Can they have one life? Oh, no, no, no, no. The Father is the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Of course, since I am living, yes, the Father and Son are living.
So that is something really beautiful. In that family, it is truly a beautiful family.
But we thank God. For the sake of love, we have to extend our household, and we want to bring many people into the house.
So the Bible says He gives us not only the life of His Son, but He makes that life grow so that we can be conformed to the image of His Son. Then we have the character of His Son in this household.
It is full of joy. Brothers and sisters, remember: the church is the household of God.
The church is not a law court. The church is the house of God.
The church is not a correctional reformatory. The church is the house of God.
You know, many brothers and sisters in the church want to correct this and correct that: who is correct, and who is incorrect. But the church is not like that. The church is a family.
There are elders, there are youths, there are children. Gradually, they grow, and you can see the family likeness. The family tells us that we all have the family likeness.
So when you come to the family, you can see Christ in this brother. You can see Christ in that brother. You can see Christ in this sister. This is the family.
But today, when we come to the church, we see Adam in this brother, and we see Adam in that sister. We cannot see Christ, and this is not the church.
So we need to learn to see Christ in my brother and my sister. If you see Christ in him, it is easy for you to love him. If you see Adam, you cannot love him.
The church is the family of God, and we have to pursue being like Christ our Lord.
This family, this household, is also God’s dwelling place.
This is the place where God dwells through His church. God wants to dwell in His household.
Remember, in John 14, the Lord said:
If a man love Me, he will keep My word:
and My Father will love him,
and We will come unto him,
and make Our abode with him.
Now, where does God live today? Where is this house?
Often I say, in Isaiah 66, heaven is the throne of God, and the earth is His footstool. God says, “Where is the house that ye will build unto Me? And where is the place of My rest?”
He dwells with those who have a broken heart and who tremble at His word.
Heaven and earth are God’s office, where He works. But where is His house? His house is in the hearts of those who love Him, who tremble because of His words, who have a humble heart and a repentant heart.
Brothers and sisters, this is His house.
What is the church? The church is the bride of Christ.
Our Lord, through the blood and water that He shed on the cross, built this church. He cares for the church.
Daily, He cleanses the church with water through the word so that the church may be holy, without blemish and without wrinkle. It may be a glorious church, ready to be His bride.
Brothers and sisters, what the Holy Spirit is doing today in the church is to make us suitable for Him.
When we become mature, then He will come to receive us unto Himself. Then forever we are His bride. This is the church.
What is the church? The church is the warrior and the helper of Christ. We will develop this later.
Brothers and sisters, what is the church in the word of God?
We need the Holy Spirit to open our hearts so that we can truly see what the church is.
When we truly see this, then very real things will happen in us. If the Lord leads us to see, there are many things in us that have to be taken away by the cross.
We need to see that Christ has to increase in us. We shall see how, among ourselves, we should love each other.
We hope that this church can be formed early so that our Lord can be satisfied. Brothers and sisters, may the Lord teach us to love our Lord and to love the church.
Let us bow down and pray.
Lord, we thank You and praise You. You loved Your church and gave Yourself for it.
You have cleansed Your church with water through Your word so that Your church may become a glorious church, presented to Yourself.
O Lord, O our God, thank You and praise You because You have chosen us. Your grace is upon us.
Lord, we truly want Your will to prevail. We want to be a part in the church. We want to be used by You to build this church.
Our Lord, we want Your will to be done.
We ask You to give us a heart and a will that will put our lives before You for Your need. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Ephesians 4, from verse 1.
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.
Wherefore He saith, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine,
by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, Who is the head, even Christ;
from Whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth,
according to the working in due measure of each several part,
maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.
Let us bow down and pray.
Lord, when we come before Your word, we truly feel that apart from the illumination of Your Holy Spirit, we can only touch the letter of Your word but not the reality of Your word.
At this moment, we truly look up to You. We ask that You give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that Your word may truly become spirit and life in us.
Lord, we come to You in full dependence, asking that You speak here and work here, so that Your Son may be exalted and receive all glory.
