© 1996
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. In some Scripture quotations words are italicized or in bold print for emphasis.
Most serious Christians know that the "church" is not a building on the comer. The Greek word for church is ekklesia, which means an assembly of called out ones. This assembly of God's chosen people is the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23). There are many truths relating to the body of Christ, but here I would like to examine some foundational truths that are particularly crucial to the matter of building up the body of Christ. All sincere believers want to be useful to God. If believers have spiritual insight, they will recognize that all service to Christ has an ultimate aim - the building up of the body of Christ. It is important, therefore, that our labor in the Lord be in accord with the cardinal principles that Scripture shows govern the body of Christ and its growth.
Can we expect Christ to sanction efforts to build up His body that contradict the fundamental principles God has revealed concerning the body? I do not believe so. However, it is possible, either knowingly or unknowingly, to be a person who "does whatsoever is right in his own eyes" (Deut. 12:8), as opposed to "that which is right in His (God's) sight." (Ex. 15:26). My prayer for myself, and for you the reader, is that we will sincerely humble ourselves before God in order that we may evaluate our doings in the light of His word.
This booklet will discuss four principles concerning the body of Christ. These four principles are: Christ Is All; Christ Is The Head; Oneness; and The Body Builds Up Itself. These truths will be seen as applying both to the universal body of Christ and to the local assembly, the place where we actually labor to serve and build up the body.
In the church, Christ is everything. This spiritual concept is hard for the natural mind to grasp. One may immediately react by thinking, "if Christ alone is the content of the body, then where are the believers?" The believers are all there, as members of His body. However, according to Biblical revelation, it is not the natural person of the believer that is there. It is the spiritual person, the believer who has died with Christ and now has Christ as his very life (Col.3:2-3).
The one new man in Christ is not the old, natural man where natural characteristics exist, but rather it is one "where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all." (Col. 3:1 1). Yes, this verse points to "positional truth", what is true by virtue of our being put "in Christ" by God (1 Cor. 1:30). But what is true concerning the church positionally is to become true of her in experience.
Paul revealed the great mystery of the church in the first two and one half chapters of Ephesians. Paul wrote that Christ is "head over all things to the church, which is His body, thefullness of Him who fills all in all." (Eph. 1:22-23). Then, based upon this revelation he prayed for the Ephesian believers that they would experience the reality of this vision:
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the width, and length, and depth, and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph.3:14-19)
The answer to this prayer would be this result: "to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus . . . " (Eph. 3:2 1).
What I am saying is this. It is God's intention that Christ be the building element of the church. This truth was revealed in the opening chapters of the Bible, where Eve, a type of the church, was fashioned by God entirely from the rib of Adam, a type of Christ. Therefore, any true assembly of God on this earth must possess a Christ that is living, a Christ that is experienced daily by its members in order to be the genuine expression of the church. Above all, the members of the assembly must learn to live in union with Christ. "Abiding in Christ", being "in spirit", or experiencing the "inner life" are other ways of saying the same thing. It is easy to substitute religious activity for this priority. Even Bible reading, singing, helping others, or other service to the Lord can all be done apart from the living Christ. May the Lord deepen our dependence upon Him and our knowing of Him in order to live in the reality of our union with Him.
Christ must have the headship and the preeminence in the church (Col. 1: 1 8). In honoring Christ as the head, we must firstly honor His word. In the practice of the assembly life, therefore, it is Christ's word, Christ's thought, and Christ's way that must be honored and obeyed, not man's thought and man's way. Our starting point must be a confession. We must agree with God's word in Isaiah. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Is. 55:8-9).
If we find that our tradition transgresses the word of God, as did the practice of the Pharisees (Matt. 15:3,6), are we willing to repent that Christ may have the headship and the preeminence? Dare we build a church according to our way? To those who were building by their carnal way in Corinth, the apostle Paul warned:
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. (1 Cor.3:10-18).
The "temple of God" mentioned here was the local church in Corinth since the "you"" is plural in ""you are the temple of God." Those who were divisively practicing the assembly life there in Corinth (1 Cor.3:3,4) were being warned by Paul of the coming Judgment Seat of Christ. The apostle was warning them that their natural way of building, characterized by preferring and grouping around leaders, was going to be tested by fire at the future judgment. Those doing this were facing a "destruction" (a ruinous judgment; not loss of eternal salvation) by God.
The final part of this passage shows that this wrongful practice was something that might be considered wise according to this age, but not according to God's thought. So here we see an example of "building" the church according to the thought and way of man. In God's view, this was not edification, but defilement of the church. If we tolerate any of the ways of man in the church, we deny Christ His headship and violate a basic principle of the body we claim to build up.
Besides acknowledging Christ's headship by honoring His word, we must also know His headship by letting His Spirit rule in the church. The Bible reveals that the function of all the members according to their respective gifts is a matter of the working of the Spirit:
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of hearings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spir- its, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. (1 Cor. 12:4-1 1)
The operation of the Spirit as intrinsic to the assembly life is again seen in the Biblical portrait of a proper Christian meeting:
How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may team and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. (1 Cor. 14:26-33)
It is the Spirit of Christ working in each member that brings the gifts and ministries of the saints into function. This truth calls for each member of the body to be functioning under the headship of Christ (1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 4:15-16; Col. 2:19). In the meeting pictured in 1 Corinthians 14 above, there is no fully prearranged program with hymns already posted on a board, or a Sunday school lesson selected by a denominational headquarters. These actions frustrate the living head of a living body. Nor is the meeting planned, organized and overseen by one member. Rather, the meeting is the spontaneous activity of a living organism, where each member gets its life and stimulus for ministry directly from the head of the body, Christ. "Ministers" are not limited to those chosen and approved by men or by headquarters, but include all who are taught, prepared and enlivened by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
This kind of body life provides an atmosphere of liberty that encourages the function of all the members. Here, a member only needs to look to Christ the head as to when and how to function. Such a meeting atmosphere is in total contrast to one where everything is routine, pre-planned, controlled from headquarters or directed from the platform at the front.
"Won't confusion result?", you say. "Won't mistakes be made or unlearned ones do damage?" This same passage declares: "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints" (1 Cor. 14:33). Mistakes may occur, but if we dare to let God control the assembly directly He will, in His way, bring about peace and edification. Rather than fear that things may get out of control through liberty, we should instead fear man's control of the assembly. If man's authority is in tight control over the church, then Christ as the head is locked outside.