I always hesitate very much to speak after the time of worship. I think that we should keep our Lord before us and not be distracted in any way. So let us look to the Lord that the words we are going to fellowship may strengthen the sense of the presence of the Lord instead of diluting it.
O Lord, how we praise and thank Thee, because Thou dost love the church and gavest Thyself for her, that she may be presented to Thyself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
O, how we praise and thank Thee for Thy great redeeming love. How we praise and thank Thee for Thy everlasting love. How we praise and tell Thee that Thou hast constrained us with Thy love, that we do feel we love Thee, and we do long that we may love Thee.
O Lord, as we fellowship upon Thy Word, we ask Thee that Thy presence shall continue with us. We pray that we may hear Thy voice, that we may respond to Thee. We pray that in the church Thou mayest get much praise for Thyself. In Thy precious name. Amen.
We began this time of our conference with some passages from the letter to the Ephesians. We read from the first chapter and touched upon the first three chapters of Ephesians.
Now, as we come to the conclusion of this time together, we have to return to the same letter. By the grace of God, we would like to see, just very briefly, the second part of the letter to the Ephesians—that is, from Chapter 4 onward.
Ephesians 4:1-7
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called,
with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Ephesians 5:1-2
Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children;
and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.
Ephesians 6:10-13
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
We are called according to His purpose. It is the purpose of God that we should be called to be that counterpart of Christ.
You remember in Ephesians 1:23 it is said, “the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” The church is the body of Christ, the complement of the One who filleth all in all.
Dear brothers and sisters, by the grace of God, we are called to a most high calling. We are called to be His body. We are called to be His home. We are called to be united with Him into one.
This is a mystery of Christ, hidden in God, conceived by God even before the foundation of the world—before there was time. God had conceived in His mind this mystery concerning His beloved Son.
Throughout the ages this mystery had been hidden, though not without God dropping hints here and there. We remember how we find types in the Old Testament, even with Eve and Rebekah and many more. God hid His thoughts in all these types so that, one day, when the mystery should be revealed, we could look back and see the counsel of God throughout the ages.
When the time came, our Lord Jesus came into this world, and through the travail of His soul the church was born. It is not something organized by man, conceived by man, or manufactured by man. The church is conceived by God and brought into being through the travail of the soul of our Lord Jesus.
How He loved the church and gave Himself for it.
This church of God is to be expressed today on earth, everywhere. Wherever God’s people are, there they are to be a witness, a testimony to the fact that God has His own church, that now unto the principalities and authorities may be made known the manifold wisdom of God through the church.
Dear brothers and sisters, have we seen the church? We are not able to see it unless we are given revelation. That is the reason why you find Paul, in the first chapter of Ephesians, praying that the Spirit of wisdom and revelation may be given, that we may see this mystery of Christ, which is the church.
May I emphasize again: no one is able to see Christ as He is unless the Father reveals Him to us. You may know about Christ. You may know all the creeds, all the articles of faith about Christ; but you do not see Christ until it pleases the Father to reveal His Son in you.
In like manner, dear brothers and sisters, you may hear all the doctrines, teachings, and truths about the church. You may be acquainted with all the things about the church, but you are not able to see the church unless it pleases the Father to reveal the church to you.
It is by revelation that we come to see Christ. It is by revelation that we come to see the church, which is the fulness of Christ.
But it is not enough just to see the church. It is not enough just to see the church in all its glory, in all its transcendence, in all its power, and in all its splendor. The question is: Are we living in it?
Yes, by the grace of God, we are in it. But are we living? Is the church just a glorious theory, or is it a practical life?
So here you find our apostle Paul: after he has tried to show us the principles that govern the church, he comes right down to us and exhorts us that we may walk worthy of our calling.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are called with a heavenly calling. Now walk worthily of it.
So this morning, in these concluding words, we would like to fellowship together on this matter of church life.
The life of the church is Christ. Remember this: the life of the church is Christ. You take away Christ, and the church is dead. There is no church. The life of the church is Christ Himself.
But church life is living out Christ in a corporate way. We are living Christ out together. That is church life.
What is church life? We find in the last three chapters of Ephesians that church life has three aspects:
Dear brothers and sisters, we know that there is one body. The Lord has only one body. He does not have many bodies. It would be a monster if a head had many bodies. There is one Head and one body.