Listen to our prayers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
What we are fellowshipping about together at this time before the Lord is the eternal purpose of God.
We know that our God purposed in Himself a purpose before creation. He has His predestined good pleasure in Himself.
That good pleasure controls all that He does later.
That eternal purpose is His own beloved Son. He is willing that His beloved Son should have the preeminence in all things.
He wants to sum up all things in heaven and on earth in Christ, in His Son. He wants His Son to inherit all things so that all things will display the glory of His Son.
So all in heaven, on earth, and under the earth will bow down and kneel down to say that His Son is Lord. Our Lord Jesus is truly the Lord of all. Thank God.
This is what God predestined in Himself before creation. This good pleasure is accomplished through His Son.
Christ is not only central but also universal. This is the purpose that God has purposed in Himself.
For this reason, we have to consider Christ as the center of all things. We have to pursue knowing Him.
We also see that God has an eternal purpose in His own Son. God has good pleasure in His Son, Christ.
Because He loves His Son, He has given all things to His Son. Yet He considers this not enough. He wants to prepare a bride for His Son to be His helper.
When we see that in Christ He has chosen us, brothers and sisters, the choice of God is truly a mystery. We do not know why God would select us.
The selection of God is not according to us. The selection of God is according to His own glory. Before creation, He chose us in Christ.
He chose us not only for us to be saved.
Some believe today that the choice and predestination of God have only to do with whether we are saved. If so, man would be the center.
But we have to see that the choice of God and the predestination of God are according to His own glory. He has selected us so that we can obtain sonship.
Romans 8 tells us that we are to be conformed to the image of His Son. Those whom He foreknew, He called; He justified; and He glorified.
So we know that God’s selection is for us to be glorified—not only to be saved, but to enter into glory and to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Then we can be suitable for Him, so that we can enjoy glory together and reign together.
This is the purpose that God has predestined. We thank and praise our God. It is not because of us; it is for the glory of God.
According to His glory, He predestined to select us. Now that He has selected us, He will never give up. He will work on us until we can be glorified.
This is the faith that we have before Him. He has an abundance of grace upon us so that we may be holy and without blemish before Him.
So we can be a glorious church, presented to Himself as His bride. This is in the eternal purpose of God.
This is what we have shared in the past few days. This morning we would like to go one step further. We want to see how God works out His own eternal purpose in us.
What we have mentioned in the past was what God has done and what God has in Himself, and what God has in Christ. He has purposed such a purpose, and He accomplishes all things through His Son.
This morning, we want to see what God is doing—how He works out His eternal purpose in us.
We know that the Epistle to the Ephesians can be divided into two sections. These two sections can be represented by two prayers.
In the first chapter, Paul has a prayer. In the latter part of chapter 3, he has another prayer. These two prayers somehow bring out the two different sections of the book of Ephesians.
The first section is Ephesians 1:1 through Ephesians 3:13. This is the first major section.
In this section, God shows us how He has purposed His eternal purpose in Himself and also in His Son, Christ, and how He has accomplished this eternal purpose.
We can say that this is objective truth. Objective truth is what God has done in Christ, and this is already done.
This objective truth is that which has already been accomplished. Regarding this, what we need to do is to see it and believe it.
When Paul spoke about these objective truths, he had a prayer. He said that the God of glory would grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the true knowledge of God.
God has already done these things in Christ. This is not done by you or me. God has done all these things in His Son, Jesus Christ, so that His eternal purpose can be accomplished.
For these things, we need a spirit of revelation. We need to see, not merely outwardly and not merely to understand with our minds, but to see in the depth of our spirit.
We can see how glorious is this purpose which God has purposed in Himself. We can truly see that the beloved Son of God is the center of all things.
We can truly see how God has chosen us in Christ and how the Lord Jesus has accomplished all things on the cross, so that the eternal purpose of God can be accomplished in us.
We need to see this in our spirit. The Holy Spirit must reveal the mystery of God in our spirit so that we can truly see Christ and truly see the church.
