THE VISION, PRACTICE, AND BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH AS THE BODY OF CHRIST
Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:1-3; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Eph. 2:15; Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 1:10
I. The first item of a walk that is worthy of God's calling is that we must be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit (Eph. 4:3); this oneness is already within us, so there is no need to attain, gain, or receive it; what we need today is to keep, preserve, and maintain what we have already gained:
A. Just as the current of electricity is the electricity itself, the oneness of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself; at the time we believed in the Lord Jesus, this wonderful, inexhaustible Spirit came into us as the oneness.
B. First John 3:14-15 indicates that the love for the brothers is a proof that we have eternal life within us; therefore, the genuine oneness is the very Spirit who is within us.
C. Every real Christian has this oneness, which is nothing less than the living Lord Himself as the wonderful, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who is within us (2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45b); now what we need is not to receive or gain this oneness but to endeavor, strive, and struggle to keep, maintain, and preserve the oneness.
II. Five phrases in Ephesians 4:1-3 give us a practical way to keep the oneness: lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, bearing one another in love, and the uniting bond of peace; these five items are a test to us in the practice of the church life; by this test we can see whether or not we are practically in the church life:
A. We should not set up a higher standard for others, but in lowliness we should love the weaker ones:
1. As long as we take something other than Christ Himself as our standard, we do not have lowliness; if we put forth a high standard, we are not lowly in our mind and attitude.
2. Regardless of how good, heavenly, or spiritual something is, as long as it is something other than Christ Himself, it will cause division.
3. The weaker ones, the younger ones, and the backsliders need more love in the Lord; to love them will solve most of their problems; otherwise, we will set up a high standard out of pride and not lowliness.
B. We must sacrifice ourselves to be meek in our attitude—Num. 12:3; Matt. 5:5:
1. The Greek word for meekness implies mildness, gentleness, and unselfishness.
2. Meekness is a matter of an unselfish attitude that is mild and gentle, never argues for oneself, and never makes an excuse for oneself—cf. 2 Chron. 1:10; Col. 2:2-3; Phil. 4:5; Num. 12:3.
3. In order to be meek, we must sacrifice ourselves, regardless of how we are treated; in the church life we must not have a harsh, hard, or cruel attitude.
4. In order to have the proper attitude, we must not be selfish; unselfishness produces meekness, mildness, and gentleness.
5. In many local churches the problems come mostly from wrong, careless, cold, and harsh attitudes; Satan always uses careless attitudes to attack the church—Eph. 6:16.
6. In order to have the church life, we need to learn that it is very fine, not rough; according to the type, the church is a corporate meal offering, a cake, made of fine flour—Lev. 2:1-5; 1 Cor. 10:17.
C. To be long-suffering is to endure mistreatment; to be long-suffering is mainly related to our spoken word:
1. A brother may wrong us, but for the Lord's glory and for the sake of the church life, we should not speak a word about it; to utter, express, and talk about everything that happens to us requires no long-suffering or patience.
2. If we see the leading brothers quarreling, we may immediately go and relate this to another brother, but if we have learned the lesson, for the Lord's glory and for the sake of His church we will not say a word.
3. If we learn to keep our words in such a proper way, we will realize the true meaning of the word suffering in the church life.
4. Immediately after a message is given, we may begin to criticize the speaker, but if we have learned the lesson, we will say nothing negative about the ministry, despite what we feel about it, for the sake of the practice of the church life; our mouths will be under the control of the Holy Spirit.
5. Our speech and our conversation damage the church more than anything else; once a story is secondhand, it begins to change, and eventually it can become a great exaggeration; this is always the case with rumors.
6. In order to learn the lesson of long-suffering, we need to experience the suffering of restricting our mouth and stopping our tongue; we may see and hear many things, but we should not speak a word without the anointing and leading of the Holy Spirit so that the church life will be kept from damage.
D. In order to bear one another in love, we need to fight against suspicion and fear in the church life:
1. Instead of suspicion and fear, we should have only love; love should prevail in the church life; love is the most excellent way for us to be anything or do anything in the church life—12:31b.
2. To have suspicion toward a brother means that our love is gone; then after suspicion, fear will follow; 1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."
3. It is always a temptation to know others' attitude toward us, how they consider us, and what is being said about us; in order to realize the church life, we must reject this temptation—cf. Eccl. 7:21-22.
E. We need to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace:
1. If we have peace only with God and not with all the brothers, we have lost the church life.
2. The church life is tested by the peace we have, not only vertically with God but also horizontally with all the brothers.
3. We should not be over-related or under-related to anyone; the uniting bond of peace is the balanced relatedness in the church.
III. We need to consider one new man in Ephesians 2:15 together with one mouth in Romans 15:6 and speak the same thing in 1 Corinthians 1:10:
A. For the church as the one new man, we all need to take Christ as our person in the matter of speaking—Matt. 12:34-37; Eph. 3:17a; John 7:16-18; 8:28, 38a; 12:49-50; 14:10.
B. The entire Bible has one mouth and speaks the same thing—Heb. 1:1-2a.
C. In today's Christianity there are many mouths, each speaking a different thing; this is the pitiful situation of every preacher wanting to speak his own thing and thinking it a shame to speak what others have spoken—Gen. 11:7, 9.
D. In the past there were too many mouths because there were too many persons.
E. In the one new man there is one mouth to speak the same thing—Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 1:10.
F. There is only one new man, and the one new man has only one person, so the one new man speaks with one mouth and says the same thing.
G. With one accord and with one mouth (Rom 15:6) mean that even though we are many and all are speaking, we all speak the same thing (1 Cor. 1:10):
1. The church is the one new man with only one person—Christ—and this person controls our speaking; thus, whatever He speaks is surely the same thing.
2. When we are about to speak, we need to resolve a basic question: in this matter of speaking, am I the person or is Christ the person?
3. If in our speaking we do not take ourselves as the person but allow Christ to be the person, then there will be one mouth, and everyone will speak the same thing.
H. In the one new man there is only one person, and only this person has the freedom to speak—Matt. 17:5:
1. In the one new man there is no freedom for us to speak our own things.
2. The Lord Jesus has the absolute freedom to speak, and our natural man has absolutely no freedom to speak.
I. Although we are many and come from many places, we all have one mouth, and we all speak the same thing; this is because we all are the one new man having only one person—Eph. 2:15; 4:22-24; 3:17a; Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 1:10.
J. If we hold Christ as the Head (acknowledging that only He is the Head and coming absolutely under His authority), we cannot have different interpretations of Scripture—1 Tim.1:3-4;Col.2:19:
1. Differences arise when someone is not holding the Head, because Christ can-not possibly say one thing to one member and something else to another.
2. Christ is the unique authority in the Body; the place of all the members is to hold the Head and to acknowledge Him as the unique and supreme authority in all things.
K. Only one kind of ministry builds up and never divides—this is the unique ministry of God's economy—1 Tim. 1:3-4:
1. "Human pride always likes to make the self different from others. You may speak one thing, but I would never speak what you speak because of my pride. I want to speak something different from what you speak, something new and something better. This is the self, and this is fleshly pride" (The Divine Economy, p. 124).
2. The only way that we can be preserved in the eternal oneness for the one new man is to teach the same thing, the economy of God—Rom. 15:6.