THE VISION, PRACTICE, AND BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH AS THE BODY OF CHRIST
Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; Gen. 28:10-19; Eph. 2:21-22; Heb. 13:13-14; 1 Tim. 3:15-16
I. The building up of the church is the aim of God's eternal purpose and plan; it is the central point, the ultimate aim, of God's purpose according to all the visions and revelations in the Scriptures—Matt. 16:18; Rev. 21:10-11:
A. Visions in the Scriptures are related to God's building—Gen. 28:10-19; Rev. 21:2.
B. There is a principle of first mention in the Bible; that is, the principle of a matter is set forth when it is mentioned for the first time:
1. The first vision in the Scriptures is a vision of God's building—Gen. 28:10-19.
2. According to the principle of first mention, the visions in the Bible are there-fore related to God's building—Ezek. 1:1; 8:3; 43:1-7.
C. The first vision in the Bible is a dream, the central point of which is the house of God, Bethel, built with human beings mingled with the Triune God—Gen. 28:10-19.
D. The final vision in the Scriptures—an enlarged vision, a vision in full—is the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:2—22:5:
1. The vision at Bethel is the seed of the vision, and the vision of the New Jerusalem is the harvest of the vision.
2. Between the vision of Bethel and the vision of the New Jerusalem, there are a number of visions in the Bible; these visions are the growth, the enlargement, the recovery, and even the enlargement of the enlargement of the seed of the vision:
a. Moses saw a vision of the building of the tabernacle; he saw a genuine vision of the heavenly pattern for God's building—a vision that was the growth of the seed—Exo. 25—31.
b. David saw the next major vision, the vision of the temple as the enlargement of the tabernacle—2 Sam. 7:1-16.
c. According to Ezekiel 40 through 48, the temple that Ezekiel saw was an enlargement of the temple seen by David.
d. Zechariah's vision was related to the recovery of the temple, and Daniel's visions were related to the temple in the end times—Zech. 4:9; Dan. 9:27.
e. The Epistles show us the vision of the church that the apostles, mainly Peter and Paul, saw in their own time—1 Pet. 2:5; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16.
f. The final vision, the consummate vision, was seen by the apostle John— Rev. 21:2, 10-11.
E. We need a vision to see God's building; if we are open to the Lord and seek Him, eventually the vision will be open to us, and we will see it in our spirit, and the building of God will become a vision to us—Eph. 1:17-18; 2:21-22.
II. In order to carry out the vision of the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, there is the need for a remnant to go outside the camp unto Christ—Heb. 13:13-14:
A. Hebrews 13:13 indicates that the believers are to follow Jesus outside the camp:
1. Both in the book of Hebrews and in typology, the camp signifies the organization of religion, which is human and earthly.
2. To go outside the camp means to go outside the human organization of religion.
3. Whereas the camp signifies the human organization, the city signifies the earthly realm; every religion is both a human organization and an earthly realm that keeps God's people from the New Testament economy—v. 14; 1 Tim.1:3-4;Eph.3:9.
4. Any religion—Judaism, Catholicism, or Protestantism—which has rejected the Lord is a camp, a human organization, given up by Him.
5. In principle, Christianity as a religious system comprises a group of religious people, belonging to the Lord in name and honoring the Lord with their mouth but having their hearts set on something other than the Lord— Matt. 15:8-9; 2 Tim. 3:5.
B. Today God needs a remnant, a small group of overcomers, to take the stand that was lost by the whole church and, seeing a vision of God's original purpose, go outside the camp unto Christ—Acts 26:19; Phil. 3:4-8; Heb. 13:13; Rev. 2:7:
1. Today some are still considering how to identify themselves with all the members of the Body.
2. Those who try to do this will not succeed, for this is not the nature of the present age:
a. The age today is a time for some overcomers to listen to the voice of the rejected Lord, the One who is outside the camp—v. 7; Heb. 13:13.
b. Instead of trying to "identify" with the ones still in the camp, we should come out of the camp and go unto the Lord to follow Him for His purpose— 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 3:11; Rom. 8:28.
3. We must not go along with the religious concept and the human thought but go along with the heavenly vision of the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and go outside the camp unto Christ—Prov. 29:18; Eph. 4:16.
III. God's building is the test of our spirituality—1 Cor. 14:4, 12, 26:
A. The building is the test of every kind of spirituality—Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Cor. 14:26:
1. We ourselves are not the standard by which our spirituality is tested; our spirituality must be tested by God's building, the Body of Christ.
2. Individualistic spirituality is not the genuine spirituality:
a. If someone thinks that he is spiritual, yet he is independent, individualistic, and isolated from the Body, his spirituality is a deception.
b. Real and genuine spirituality is for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ—Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:12, 15-16.
3. In God's concern what matters is not our spirituality but the building; the building of God is our standard and test.
B. According to the book of Ezekiel, the requirements of the indwelling Christ are according to the house; everyone must be measured and checked according to the measurement of God's house—43:10:
1. Our living, conduct, and service should be examined not merely according to moral regulations and spiritual principles but also according to the house of God, the church as the Body of Christ—1 Tim. 3:15-16.
2. Our main concern should not be with improving our behavior or becoming spiritual but with fitting into the house—1 Cor. 14:12.
3. If what we are and what we do cannot match God's building, it amounts to nothing in the sight of God—3:10-15.
4. Because the Lord cares so much for the church—the house of God and the Body of Christ—we also should care for the church and fashion ourselves according to it—1 Tim. 3:15-16.
5. If we see this, we will not care merely for teachings from the Bible and about the inner life; instead, we will care absolutely for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ—Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 4:12, 16.