The Head is Christ, and the body includes all those who are redeemed of the Lord throughout the centuries. This body is manifested locally everywhere, and wherever it appears locally, it embraces all the people of God in that locality. The church is one. The body is one.
How do we live out this body life? Paul says, “Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
What is church life? What is body life? It is to keep diligently the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
Christians today realize that they should be one. That is why you find the cry of Christians throughout the world: “Let us be united.”
How can we be united? Do we need to be united? What is the ground of our unity?
We do praise the Lord that we do not need to manufacture a unity. I think it is one of the most difficult things to manufacture. We have the United Nations, but you find that the more they try to be united, the more divided they are. We find the ecumenical movement; the more they try to unite, the more they disagree.
Dear brothers and sisters, we can manufacture anything but unity. You may have a union without unity. You can manufacture a union, but you cannot manufacture unity.
Thank God, we do not need to manufacture a unity which is not there, because He has already given us that unity. It is the unity of the Spirit.
Is it not true that the Holy Spirit has baptized us into one body? Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, whether circumcised or uncircumcised, whether bondmen or freemen, the Holy Spirit has baptized us into one body.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. But Christ is all and in all.
There is a unity which the Holy Spirit has given. It is called the unity of the Spirit. What is the unity of the Spirit? It is the sevenfold oneness that He has given us:
The unity of the Spirit is based upon these seven onenesses. Thank God, we are baptized into one body. There is one Spirit—the Spirit Himself dwelling in us. There is one hope of our calling, that we may be joined to Christ into one.
There is one Lord: Jesus is Lord. There is one faith: He is the Son of God, the Christ. There is one baptism: we are all baptized into Christ, into His death. And there is one God and Father of us all.
You cannot divide these seven onenesses. In all these sevenfold aspects, we find that the Holy Spirit has given us a oneness. Based upon this sevenfold oneness, we are already one.
Dear brothers and sisters, you do not need to be united with your brothers and sisters. You do not need to manufacture unity. All you need to do is keep diligently that which is already given.
It is a tragic thing that God’s people today, instead of keeping diligently the unity of the Spirit, are looking for ways and means to bring in a unity.
Why does the unity of the Spirit have to be kept, and kept diligently? Dear brothers and sisters, you do not keep a thing if it is worth nothing. You keep something which is precious to you. If something is most precious, you will guard it most diligently. You even dare not go to sleep.
The oneness of the body of Christ—the church is one; God’s people are one—is so precious that we ought to keep it, and diligently keep it. That is to say, we will not allow anything to come in and remove us from the ground of unity.
We refuse to be distracted, to be tempted to divert our eyes and attention to things other than the sevenfold oneness.
Dear brothers and sisters, when you see another brother or another sister, what will be your attitude? What is the thing that you are looking for?
Are you looking for that sevenfold oneness with your brothers and sisters, or are you looking for something other than the sevenfold oneness? If you are looking for something other than the sevenfold oneness, immediately you will find yourself divided and separated from your brother and sister.
Do allow me to illustrate it—not with a spirit of criticism, but just for the sake of illustration.
Suppose you go to a certain place, and there you meet another person, or a group of people. When you come into their midst, how do you introduce yourself? Or what will they be looking for?
Some years ago, I was in Oakland, California. I was walking on the street, and I saw a building. I figured there must be a building where believers met, so I looked at the bulletin board to see when these believers would meet.
One evening I went in. I went into the midst of a group of believers. They were reading the Word of God, and different ones shared what the Lord had shown them. I was in their meeting with them, and I enjoyed the fellowship with these people.
After the meeting was over, of course some of them came to me, and we began to talk.
The young people were not so wise. All they wanted to find out was whether I loved the Lord. They were very happy when they discovered that I loved the Lord.
But the older people were a little bit clever. They tried to draw and draw and draw from me. They wanted to know my background, my affiliation, whom I was affiliated with, and what this and what that. They tried to figure me out. And you know, when you are being figured out, you have a very uncomfortable feeling.
I was very comfortable in their midst because we were reading the Word of God, worshiping the Lord, and we all loved the Lord. But when these elderly people tried to figure me out, uneasiness came upon me.
When they discovered that I had fellowship with Brother Watchman, I remember very vividly that one of them just turned around and said, “Sorry,” and left.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is body life? Body life is keeping the unity of the Spirit—the oneness that God has already given us, this sevenfold oneness—diligently. Do not try to divide God’s people with something other than these seven things.
