CHAPTER TWO

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
UNDER THE ENEMY SATAN'S FRUSTRATION,
DAMAGE, AND CORRUPTION

Scripture Reading: Matt. 13:4-7, 19-22, 24-33, 36-43

OUTLINE

1. Under the enemy Satan's frustration:
1. By the human heart as the wayside hardened by worldly traffic and with the evil spirits of Satan as the birds snatching away the word of life—Matt. 13:4, 19.
2. By the shallow heart which has hidden sins, personal desires, self-seeking, and self-pity as rocks hindering the life seed from taking root in the depths of the heart and is stumbled by affliction and persecution—Matt. 13:5-6, 20-21.
3. By the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches as the thorns choking the life seed in growth to make it unfruitful—Matt. 13:7, 22.
2. Under the enemy Satan's damage:
1. By sowing tares (signifying the sons of the evil one) in the midst of the wheat (signifying the sons of the kingdom) to restrict and damage the growth and development of the wheat—Matt. 13:25-30, 38-42.
2. By changing the nature of the small mustard, signifying the church in life, which is good for food supply, into the nature of a tree, signifying the big Christendom in confusion, which is good for lodging the evil ones, signified by the "birds"—Matt. 13:31-32.

Note: The three items above in I. frustrate the growth of the life seed in the believers and restrict the multiplication of Christ through His believers; whereas the two items in II., on the one hand, bring in a mixture among the components of the church and, on the other hand, change the nature of the church and make the appearance of the church abnormal.

3. Under the enemy Satan's corruption:
1. By leavening the initial church, typified by the two wave-loaves offered to God on the day of Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-17), and confirmed by the sinful case of Ananias and Sapphira in deceiving God the Spirit (Acts 5:1-11) and the case of murmuring concerning the overlooking of the daily dispensing to the widows (Acts 6:1).
2. By leavening the church in Corinth with the gross sin of fornication (1 Cor. 5:1-8).
3. By leavening the church with different teachings other than the economy of God (1 Tim. 1:3-4).
4. By leavening the entire meal (fine flour made of the grains of wheat) through a woman (the Catholic Church as the false prophetess Jezebel—Rev. 2:20)—Matt. 13:33.
5. By leavening the early church with Judaism (in Sabbath keeping—Col. 2:16; circumcision practice—Acts 15:1-2; Gal. 6:15; the so-called holy diet—Acts 11:2-3; Gal. 2:12-13; and traditions—Gal. 1:14), Gnosticism (Col. 2:8), and asceticism (Col. 2:20-23).
6. By leavening the church with Catholicism in the papal system, hierarchy, heresies, idolatry, and pagan practices.
7. By leavening the church with Protestantism in hierarchy, being living in name and dead in actuality, different teachings, traditions, modernism, worldliness, and divisions.
8. By leavening the church with nationalism, racialism, socialism, liberalism, politics, etc.
9. By leavening the church with the believers' natural man, flesh and its lust, sin in their nature and sins in their deeds, and all the evil things listed in Gal. 5:19-21.

Note: The enemy Satan's leavening of the church is to corrupt the church in its nature and contents. Even the life element (the entire meal made of the grains produced by the wheat), of which the church is constituted, is leavened. This disease of the church is in its constituents. Such a disease of being corrupted by being leavened is incurable.