This requires the Holy Spirit to reveal and enlighten our spirit, so that we may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glory in the inheritance of the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.
This requires the revelation of God. As to objective truth, what is required of us is to see.
Objective truth is an eternal fact. What is required of us is to see. When we see, then we can believe and receive.
The second part is from Ephesians 3:14 until Ephesians 6:24. Here we see subjective experience.
Because of the facts which God has already accomplished in Christ, He is going to realize these things in us through His Spirit, so that they become our true experience.
For this purpose, our inner man has to be strengthened, because this requires our response.
In the second prayer, Paul asks the Father, according to the riches of His glory and through His Holy Spirit, that our inner man may be strengthened so that Christ may dwell in us through faith.
We know that Christ lives in us. When we receive Him, Christ enters into us. But where does Christ dwell?
The Bible tells us that through His Holy Spirit, He dwells in our spirit. But, brothers and sisters, He not only wants to dwell in our spirit; He also wants to dwell in our hearts.
He wants to come out from our spirit and fill our hearts. He wants to fill us with His love so that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
This is our subjective experience. This is how God works out His eternal purpose in us.
Brothers and sisters, the truth of God, although it is objective, must have subjective experience in us.
The truth of God is not merely something far away. The truth of God has to become our life and our experience. Then we truly answer His eternal purpose.
I know that when we are sharing the eternal purpose of God, it is very possible that we feel we are trying to touch something very high and far away.
It is as though we are describing a basket full of fruit: peaches, apples, grapes, watermelon, and many delicious fruits.
We can see that the basket is full of delicious fruit. But if the basket is hanging far above us, we can only look at it. It is no good merely to look at fruit and try to quench our thirst.
When you see it, there is a yearning in you. We want to know Christ. We want to know the church. We think these are truly precious, so there is a yearning in our hearts.
But if we can only see it and cannot reach it, brothers and sisters, this is not the truth.
Indeed, His truth is so high and so perfect, but God has brought this basket full of fruit down to earth. He says that you can enjoy it to the full.
Brothers and sisters, let us not think that the eternal purpose of God has no personal relationship with us, as though it were only something in our imagination.
We have to know that this eternal purpose of God has to be worked into us. In other words, God, through His own Spirit, is going to lead us into His eternal purpose.
This is what the second part of Ephesians is trying to tell us.
This morning, we would like to share how God, through His own Holy Spirit, is working His eternal purpose into us.
I would like to share four things with you, brothers and sisters.
The first is what Ephesians 4:1 says:
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called.
The first thing is to walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called.
We thank and praise the Lord that all of us are called people.
Let me say again: that we who have been called are called according to the selection of God. His selection is according to His good pleasure.
We do not understand why God has called us. But we all know that God has called us because He loves His own Son.
What is our calling? Yesterday we shared a little about this.
He called us to be the body of Christ. He called us to be the one new man. He called us to be His house.
Not only are we His dwelling place, but we are also His family. He called us to be the bride of Christ. He called us to be the warriors of God.
To sum it up, He is calling us to be the bride and helper of Christ.
What we are called to is corporate. We have been called individually, but what we are called to is corporate.
Although God has called us individually, He did not call us to be spiritual giants, each one by himself. He called each one of us to come together as one whole body.
We are members of one another, and Christ is our Head. We are His body.
What is the grace of our calling? Do you remember what Paul said in the first chapter?
May the Lord open the eyes of our heart so that we may know the hope of His calling. What is that hope?
The calling is for us to be the body of Christ. The hope is that when the body is full-grown, then the body will become the bride of Christ.
Today we are the body of Christ. In the future, we are the bride of Christ.
Today we are the body, but this body needs to grow. When the body is mature, then the Lord is going to come to receive us as His eternal wife.
This is the hope of our calling.
Now that this is our calling, Paul tells us that we need to walk worthy of the calling.
Now that we have seen our calling, how shall we walk on this earth so that we may be worthy? How can we be worthy of this calling?