It is true: if you move among God’s people, you will find that God’s people hold different teachings and do things differently. You will find many, many differences among God’s people. Now, if you try to look for one of these differences, you will find yourself separated from your brothers and sisters, and they will separate themselves from you.
You do not need to look too far into it. You will meet that almost right away. But, dear brothers and sisters, let us refuse to be removed from the unity of the Spirit.
We stand on the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. We refuse to argue. We refuse to fight. We love our brothers and sisters. This is body life.
On the other hand, in a body you find many members. There is diversity in unity.
I often think—and I think I am not the first one to think of it, because in 1 Corinthians 12 you find many before me have been thinking about it—the ear said, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body”; and the foot will say, “Because I am not a hand, therefore I am not of the body.” Paul said, “If the whole were an eye, where were the hearing?”
We want unity, but our urge for unity is so strong that we want to unify everything to ourselves. Suppose you are able to unify every member to be just like you. What happens? You lose the body.
Suppose one day my right hand begins to think, “In order to be united, I will unite the whole body.” So my right hand begins to work, and it tries to bring my left hand, my two feet, and all the other members of the body to be exactly like this right hand.
The result is that you find a gigantic right hand—but where is the body? The body is gone.
In the wisdom of God, He arranged that there should be diversity in unity. The body is one; we have to maintain that unity. But it does not mean that we must try to unify everybody, that everybody must think exactly the same way that I think and do exactly the same thing that I do.
God loves variety. You can see this in creation. You can see this in your own body. God loves variety.
He gave to each grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. We are all members in the body, but we are not all alike.
God has, according to His own wisdom, set us in the body, that each may be given a portion of the grace and the gift of Christ, that we may be members one of another and that we may supply one another.
God has given you a portion. God has given me a portion. God has set you in the body as a hand. God has set another in the body as a foot. Do not try to be a hand if you are a foot. Do not try to be an eye if you are an ear. But thank the Lord because God has so arranged that you are a member in the body. Be that member for the sake of the whole body.
You may say, “If you allow diversity, if you allow differences, then you will lose that unity.” No. No. The unity of the Spirit is the ground on which we stand.
Through the diverse gifts in the diverse members of the body, we help one another until the body grows and we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
My eyes do not eat. But as my eyes see and my mouth eats, the result is that the body grows. And when the body grows, my eyes are satisfied and my mouth is satisfied.
Dear brothers and sisters, let me come down very practically. When you meet another Christian, what should you do to maintain that body life? Do not try to figure out that Christian. All that you need to find out is whether he loves the Lord, whether there is that sevenfold oneness in that brother. That is all you need to find out.
Do not go too fast. If you move too fast, you spoil the whole thing. In the beginning, just come together and find out whether there is that unity of the Spirit. If there is, thank God for that. Stick with your brother and sister. Have fellowship together.
In the process of fellowship, you discover diversity. In spite of the fact that we are one, we are very different. Our first temptation will be, “Let me correct him. Let me bring him to my view, that our unity may be strengthened.”
Dear brothers and sisters, if you try to do that, the result is just the opposite. What do you do? On the basis of the unity of the Spirit, let us fellowship. Our fellowship is based upon life, not upon certain light.
Let us have fellowship. Let us be open one to another. Let us try to help and try to receive help in meekness and lowliness of spirit—not with the thought of conquering anyone, but with the thought of sharing with one another the Christ that means so much to us.
Brothers and sisters, if we begin to share together the Christ that we have experienced, the truth that we have been shown, without imposing anything, as we fellowship and fellowship, you know what is the result? What the eyes have seen, the mouth is benefited by; what the mouth has eaten, the eyes are benefited by.
The result is that we all gradually, by the grace of God, come to that unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man.
You say you believe the church is the body of Christ. You say you want to live church life. But, dear brothers and sisters, what is your attitude and reaction toward those who are redeemed of the Lord—those whom the Lord has put with you in your locality?
Do you diligently keep the unity of the Spirit? In other words, you have to open your heart to all the redeemed of the Lord. As long as they are the Lord’s, so long as they are the Lord’s, however many differences they may have, you have to ignore those differences.
The day will come when we shall not only be on the unity of the Spirit, which is the beginning, but will also arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, which is the end.
