In the book of Ephesians, the Body of Christ is clearly revealed in chapter one. “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23). But this chapter does not tell us the essential nature of the Body. The essential nature of the Body is but the riches of Christ experienced by us. It is when we experience the riches of Christ that the essential nature of the Body is produced. The Body comes from the experience of the riches of Christ.
Many times I have illustrated in this way. Suppose we have a big American man. What is the essential nature of this man? He is composed of American chickens, beef, apples, oranges, and many other rich items of this rich country. But this does not mean that if we put all these items together we will have a big American man. That would be merely a pile of the items of the riches of America. But when all these items are eaten and assimilated, such a big American man is produced.
In the same way, if we put all the riches of Christ together, that is not the Body. The Body comes out of the experiential enjoyment of the riches of Christ. This is why it is so difficult to find the Body of Christ today in a practical way. In a sense, doctrinally speaking, there is the Body of Christ. But where is it practically? Throughout all the centuries, there has been no shortage of teachings, doctrines, and gifts. But there has been a shortage of the real experience of the riches of Christ that bring forth the Body of Christ in a practical way.
Some people tell me, when they read all the books we have put out in Chinese and in English, that all we talk about is Christ and the church. Once, when I went to Texas, a lady asked me why I did not say anything about the home life. My answer was that there is too much talk about the home life, but very little about Christ and the church. We must realize that the Lord has a shortage on the earth. I have been staying in this country for twelve years, yet I still have the same burden to tell everyone that they need the enjoyment of Christ in order to produce the Body of Christ. We have to come back to the book of Ephesians again and again to see that only the riches of Christ experienced by us can produce the Body of Christ.
We have seen already, in chapter three of Ephesians, how the Lord must make His home in our heart. Then in chapter four, we see that we all must be perfected into a full-grown man. We must grow up into Him as the Head, that out from Him the whole Body might be built up. “For the perfecting of the saints, to the work of the ministry, to the building up of the body of Christ. Till we all arrive at the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ....But holding the reality in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: out from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by every joint of supply, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh growth of the body unto the building up of itself in love” (Eph. 4:12-13, 15-16). This is altogether a matter of His indwelling. Out of His indwelling we will be perfected and grow up into Him, that out of Him the Body might come forth.
All mothers know that the perfecting of their children is not mainly a matter of teaching them. All the little babes have complete organs, but the functions are not developed. They have ears, but they cannot hear properly. They have eyes, but they cannot see so well. They have feet, but they cannot walk. They really need the perfecting work of the mother. If you try only to teach them to hear, to see, and to walk, you will kill them. This is not the perfecting they need. Real perfecting is to feed them, to nourish them, and to cherish them. Then they will grow into the proper function of all these organs.
This is the need of the church today. The church needs the proper nourishing, not with doctrines and teachings, but with the living Christ as the life-giving Spirit with all of His riches. The leading ones in the churches must realize that it is not simply a matter of taking the lead. There are many good leaders in the world. But what the church needs is some leading ones who know how to enjoy Christ themselves, and how to minister this Christ to others in a living way. Then all the members will be perfected to build up the Body.
I am so happy to see that in these past few years so many have been brought into the real enjoyment of Christ. Nothing else could make me so happy. Even if we had 100,000 people coming to our meetings, yet very few of them experienced the real enjoyment of Christ, it would mean nothing. We would have a crowd, but we would not have the Body. The Body of Christ can only come out of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ.
This is why, in all these past years in the churches, we have not practiced much correction. In a sense, some things are not good, yet we do not like to touch them. The church life is something living. It is not like chair arranging. We can arrange the chairs in a very good way, but if we go to an orchard, it is different. In an orchard, you have to let them grow. You cannot say that one tree is too high, so you must cut it off; or another tree is too short, so you must pull it up. This may work in arranging chairs, but if you do this in an orchard you will kill everything. What the trees of the orchard need is watering, nourishing, and fertilizing that they may grow.
Likewise, there is no other way to help the saints to be perfected, but by helping them to get the proper nourishment from the riches of Christ. And this is by His indwelling. Therefore, the key point in the book of Ephesians is that Christ make His home in our heart. The building up of the Body of Christ comes out of this. It is thus that we will have a strong and enriched church life. Correction will produce little. What the church needs is the nourishment of Christ. It is only by enjoying His nourishment that He will spread within us to make His home in our heart. By His nourishment, He will grow in us, and by His growing, He will make His home in us. Then, though some may try to separate us, they cannot succeed, because we have all grown together into Him. We have grown up into Him by the riches of His indwelling. This is the real building, the real unity, and the producing of the full-grown man.
When Christ makes His home in our heart, our whole being will be saturated by Christ. We will be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we will put on the new man. “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which according to God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:23-24). By Christ spreading within us, our mind is brought under the control of our spirit. So our spirit is called the spirit of our mind. Now every part of our being—mind, emotion, and will—is under the influence of the Spirit. In this way we put on the new man, which is the church life.
The church does not need organizing, but growing. And the growing comes out of the nourishment of the indwelling Christ. If we know how to receive the nourishment of Christ, then He will take over our mind, saturate our emotion, and subdue our will. We will grow because He is growing within us. In His growing, we grow up into Him. The way we grow up into Him is to let Him grow in us. But this is not an individual matter. When we grow into Him, we all grow into one another. Therefore, no situation or circumstance can separate us, because we have the real building up in the Body of Christ.
This is what all the churches need. We must learn to enjoy the indwelling Christ by taking Him as our person, that He may grow within us to be our everything. Then He will spread Himself into our being, and we will all grow up into Him to have the proper building.