Ephesians 4:1–16 tells us two things. The first is to give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit.
This is how we can be worthy of our calling.
The second is that we build up the body, the whole body being fitted together and connected by every joint of supply.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have been called to be the body of Christ. How many bodies does Christ have?
We know that Christ is the Head, and we are His body. All believers, from the first believer to the last believer, throughout all the centuries, are members of this one body.
There is only one Head, and there is only one body.
We cannot have two or more heads, and neither can we have two or more bodies.
If we have one head and one body, that is normal and beautiful. But if we have several heads and one body, or one head and several bodies, that is a monster.
Brothers and sisters, we have to see clearly: today we have only one Head. The Head is Christ.
He would not allow any other head outside of Himself. In the Head, there is only one body. Although we are many, we have only one body.
Within one body there are many members. So is the Christ.
Here we see that there is only one body. Since we have only one body, one thing is very important: we have to use diligence to keep the oneness of the body.
If we do not use diligence to keep the oneness, then the body will be disintegrated. Then we come short of this great glory of God.
But how do we keep the unity? We thank and praise our Lord. Here it says that we are to keep the unity which has already been given by the Holy Spirit.
In English it says, “the unity of the Spirit.” This unity of the Spirit is given to us—every believer, every member.
We have all obtained this oneness of the Spirit. Because this oneness of the Holy Spirit has already been given to us, our need is to keep it.
Brothers and sisters, can you keep anything that does not belong to you? If we want to keep something, it must already belong to us.
If something is very precious, then you use diligence to keep it. If I walk on the street with several coins in my pocket, I walk naturally. If someone steals those coins, it does not hurt me too much.
But if I have a bar of gold, I will put my hand in my pocket and use diligence to keep it.
Brothers and sisters, God has given a great gift to His church: the oneness of the Spirit. How precious is this oneness of the Spirit!
Through this oneness of the Spirit, the body can be joined together and will not be disintegrated.
So the Bible tells us to use diligence. We cannot allow the enemy to steal this.
We have to stand on this ground. What is the ground of the church? The ground of the church is the unity of the Spirit.
We have to stand on this ground of unity, not allowing anything to move us away from this ground.
Today, some say that the ground of the church is locality—that we have to stand on a certain locality.
Brothers and sisters, although the assembly has to do with locality, and there is a manifestation of the church in a locality, the ground of the church is the unity of the body.
If you want to speak of local churches, please remember that the local church is not a doctrine in the Bible.
In the Bible, the local church is an example. It is a practice. It is not a teaching.
What is the teaching concerning the local church? The teaching is the unity of the Spirit.
If you keep the unity of the Holy Spirit, then the church is manifested in that locality.
Brothers and sisters, we have to walk worthy of our calling. We have to use diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit.
But how do we use diligence to keep this unity of the Spirit? We need to have an attitude.
Paul tells us here that we are to have all lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, and the uniting bond of peace.
If we want to keep this oneness, we have to have such an attitude.
This attitude is one of all lowliness. To be lowly is not to have self.
Someone may ask, “What is lowliness?” Lowliness is not merely reducing myself a little. Lowliness is not having myself.
What is meekness? It is not asking for anything for myself.
What is longsuffering? Longsuffering is to endure for a long time.
How do you tolerate? You have to tolerate in love. How do we unite? We unite in peace.
We know that all these are fruits of the Spirit. We need to have such an attitude.
Then we can use diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit. If we do not have humility, and if we are very proud, how can we keep this oneness?
If we strive and ask for our own rights, how can we keep this oneness? If we cannot forbear, how can we keep it?
We know that in a body all the members are joined together.
If we keep everybody at arm’s length, then there may be no problems between them. For example, we are believers, but we have no association.
Only once a week, for one hour, we put on our Sunday clothes and come to Sunday worship. We listen to the hymns and the message.
Then we go out, everybody says goodbye, and nothing gets in the way between us. Brothers and sisters, it may seem very nice, but this is not the body.
In the body, the parts and members are joined together. There is a very close relationship.