But how do you get there? You do not get there by being removed from your foundation. You stand on the unity of the Spirit, and through patient fellowship we shall be built up and arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
You see it? Let me illustrate it.
Some years ago, a couple came to us. This couple loved the Lord very much. As a matter of fact, they were Christian workers. But because of some complications, they were put out by a certain Christian group. So they came to us.
They were very honest people. They did not want to deceive us in any way. When this couple first came to us, we had fellowship. We found that this couple loved the Lord. They were the Lord’s; they loved the Lord.
Then they began to share with us that they held a special teaching called universalism. Now, if you do not know what it is, do not be curious. You had better not know it.
This couple was very honest. They said that they believed in universalism and would like to come and join with us in fellowship, but they wondered whether this would interfere with the fellowship and whether we would receive them, because they had already been put out by another Christian group.
We told this couple, “Brother and sister, you are the Lord’s. You love the Lord. Whomever Christ receives, we receive. We do not believe in universalism. We feel that it is an error. But since you believe it so sincerely and honestly, we only ask you one thing: that you do not propagate it among us. That is all we want. Will you promise?”
“We will not argue with you. We will try to help you, but we will not force you. It is between you and the Lord. You are the Lord’s. Come, and leave this universalism teaching aside. Let us fellowship.”
Thank God, this couple came. We had wonderful fellowship together. We never talked about universalism anymore.
After some time, they came to us again and said, “Brother, we want full fellowship. We feel that by holding on to this universalism, we do not have full fellowship. We are holding back something.”
By the grace of God, throughout the months God had shown them. They said, “We have dealt with it. We have written to those who led us into this way and told them that we have seen the error. We have cut ourselves off from this universalism. Now we want to be in whole fellowship with brothers and sisters.”
We have to move on. What is body life? What is church life? How do we live church life?
The church is a family. The church of God is not an institution. The church of God is a home.
God has provided for His people a home wherever they are, and that home is the local church. That is your home.
Suppose you go into an institution, such as a well-managed orphanage. You will find that everything is needed and everything is orderly. Yet there is an atmosphere of an institution. That is the reason why people can never live in an institution for life.
Everything is legal, legalistic, neat, and orderly. But the church of God is a home. Here is the family of God. God has put us all in that family.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is church life? It is family life. What is family life? It is an atmosphere. You go to a family, you go to a home, and immediately you know it is different.
The basic difference between a family and an institution is in the atmosphere.
In a family, in your home, the atmosphere is this: “Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.”
Brothers and sisters, how do we live church life? We live church life by being filled with love. It is not the love that leads from ourselves.
If you try to love with natural love in the church, you know what you will be doing? You will make that church a nursery. You will coddle every brother and every sister. They will never be able to grow up; they will remain as babies.
God does not want you to open an institution, nor does He want you to open a nursery. In the church, the family of God, there is love, but it is a different kind of love. It is not love in a natural way.
Strangely, in 1 Corinthians 13, you find that you may give up everything. You may even give your body to be burned. But if there is no love, it profits nothing. Why? Because there may be an abundance of natural love, but none of that divine love.
The church is the family of God; therefore, it is the love of God that is the atmosphere. As Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God, so we are to love.
O dear brothers and sisters, how do we love our brothers and sisters? We love them as Christ loved. As we love, it is an offering and sacrifice to God. We love them with the love of Christ.
Sometimes you have to be true to your brother, but it is love. Love is the very life of God, not merely blind love.
You know, in the early days, the testimony of the church was this: the world looked at the church and said, “See how they love one another.” The world is not impressed by what we think. The world is not touched by doctrine and teaching. The world is touched when it sees how they love.
What is a family? A family is not an aggregate of members. A family is not merely a grouping of people—some older people enough to be parents, perhaps some younger ones enough to be children, and in old days perhaps slaves as well. That does not make a family.
What is a family? In a family, you find different members, some older and some younger; yet all these members are related to one another. That makes a family.
When is a family broken up? Not when the children leave home and go to other places. No, they may still stay at home; but if the members of the family are no longer related to one another, that family is broken.
It is not just members, but related members. Here you find older people: they are not just older members; they are parents. Here you find younger ones: they are not just younger ones; they are children. Some are older brothers and sisters. Some are very small; they are babies of the family. Yet they are interrelated with one another.
