Will you please turn to 1 Corinthians 12? We will read from verses 14 through 27. I will read it in English, and my brother will repeat it in Chinese.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it not therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it not therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
But now hath God set the members each one of them in the body, even as it pleased Him.
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
But now they are many members, but one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary:
And those parts of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
Whereas our comely parts have no need: but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honour to that part which lacked;
That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof.
We will also read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;
Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never faileth.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee for gathering us together again this day. We do gather in Thy precious name, and we thank Thee for the assurance that Thou art with us. If Thou art with us, Lord, who can be against us?
We have gathered here this morning, Lord, because we want to hear Thy word. We want Thy Spirit to send Thy word into the very depths of our being. We pray that by Thy word we may be transformed and conformed to Thy precious image.
We pray that Thou wilt bless this time, that Thou mayest be glorified, and that Thy will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. We worship Thee in Thy precious name. Amen.
I do thank the Lord for gathering us together here this morning. I thank you for your bravery in coming to this session, because we are entering into the gymnasium of Christ.
You are not going to hear something pleasing and beautiful, but hopefully you will hear something real and practical. When you go to a gymnasium, what do you do first? You relax, because if you do not relax, you cannot exercise.
So I hope, brothers and sisters, that you are all very relaxed and ready to do some exercise—perhaps perspire a little and burn up some calories—that you may get a healthy spirit.
This morning, what are we going to exercise? The cross—the only way to body life. There is no alternate way. If we want to really live body life, the cross is a necessary exercise.
Last Lord’s Day, we talked about vision: how we need a vision of body life. We are so individualistic. We always think of ourselves, and we are all so independent that we seem to lose the vision of body life.
But when God saves us, even though He saves us one by one, His purpose in saving us is that we may be a corporate body. He wants to give us, as the body of Christ, to His beloved Son.
When the body is fully grown, then we will become the bride of the Lamb. So body life is in the very heart of God, and this is something to which we need to pay special attention.
We need a vision of body life. As we mentioned last Lord’s Day, David, by the grace of God, caught a vision of body life. In Psalm 132, he had a longing for the house of God; then, in Psalm 133, he gave us a vision of body life.
As a matter of fact, David’s own family was not a beautiful picture. Because of that, he longed all the more for the beauty of the body life of Christ.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
I wonder, when we hear this, what is our reaction. Do we feel the same way as David did? Are we longing for it as David longed for it? As we look around, are we disappointed in the so-called body life that we know today?
Do we really see brethren dwelling together in unity? Is it because we dwell together in unity that the oil falls upon the body—the Holy Spirit? Do we really feel the heavenly dew bringing life, and life forevermore, to us? Is that a reality in our life together today?
Therefore, we really need a vision of body life. But I would like to ask a question: suppose you have a vision of body life. What is your reaction?
Is it because you have received such a wonderful vision that your spirit is liberated and you feel as if you have been lifted to the third heaven? Or do you feel that you are far from it, and instead of being elated, you are deeply humiliated?
Very often, you have both reactions. On the one hand, you find yourself so uplifted; very soon, you find yourself brought very, very low. Why is it so? Let us find some illustrations from the Word of God.
Remember the apostle John, the one who wrote the book of Revelation. In Revelation 19, he received such a vision of the marriage feast of the Lamb. He heard of those who were invited to the marriage feast, and he was so filled with joy and so uplifted that he lost his head.
He began to worship the messenger instead of worshipping God. Again, in Revelation 22, he was given such a sight of the New Jerusalem that he was so taken up with it that he again lost his head. He worshipped the angel instead of God.
Why is it so? Is it because he thought he had arrived, that he was so satisfied that he forgot himself—forgot who he was and what God was going to do with him? Somehow, you find that something is not right.
Then I think of the apostle Paul. In 2 Corinthians 12, he was caught up to the third heaven and caught away to paradise. He heard things that could not be uttered.
But what happened after he received such visions? Thank God, God allowed Satan to put a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble, to keep him weak, until he learned the lesson that God’s grace was sufficient for him and that His power is perfected in weakness.
