Body of Christ

When we all are living in Christ as our life, Christ is the oneness

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“We may talk about oneness, but we all need to realize that the genuine oneness is nothing less than Christ Himself as our life in a practical way. Christ is the oneness, the unity. When I am living in Christ as my life and not in myself, I have the oneness, and I am in the oneness. When we all are living in Christ as our life, Christ is the oneness. If this is our situation, then we have the reality of the Body, and then we are also equipped for the service. Romans 12 stresses that without the Body we cannot serve, because each of us is only one member.”

(To Serve in the Human Spirit, chapter 1)

Four crucial points

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“Concerning the spiritual and divine things for the church, we must keep in mind four crucial points. First, we must go through the cross. Our native flavor should be crossed out by Christ. Both the Americans and the Chinese should be crossed out. In the church there is room for no natural person, but Christ is all and in all (Col. 3: 11). On the cross both the Jews and the Gentiles were crossed out. Second, everything should be by the Spirit. Third, this is to dispense Christ to others. Fourth, everything is for the building up of the church. In other words, whatever we do should be through the cross and by the Spirit to dispense Christ to others for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.”

(CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” p. 157)

The price we pay by migrating cannot compare with the Christ we will gain

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‘To move for the Lord involves a certain cost. Moving involves not only our jobs, our businesses, our homes, our families, our schooling, and other matters but also the paying of a price. We must consider what we are on the earth for. We are here not for our job, schooling, or home but for the Lord’s recovery. Therefore, it is worthwhile to pay the price to move.

The price we pay by migrating cannot compare with the Christ we will gain. When you pay one hundred dollars in order to buy a diamond that is worth one thousand dollars, you do not feel that you are paying too high a price. Likewise, if we pay the price to move for the Lord’s present testimony, we will gain the unsearchably rich Christ as our everything. We may say that this is to strike a “holy bargain” (Hymns, #473).

The day of the Lord’s coming back is approaching. Since the day of His return is very close, we should not waste our time seeking individualistic spirituality. Instead, we should enter into the flow of the Body of Christ. It is worthwhile to enter into this flow. By entering into the Lord’s flow, we will gain Christ as our everything. Everything depends on His flow. We should not worry about our future, for it is in the Lord’s hands. If we enter into His flow, He will take care of our future.’

(The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1969, vol. 3, The Lord’s Recovery of the Church Life, chapter 6)

Christian service is a matter of life and in the Body

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THE GROWTH IN LIFE
First we have the aspect of life, then the aspect of service. We have the life matter settled first, then, based on that fact, we have the matter of service. Without life and the adequate growth in life, we cannot have the service. The little children can do many things, but they cannot serve, because they simply do not have the adequate growth in life.

To serve the Lord, the growth in life is required. The service is not mentioned in Romans 6 or 7. It is not mentioned until chapter twelve, where sinners have been redeemed, justified, and delivered from the old nature, and they are walking in the spirit. They have the real growth in life. Now they are the practical and functioning members of the Body. The Christian service is an issue of the growth of life.

If you don’t have life, you cannot serve. Even if you have life, but are short of the growth in life, still young, childish, even like a babe, you cannot serve. The service requires life and the growth of life, the maturity of life. It is a life matter, and it is a matter of the growth in life. We cannot serve the Lord without growing in the life of the Lord. This is something very basic. This is why we have been stressing the matter of life in view of our expectation of having a church life with the service. Without the growth in life, there is no possibility for the church to be built up. And without the building up of the church, there is no possibility of having the church service, the Christian service.

SERVICE IN THE BODY

The Christian service is a matter of life and in the Body. It is a matter in the Body and a matter of the Body. You cannot serve the Lord as an individual Christian. To serve the Lord, you must realize that the Lord’s service is something in the Body.

Every believer is a member of the Body, a part of the Body. An individual is not the Body. A member of the Body cannot function without the Body. The hand is good, quite useful, but if it is cut off from the body, it becomes not only dead, but also ugly, terrible, and even terrifying. You may love to shake my hand, but if this hand were detached from the body, it would be terrible.

Today many Christians are detached, separated from the Body. They are disembodied members. The members of the body are beautiful as long as they are attached where they belong in the body, but in any other place they are terrible. How sad it is that many Christians today are like ears that have been detached and put on the shoulders. How could they serve the Lord? How could we serve the Lord without being built up together as members of the Body? It is impossible.

I am not speaking on this point according to knowledge or doctrine. By the mercy of the Lord, I can testify to you from my experience that for many years I have simply been unable to serve the Lord without the Body. It is impossible to serve the Lord without the Body, without the church life, without the church practice.

The Body life is in Romans 12, and the church service is in this Body life with the members of the Body, of the church, functioning, serving. This matter is very clear in the Word. We need to check ourselves to see whether or not we have a real Body life. If not, we are wandering saints. If you say that you are in the Body, you have to consider seriously where the Body is, practically speaking. If we could give up the service of the Lord, there would be no need for us to talk about the Body, the church life. But if we do have the sincere heart to serve the Lord, we must realize that the service is in the Body.