What is church life? Church life is a life of relatedness. We are related one to another.
It is true that some in the church are like fathers and mothers. Some are like children. Some are like older children, and some are like little babies. That is true. Yet you find that all the members are properly interrelated.
It is very sad in this country that, may I say, the younger generation does not appreciate family life. But in the old days, especially in the Orient, family was a big thing in our life.
The teaching that was put upon us when we were little children was this: “Now you belong to the Kong family. Remember, everything you do reflects upon the Kong family. You are not alone. If you go out and do something, the whole Kong family is involved with you. Therefore, it is your duty to bring glory to your family and not bring disgrace.”
Even though this is Chinese teaching, I will not force Chinese teaching upon you. I should never do that. But I believe in the Bible. I do not want you to accept Chinese teaching; I want you to be taught by the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, in the family of God we are all related. It is a sad thing that God’s people today are all individuals. We are independent, and we are proud.
But in living the church life, we are interdependent. We cannot do without Christ. We cannot do without one another.
Can you live by yourself? Do you live all alone? No. You are responsible to the Lord, and you are responsible to your brothers and sisters.
It is the thought that I am related to my family that will keep me away from many things. Many things you think you can do, but you think of your family, and you cannot.
That is the beauty of the relatedness of involved people. Out of this relatedness comes the contribution of each. Every member contributes something for the family. The little baby contributes much more than you think.
Every member contributes something to the family. That makes a happy, healthy family life. That is the church. Are we living? Are we living?
Finally, church life is militant life. Why? Because there is an enemy in the world.
The Lord said, “I will build My church upon this rock, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The church in the world today is surrounded by the enemy, with all his principalities, authorities, powers of darkness, and evil spirits. Our warfare is not against flesh and blood.
Dear brothers and sisters, there is a spiritual war going on. The Lord is building His church, but the enemy is trying to destroy. The enemy tries to bring discredit to God by discrediting the church.
But thank God, the church is a warrior.
We often think of spiritual warfare in terms of individuals. We think that we are fighting with the enemy all by ourselves. You do not call that a war.
We are involved in a global war. You cannot fight a global war all by yourself. God does not expect you to do that.
On the battlefield, if you try to expose yourself all by yourself, what will happen? You are a good target. We move together.
O dear brothers and sisters, the church is a warrior. God has committed this warfare to the church, not to individuals.
We must stand together in Christ. As the church of God, we must be clothed with the armor of God. You cannot fight alone. Together we stand; divided we fall.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, what is church life? How do we live church life? It is by standing together in Christ.
Do not slip away when your brothers are at the front line. We need one another in the battle. Stand in the Lord, in the might of His strength, and pray together that the will of God may be fulfilled.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is church life. When you see your brothers and sisters at the front, bearing the brunt of the battle, can you sleep on your rosy bed? You cannot.
We have to stand together, pray together, and pray to bring the kingdom of God into this earth.
Dear brothers and sisters, I can only give you a little bit of the practical working out of the church. But I want to conclude in this way.
What is church life? Church life is living out Christ together.
If we live together as a church, as a body, as a family, and as one warrior—if we keep the unity of the Spirit, if we allow diversity but continue to fellowship, if we love one another, if we contribute to the family in its happiness, and if we stand together and pray together—do you know what happens?
You see the church? You see the church? No. You see Christ.
As I look at you, what do I see? I see your face. I see the head. Dear brothers and sisters, if we really live as the church, you will find that people will not see the church; people will see Christ.
It is a pity if people only see the church and do not see Christ. Because if that should happen, the body is covered and the Head is obscured.
Thank God, it is Christ. The body is the complement of Christ. The body is not meant to be seen; it is His complement. The Head is the glory. We see the glory of the Lord among His saints.
O Lord, how we praise and thank Thee, because these days Thou hast been leading us into this mystery of the Christ, which Thou dost desire to reveal to all of us.
O Lord, we ask Thee that we may not only receive revelation from Thee, but that we may really be brought into the life of it.
For, dear Lord, we ask Thee that we may not be so involved with ourselves, even in this matter of church life, that we hide Thee from the view of people.
O Lord, we ask Thee that we may be Thy body, but Christ, Thou art the Head—the only One who is worthy to be seen, to be praised, and to be honored. We give Thee all the glory in Thy precious name.