christ in His Body. It is the move of Christ, the heavenly Solomon, in His palanquin. If the Lord is to move among us in such a way, we should not function in an individualistic way. Rather, we should function in the Body in the way of coordination. In order to function in this way, we need to experience Christ and to grow in Him. The measure of our growth will be the sphere, the realm, of our function. If we fail to function, there will be a gap in the Body. But if we function excessively, we shall cause a cancer in the Body. As the Head of the Body, Christ thoroughly knows the situation of the Body. According to His mercy, may the Body be preserved both from any shortage and from cancer caused by overfunction.
We praise the Lord for opening His Word to us. We thank Him for showing us that the vital need is for Christ to be wrought into our being. The more we are saturated with Christ, the more we become in reality parts of the Body with a particular measure of function. Then wherever we may be we shall function properly, and the Body will grow. This will cause Satan, the enemy of God, to tremble. It will also hasten the coming back of the Lord Jesus.
Because the book of Ephesians is a book on the church, we should view everything in it from the perspective of the church. If we fail to do this, we shall wrongly apply many things in this book. As we read 4:17-32, we should apply these verses corporately, not individualistically. These verses are not written in relation to the lives of individuals, but in relation to the corporate life of the one new man. The new man must become our daily living. In verse 24 Paul speaks of putting on the new man. To put on the new man means to have the church life, which is the new life of the new mankind created by Christ in Himself. The church is a new humanity. Corporately we need to put on another humanity. It is crucial for us to have this view as we consider the second half of Ephesians 4.
To put off the old man is not merely to put off the old nature; it is to put off the old way of life, the former way of living. Our old way of living was not entirely an individualistic way of life, for it involved our social life, our community life. No human being can be altogether individualistic. Human nature is inherently social. To be a human being is to live in society and to have some kind of community life.
In the church we have the best community life. If there were no church meetings, we would feel aimless, and our existence would be meaningless. We enjoy coming together in the meetings. The fact that the saints often linger after the meetings are dismissed indicates that in the church we have a genuine community life. If we would be the one new man, we must put off the community life of the old man and put on the community life of the new man.
Visiting Chinatown is part of Chinese social life in America. It is part of the living of the old man that must be put off if we are to practice the church life as the one new man. Many of those who go to Chinatown may discover that they have a difficult time praying after they come home. The reason for this is that, while they were in Chinatown, they were walking according to the vanity of the mind instead of being renewed in the spirit of the mind.
For the sisters to put off the old man in a practical way, they need to put off their old way of shopping. I believe that most sisters find it difficult to pray when they are in a department store because their way of shopping is according to the living of the old man. It seems that the old man who was buried in baptism is resuscitated in the department store. We need to keep the old man in the tomb in a practical way.
Sometimes in the church life those of a certain nationality may cluster together and converse in their native language instead of English. This practice shows that it is not easy to put off the old man. We automatically prefer our old community life. The reason today’s Christianity is so weak is that it is permeated with the old man and his community life. In the denominations it is very difficult to see anything of the one new man. In the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we should no longer live according to the former conduct of the old man. We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind and put on the one new man.
The Lord’s intention today is not simply to gather us together, but to cause us to put off the life of the old man. We must put off not only our old nature, but also our former manner of life. Our way of life must become absolutely new in nature, manner, and practice. The church life is the daily living of the new man in the new nature and manner. May we all look to the Lord and pray, “Lord, deliver my mind from vanity and fill it with the reality of the Spirit. Cause my mind to be occupied, possessed, and saturated by the reality of Jesus.” If we pray in this way, the Chinese brothers and sisters will find it hard to go to Chinatown, and the sisters will find it hard to shop in the old way. Then we shall have not only the creation of the new man, but the new man growing and functioning with a proper daily living. This is strategic to God’s economy. If the Lord can have this among us, He will gain a great victory. To have personal victories over things such as our temper cannot compare to the corporate victory of putting on the living of the new man in a practical way. The church life is the life of the corporate new man with a new nature and a new manner. Everything related to the living of the one new man is new.
In 4:24 Paul says that the new man is according to God. This means that the new man is according to God Himself, with God’s life and nature. Since the new man is according to God, it must have a life that is divine. Such a life will not be individualistic; it will be corporate. I believe that before long the living of the new man will be realized in the Lord’s recovery. In various localities the Lord will have a people whose daily living is the corporate life of the new man. This is the church life according to God’s plan.
