God does not have another building work, and He does not have another building. God’s only building work is to build Himself into the believers and to build the believers into Himself; this is His building. In other words, the building work of God is to build God and man and man and God fully into one. We may never have had the thought that the only thing God desires to do in us after we are saved is to build. Some may have been saved for ten or twenty years, but they do not have this realization. They pursue spirituality and growth in life. They also learn to love the Lord and to consecrate themselves to the Lord, yet they have never had the realization that God desires to build in them. They understand all the verses concerning building in the Bible to mean individual edification. For example, after hearing a message on being slow, someone with a quick temperament may be edified to slow down his quick temperament. Someone else who is lacking in love may hear a message concerning love. In this message, verses in the New Testament concerning loving one’s neighbor as oneself may be quoted and examples of such people in the world may be given. This may stir him up to repent in tears, asking the Lord to forgive him for not loving others and promising to learn to love his neighbor as himself. What is this? This is what individual edification involves.
Another brother who frequently quarrels with his wife may attend a meeting in which the relationship between husbands and wives in Ephesians 5 may be thoroughly presented. After hearing this message, he may sense that he has been edified. Such examples are beyond enumeration. There are also countless books promoting this kind of edification among Christians; almost everyone who reads them is touched and “edified.” However, we need God to open our eyes and to show us that His work in us is not to edify us in this way but rather to build Himself into us and to build us into Him. Therefore, He must first tear us down. Our love for our wife, our slow temperament, or our loving our neighbor as ourselves must be torn down. Even if we are as perfect and as good as the incarnated Lord Jesus, we still need to be torn down. Anything that is of our natural being, whether good or bad, must be put to death, for without tearing down there is no building of God.
This is a very serious matter. According to our human, religious concept, we think that after we are saved, we need to be edified so that those who are short of love will have love and those who are not meek will be meek. We believe that this is God’s perfecting work, His edification work; little do we know that this is not God’s work. God’s work is to tear us down. He tears down not only our fretfulness but also our meekness, not only our quickness but also our slowness, and not only our jealousy but also our love. This is the difference between edification and building; building requires tearing down. Without tearing down, God cannot be built into us, and without tearing down, we cannot be built into God. The work of mixing concrete is to mix fine sand, cement, and gravel all together, to blend these individual elements together, so that the building can be completed. Although this is not a perfect example, it does give us a rough picture.
All messages that exhort people merely to love others, to be meek, to be spiritual, and to pursue the growth in life but do not show that after redeeming man God is doing a work of building in which He tears man down in order to build Himself into man and to build man into Him, are empty messages which bear no weight. They are not the central revelation of the Bible. The Bible shows that after God saves us, He proceeds to do the work of tearing down. Whether we are good people or bad people, He must do a work of tearing down in us. God cannot build Himself into a person who is not torn down. God also cannot build into Himself a person who is not torn down. For this reason, in His Word God repeatedly mentions the matter of building.
In every Scripture passage that speaks of building, we can see from the context or the text itself the matter of tearing down. In Matthew 16:18, when the Lord mentioned building for the first time, He said to Peter, “Upon this rock I will build My church.” Then immediately, in verse 21, the Lord said that He needed to go to Jerusalem and be killed. Going to Jerusalem to be put to death is a matter of tearing down. Peter then rebuked Him, saying, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” (v. 22). But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (v. 23). Whatever frustrates, rejects, and denies God’s tearing down is the work of Satan. The Lord also said, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (v. 24). What is this? This is the tearing down. Denying the self and taking up the cross is the tearing down.
If we look up all the verses on building, we will discover that in each instance the Lord also speaks of tearing down. Suppose a brother is sick and needs to receive an injection. How can the medicine be injected into him? There must be a puncture in his body so that the needle can be inserted. If his body is not punctured, medicine cannot be injected into him. Another example is the vaccination of smallpox that requires at least two cuts. This illustrates that without tearing down there is no building.