Brothers and sisters, when we receive a vision, we may boast of our strength. We may feel that we have been taken to the third heaven and have heard in paradise things that could not be uttered. We become uplifted and forget who we are.
God reminded Paul: “Even though you have received such a vision, do not think that you are already there. There is a way to go.”
You find in Scripture some experiences that are very opposite to this. Remember Daniel. In Daniel 10 through 12, he was given such an end-time vision.
But when he saw the Lord, he said, “My comeliness was turned in me into corruption,” and, “There remained no strength in me.” He fell down as dead.
This happened not only to Daniel; it happened to Ezekiel, and it happened to John. There is a real lesson for us.
When a heavenly vision is given, even though in our spirit we feel so uplifted, that does not mean that we are already there. The problem is that when we are given a revelation, we think that we are already there, and we become proud of it.
Instead, a vision should humble us. When we really see what body life is, we begin to realize how far away we are from it. How we need to humble ourselves before God and allow Him to do His work in us, to bring us to that vision and make the vision our vocation.
Between vision and vocation, there is a process. There is a way to it, and the way is the way of the cross. Do not be frightened by it, because this is the only way. There is no bypass.
Think of Jacob. In Genesis 28, he fled from his home and was in the wilderness. He took a stone as a pillow for the night. I wonder, if we take a stone for our pillow, can we really sleep? It shows us a very pitiful condition.
Yet, to his surprise, God revealed Himself to him and showed him what He would do for him. Jacob had a wonderful vision of the ladder reaching to heaven, with angels going up and down upon it. God was at the top, and Jacob was at the bottom. The ladder united the two.
God gave him precious promises. But that vision did not change Jacob. He set up a pillar and made a vow, but he was bargaining with God: “If You do this and do that, then I will make You my God.”
That vision did not change him, but thank God, it gave him a direction. For twenty years, he was under the discipline of God.
Jacob was a strong person. In Genesis 32, we find how God wrestled with him and touched his thigh. In wrestling, the thigh is the most important part of the body. God touched his thigh, and he was weakened.
Then Jacob clung to the angel and said, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” He knew that he was finished. He could not live any longer unless God blessed him. Then God changed his name.
Brothers and sisters, there is a process in our lives. How can we change from Jacob to Israel? How can we be delivered out of ourselves and delivered into the Lord? How can our vision become our vocation? The cross has to do its work.
The cross is not a curse. The cross to us is a blessing. This morning, we would like to enter the gymnasium and exercise in this matter of the cross: how the cross transforms our vision of body life into a vocation of body life.
When you think of body life, what is the first principle that governs it? Turn to Colossians 2:19. Instead of reading it negatively, we will read it positively.
Holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God.
When you come to this matter of the body and body life, the first thing you notice is the Head and the headship of Christ. Without a head, you do not have a body, because the body actually comes out of the head and is united to the head.
When God created man, He created man according to His own image. He created male and female. Man is a corporate person. In the real sense, man is a union of male and female.
In Genesis 2, God used the red earth to form a body. Then God breathed His breath into the nostrils of that body, and man became a living soul. The body was made of earth, but man’s spirit came from the breath of God. The body and spirit make up the soul, which is the personality.
Was man then created completely? No. God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet for him.”
God put Adam to sleep and performed a surgical act without pain, because there was no sin yet. God opened Adam’s side and took something out of Adam to make a woman.
When God led Eve to Adam, Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” She was out of him and united with him into one.
That is a type, and the antitype is Christ and His church. The church comes out of Christ. It is out of His side.
We remember how John saw a soldier thrust a spear into the side of our Lord, and out came blood and water. Blood cleanses us from sin, and water gives life to us. It is out of Christ that the church is born.
The body comes from the Head, and the Bible also says that when the body is growing, it grows into the Head. When you think of the body, you have to think of the Head first.
It is wrong to put the church before Christ, because the church comes out of Christ and returns to Christ. When you think of the body, immediately you think of the Head.