For example, when you have your meal, sometimes you eat fast, and your teeth bite your tongue.
Suppose your tongue says, “I am on strike. I am not going to cooperate with you.” Can that happen?
Many times I have bitten my tongue, but my tongue still cooperates with me.
Often we think that we eat with our teeth. But when you eat, you have to use your tongue. If you do not have your tongue to move the food around your mouth, you cannot eat properly.
Sometimes the tongue has to move some food to the back, and sometimes it has to bring food to the middle so that the sharp teeth can do their work.
Brothers and sisters, we have to have longsuffering. If you endure and suffer once, you must be willing to suffer one more time. Then you can keep the oneness of the Spirit.
Of course, you have to tolerate in love.
Peter asked, “My brother offended me seven times.” Peter was a mathematician; he was counting: once, twice, three times.
It was very hard for a person like Peter to bear. Peter had a quick temper. It was already something for him to be patient with his brother seven times.
Then he came to the Lord to ask for a reward: “My brother has offended me seven times. I forgive him.”
The Lord said, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven.”
There Peter’s mathematics fell apart. He could not count anymore. He went away depressed and said, “There is nothing I can say, because he is my brother. I have to forgive. However he offends me, I have to forgive.”
Brothers and sisters, without love you cannot forgive.
How can we have lowliness, meekness, forbearing, peace, and love? Where is the secret?
The secret is in Paul’s first word. He says, “I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ.”
“I am the prisoner of Christ.” Although outwardly he was the prisoner of the Romans, he said, “I am the prisoner of Christ.”
Brothers and sisters, this is the glory of Paul. Not only was he a servant of the Lord, not only was he a bondslave; he was the prisoner of Christ.
A prisoner has no freedom. He cannot do according to his own will. He is totally subjected to the rule of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, we have to offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice. Then we can be the prisoners of Christ.
It is Christ who rules us, not that we rule ourselves.
For this reason, we can have the character of Christ shining out. Through the character of Christ, we can maintain the unity of the Spirit.
Outside of Christ, there is no way to keep the unity of the Spirit. How can we keep this unity of the Spirit in our flesh? Only in Christ.
So we have to be the prisoners of Christ. Then we can keep this unity of the Spirit.
What is the unity of the Spirit? Here we have the sevenfold oneness.
There is one body, one Spirit, and one hope of our calling. All these have to do with the Holy Spirit.
Today, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, we have been baptized into one body in the one Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit dwelling in us is going to lead us into that one hope.
Brothers and sisters, every believer has these three onenesses. We have the Holy Spirit living in us. We have been baptized into one body. We have one same hope.
That hope is that we may be His bride in the future. This is a hope for every believer.
One Lord, one faith, and one baptism—these have to do with the Son.
He is our Lord. We have only one Lord, not many lords. We have only one faith.
What does one faith refer to? It refers to our very fundamental faith: that our Lord Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
We are baptized in the name of the Lord. We are baptized into His name. From now on, we belong to Him, not to ourselves and not to this world.
We belong to our Lord. One Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
This is something every believer has. We have only one God, and this God is the Father of us all.
He is your Father and my Father too. He is over all, through all, and in us all.
Here you see what the unity of the Spirit is. This is the unity that we have in the Triune God.
This is something that each one of us believers has. Now we have to use diligence to keep it.
If we use diligence to keep this unity, then we come to Ephesians 4:13:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
Here we see another mention of unity. What is this unity? It is the unity of the faith.
The one faith mentioned earlier refers to our fundamental faith. If you do not believe that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the living God, then you are not saved. This is our foundation.
But the faith mentioned in verse 13 is a little different. It refers to the totality of our faith.
This is the faith mentioned in Jude, where we are told to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.
Our faith, or this truth, has been given to the saints once for all. This is the revelation in the word of God. It encompasses much truth, and these truths need us to believe and accept them.
This is what is referred to here as the faith.
One day, we will arrive at a state in which we have unity in the whole faith of God.
We know that today this has not been accomplished. Although we have the same fundamental faith, in many truths we have various interpretations.