(The Service of the Priesthood)

Love is necessary to care for the members so that the Body may be built up

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“I have pointed out that there are certain brothers and sisters who apparently do not have any gifts. However, they are absolutely for the Body. To be for the Body is a matter of love, and to care for the members of the Body requires love. If we do not have love, how can we care for others? Love is necessary to care for the members so that the Body may be built up. Thus, love is the greatest gift. Nothing edifies people as much as love does. Love is a spiritual antibiotic. If there is love in a local church, there will be no need to worry about spiritual diseases. Love is the best medicine to cure such diseases. Love is a gift, even the greatest gift.”

(Life Study of 1 Corinthians, message 60)

There can be no building up without joining and knitting

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“When the brothers and sisters are joined together and knit together, there are no individualistic actions in the church, and there is not even a sense that we are individuals. There is only a sense of oneness based on the saints being joined together and knit together. This is an issue of the church being built up. In order to partake of the service that builds up the church, we cannot act individualistically or be separated from the saints. If we are separated, our work will tear down rather than build up the church.

A genuine and proper work joins and knits the saints together. An isolated and solitary work creates problems because there can be no building up without joining. There can be no building up without joining and knitting; there can only be tearing down.

In our history in the church life, we have clearly seen a few saints who seem to love the Lord very much and who seem to be very spiritual. However, such ones often become separated from the church and isolated from the saints. In a way they seem quite spiritual, but they are problematic because their spirituality lacks the element of joining and knitting. The more spiritual they become, the more they are separated from the church and the saints. In such a condition, these saints cannot be joined with the other brothers and sisters; they are like oil in water.

When a drop of water falls into a bucket of water, it immediately blends with the water and becomes indistinguishable from the other water. However, when a drop of oil falls into the bucket, the drop of oil remains on the surface, apart from the water. No matter how much the water is stirred, the drop of oil remains unblended. The drop may break apart into many drops, but it remains “alone” and “isolated” in the water; it is never blended with the water. Some saints are always isolated from the brothers and sisters, they are never blended with others, and they are always separate and solitary. This is quite dangerous.”

(Service for the Building Up of the Church, pp. 52-53)

All genuine work depends on what we are in our being

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“Genuine work does not depend on how much we have said or how much we have done. All genuine work depends on what we are in our being, how much we have been broken in the Lord’s hand, and how much we know concerning the church and the Body. Whether or not we are talkative does not matter. The only things that matter are the lessons we have learned, the attitude we have, the spirit we have, and the kind of person we are. If our situation is proper, we will be able to serve together and visit others with brothers and sisters who are talkative. Their talkativeness can even be a blackboard upon which we can convey the spiritual lessons we have learned. Hence, there is no need to be individualistic or to do an individualistic work.

An individualistic work is based on a demand that others be the same as we are; however, everyone is different. Whether in disposition, temperament, viewpoint, or opinion, no one can be exactly the same as we are. We become individualistic whenever we are unwilling to coordinate with others or be attached to others. We also produce individualistic members when we work to make others the same as we are. If our work is individualistic, our work will produce individualistic members who are separate from others. On the surface, it may seem as if we have edified others, but actually, we have torn down the church.

We should never have a goal to make others the same as we are. Our work is not to build up ourselves, nor to build up a group of people who are the same as we are. Our work is to build up the church, the Body of Christ. This is a crucial principle.”

(Service for the Building Up of the Church, pp. 88-89)

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Something must be improper or wrong if we are not bearing fruit

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“Barrenness is an even more subtle enemy. Some married couples are not able to have children, and this becomes a big problem to them. According to human desire, the meaning of a couple’s life is to have children. Likewise, if we do not bear fruit, beget some spiritual children, there is not much meaning to our church life. Without fruit-bearing, there is no practical church life. Suppose that we baptized fifty-eight new ones in the next Lord’s Day church meeting. All of us would be excited and joyful in the Lord. But we do not have much joy, because we are barren. Barrenness is the biggest enemy that annuls the proper church life.

If we cannot have children in our human life, we can have the Lord as our replacement. But the Lord will not be the replacement for the fruit that we do not bear in the church life. We may feel that we have been enjoying the Lord every day, but a tree is known by its fruit. The real church life can be evidenced only by fruit-bearing. If we have not borne fruit for three years, for five years, or even for ten years, our enjoyment of Christ should be questioned. Something must be improper or wrong if we are not bearing fruit.

In the seven epistles to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord touched the deadness with Sardis and the lukewarmness with the Laodiceans, but He did not touch barrenness. This is because He had already dealt with this very seriously in John 15. In the four Gospels the Lord did not deal with deadness or with lukewarmness. But He dealt with barrenness to the uttermost in one chapter—John 15. Some people would say that this is a chapter on abiding in Christ. Actually, however, it is not on abiding but on fruit-bearing. Abiding is for fruit-bearing. The Lord said, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes it away…If one does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is dried up” (vv. 2a, 6a). For a branch to be cast out means that it is cut off from participation in the riches of the life of the vine.