When you look at a person, you see the head; you do not see the body, because the body is covered and only the head stands out. This is what it should be.
When you try to see the body and do not see the head, it is a dead corpse. The Head is the first thing that we must hold fast to. Because of that, the headship of Christ is essential in body life.
If there is a body of which the head is not Christ—if the head is someone else, something else, or even a certain teaching—you know that it is a departure from the truth. Christ is the Head of the body.
What should be our attitude toward the Head? We need to give Him absolute obedience. We do not begin body life until we give our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. We do not begin body life until consecration is a reality in us.
If you are saved but do not surrender your life to the Lord, you may have accepted Him as your Saviour, but you have not given yourself to Him or acknowledged Him as your Lord. You do not begin body life.
Body life begins after our consecration. Romans 12:1 says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
Notice that “bodies” is plural. Every one of us has a body, and every one of us who is redeemed should present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
A living sacrifice means that as long as you live, you are a sacrifice. What is a sacrifice? A sacrifice is something that goes out from you and goes to God. Before that, it is yours; afterward, it is no longer yours.
A sacrifice is to be burned and consumed to ashes. It means that you lose yourself. But as you lose yourself, Christ is formed in you. That is a living sacrifice.
When you really give yourself to the Lord—when you give the right of your life to the Lord and accept Him as your Lord and your Head—then the body comes forward. In Romans 12:5, the body is singular: the body is one, though it has many members.
Without consecration, you will not be able to see the body, and there is no possibility for you to live body life. Even though you have been saved, you will live as an individual. You are still self-centred, not body-centred and not Christ-centred.
You remember the famous story of F. B. Meyer. When he was a young and promising minister, he visited C. T. Studd in Scotland during a cold and chilly November.
Early one morning, F. B. Meyer noticed that there was a light in C. T. Studd’s room. He waited and waited, but the light was still there. Afraid that something might have happened, he knocked on the door.
C. T. Studd said, “Come in.” Meyer went in and found him sitting there, wrapped in a rug, reading the Bible.
F. B. Meyer asked, “Why are you up so early?” C. T. Studd said, “I love the Lord. I was searching the Scriptures for His commandments, that I may follow them.”
We search the Scriptures for promises. We are so lazy. We have a promise box, and we simply pick a promise. But C. T. Studd was different.
F. B. Meyer was touched. He said, “You have something that I do not have. What is the secret?” C. T. Studd asked him, “Have you consecrated yourself?”
Meyer replied, “Of course I have consecrated myself.” C. T. Studd asked, “Have you given to the Lord, one by one, everything in your life?” Meyer said, “Well, I have not done that.”
C. T. Studd said, “Do it.” F. B. Meyer began to give to the Lord one thing after another in his life. He had a bundle of keys, and every key represented a room in his life.
He gave the keys one by one, but he kept one small key. He said, “Lord, just let me keep that small key. There is a small room for myself.”
The Lord began to walk away. Out of desperation, Meyer cried out, “Lord, make me willing to be willing. I am not willing, but You make me willing.”
The Lord came back and took all the keys. The Lord said, “If I am not Lord of all, I am not Lord at all.”
Brothers and sisters, we need to see the headship of Christ. To see the headship of Christ demands absolute surrender. We cannot hold back anything from our Head.
You know what Peter did in Acts 10. When he saw the vision of the church like a sheet coming down from heaven, full of animals, the voice said, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean.” But the voice said, “What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.”
Peter said, “Not so, Lord.” But to say, “Lord, not so,” is a contradiction. If He is Lord, there can be no “not so.” Three times the sheet was taken up into heaven.
Brothers and sisters, is it not true that even in our individual life we do not let Christ be our Head? If we do not allow Him to be our Head, how can we be members of the body of Christ?
In our relationship with the Lord, it is not our weakness that hinders us; it is our strength that is the problem. This is not only true in our relationship with Christ. It is also true in our relationship with one another.