For example, concerning the rapture mentioned by our brother last night: some believe that before the tribulation there will be a rapture.
Some believe that after the tribulation there will be a rapture. Some believe that during the tribulation we will be raptured.
Some believe some will be raptured before and some during. We see that we do not have unity in this faith.
But one day we will have unity in the truth.
It also says that we will have unity in the knowledge of the Son of God. This knowledge is the true knowledge.
This is knowledge that comes through experience. One of these days, our experience of the Son of God will be the same.
Today each one of us has a different experience of the Son of God. Some experience the love of the Son of God. Some experience the severity of the Son of God.
One time there were two brothers, and I was sitting by the side while they were talking.
One brother had Catholicism as his background. In the Catholic tradition, God is far away above us.
When you walk into a Catholic assembly hall, fear comes into your heart. But we thank God that this brother was saved.
After he was saved, he felt that God is truly loving. Many modern-day people, when they mention Jesus, simply say, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” They do not call Him Lord Jesus.
It is as though our Lord were merely a close companion. They think God is loving and that they can be very close to Him.
The other brother had a different background. His background was that the Lord was loving and that he could be close to Him.
When he came to a meeting, he could put his feet on the table, and it did not matter to him.
But later, when he read the Bible, he found that God is dreadful. He is King. We have to have fear for Him.
These two brothers were arguing. One said that we have to fear God, and he referred to the Scriptures.
I was listening by the side. Then I told my brothers, “Brothers, you are arguing here as in the ancient fables.”
There were two knights who came from two different directions. There was a shield between them. One warrior said, “This shield is gold,” and the other warrior said, “This is silver.”
They argued because of that. But the shield had one side of gold and the other side of silver.
So I told my brothers, “Let me quote the Bible.”
You know, in 2 Corinthians 5, on the one hand, the Lord is loving; on the other hand, the Lord is to be feared.
Today we have differences in our knowledge of the Son of God, but we thank God that one day we will be one, even in our knowledge of the Son of God.
Are there two unities in the Bible? No. The Bible has only one unity.
But this unity has two ends. At the beginning, it is the unity of the Spirit. It has already been given to us.
Every believer has that unity. You have that. He has that.
At the other end, toward the end, we will have unity in the faith and also in the knowledge of the Son of God.
Do we have that today? We do not. Therefore, the Bible tells us that we have to arrive there. We have to reach there.
This is something that we have to reach.
Today we must begin at the beginning. If we start from the beginning, then we can get to the end.
But if we do it the other way around, and want to start at the end, then we do not even have the beginning.
After you believe in the Lord, you come to a brother. When you start a conversation and know that he is a believer, perhaps the first question you ask is, “Are you a Christian?”
He says, “Thank the Lord, I am.” When you hear that, you are bubbling inside and you say, “I have met a brother.” Is it not so?
This is the unity of the Spirit.
Then immediately we have the second question: “Which denomination do you belong to?”
He says, “I am a Methodist.” Another says, “I am a Baptist.” Then there is a problem.
“What is the matter? You are a Baptist? I am a Methodist. How can you be a Baptist?”
“If you do not turn yourself into a Methodist, then we cannot have fellowship together.” Why? That is even worse.
Then comes a third question: “Have you spoken in tongues?” If you have not had this experience, then there is no fellowship.
Brothers and sisters, you see: you want to use this end point as your starting point. If so, you lose even the beginning.
If you cannot fellowship, how can you arrive at the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God?
How poor we are. Today this is our condition. We do things in this way, and so the body is divided.
Brothers and sisters, we have to use diligence to keep this unity of the Spirit.
Although we have differences in the interpretation of the Bible, and although we have differences in our spiritual experience, we all belong to the Lord.
Therefore, we should have fellowship among ourselves, no matter what differences there may be.
We have to have fellowship in Christ, in life.
The basis of fellowship is life. The degree of fellowship is according to life.
Because we all have the same life, we should have fellowship. The result of this fellowship is that we can exchange and share our light.