The second aspect of the central purpose of the meetings of the believers is to build up the Body of Christ in the spirit. In the various denominations in Christianity today we almost never hear messages on the building up of the Body of Christ. In the New Testament, however, this matter is mentioned again and again, especially in the Epistles of Paul. First Corinthians 12 and 14 specifically speak of the building up of the Body of Christ. The subject of Romans 12 is also the building up of the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4 speaks of this matter in an even deeper way. Verses 10 through 11 say that after His ascension Christ received gifts from God and gave them to the church—“And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ” (vv. 11-12).
Then verse 16 says, “Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” Out from whom denotes that all the members are out from Christ the Head. The building up of the Body of Christ is through every joint of the rich supply. These joints are the supplying joints. They have a rich supply and operate in the measure of each one part. Although a nose is small in measure, it has its particular function. While a shoulder is big, it also has its particular measure and function. Through the operation of each one part, all the parts are joined together and knit together. We as members in the Body are being joined and knit together. Once a small part is detached from the Body, it withers and dies. But when the whole Body is joined and knit together, this causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. This matter is spoken of and described in the Bible, but it difficult to find such a situation in Christianity and even among us.
The apostles, while they were still on the earth, thought that it would not be too long before the Body of Christ would be built up and Christ would come back. However, it has been more than one thousand nine hundred years since they passed away, and there is still no trace of the Body of Christ. It seems that the Lord’s coming back will not be in the immediate future. On the earth today there are various denominations in Christianity, and there is also the Lord’s recovery, but we cannot see the building up of the Body of Christ in any of these groups. For example, in the church in Taipei, the birthplace of the overseas work of the Lord’s recovery, we still cannot see much building up of the Body of Christ. What is the reason? The reason is that we do not have proper meetings. In the New Testament the building requires proper meetings, whether they are for the building up of individual members or the building up of the Body of Christ. What is a proper meeting? In brief, a proper meeting is one in which all the believers speak.
In the New Testament we cannot find a single example of a regular church meeting in which one person spoke and everyone else listened. However, there were some irregular meetings in which one person spoke and everyone else listened. For example, Acts 20:7 tells us that after Paul arrived in Troas, the saints gathered together to break bread on the first day of the week. Before they broke the bread, Paul conversed with them until midnight. Subsequently, a young man sank into deep sleep and fell from the window where he was sitting (v. 9). That was a special occasion, a special kind of meeting in which one person spoke and everyone else listened. Then Paul went down and saved the young man’s life, and everyone went up to break the bread. It was after midnight that they broke the bread. After they broke the bread, everyone continued conversing and fellowshipping all the way until daybreak, at which time they saw Paul off (vv. 10-11). This was an example of a special meeting.
In the New Testament the regular meetings, whether they were home meetings, small meetings, or big meetings, were not meetings in which only one person spoke. First Corinthians 14 shows us that when the whole church came together for a big meeting, more than one person spoke. Paul said, “Whenever you come together, each one has...” (v. 26). Someone may have had a psalm, someone else may have had a revelation, another one may have had a teaching, still another may have had a tongue, and another one may have had an interpretation. In the meeting each one had something. The meeting was not one in which one person spoke and everyone else listened. Therefore, based on the light of the New Testament, the regular church meetings may sometimes be a coming together of the whole church or sometimes meetings in various homes, but regardless of the difference in size, the principle is that everyone speaks.