Experientially, it is possible for us to preach the gospel and speak concerning Christ yet not have God mingled with us in our preaching and speaking. Even though we are saved, we may not have the reality of the Body of Christ. On the one hand, as believers, we belong to Christ and are members of the Body of Christ; on the other hand, we should ask whether the Body of Christ is expressed among us. Our Christian life is often a living out of ourselves, which lacks the mingling of the element of God.
We may have seen that the church is the Body of Christ and that, as members of the Body, our service should be corporate, not individualistic. However, this may merely be a “seeing”; we may not have been delivered into this reality (Rom. 6:17). Our not being individualistic may be something worked out of ourselves; it may not be an expression of the mingling with God. Our coordination with the brothers and sisters may still be something out of ourselves; it may not be of the element of God within. This is not a matter of being individualistic or of being in coordination but a matter of having the mingling of God within us. All our problems lie in whether there is the mingling of God within us. If we do not have the mingling of God, our being individualistic is of the same value as our being in coordination. The crucial point is whether God is mingled with us. Is our service today a move out of one nature, that is, out of ourselves, or the move of two natures, that is, out of the mingling of God with us? Is everything according to ourselves, or is it according to God mingling with us? When the Lord mingles with us and practically lives in us, we live in the Lord. As such people, we are not individualistic but are in coordination with others. This does not require our effort; rather, it is an inevitable and spontaneous result.
No one living in the Body of Christ can be individualistic, and no one living by the life of Christ can stay away from coordinating with others who also live by the life of Christ. Without the Christ who lives within us, without the God who is mingled with us, we are individualistic, even if we do not desire to be individualistic, and we are unable to coordinate with others, even if we so desire. This is not a matter of being individualistic or being in coordination but a matter of God being mingled with us and we being mingled with God. Whenever we have this mingling within us, we have some amount of the reality of the Body of Christ; whenever we have this mingling among us, the Body is expressed.
Doctrinally, we may not understand how it is possible to be saved yet not be the Body of Christ. According to Ephesians, the church is the one new man. On the one hand, we put on the new man when we were saved (4:24), but on the other hand, it is still being renewed (Col. 3:10), even after we have put it on. One puts on a garment after it is made; however, the “garment,” the new man, we put on is still being made. In the same principle, the believers in the Body of Christ have been made one Body in the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is still doing a building work in them. All believers are a part of the Body, but the Body may not have much ground within them, and they may not have much reality of the Body. We must see that if we do not have the building of the Body, we do not have the reality of the Body. From the perspective of the Body of Christ, if there is no expression of the element of God’s mingling within us, we may not have much building, even if God’s life is working within us, causing us to reject sin and deal with the world.
Paul was full of the element of Christ, the element of the mingling of God and man; this mingling was the expression of the Body and the reality of the Body. Paul can be compared to the wall of the New Jerusalem, which is exceedingly high, because God’s building was within him. The Body of Christ comes out of God’s building in man and His mingling with man. The Body is not merely a group of believers; rather, it is Christ built up from within them. The Body of Christ, as the building, is the issue of God being mingled with man.
We need to ask ourselves, as believers, are we the Body of Christ in our experience? To what extent is the Body of Christ expressed among us? If we see the light and have understanding, we will bow our heads and confess that we do not have much of an expression of the Body of Christ. There is not much of the building and mingling of the Body of Christ among us, not much of the element of God living out from man, and not much of Christ mingling with man. We may serve God zealously and be in “one accord,” but our serving might be out of ourselves and not out of God being mingled with us. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “The church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” We are the church, the Body of Christ, but are we the fullness of the One who fills all in all? A person’s body can be a body because he is mingled with the body; the value of a body depends on the living person who is mingled with that body.
The church as the Body of Christ is the enlargement of Christ, the enlargement of the mingling of God and man. It is a group of people who are mingled with God inwardly and in whom Christ has been built up. They have been mingled with God and built up to the extent that it is difficult to distinguish whether it is God or them. Their speaking and moving is God speaking and moving within them. This is the record in the book of Acts, and it is also the realization of the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Therefore, a group of believers might not express the Body of Christ if they do not have the reality of the Body of Christ.
We must ask the brothers and sisters, who are learning to serve the Lord, how much of the Body of Christ is among them. You may serve zealously, be in “one accord,” and never quarrel, but you may not have much of the element of the Body of Christ. It is possible that all of your work is thoroughly and completely of the element of man, not of the element of God. My emphasis is not on the matter of being broken or torn down. Rather, according to Ephesians 1 we would ask: Does our zeal have the element of God? Does our diligence have the element of God? Does our “one accord” have the element of God? Do all the services come out of ourselves, or are they the issue of the building of God? If we are the source, we do not have the Body; only that which comes out of God’s building within us is the Body.