Ephesians 4:3 says, “Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.’’ Without oneness, there is no way to build up the Body of Christ; therefore, we all must be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit. This oneness is of the Spirit. We have the Spirit and we have the oneness of the Spirit. The oneness of the Spirit is not something we have to pray for, rather, we must exercise our spirit to keep it. Sometimes we may want to say something against the decisions made by the elders, talk back to our parents, or gossip about a brother or sister in the church. These things divide the Body. We must turn to our spirit and drop these things so that we may keep the oneness of the Spirit. This is the way to build up the church. Negative talk tears down; the Spirit builds up. A person not living in spirit is not in oneness. A person of life is always in spirit and in oneness.
Ephesians 4:11-12a says, “And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints.’’ There are certain ones in the Body of Christ that are gifts to the Body. They have special functions, that is, to perfect the saints. Perfecting means nourishing, training, and enabling. When a baby is born, it may have all the innate capabilities to play the piano, yet without training, it will never play well. Training is needed for human beings to do things proficiently. In the same way, every Christian is regenerated with the divine, eternal, and indestructible life. Yet this life needs training in order to build up the Body of Christ. It needs training to preach the gospel, nourish others, teach the truth, speak forth God and build up the Body of Christ. Are you trained? We all need to be trained by the gifted ones in order for us to build up the Body of Christ.
All the saints are needed to build up the Body of Christ. Although there are special gifted ones in the Body, these gifted ones do not build up the Body directly. They can only build up the Body indirectly by perfecting the saints. The perfected saints must function according to the extent they have been perfected to build up the Body of Christ. Do you know how to pray? If you do, you need to pray to build up the Body. Do you know how to preach the gospel? If you do not, you must be trained, because we all must preach the gospel. If you know how to preach the gospel, then you must function by preaching. Whatever you do not know, you must learn. Whatever you know, you must function accordingly. By your functioning, the Body will be built.
If you want the Body to be built faster, you should perfect others based on what you have been perfected in. For example, if you have been trained in gospel preaching, you can in turn train younger ones to preach. You then become a small evangelist, a small gift to the Body. If you were trained in pray-reading, you may train a new one to pray-read; then you become a small shepherding teacher. If you have learned to compose a prophecy during the week and to prophesy in the Lord’s day meeting, then you may help a shy one to learn to prophesy by showing him or her how you pray, read, see light, then write a prophecy and prophesy in the meeting. Those that are helped by you will become perfected ones, functioning to build up the Body of Christ. The more the saints are perfected and the more they function, the sooner the Body of Christ will be built. If you perfect others as well as function to build up the Body, then you are a small apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher. When you grow up in life both spiritually and physically, you will become a full-grown apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher.
In summary, the issues of life are the fruit of virtues, the fruit of saved persons, and the building up of the Body of Christ in oneness.