Message Five

The Prerequisites of the Believers’ Building Up
in the Church, the Body of Christ
(2)

Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:3-6;
1 Cor. 1:2, 9-13; Phil. 2:1-2; Rom. 8:6

1. We must keep the oneness of the Spirit diligently—Eph. 4:3:
   1. We keep the oneness of the Spirit in the constitution of the Body with the Divine Trinity as the source, the element, and the essence—vv. 4-6:
      1. The oneness of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself; to keep the oneness of the Spirit is to stay in the life-giving Spirit—v. 3; cf. Exo. 26:26-28.
      2. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is mingled with the believers; this mingling is the constitution of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:4-6.
   2. We keep the oneness of the Spirit through the perfecting by the gifted members for the building up of the Body of Christ—vv. 11-12:
      1. In John 17 the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father that we would be perfected into one in the Triune God—vv. 21, 23.
      2. In Ephesians 4 the apostle Paul tells us that the Head gave the gifts to perfect the saints until we all arrive at the oneness—vv. 11-13.
   3. We keep the oneness of the Spirit by the growth in the divine life, growing up into the Head in all things—vv. 13, 15; Col. 2:19.
2. We must be in the common fellowship of the enjoyment of Christ as the believers’ common portion for the keeping of the oneness of the Body to witness that Christ is neither divisible nor divided—1 Cor. 1:2, 9-13:
   1. Christ as the all-inclusive One belongs to all the believers as their allotted portion for their enjoyment (Col. 1:12); all the believers should be focused on the unique and undivided Christ as their unique center appointed by God.
   2. We should concentrate and focus on Him, not on any persons, things, or matters other than Him, that all problems among the believers may be solved.
3. We must have the common fellowship in the spirit and have the common thinking and common love in one spirit, with one soul, and on one common standing for the testimony of the oneness of the Body of Christ—Phil. 2:1-2; 1:27:
   1. Dissension among us is due to our not being joined in soul, to our not thinking the one thing in our mind, the leading part of our soul—2:2.
   2. The one thing refers to the subjective knowledge and experience of Christ; focusing on anything else causes us to think differently, thus creating dissensions among us—1:20-21; 2:5; 3:7-9; 4:13.
4. We must live and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) and walk according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4), setting our mind on the mingled spirit (v. 6) and being indwelt by the pneumatic Christ as the Spirit who imparts life within us for us to put to death the practices of the body (vv. 9, 13):
   1. When our mind is set on the spirit, our outward actions are in agreement with our inner man, and there is no discrepancy between us and God; the result is that we feel living and peaceful within.
   2. When our mind is set on the flesh and the things of the flesh, the result is death, which causes us to feel uneasy, deadened, and separated from the enjoyment of God; the sense of death should serve as a warning to us, urging us to be delivered from the flesh and to live in the spirit—v. 6.
5. We must be conformed to the death of Christ to have the self, natural man, flesh, distorted disposition, peculiarities, personal preferences and tastes, etc., all crucified with Christ by the power of the resurrection of Christ—Phil. 3:10:
   1. To be conformed to Christ’s death is to take Christ’s death as the mold of one’s life; the mold of Christ’s death refers to Christ’s experience of continually putting to death His human life that He might live by the life of God—John 6:57; 12:24.
   2. Our life should be conformed to such a mold by our dying to our human life to live the divine life—vv. 25-26; 1 Cor. 15:31, 36; 2 Cor. 5:14-15.
6. We must magnify Christ through living Him by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ—Phil. 1:19-21:
   1. We live Christ for His magnification by the supply of the Body, the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, typified by the compound ointment, the holy anointing oil—v. 19; Exo. 30:23-25.
   2. The compound Spirit is in and for the Body and for the priestly service that builds up the Body—vv. 26-31; Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
7. We must minister Christ, dispensing Him to all whom we contact—2 Cor. 3:6:
   1. We must live a life of contacting Christ to be infused with Christ and contacting people to infuse them with Christ—Acts 6:4.
   2. We must be good stewards of the varied grace of God, ministering Christ as the rich supply of life into others for their growth in life and enjoyment of Christ—1 Pet. 4:10; Eph. 3:2; 4:29; Phil. 1:25.
8. We must discern the spirit, which is of power, love, and sobermindedness, from the soul—Heb. 4:12; 2 Tim. 1:7:
   1. We must fan our God-given spirit into flame, exercising our spirit so that all the parts of our soul (our mind, emotion, and will) come under the control of our spirit; we should always be on the alert to discern anything that is not of the spirit but of the soul—vv. 6-7; Heb. 4:12; cf. Col. 4:2; 2 Cor. 2:12-13.
   2. All family, social, and national problems are due to the fact that people use their mind, emotion, and will but not their spirit; the divine oneness of the Spirit is in our regenerated spirit—Eph. 4:3; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17:
      1. Those who make divisions are soulish; they are devoid of spirit, not caring for their spirit or using it, behaving as if they do not have a spirit—Jude 19-21; 1 Cor. 2:14-15.
      2. In our spirit there is no dissenting, division, or confusion; our spirit is today’s Jerusalem, the place of oneness—John 4:24.