This is the right meaning of the expressions the house of God and the pillar and base of the truth. The church is the continuation and the multiplication of God manifested in the flesh. This is the reason that the apostle Paul put these two verses together. The manifestation of God in the flesh has very much to do with the church being the house of God and the pillar and base of the truth. When we are the living Body of Christ in a certain place, we are truly the house of God and the pillar and base of the truth. We are then the increase, the enlargement, of the manifestation of God in the flesh. God manifests Himself again in the flesh, but in a wider way. The principle of the New Testament is the principle of incarnation, which is simply God Himself manifested in the flesh. In other words, God is mingled with human beings, not in an outward way but in an inward way. The church is the manifestation of God, not the manifestation of doctrines or gifts. The church must be the manifestation of God in Christ through the Spirit, not the demonstration of doctrines or gifts.
We are burdened because we fear that many brothers and sisters unconsciously think that we are going to form a new movement or train people to form a new pattern for the church. This is our real concern. We must all look to the Lord that this kind of thought and understanding may be entirely abandoned. It must be fully purged out of our blood. We are not here with the intention of forming a new movement. This is absolutely not our intention. If we do this, it simply proves that we do not know God’s economy. I must stress again and again that the church is not something formed according to a certain pattern. The living God dwelling in us is not a matter of doctrine. According to their daily walk, most Christians today do not know the way of the inner life and of Christ as their life. This troubles us and burdens us. When people gain a certain kind of realization or learn certain methods, they try to start something new where they live. This is not the Lord’s way.
What we need today is not merely a change of clothes but a change of blood. The natural blood must be changed. We need to change not only the outward way but also the inward life. Suppose a person was formerly a pastor with the title Reverend. Suppose he was even dressed in a clergyman’s robe with his collar turned backwards. Suppose further that one day he received the light that all these things are wrong: the titles Pastor and Reverend are wrong, the collar turned backwards is wrong, and the black robe is wrong. As a result, he got rid of all these things; he crossed out the clergyman’s title and began to wear ordinary clothes. After this, he went to work for the Lord at another place and in another way, without the title and without the robe.
Whether this is right or not, I do not want to say, but I do want to say one thing: we need to find out whether a real change has taken place within such a person. No doubt he dropped all the former things, but this change was too outward. Formerly, this person ministered by himself, by his natural life. At one point he had a change in the outward things, but has there been any change in his inward life? It is quite probable that he is still working and ministering for the Lord by the same life that he had when he used the title Reverend or Pastor. Though he had a real change outwardly, inwardly he might still be the same. Such a change as this simply becomes an outward movement. Formerly this person practiced the “church” by voting and forming an executive committee; then he dropped that practice and gathered a group of elders. Although this was a real change, nothing changed in the inner life. The outward change was not the result of an inward change in life; hence, it became simply another new religious movement.
Moreover, we must go beyond the change in the inner life and realize the church. The church is a mingling of God with man. The reason we have spoken so much concerning the soul, the spirit, and the heart is that this helps us to realize that God is our content and we are His containers. We must know how to adjust our heart so that we can open our heart and allow God to come in. Furthermore, we must know how to exercise our spirit in order to contact Him, contain Him, and even digest Him. If we eat steak for dinner, after this steak has been contained in our stomach for four hours, it will be digested and become the very constituent of our body. This is a true picture of the church. However, today’s Christianity is more a religion than the reality of life. The need today is not merely a change of form outwardly but a change of life inwardly.
Furthermore, we should not pay attention only to teachings. In order to help us, allow me to use a simple illustration. When I was a boy, I and many others studied in a Christian school and received a Christian education. We were taught with the stories of the Bible. Although we were not saved, most of us were brought into Christianity and learned the Christian doctrines. Many times we argued with people that Christianity was the right religion. The missionaries ministered all the doctrines and teachings to us. We learned that God is a God of three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We learned that Christ was born of a virgin and lived, walked, and worked on the earth, and we even believed that He was resurrected. But if anyone asked us, “Are you saved?” we did not know the answer. To us God and Christ were only terms. I have to testify that at that time hardly any of the several hundred members in that church were clear concerning salvation. They were known, however, as Christians. Sometimes all the members of the church paraded on the streets, holding up crosses and singing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” I share this in order to illustrate how empty mere teachings are.
Today some insist on ministering a set of teachings such as predestination, man’s free will, absolute grace, and eternal security. It is possible to minister all these teachings, but the life and the spirit within people may never be touched. To continue my testimony, one day a member of our family was saved, and later I was saved. We finally had a genuine touch with God, and life touched us deeply within and wrought a real change in us. Even our outward living and our outward walk were changed. The real change in our lives influenced others also to be saved. Thereafter we knew that we needed something more than teachings. All the teachings in the Scriptures should simply be a vehicle to transmit Christ into us. If they do not fulfill this purpose, we are desperately short of something.