To perfect the saints, we have to help them hold to truth (Eph. 4:15), to hold to the real and true things in this universe. The entire universe is vanity. Everything is vain and empty. Only God, Christ, and the organic Body of Christ are real. We need to hold to these three things. When we leave the truth and pay attention to things other than God, Christ, and the Body of Christ, there will be problems. If we hold to truth, however, we will grow. This means that we will have more of Christ added into us. To have more of Christ added into us means that we are growing not only in Christ but also into Christ in all things. Although we are saved, in many things we are still not in Christ. Instead, we are outside of Him. We have to grow up into Him in all things. We should not touch, do, or speak anything that is not in Christ. We must have Christ increasingly added into us so that we may have the growth in Christ as life. Gradually, little by little, we grow up into Christ, taking Him as the Head, in item after item, in all things.
Out from the Head, the whole Body of Christ causes the growth of the Body through two means: the first category of the members of Christ and the second category of the members of Christ. The first category of members is the gifted ones—the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers; and the second category is “each one part” (Eph. 4:16). Paul refers to the gifted ones as the joints of the rich supply. I would like to ask, “Are you in the first category of members, the gifted members of Christ?” Some in the churches are definitely in this category, while others are in this category to some extent. Still others may say that they are definitely not in this first category. They may say this only temporarily, however. They cannot say this forever. Today you may not be an apostle, but in a short time you may be perfected to be able to do what an apostle does. A professor at a teachers’ college perfects his students to do what he does. While the student is studying, he is in the process of becoming a teacher, so he is a teacher to some extent. Many of us may be in the “student stage,” but after a certain amount of perfecting, we will become the “teachers.” A gifted person such as a prophet should not only speak forth the Lord but also perfect the saints. All of us have to rise up to perfect the saints.
The gifted persons are the joints of the rich supply. Our physical body is full of joints. Each one of our fingers, for example, has joints. The ability, the capability, and the strength to do things comes from our joints. If my arm did not have joints, it would be very difficult to perform the simplest of tasks. Our legs are jointed legs. If they were not jointed, it would be difficult for us to move. The joints enable our body to operate. The more that we exercise our joints, the more we operate.
The second category of members is “each one part.” If we are not in the first category of gifted persons, we are surely in the second category of Christ’s members. To be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers requires some qualifications, but to be parts of the Body does not need qualifications. All the members of our physical body, regardless of how small they are, have a measure. Our little finger has its measure, and the blood within it is circulating all the time. Each part of our physical body has a measure. It is the same with the believers who are the members of the Body of Christ. Each believer has a measure.
The first category of members, the joints, must have the rich supply. The second category of members, each one part, does not need to be qualified with the rich supply. As long as we are members of the Body of Christ, we have a measure. Each one part needs only to operate according to its measure. To visit people with the gospel by knocking on their doors and to come to the meeting to pray are to operate. Do not use the excuse that you do not have the rich supply. As a part of Christ’s Body, you have a measure. You can declare: “I may not be a joint who has the rich supply, but I am a member of the Body. I am a part of the Body and as a part, I have a measure. I do not know how big my measure is, but I know I have a measure.” You can go to visit people as a part with a measure. As parts of the Body, how much have you operated? You may have operated very little because you have been drugged by the traditional way that kills our function.
I have the full confidence that the saints in the Lord’s recovery love the Lord. As those who love the Lord, we have to be according to His heart to do His will. His will in the New Testament is unique. It is to build up the Body of Christ. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that you may prove by testing what the will of God is....” In the following verses Paul reveals that the will of God is to have a proper church to be the Body of His Son, Christ. This is the only thing that is on God’s heart. Nothing can please Him or make Him happy except the building up of the Body of Christ. Our job, our profession, today on this earth is to operate, to act, to move to build up the Body of Christ.
Of course, we need a job to take care of our livelihood, but in our leisure time on weekday evenings and on the weekend, we can operate to build up the Body of Christ by knocking on people’s doors to bring them the Lord’s salvation. After we baptize them, we can go to them again and again to perfect them. If we could visit a new one twelve times in the first four weeks after he has been saved, he would be greatly established. If we all would do this, what a marvelous situation there would be in the church life, but our real situation is different from this. We have been drugged, influenced, and deformed by the traditions of Christianity. The traditional way of meeting and serving is absolutely different from what is revealed in the Bible.
Ephesians 4:11-16 reveals that the Head has given the gifts, the gifts perfect the saints, and the saints operate. The gifts are the joints acting to perfect the saints. When the joints of our physical body act, they supply the rest of our body. If a person would not move, his body would not get the supply because his joints do not act. When the joints work, they supply. This is why we must exercise in order to be strong. We are either the joints of the rich supply or the parts operating in our measure. As parts of the Body, all of us have a measure, so we can operate. After a long period of operation, the parts will become the joints. Today you may be a part. Eventually after much, much operation, through the operation, you will become a joint.