According to the revelation of the Word, the Lord’s central thought and intention is to have the church as His Body to express Himself. Therefore, the church is for nothing other than Christ, and Christ is the very life, the very content, of the church. This must be very clear to us. The church is the Body of Christ. A body is something which contains the life of the head and expresses what the head is. The body is the expression of the life of the head, so the head is the life and the very content of the body. In the same way, the first and most important matter in the church life is that Christ is the Head, and this Head is the life, content, and everything in the church. The church is not merely a meeting; the church is not for a kind of activity; the church is not for a kind of service or for anything else. The church is absolutely to express Christ.
Galatians 1:15a and 16a say, “But when it pleased God...to reveal His Son in me.” We need to see how Christ can be realized by, revealed to, and worked into the church. According to the Bible and all the experiences of the saints, Christ is wrought into us by three things. The first is the Holy Spirit. Christ is wrought into us through the Holy Spirit because Christ is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the very reality of Christ (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). If we have the Holy Spirit, we have Christ. If we do not have the Holy Spirit, we do not have Christ. The second way is by the Word, which contains many teachings, and the third way is by the gifts. It is through the Holy Spirit that Christ is revealed, wrought, and woven into us. But how does the Holy Spirit work this out? It is either by the Word or through the gifts.
The Holy Spirit, the Word, and the gifts are the three means by which Christ is wrought into us. However, the church is for Christ, not even, strictly speaking, for the Holy Spirit, the teachings of the Word, or any gift. What then is the position of the teachings and the gifts? They are simply a means. All the teachings are a means, and all the gifts are also a means. The problem throughout all the centuries and even today is that people pay their attention to certain teachings more than to Christ. This creates trouble. Similarly, some people pay their attention more to the gifts than to Christ. This also creates a problem.
Consider how all the denominations and divisions came into existence. The Presbyterian denomination, for example, came into being because some people stressed the government of the church by the presbytery. In the same way, we have the Baptist Church today because some people stressed baptism by immersion rather than Christ, creating a division. These are divisions according either to teachings or to practices. Today we also have the Pentecostal Church, because those people stress the Pentecostal things instead of Christ. Of course, they would say that they believe in Christ and exalt Christ. Yes, they do, but more or less they stress something in addition to Christ. Perhaps that one thing is right, but no one should stress it.
All the teachings are for Christ, and all the gifts are for Christ. The gifts should not be for the gifts, nor should the teachings be for the teachings. Regardless of how many teachings we have and how good those teachings are, we have to consider them simply as a means, not as the central item. The central item must be Christ. We need teachings, but our stress and emphasis must not be on the teachings instead of on Christ. If we stress the teachings instead of Christ, the teachings become a substitute for Christ. We have to make this very clear. We need the teachings because we need Christ; the teachings convey Christ to us. But we should not pay attention to the teachings instead of to Christ. We have to pay attention to Christ, whom we receive through the teachings.
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