We often meet brothers who are delightful Christians. Their lives are well ordered, they are careful about the early morning watch and earnest in evangelistic work; they have attended many meetings for spiritual "edification" and have become so truly "edified" that they call forth the commendation of others; yet they remain individualists who cannot be "built." They are precious stones, so precious they cannot be fitted together with common clay or stone. They are too beautiful to be built up into one building with others, so they remain individual Christians, lovely for display, but no good for building. What God desires is a house, not a lot of separate stones, however beautiful they may be. He wants a complete church, not numbers of scattered Christians.

One sister, speaking to me of another, said: "Oh, she's such a precious sister, so spiritual!" When I asked more about her, she said, "Oh, she's so humble, so quiet, so gentle; we have never known her to be irritated." And again she added, "She's so spiritual!" "Who is she spiritual with?" I asked. "Is she an isolated spiritual sister, or has her spirituality related her to others?" "Oh!" replied the sister, "singers who strike such high notes as she find few who can sing with them." Alas! that sister was so spiritual that no one could be her spiritual companion. Such a sister is all right for display purposes, but she is of no use for church building. The kind of sister needed in the church is one who can have another placed behind her and another in front, another to her left and another to her right, and one below her and one above. That is the kind of Christian God is seeking today.

During the past two thousand years one of the greatest hindrances to the purpose of God, and the main reason why our Lord has had to delay His return, is the lack of Christians who have been built together. You can find Christians all over the world, and you can find spiritual Christians too; but where in any one place has a spiritual house been built? There are lots of stones that have been wrought upon until they are very beautiful, but where is the building? May the Lord have mercy upon us!

Brothers and sisters, there is a condition to be fulfilled if there is to be a building. The one indispensable condition is submission to the authority of the kingdom. Our Savior has been exalted to be Head of the universe, and all authority has been given Him in heaven and on earth. God has put all things under His feet and has made Him Head over all things to the church. In the first place this implies that the church must come under His headship. What is headship? It is the government of the Head. Do realize that if the church is to be built up, we must submit to the authority of the Head. Where there is no Head there is no authority; and there the question of church building cannot even arise. In Ephesians 4:15-16, which speaks throughout of the building of the church, it is shown to be of primary importance that we "grow up into Him in all things, Who is the Head, Christ." In how many things are we really growing up into Him? Even our humility, even our love, and even many of our other good qualities, are not necessarily a growing up under His headship. We have not yet understood what it means to have our affections governed by Christ, and to have all those other desirable qualities developed under His headship. Where there is truly a growing up in all things into the Head, there will follow the building up of the Body as these two verses show. "All the Body, fitted and knit together...causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love." Colossians 2:19 speaks of "holding the Head." What does that mean? It means in all things submitting to the authority of the Head. Note that it does not say: "holding the Savior," nor does it say: "holding the life." It is when we submit to the government of the Head that there will be the building of which the same verse speaks—"all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God." Get subjection to the authority of the Head, and you get the building up of the Body. Where the government of heaven is secured, there the church is secured. The extent to which the church is built up in our midst will depend entirely upon the place given in our midst to the church's Head.

"All the Body, fitted and knit together"—that is church building! But how does it happen? "Out from Whom all the Body, fitted and knit together." It happens as each member submits to the Head; it happens as each accepts the government of the kingdom of heaven. Only through those who come under the control of the Head can the building of the church be secured. So the question as to whether or not the church will be built up becomes a question of whether or not you and I can accept the authority of the kingdom.