We need to grow in life and be perfected in our function 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. Amen!
On 26 April 1948 brother Watchman Nee gave a message on, The Whole Body Serving, in which he said that the testimony of the Body is God’s final recovery.
We believe that God is recovering the most difficult thing today, which is the fulfillment of Eph. 4:11-16, all the members functioning by being perfected to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
God is leading us to come back to the beginning, to be recovered to what was there in the beginning according to the Word of God.
On 25-27 November 1988 brother Witness Lee released some messages under the topic of, Further Light Concerning the Building up of the Body of Christ, where he said that 1 Cor. 14 and Eph. 4 are two outstanding chapters unveiling the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
The only clear word given by the Lord Jesus concerning the building up of the church is Matt. 16:18, where He said that He will build up His church.
If we enter into the crucial points of truth in the books of 1 Corinthians and Ephesians, we believe that the Lord will have a way to work out His New Testament economy in our age before our eyes.
We need to labor day and night to see 1 Cor. 14:26 (each one has, each one functions by prophesying) fulfilled by Eph. 4:11-16 (all members are perfected by the gifted members to function in their measure until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith).
Eph. 4:11-16 is the high peak of the truth in the Lord’s recovery, and these verses speak of the perfecting of the saints by the gifts given by the ascended Head (vv. 11-13) and the direct building up of the Body of Christ by the perfected members (vv. 14-16).
The building up of the Body of Christ according to the New Testament has four layers: the Lord’s prophecy to build up the church, Him giving the gifts to the Body to perfect the saints, the perfected saints functioning to build up the Body, and the whole Body building itself up.
First, the Lord prophesied that He will build His church; however, He doesn’t do this directly but indirectly through all the saints. He went through a process to become a life-giving Spirit and to produce the church, and in His ascension, He gave some gifts to the Body.
These gifts don’t build up the Body directly but rather, they perfect the saints so that the perfected saints would do the work of the ministry, the building up of the Body of Christ. Finally, the Body builds itself up in love. Hallelujah!
We need to be clear concerning the matter of the gifts – they are gifted persons to perfect the saints, but they can’t build up the Body directly but rather, it is the perfected saints who function to build up the church as the Body of Crist directly.
Therefore, we need to be trained and perfected so that we may be uplifted in our practice of the church life and build up the Body by our functioning in our measure in the Body.
When we all are being perfected, we will build up the Body 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.
We all will Arrive at the Oneness of the Faith, the Oneness of our Living in Practicality
Eventually, all the members of the Body of Christ will arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man (Eph. 4:13).
In Eph. 4:3 we see that we need to keep the oneness of the Spirit; we already have this oneness, and we simply need to keep it.
The oneness of the Spirit in this verse is the oneness of the divine life in reality, the oneness which all believers have in their spirit; we simply need to keep the oneness of the Spirit.
The oneness in v. 13, the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, is the oneness in practicality, the oneness of our living in practicality.
The oneness in reality needs to be practiced and thereby become the oneness in practicality.
The word “arrive” in v. 13 indicates that there’s a journey, a process, for us to arrive at this oneness of our living in practicality; we start from the oneness of reality and we end at the oneness in practicality as the destination.
This requires that we grow in life gradually, no longer being like little children who are tossed about by waves of teaching.
We are all arriving at the oneness of the faith; we are on a journey of growing in life, developing, and arriving – we’re the “ing” people, always advancing in the Christian life.
The oneness in practicality is the oneness of the faith; this word “faith” doesn’t refer to our act of believing but to the things in which we believe.
We believe in the divine person of Christ and His redemptive work accomplished for our salvation (1 Tim. 1:19; 6:10, 12, 21; Jude 3).
We shouldn’t focus on or over-emphasize secondary items in doctrines and practices but pay attention to the crucial items in the New Testament faith.
In the church life, we only have one thing that is special – the faith; we do not insist on anything else, not even on good practices such as calling on the name of the Lord or pray-reading His word – we insist only on the faith.
For us to insist upon anything besides the faith, the common faith, for receiving the believers, is to be divisive (Rom. 14:1; 15:7).
Some may only eat vegetables because their faith is weak, and others may keep one day above others; all these are secondary points, and we don’t reject any believer who keeps these things and holds the faith.
We cannot allow the points of doctrine or practices to become our basis for receiving the saints.
We should receive others even as Christ has received us to the glory of God.
Thank the Lord that He is here today speaking to us; we simply need to go on positively and cooperate with the Lord to grow in life until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith.
The faith is the common faith that has been delivered to all the believers, and this faith is the unique base for our receiving the believers.
The criteria for receiving the believers is not any practice such as baptism by immersion, head covering, speaking in tongues, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or any points of doctrine such as the rapture being pre-tribulation or post-tribulation.
We receive all those whom the Lord has received, and we are willing to grow in life and be perfected so that we may all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
We open to the Lord in every meeting to be perfected so that we may continue to arrive at the goal.
