The common characteristic of the Body, the dwelling place, the bride, the warrior, and the city is oneness. The Bible speaks of the church in at least five different ways. But regardless of how the church is presented, the characteristic of the church is oneness. The church as the Body of Christ must be one in order to express Christ and to allow Him to live and move. The church as God’s dwelling place must also be one so that God can have rest. The church as the counterpart, the bride of Christ, must be one in order to match Christ. The church as the warrior must be one in order to fight. In the military, oneness is critical; if an army is not in one accord, it will definitely lose the battle. In the New Jerusalem we also see oneness. Therefore, the basic requirement and characteristic concerning these five expressions of the church is oneness.
Our burden is that everyone would see that all the problems in the church are related to the lack of oneness. Everything in a local church will collapse and fall to pieces if it loses the oneness. The oneness of the church is not related to “unity.” Anything that needs to be “united” lacks oneness. The church is one and does not need to be united. The church in a locality is one, and the churches in many different localities are also one. All the saints are one, and all the churches are also one. The church does not need to be united; the church has a problem if it needs to be united. Paul did not exhort us to be united as one in Ephesians 4:3; rather, he exhorted us to diligently keep the oneness of the Spirit. Because there is oneness in the church, the church does not need to be united; moreover, because the oneness of the church is spiritual and already exists, we only need to keep it. Our responsibility is not to be united; our responsibility is to keep the oneness that already exists in the church. We need to keep this oneness and not damage it.
God’s oneness in the church is the oneness of the Holy Spirit, and this oneness is Christ. Some people say that the church cannot be united and that we should not expect the church to be united, because everyone has his own view. They say that although we have the same Bible, we have different viewpoints and interpretations of this same Bible. Consequently they say that we should not even attempt to be united. Although this type of speaking may seem quite logical, we must see that the church is not a matter of being united. The church is one, and this oneness is simply God Himself, Christ Himself, and the Holy Spirit. If we do not have God’s tearing down and breaking among us in the church and if we have not been built by God, constituted by the Spirit, and filled with the element of Christ, the church is not one in experience.
For example, in the church in Taipei there are people from over thirty different provinces in China. When they meet together, they speak with different accents. Even the ten or more elders in the elders’ meeting represent several different provinces. Since their background, origin, education, and environment are all different, their concepts and views are also different. What should they do? How can they be one? It will not work for them to merely speak regarding a doctrine of “unity,” telling the saints that the church must be united in order to bring in the Lord’s blessing. The church is not a matter of unity; the church is one, and this oneness is Christ. Therefore, regardless of which province we are from, we need to be torn down; everyone needs to be torn down so that Christ can be built into all kinds of people to create the one new man.
Christ is one. In Him the one new man has been created, and we have been built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:14-15, 22). We can say that everyone has different characteristics, or we can say that everyone has different peculiarities and dispositions. However, these differences and distinctions are the reason that there is no oneness among mankind. Everyone has distinctions, regardless of whether they are old or young, male or female, high school or college students. There are distinctions between students and teachers, and doctors and nurses. The differences between parents and children are even greater. Everyone is different due to the curse of Babel. However, at Pentecost, people were saved and became one in Christ; they were created in Christ to be the one new man. In the new man, Peter was torn down, John was torn down, James was torn down, and Paul was torn down. In Christ they became one, and they are one.
Our oneness is brought in through the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ works in us to break and destroy us. This produces an opening, a mark of the cross in us, so that Christ can be built into us. When Christ is built into us, we will have something beautiful among us, the oneness, which is Christ Himself, God Himself, and the Holy Spirit. When this oneness is expressed, the Body, the dwelling place, the bride, the warrior, and the city are manifested. Without this oneness, we cannot express the Body, the dwelling place, the bride, the warrior, and the city; everything depends on this oneness. This oneness is the result of God’s building. God desires to produce this oneness through His work in us. Colossians 3:10-11 says, “And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” The fact that the new man bears the image of the Lord means that the new man has grown to maturity. Therefore, in the new man there cannot be Greek and Jew, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free man, but Christ is all and in all. When Christ is all and in all, the oneness will be expressed.