The riches of Christ are too profound. He is the Lord who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23). With Him are the unsearchable riches (3:8). God's intention is not for these riches to remain just in Christ but for these profound and infinite riches to become the riches of the church. His intention is that the church would become the fullness of the One who fills all in all (1:23). The church is a vessel to contain the life of Christ. All the riches of the Son of God are deposited in the church. The riches of Christ are the riches of the Body of Christ. No individual could ever contain those riches, nor could a multitude of individuals. It takes a corporate company to hold the riches of Christ. The individual pieces of a crashed tumbler may hold a few drops of water, but it takes the whole tumbler to hold a full glass of water.
The church is not a heap of stones, nor a mass of unrelated individuals, but a "building" in which the stones are "fitted together" so that they become "a dwelling place of God in spirit" (2:21-22). This temple is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (v. 20). In a lesser sense each individual believer is a temple of God, but only the corporate temple can contain all the riches of God.
Ephesians 3:10 tells us that the showing forth of the multifarious wisdom of God to the rulers and the authorities is given to the church, not to any individual. Verses 18 and 19 say that God will cause us to be "full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ." The love of Christ is so rich that it takes the church to measure it. Christ is not only in each member, but He is also in the Body. No one member of the Body of Christ can contain all the riches of Christ. The riches of Christ that we receive individually are two-dimensional at the most, but the riches of Christ that the church receives are three-dimensional. Only the Body of Christ has the capacity to express the riches of Christ. We need to be in the Body so that we can apprehend the riches which Christ has in His Body. It is not one believer, but "all" the believers together who "arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (4:13). In chapter six we are told to put on "the whole armor of God" that we may wage warfare against the hosts of darkness. However, the equipment for the fight is not given to one believer; it is given to the church. "The whole armor" can only be put on by the Body, not just by one member. Spiritual warfare is in this principle—one will chase a thousand and two will put ten thousand to flight (Deut. 32:30). The so-called church has not defeated the enemy's host, because Christians are living scattered lives instead of functioning in the Body.
Mathematically speaking, if one can chase a thousand, two should only be able to chase two thousand. But in spiritual mathematics, one chases a thousand while two chase ten thousand. The strength of two persons put together is five times that of two who are considered separately. Two is the minimum corporate number. If two persons chase the enemy separately, they will not defeat ten thousand. This is a principle: The strength of the corporate Body is very great. God cares for the corporate Body. He does not care how much strength you have or how powerful you are as an individual. As long as you are an individual and not joined to others, you can only chase a thousand. But if you are joined to others, your strength will be increased fivefold. You have to see that you are only a member. You are limited and short. You need the other members.
"For there Jehovah commanded the blessing:/Life forever" (Psa. 133:3). Where did God command the blessing? He commanded the blessing where brothers dwell in unity (v. 1). When the Body is under the anointing, life flows freely from the Head to all the members. Christ is not the Head of any mission or organization, He is only the Head of His church. The Head is only Head over the Body. Unless we are standing on the ground of the Body, we cannot claim the headship of Christ, and if we cannot claim the full authority of the Head, we cannot know the fullness of life that streams from the Head. The blessing that is commanded whenever brothers are united under the anointing is "life forever," a full, free, unceasing stream of life.