Why is it that we cannot submit to one another in the body? It is because of our strength, not because of our weakness. We think that we are right, and we stand on it. We will not give in.
For that reason, we cannot submit to one another. The headship of Christ is through the whole body. It is just like a physical body: the head controls the whole body through the nervous system.
The nervous system joins every member of the body to the head. In the body of Christ, Christ becomes the Head in a similar way. It is not that every member is related directly to the Head as though one hundred members were all independently related to the Head.
My neck is connected to my head, and my arms are related to my neck. The head, through the nervous system, controls every member of the body. Sometimes direction has to come through other members before it reaches you.
If you do not submit yourself to one another, He cannot reach you. So we have to learn how to submit to one another and prefer our brothers more than ourselves.
I remember Brother Lee saying, “When you come to the church, the first thing for you to do is not to find who is to submit to you. It is to find to whom you should submit.”
“I submit to him because Christ is in him. There is more of Christ in him. I submit to him because I submit to Christ.”
Only when we have that kind of spirit are we able to live body life. Otherwise, we can only live an individualistic life. The headship of Christ must be a reality in the body of Christ.
This is the first point. The second point is the unity of the body. The wonder of the body is that it is one body with many members. There are many members, but one body.
Remember Ephesians 4. We need to walk worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called.
Our calling is that we are called to be the body of Christ. How are we going to walk worthy of that calling? That is body life.
The first thing, in Ephesians 4:3, is this:
Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The unity of the Spirit is something already given. Every member of the body of Christ has the unity of the Spirit.
The unity of the Spirit is described in Ephesians 4:4-6:
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.
Why is there only one body? Because in one Spirit we have been baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, and we have all been made to drink of one Spirit.
The Holy Spirit gives us one body, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is one Spirit. The same Spirit leads all the saints. This is the one hope of our calling.
What is the one hope of our calling? To be His bride. When the body is fully grown, then we become the bride of the Lamb.
In one Spirit we are one. Then there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. Our Lord Jesus is one. Our faith is one: that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. We have been baptized into Christ.
We share the same Father. We believe in the same God. In the Triune God, the unity of the Spirit has already been given.
This is something we need diligently to keep, because the enemy is trying by every means to destroy the unity of the Spirit. Unless we diligently keep it, we may lose it.
Then, in Ephesians 4:13, we read:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
There are two mentions of unity. In verse 3, there is the unity of the Spirit. In verse 13, there is the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
The unity of the Spirit has already been given. The unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God is something to which we must arrive. It is like a rod with two ends: the beginning is the unity of the Spirit, and the end is the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
How are we going to move from one end to the other? By diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit. In the process, there is fellowship.
Fellowship is not based on light; fellowship is based on life. Fellowship is based on life and increases in light, but fellowship does not depend upon light.
“One faith” and “the faith” are different. “One faith” refers to that simple faith in the Lord Jesus: we believe that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that saves us.
“The faith” refers to the whole truth—whatever has been revealed to us in the Bible. We have one faith, but we have not yet come to the unity of the faith.
Some people understand the truth in one way, while others understand the truth in another way. We have not come to a unity yet. This is something to which we must arrive.
We have not yet come into the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God. The knowledge here is full knowledge—epignosis. Your experience of Christ is limited, and my experience of Christ is limited. We have differences.
How can we move from the unity of the Spirit to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God? We must diligently keep the unity of the Spirit.
Do not allow differences in teaching, doctrine, and experience to divide us. Continue in fellowship with all those who believe in the Lord Jesus.
Be faithful to what God has shown you, but never insist that others must believe or do exactly the same thing. If we insist on that, we will have no fellowship, and we will never arrive at the unity of the faith.
Be open. Be faithful to what God has shown you, but do not close the door to what you have not yet received. Continue to fellowship with one another, maintaining the unity of the Spirit, and eventually we will arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
This is important in body life. The body of Christ is so divided, not because our basic faith and experience of Christ are different, but because our interpretation of the Bible and our experience of Christ are different.