The cross is the needle, and Christ is the medicine in the needle. If we do not have the cross to tear us down, Christ as the medicine cannot be injected into us. The function of the ministry of the word is neither to convince a husband who does not love his wife to love his wife nor to convince someone who does not have love to love. The ministry of the word is a needle to give people a “shot,” whether they love their wives, are meek, or are short tempered. We are not interested in what people are; we care only to inject Christ into them. This is building. This is the work God is doing today. Whether we are in our family, our career, or our situations, God is working in many ways, not to accommodate or to “edify” us but to break us so that He can build us up.
Many brothers and sisters hope that every situation would be proper, that their children would be proper, their family would be proper, their career would be proper, and they themselves would be proper in speech and in their conduct. This is the reason they often pray and attend meetings, expecting to be edified unto perfection. They hope to quickly fill up what is lacking and to quickly make up what is missing. However, we must all admit that the more we try to perfect ourselves, the more imperfect we become, and the more we try to be proper, the more improper we become. Formerly we seldom had an outburst of temper, but now it seems as if we lose our temper quite often. It is as if all the things that happen to us cause us to become improper. Inwardly we desire to love the Lord, but we cannot; we desire to pursue diligently, but we cannot. Eventually we are discouraged. We may be discouraged, but the Lord is not discouraged. He is never discouraged. In our “poor conduct” God has “punctured a hole” to give us a “shot.” This is the work of tearing down in God’s building. This is the work that God desires to do.
At the time of their salvation, some brothers and sisters were fresh and were truly willing to consecrate themselves, but after three to five years they no longer seem to be fresh. They seem to be downcast and somewhat discouraged inwardly, even though they do not want to backslide. When we carefully investigate this situation, we will discover that, in spite of their effort, they were unable to be perfected after they were saved. After consecrating themselves they were unable to do a good and decent work; instead, their work was a failure in which they were altogether ashamed of themselves. For this reason they are not as fresh and living as when they consecrated themselves after their salvation. However, we must bow our heads and worship God that these ones, who are not fresh and living, have a little more element of Christ within. Their being is more open, and they have elements of Christ within them. This is the story of many saints. Some of the saints have a messy situation in their family that causes them to be discouraged to the point that they feel they can no longer rise up. However, they have been opened, and the element of Christ within them has increased.
Our God is a God of creation and a God of tearing down, of destruction. He is a merciless God; He will shatter and break everything He has created. Perhaps some would say that this is lamentable, but without this shattering, this tearing down, there is no building. Without the tearing down, God cannot be built into man, and without this tearing down, man cannot be built into God. Even after His incarnation, the Son of God still had to pass through the destruction of death in order to enter into resurrection. What is in death is not glorious, but what is in resurrection is glorious. What is in death is something in man, but what is in resurrection is something that has entered into God. What is in death is limited, but what is in resurrection is unlimited.
After the tearing down, a marvelous building is produced. This building is of resurrection, and it is spiritual, heavenly, glorious, and eternal. In this building God has entered into man, and man has entered into God. Here we can see that God and man, man and God have truly been mingled and become one; God is in man and man is in God. This is something mysterious in which we see both God and man—God is mingled with man, and man is mingled with God.
We have all met ones who love the Lord and have good wives or husbands that the Lord prepared for them. However, if we read church history and the biographies of many spiritual people, we will discover that the wives or husbands of many who were useful in the Lord’s hand were a trouble to them and were a “syringe” in the Lord’s hand. A brother may have a wife who is prepared by the Lord to give him a shot every day. Whether she gives him a large or a small dose, she always gives him a shot every day. She may give him a shot in the morning, another shot at noon, and administer one more shot at night. While he is experiencing this, he may feel that it is very uncomfortable and painful; the condition of his family is neither seemly nor proper. However, this is only a process. After a period of time, a person whose being is opened has more of the element of God, and the element of Christ is increased within him. When we see him, we will sense that he has been torn down and has been given many shots. He will have the flavor of God, the fragrance of Christ, and the presence of Christ within him. When we contact him, we contact one who is broken, not whole; he is one in whom we can smell the fragrance of Christ. This is God’s building. This is where we see the Body. Only in the Body is man no longer individualistic.