In this chapter we want to see that the Body of Christ builds up itself in love. We pointed out in chapter one that Ephesians 4:11-16 is the most crucial passage in Paul’s writings related to the building up of the Body of Christ. Verse 16 of Ephesians 4 is the greatest verse in the book of Ephesians. Throughout the centuries of church history, this verse has been missed, neglected, and even put aside. It is very hard for the human mind to apprehend the points which are covered in this verse.
Ephesians 4:15 and 16 say, “But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, fitted and knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” Does “all the Body” refer to the local church or to the universal church? The church has two aspects. It is both local and universal. But in our understanding of Ephesians 4:16, we need to forget about these two aspects. When we are in the new heaven and the new earth as the New Jerusalem, there will not be any consideration about the local or universal aspects of the church. The New Jerusalem is simply the church, the Body of Christ. With the New Jerusalem, the consideration about the local and universal aspects of the church is over. We need a foretaste of the New Jerusalem.
When the apostle Paul wrote Ephesians 4:16, he did not have the local or universal aspects of the church in mind. What was in his consideration was simply the Body of Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:28 that “God has placed some in the church: firstly apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers; then works of power, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.” Is this the local church or the universal church? In this verse Paul is not considering the local or universal aspects of the church. In 1 Corinthians 12 the church is considered the Body of Christ. In Ephesians 4:16 “all the Body” includes Peter, James, John, Paul, Barnabas, Ignatius, Martin Luther, and all of us. All of God’s chosen and redeemed ones in the past, in the present, and in the future are referred to by Paul when he says “all the Body.”
In John 14—16 the Lord Jesus revealed that His Body is constituted with the very essence of the Triune God. Then in John 17 He prayed that the believers would be perfected into one (v. 23) so that the church revealed in chapters fourteen through sixteen could be realized. In chapter fourteen the church is signified by the Father’s house. In verse 2 the Lord Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes.” The Father’s house in this verse is not the supposed heavenly mansion. The Father’s house is today’s church (1 Tim. 3:15). In the Father’s house there are many abodes, many members. The many abodes are the many members of the Body of Christ. Every member is an abode. The Father’s house is constituted with the essence of the Triune God. In chapter fifteen is the vine tree with all its branches. This vine tree is the organism of the Triune God. The vine and the branches are an organism to glorify the Father by expressing the riches of the divine life. In chapter sixteen is the newborn child. This is a corporate child comprising the Son of God in His humanity as the Head and all the chosen and redeemed ones as the Body. According to Acts 13:33 and 1 Peter 1:3 this child was born in Christ’s resurrection. Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God in His humanity was born in resurrection. That birth included all of God’s chosen and Christ’s redeemed ones. After the Lord unveiled the Father’s house, the vine tree with the branches, and the newborn child, He prayed for all of us to be one. For the house of the Father, for the vine tree with all its branches, and for the newborn child, there is the need of oneness.
In John 17:21-23, the Lord Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us...that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” The oneness needs to be perfected in the Triune God. We need to be perfected in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit so that we can be one. We may declare or even sing that we are all in one accord, but is there the one accord among us today in the recovery? Practically speaking, where is the one accord? In February of 1986 I gave messages on the one accord to the elders, but today there is disaccord among us. When I spoke these messages, I did not have the expectation that all the saints in the recovery could be in one accord. During that time, I said that I was like Gideon sounding the trumpet for some to fight with me just like Gideon and his men fought the war for all of Israel. It is not easy to have the one accord. To be in one accord we need to be worked into the very essence of the Triune God.
In the entire universe, on the earth and in the heavens, there is no one accord, no oneness. This is because in God’s creation there was a rebellion. First there was a rebellion by the angels led by Lucifer, and this rebellion was contagious. The angelic rebellion was infused into mankind, so the entire universe became a universe of disaccord. The peoples of the earth may try to be united, but disaccord prevails. History tells us that the leaders of this earth tried unsuccessfully to form the League of Nations. Later the United Nations was established. But the fact remains that the nations of this earth are not united but divided. War and disaccord prevail on this earth.
Our natural blood is a blood that can never be united. As long as we are natural, as long as we are in the old man, as long as we are in ourselves, as long as we are in our blood, there is no one accord. The one accord is in Jesus, who is the very embodiment of the Triune God. The Lord’s prayer in John 17 reveals that there is oneness only in the Triune God. It is impossible for us to be one in ourselves. There is no capacity for oneness in our natural man. Even in our family life, there cannot be oneness in our natural man. Oneness is in the Triune God. Only the Triune God is one. He is Three, yet He is One. Oneness is in Him.
The little word “in” is actually a very big word in John 14—17. In John 14 the Lord Jesus said that He is in the Father and that the Father is in Him (v. 10). In verse 3 of this chapter He said, “I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, that where I am you also may be.” The Lord is in the Father, and He wanted His disciples also to be in the Father as is revealed in John 17:21. Through His death and resurrection, He brought His disciples into Himself. Since He is in the Father, they are also in the Father by being in Him. Hence, where He is, the disciples are also. In John 14 the Lord also revealed that in resurrection the Spirit of reality would be in us (v. 17). In verse 20 He said that in the day of resurrection the disciples would know “that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Our salvation is in the Triune God. Outside the Triune God, there is no salvation. Redemption, holiness, and every positive thing are in the Triune God. We need to be perfected into one in the Triune God.
According to Paul’s writing in Ephesians 4, we have to arrive at the oneness. The Head of the Body gives the gifts—the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers—to perfect the saints, to equip the saints, to furnish the saints, to supply the saints, and to support the saints with whatever they need that they may do the same things that the gifted persons do. When there is this kind of perfecting, the church is on the track to arrive at the oneness. As long as the saints are not being perfected by the gifted persons, we are not on the way to arrive at the oneness. The perfecting by the gifts has to be continuously going on until we all arrive at the oneness.
How can we be one? We all need to be perfected. In John 17 the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father that we would be perfected into one in the Triune God, that we would be one as the Triune God is one. Paul told us that the Head gave the gifts to perfect the saints until we all arrive at the oneness. The Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul spoke the same thing. The saints in the Lord’s recovery are not on the way to arriving at the oneness because we are in a situation and condition of needing to be perfected. We need to be perfected so that we may be on the way of arriving at the oneness. For the Father’s house in John 14, for the vine tree with the branches in John 15, and for the newborn child in John 16, there is the need of oneness. The Lord prayed for the oneness in John 17, and the apostle Paul aspired to have the oneness in Ephesians 4. Paul instructs us, teaches us, that there is the need of the perfecting of the saints so that all of us may be on the way of arriving at this oneness.