If we do not bear fruit, there is a danger that we will be cut off from the vine tree. This does not mean that we will suffer eternal perdition but that we will lose our enjoyment of Christ as our portion. This proves that if we do not bear fruit, there is a problem with our enjoyment of Christ. This is just like a couple who cannot bring forth children. They may say that they do not feel that anything is wrong with them, but actually something is wrong, which is preventing them from having children. They may even go to some doctors to find out what is wrong with them. This is an illustration of our problem of barrenness. We may feel that there is nothing wrong with us, but based upon the fact that we have not borne fruit, we must realize that something is wrong with our enjoyment of Christ. If we do not have fruit, our so-called enjoyment of Christ can be a self-deceiving matter. It is not so real.

We may think that we have seen a number of saints who have not borne fruit for quite a long time, but we did not notice that they were cut off from the enjoyment of the Lord. My answer to this is that the matter of life is a mystery. There may be a couple who cannot bear children, but no one can see the reason. In the same way it may seem that we are doing quite well, but where is our fruit? This is a test. If we are not bearing fruit, this is evidence that we have lost our enjoyment of Christ. In this chapter I want us to realize that every day, day and night, these three enemies are around us: deadness, lukewarmness, and barrenness.

In the previous chapter I shared that we need to get some companions, at least two or three, with whom we can labor in the gospel. We should never work by ourselves. Instead, we should work by fellowshipping with our companions. The trouble is that we do not like to have fellowship with others. We are self-contented, and some of us may think that we are omnipotent and all-capable. But according to my over sixty years of experience, none of us is omnipotent. Each of us is very limited in his capacity and ability. You need the help, and I need the help. My helpers in the work know how much I need them. I purposely fellowship with them and ask them questions in order that I may learn. I want to be taught by them. If there is no fellowship among us in our work, there cannot be the real one accord. We need to labor in oneness through thorough fellowship. Because of our unwillingness to have thorough fellowship, we are dead, lukewarm, and barren. We must get some companions and open up ourselves to fellowship with them to the uttermost.”

(The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups, Chapter 3, Section 2)

How do we care for every member of the church?

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“According to our experience and learning and based upon the clear revelation in the New Testament, the proper group meetings should consist of two sections. The first section should include fellowship, intercession, mutual care, and shepherding, and the second section should carry out the perfecting of the saints through teaching. In the first section of the group meeting, the attendants should fellowship concerning each person’s present spiritual condition and practical environment…

The group meeting is eighty percent of the church life, and the church life is a life in the Body. In our physical body it is impossible for a problem in one member to be hidden from all the other members. The circulation of life in our body carries the feeling in one member to all the members. Thus, we should not hide our problems from the other members in the church life…For the practice of the group meetings, we must first overcome this to have a real, genuine, practical, and thorough fellowship concerning each person’s current spiritual condition and practical situation. A proper group meeting does not depend on singing and praying in a formal, religious way. It depends on this kind of fellowship.

After fellowshipping about each other’s situations, the attendants in the meeting will spontaneously be stirred up to intercede, to pray, for one another. This prayer will not be formal or like a theatrical performance but will be sincere and practical. After the fellowship and prayer the attendants in the group meeting should extend their loving concern for one another in the exercise of a definite and practical care. After becoming aware of a brother’s practical situation, some saints in the meeting may consider whether the brother is in need of financial help or some other practical care. Then, after caring for a brother in this way, some may go to visit him. This is the practice of the practical shepherding.

I would say that this principle regarding the practice of the group meetings is “scientific.” As such, it cannot be changed. Everything in this universe is governed by a God-ordained law, a spontaneous principle. In order for the church to be fully built up, we must have proper group meetings, and for the group meetings in the practical church life, there is the need of fellowship, intercession, care, and shepherding. In this way, every member of the church, regardless of how large that church may be, will be taken care of. The way to care for every member of the church is by the proper group meetings.”

(CWWL 1990, vol. 2, “The Practice of the Group Meetings,” ch. 6, pp. 39-40)

Beseeching.org: Prayer for a church life filled with mutuality

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Day 284: Prayer for a church life filled with mutuality

“The word mutuality is used in relation to church meetings and is the basic principle of the meetings of the church. This is shown in three portions of the Word. Colossians 3 says that we need to practice “teaching and admonishing one another” (v. 16). Teaching one another means that you teach me and that I teach you; admonishing one another means that you admonish me and I admonish you. This indicates that as believers, we should be full of mutuality when we come together. Hebrews 10:25 says that we should not abandon “our own assembling together…but exhorting one another.” Since we are the Lord’s disciples, we should not abandon proper Christian meetings. Moreover, whenever we meet, there should be mutuality. First Corinthians 14:26 says that whenever we “come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” This verse refers to the gathering of the whole church (v. 23). In such a gathering there should not be only one person speaking; rather, each one should function for building up (v. 26), that is, for mutual building up.”

(CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, “The Proper Way for Believers to Meet and to Serve,” ch. 6, p. 84)