Those who are truly called to work for the Lord should not replace the saints in the service. They should only perfect the saints, not replace them. All the elders and deacons should serve God directly; they should not serve in a way that they are replaced by others. They should build up the Body of Christ directly. Those who are workers, the gifts, do the work of perfecting the elders, the deacons, and the saints so that they might learn to serve, each one doing the work of the ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ. For the building up of the Body of Christ, the work of the gifts is not direct but indirect; it is the elders, deacons, and saints who build up the Body of Christ directly, resulting in the Body’s building up of itself in love (v. 16). This portion of Ephesians, which begins with 4:11, does not end until the period at the end of verse 16. This implies that the meaning conveyed in this portion is not complete until the end of verse 16.
When co-workers are sent to work in different places, they must know that the service rendered to God in the church is the responsibility of the saints. The co-workers are sent by God to do the perfecting work so that the saints will be enabled and willing to serve. This will cause their service to be weighty for the building up of the Body of Christ, and in the end, this will cause the Body to build itself up in love. The apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers do not build up the Body of Christ directly; the Body builds itself up directly in love.
When a certain church desires to go on, the saints in that locality may ask some co-workers to come and help. However, we should all be clear inwardly that the co-workers should not be substitutes for the serving ones; instead, they should perfect the saints for the service. This makes a great difference. All those who are blessed and who stand in the position of workers must see that they cannot replace the saints in serving God. Serving God is the responsibility of the saints; the workers called by the Lord should teach and perfect the saints so that those who do not know how to serve will learn to serve, so that those who are not willing to serve will be willing to serve, and so that those who do not take part in the service will bear a part in the service. After the gifted ones accomplish this work, the service of the church in that locality should be the responsibility of the saints; it must be the saints themselves who build up the church in their locality.
We must all be clear that those who administrate and serve the church are the elders and deacons. They should not expect co-workers to serve in their place. For example, if there is a center of work in the southern part of Taiwan and several co-workers go to help, the brothers in the south should not feel that they can be relieved because some are coming to bear the burden. If we have such an expectation, this shows that we do not know what it means to administrate the church. In the summer of 1946, I went to the southern part of Kiangsu province. When I first ministered the word in Nanking, I made it very clear to the brothers that they should not think that they were relieved of bearing any burden because I was there. I told them that I had come to unload many burdens onto them and that the more I worked, the more their burdens would increase. I was sent not to bear the burden for the brothers or to lessen their burden; instead, I went to give them more burdens.
The elders and deacons should not think that their burdens can be unloaded onto the co-workers who come into their midst. If there are one hundred and six pounds of burden in the church in Kaohsiung, the burden should be increased to one hundred and sixty pounds when the co-workers go and stay for two months. If this is not the case, we are not yet clear concerning our way. We need to be clear that those who directly serve the church are the saints in the church, including the elders and deacons. Gifts, when they are sent to various churches, should not serve in place of the saints; rather, they should perfect the saints to serve so that everyone will do the work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ directly. The building up of the Body of Christ surely includes the work of the gifts, but more importantly, it is accomplished through the direct building of the saints. We should never think that the workers can serve in place of the local saints.
In the church, the elders should do what pertains to elders, and the deacons should do what pertains to deacons; the co-workers should never serve in place of the elders and deacons. The co-workers are commissioned only to perfect the elders, deacons, and saints so that they may rise up and serve. If we are sent to perfect others for the service, we should only perfect them and never replace them. If we are elders or deacons, we should never expect any workers to replace us in the service; rather, we must be perfected to rise up and serve. We must all be clear on this matter and firmly grasp this principle.