The perfecting we receive from the Lord in the meetings of the church through the gifted members is for us to progress toward the oneness, a full-grown man, and the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Lord Jesus, grow in us and perfect us in the Body until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God! Thank You for giving us the oneness of the Spirit – we want to keep the oneness and progress, advance, and go on until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith! We open to Your perfecting, Lord, so that we may arrive at the oneness in practicality. Enlarge our heart, Lord, and make us as large as You are in receiving the saints based on the common faith delivered to all the saints. Amen, Lord, just as You receive all those who believe into You, so we receive all the saints based on the common faith, and we do not insist on any point of doctrine or any practice! Bring us on with You until we all arrive at the destination!
Arriving at the Oneness of the Full Knowledge of the Son of God and at a Full-Grown Man by Taking Christ as the Center and Focus on Him
The oneness in practicality includes the oneness of the faith and also the oneness of the full knowledge of the Son of God (Eph. 4:13).
We need to be perfected until we all arrive at this oneness; we are in the process of arriving at the oneness of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
The full knowledge of the Son of God is the apprehension of the revelation concerning the Son of God as life for our experience (Matt. 16:16).
The Son of God refers to the Lord’s person as life to us; the title “Christ” refers to His commission for dispensing His life into us so that we may become organic members of the Body of Christ to function in the Body through the life supply we receive, and the “Son of God” refers to Him as life to us.
When we arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, this will enable us to arrive at a full-grown man; we need to pursue the growth in life until we all arrive.
When we grow in life, we will increasingly cleave to the faith and the oneness of the full knowledge of the Son of God in our daily experience to have the oneness in practicality.
This will cause us to drip any doctrines or concepts that cause divisions, for we realize that many doctrines and concepts are minor and meagre and cause divisions in the church life.
We all need to advance to the full knowledge of the Son of God; this is not merely a doctrinal knowledge of Christ but a subjective knowledge in truth, life, light, and experience.
Job had a doctrinal knowledge of God, but when he saw God, that was the beginning of a subjective knowledge of God.
We need to have a direct contact with the Lord and know Him in an experiential way by enjoying and experiencing all the aspects of the all-inclusive Christ.
The oneness of the faith altogether depends on the full knowledge of the Son of God; only when we take Christ as the centre and focus on Him can we arrive at the oneness of the faith, for only in the Son of God can our faith be one (John 20:31; Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:4, 6; 1 Cor. 2:2).
The desire of God’s heart is to reveal His Son in us to be our life; He wants to live in us and we would live Him, and He even wants to be formed in us.
We need to have a practical experience of the Son of God in our daily life, having Him revealed in us, living in us, and being formed in us.
Then, 1 Cor. 2:2 will be made real to us, for all that we will see among us is Christ and this One crucified; Christ and His cross must become our enjoyment and experience for the solving of all the problems in the church life.
We need to arrive at a full-grown man, that is, arrive at maturity in life; maturity in life is needed for the practical oneness.
When we are regenerated, we are born as spiritual babies, and we need to grow in life until we arrive at maturity in life.
We have the divine, eternal, incorruptible, indestructible life of God in us, and we need to pursue the growth in life, no longer being like little children but rather arriving at maturity in life.
We need to grow in life unto maturity until we all arrive at a full-grown man; may we arrive at maturity long before the end of our course!
Some believers reach maturity, by the Lord’s mercy, on their hospital bed toward the end of their life, for the Lord honours their consecration and takes them on to maturity.
However, the Body doesn’t gain much direct benefit in their case.
But what if the Lord would bring us to the stage of maturity twenty years or even more before we finish our course, and then we attain to higher levels of maturity – how much more divine life would flow!
May we pray for one another and may we cooperate with the Lord by taking Christ as the center and focusing only on Him so that we can arrive at the oneness of the faith!
Lord Jesus, bring us on to maturity until we all arrive at the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man! Grant us to have a daily experience and enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ so that we may all arrive at the full knowledge of the Son of God. Grow in us, Lord, and bring us on to maturity early, so that our function in the Body would be fully released for the building up of the church! We take You as our center and we focus only on You so that we can arrive at the oneness of the faith, for only in the Son of God can our faith be one! Amen, Lord, be revealed in us, live in us, and be formed in us! Bring us all on in our experience of life until we arrive at maturity in life so that we may have the practical oneness!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by the brothers for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 43, 45, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Intrinsic and Organic Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ (2021 International Chinese-Speaking Conference), week 3, The Intrinsic Building Up of the Church for Its Organic Function.
- Hymns on this topic:
– The unity of Church is but / The saints in oneness living; / The Spirit which indwelleth them / This oneness ever giving. / Thus it is realized and called / The unity of Spirit; / ’Tis based upon the common faith / Which all the saints inherit. (Hymns #831)
– Until we all arrive / At the oneness of the faith / And of the full knowledge / Of the Son of God, / At the oneness of the faith, / At a full-grown man, / At the measure of the stature / Of the fullness of Christ, / Until we all arrive. (Scripture song)
– Thy word is spirit and is life to us, / By it we’re nourished, growing, Lord, in Thee; / Thus to Thine image we may be transformed, / With Thy full measure to maturity. (Hymns #869)
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