Because of such differences, we cut one another off. We will not have fellowship. Brothers and sisters, this is the flesh. It has to go to the cross. Then you will find body life.
Thirdly, there is the universal priesthood of believers. Turn to 1 Peter 2.
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
Brothers and sisters, we all know that as members of the body of Christ, we are all priests. There is no division between laity and a sacred class. We are all priests, and we are to offer spiritual sacrifices.
In other words, as members of the body of Christ, we all have functions. Our purpose is not to build up our own work; it is to build up the body of Christ.
Our being priests is not in a separate, individual way. It is a priesthood. What is a priesthood? It simply means that there is a High Priest, and under the direction of the High Priest, all the priests serve together.
In the old days, in temple service, the priests gathered early in the morning and cast lots. Wherever the lot fell, that was what the priest would do that day, because in those days the Holy Spirit did not dwell in them.
But today we are under the High Priesthood of our Lord Jesus. How does He exercise His High Priesthood? Through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit fills the body, and He is in every member of the body. Under the direction of the Head, the High Priest, we work together according to His order.
Christian service is not independence. Christian service is serving in the body according to the order of the High Priest. Our service is in the body and for the body; it is not outside the body and independent.
In Judges 18, the first time the children of Israel set up idolatrous worship while the house of God was in Shiloh is recorded. At that time, the tabernacle was in Shiloh.
But the grandson of Moses, Jonathan, left his place to find a place of service. He became the priest of one household, and later he became the priest of one tribe.
A priest is supposed to be connected with the temple. To be separated from the temple is disastrous, because when you are serving in the temple, there is coordination. It is not independent, and it is under the direction of the High Priest, Christ.
In order that this may be true, the cross has to work deeply in our lives: that we do not despise other members, that we do not live as if we do not need anybody else, that we prefer one another, submit to one another, and learn to work together under restraint.
This is how body life comes forth.
Finally, there is the bond of perfectness. You find in 1 Corinthians 13 that it is about love—but it is love in the body.
We know that God is love, but here love is in relation to the body. Chapter 12 speaks of the body. Chapter 14 speaks of how the body meets. Chapter 13 shows us the more excellent way.
Brothers and sisters, when we think of body life, love—first love—must be behind it. If we lose that first love, then even though we may go on and on, God finds it unacceptable, because it has all become something outward.
The most important thing is to have that Person. It is the love of Christ that constrains us. It is to have us filled with the love of God.
Human love is limited, but God’s love is everlasting. The description of this love is very definite: love suffereth long, and is kind.
We think that when we gather together, it is to enjoy ourselves. But the truth is that the closer we are, the more we suffer. We step upon each other, disagree with each other, and hurt one another. What do you do?
In order to have body life, there must be love. When you eat, have you ever bitten your tongue? Does the tongue quit? No. It endures and continues to help.
We think that the tongue is only for speaking. No, it is more than that. When you eat, you need the tongue. If you do not have a tongue, you have to use your fingers to move the food. The tongue may seem to be doing nothing, but it is working.
When the tongue is bitten, it may be hurt, but it does not quit. Thank God, my tongue is still in my mouth.
Love is kind. Not only do you suffer, but you repay it with kindness. It is not eye for eye. It is not that you grit your teeth and say, “I will get even.” No, you say, “I am kind to you. No matter how you treat me, I still love you.”
This is body life. The most important principle in body life is love.
We do not have this love in ourselves, but He has it. So let us go to Him and allow His love to fill us, that we may be able to love the Lord with all our hearts and love one another as He loves us.
Dear brothers and sisters, without spiritual exercise, without bearing the cross, there is no possibility of body life. But with spiritual exercise, and with a willingness to take up the cross and follow the Lord, our vision will become our vocation.
It is not for ourselves. It is for the glory of God. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we do pray that we do not come here to listen for other people or pray for other people. We pray that we may hear for ourselves.
We pray that Thou wilt humble us under Thy mighty hand, that in due time Thou mayest exalt us. May Thou receive all the glory. In Thy precious name, Amen.