We do not have the church life simply by coming together in the meetings to sing, pray-read, praise the Lord, and give testimonies. The church life is the daily walk of a corporate man, a walk that is absolutely new in nature and in manner. If we walk according to the spirit of our mind, we shall be those who live such a corporate life. We shall have the proper community life in which everything is new. May the Lord hasten the day when concerning this matter our sky is clear and we are fully in the light!
In verse 17 Paul charges us to “no longer walk as the nations also walk in the vanity of their mind.” Those who walk in this way are “darkened in their understanding, estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance which is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (v. 18). It is possible to be a saved person, one who has the life of God, yet walk in the vanity of the mind. For example, some may do their shopping in the vanity of the mind and thereby become alienated from the life of God. Others may go to Chinatown and be estranged from the life of God. As they sit in the restaurant enjoying a Chinese meal, they may sense that, because they are living according to the former manner of life, they are cut off from the life of God. Because of the insulation within them, they do not sense the flow of the heavenly electricity. Whenever we return to the old manner of life, we shall spontaneously sense that we are darkened within and estranged from God’s life. If we persist in living according to the former manner of life, we shall eventually become calloused and insensitive. We may even cease from feeling because we do not care for our conscience.
The church life is definitely a community life. But it is a community life altogether different from that of the old man. The community life of the one new man is new in every way.
Consider how many terms Paul uses to describe the life of fallen man in verses 17 through 19. He refers to vanity, darkness, estrangement, ignorance, and hardness. Whenever we live according to our old community life, we do not sense any shining or brightness within. We may reason that it is permissible to do a certain thing, but we realize that it causes us to be alienated from the life of God and to be in darkness.
The church life is not a matter of right and wrong; it is a matter of the living Christ. You may argue that it is not wrong for you to go shopping at a certain department store. You may insist that such a thing is not sinful. There may in fact be nothing wrong with it, but it causes you to be darkened and estranged from the life of God. You may be right in every way, but you do not experience Christ as your life and as your person. This is the reason that after you go shopping you may not be able to pray for a period of time. The church life is higher than the standard of right and wrong; it is a living that is according to Christ. If Christ is the One living in us, He will not allow us to do certain things. For example, He will not be pleased for us to go shopping according to our former manner of life. Such a way of living is not according to the living of Christ.
In 4:20 Paul speaks of learning Christ and in verse 21, of having been “taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus.” In a note on 4:21 J. N. Darby points out that in Greek there is an emphatic article before Jesus. He then goes on to say that this indicates that “Jesus’ is personally brought into relief.” The truth in Jesus is the real situation of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, a life filled with truth, reality. Jesus lived a life of always doing things in God, with God, and for God. God was in His life, and He was one with God. This is the truth in Jesus. Jesus lived in a way that always corresponded to God’s righteousness and holiness.
In verse 24 Paul says that the new man is created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth. This truth no doubt is the very truth in Jesus. Our standard of living should not be according to the law or according to the standards of society; it must be according to the truth in Jesus, the reality lived out by Jesus when He was on earth. Hence, the life of Jesus should be our life today in the church. In other words, the living of the new man should be exactly the same as the living of Jesus. The way Jesus lived on earth is the way the new man should live today.
If we would live in such a way, we should not reason according to right or wrong. Instead, we should consider the various aspects of our daily life according to the truth as it is in Jesus. For example, if we are about to go shopping, we should ask whether the Lord Jesus is going shopping. The life of the one new man must be that of the reality of Jesus. If we all live in a way that is heavenly, divine, righteous, holy, and glorious, we shall have a wonderful community life in the church. This is the corporate life of the new man.
Toward the end of chapter four Paul says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption” (v. 30). I am concerned that day by day and even hour by hour many of us are grieving the indwelling Holy Spirit. We grieve Him because we do not live according to the new manner of life. Instead, we walk according to the vanity of the mind. Because we do not stay in the spirit of the mind, we grieve the Holy Spirit. This is a further indication that the new man needs not only creation and growth for function, but also the practical daily living with a new manner of life. This is the church life.
