In our natural state we are not the material with which the church is built. In our natural state we are not stones, we are merely clay. We were made out of the dust of the earth, and thus we are merely clay in our natural state (Gen. 2:7; 2 Cor. 4:7). How then do we get from being clay to being stones that can be used for the building of the church? The way is to be transformed, to have our nature changed, by receiving another element into us. Often in chemistry when one element is added to another, it produces a change in nature in that element. We were all clay to begin with, but one day we received Christ. When Christ came into us, our nature began to change. We did not instantly change from clay to stone, but when we received Christ, this began a process of transformation by which we are progressively being changed in nature. The key to this process is to live Christ. The more we live Christ and experience Christ, the more Christ grows within us; and the more Christ grows within us, the more we are transformed from clay into stone. Only as stones can we be built together for the building of the church.
Many times it appears that certain brothers and sisters have been built together. After some time passes, however, it is manifested that they have not truly been built together, because they all are still primarily clay. If you take several pieces of clay, put some glue on them, and stick them together, you may think that you are doing the work of building, but eventually you will see that you are deceiving yourself. When a little water falls on the pieces of clay that you have glued together, the clay will dissolve, and your building work will be gone. If all the saints remain clay, even if they appear to be built together, once a little “water” falls on them, their so-called building will disappear.
Only those who have been transformed into living stones can be built together. Living stones are built together by growing together. This can be illustrated by the bones in the human body. If a person breaks one of his bones, as long as the two bones are held together, after a month or so they will grow back together. They will be built together by growing together. As those who have received Christ, we must learn to take Christ as our life and allow the life of Christ to increase within us day by day. If we know Christ as life—daily receiving all of our nourishment and life supply from Him—we will grow together and be transformed in Christ into living stones for the building up of the church.
A specific area of our being that must be transformed into stone in order for us to be built together is our soul, including our mind and emotion. Often when a brother comes to fellowship with me, after ten minutes I realize within myself that this brother’s mind is just a piece of clay. His entire mentality and all that he thinks about are “dusty,” natural, and of Adam. His mind has not yet been transformed. Before such a brother can be built with others, he must grow up more in Christ; he must have his mind transformed into the image of Christ. It is also often the case with sisters that their emotion is like a piece of clay. Sometimes sisters come to fellowship with me and before they even say a word, they begin to cry. Their emotion is like a piece of clay that can be quickly dissolved. Once when a sister began to cry while speaking to me, I tried to give her the sympathy that she desired by speaking nice words to her and encouraging her. While I was speaking to her in this way, suddenly her emotion changed and she began to laugh. Within a period of only ten minutes, her emotion underwent such a big change. This is clay. Clay can be quickly changed and quickly dissolved. If our mind remains natural and our emotions are as free as those of the people in the world, we will never be able to be built up with others. We need our mind and emotion to be transformed from clay into stone.
The Scriptures provide several examples of people who were transformed in their soul. One such example is Aaron. When the two sons of Aaron died before the presence of the Lord, the Lord told Moses to tell Aaron not to weep. When Moses gave this word to Aaron, although Aaron’s two sons had died, he accepted it and did not weep (Lev. 10:1-3, 6). This demonstrates that he was one who had strict control over his emotion. I believe that the apostle Paul was also such a person. Do you think that if Paul were to come to you while he was undergoing severe suffering that he would come to you with tears? I do not think that he would. If you were to contact him during such a time, I do not believe that you would even be able to tell that he was being deeply moved in his emotion. His emotion would be fully under his control. It would be solid, hard, and strong like a piece of diamond or precious stone. Even if he were to be delivered by the Lord in a miraculous way, I do not believe that he would laugh too much. Paul was a man whose emotion had been transformed from clay to stone.
Jacob was also one who was gained by God in his emotion. We can see this in the way that he reacted to the news that his son Joseph was still alive. For many years his dear son had been missing, and Jacob did not know if he was alive or dead. Then one day, his other sons returned from Egypt with proof that Joseph was alive and had become the highest ranking person in all of Egypt. If I were Jacob, upon hearing such news I would jump up and down and be mad with joy. I would be so happy that my son Joseph was still alive, and I would want to go visit him right away. But when we read the Scriptures, we realize that Jacob did not react in this way. When Jacob heard the news that Joseph was still alive, he was surely happy, but he was not overly excited. He was very calm in his reaction; in fact, he even seemed almost cold. In addition, soon after hearing this report he went to Beer-sheba to offer burnt offerings to the Lord and to seek the mind of the Lord as to whether or not he should go down to Egypt. Surely Jacob was happy, but he was not overly excited. His emotions were under control. This was not the emotion of Jacob, but the emotion of Israel—a transformed person.
In order for you to be built up with the other brothers and sisters, Christ must gain the ground in and occupy your emotion. If your emotion is so natural, so easy to be moved, and so easily hurt, it will be very difficult for you to be built up with the other brothers and sisters. One day you will be happy with them and the next day you will be unhappy with them. Thus, you must allow the Lord to grow in and transform your emotion so that your emotion will no longer be natural but spiritual.
The way to have this transformation is to love the Lord more and more. By loving the Lord, we will have wisdom and spiritual understanding, and our mind and emotion will be renewed and transformed from being natural to being spiritual. Loving the Lord causes us to know the Lord, and when we truly know the Lord, we will no longer be so easily moved or hurt in our emotions. It will not matter how the brothers and sisters treat us; regardless of how they treat us, we will remain the same. If they treat us well, we will be the same in our emotion. If they treat us in an evil way, we will be the same in our emotion. The Lord will have occupied our emotion and will have gained control of it. Our emotion will no longer be clay; it will be precious stone. As a result, we will be able to be built together with the other brothers and sisters.
Since the church is built up by the growth of the believers, we must consider another matter related to our growth. As believers in Christ, we all need to grow. We must be clear, however, that spiritual growth can never be individual. The growth that builds the church can never be individualistic or independent of the other members. No single member can grow separately, independently, or individually. Genuine spiritual growth is always corporate. The members of the Body grow corporately, collectively, and jointly. Thus, if we desire to grow, we need to join ourselves with the other members of the Body, and the more we grow, the more our sense of this need to join ourselves to others will grow. This is the law of the Body and the principle of the Body. We can never be against this law, this principle. If you are against this law, then you will never grow. If you are independent and individual, then there will be no growth for you. Any member that is separated from the Body will die, and a dead member cannot grow. Thus, if we desire the genuine growth in life that builds up the Body of Christ, we must join ourselves to the other members and grow together with them in the Body.
Our experience of Christ, the growth of the life of Christ within us, and the mingling of Christ Himself with us cause us to become material that is suitable for God’s building. Apart from these things we can never be used for God’s building. Unless we have the element of Christ added to us, we will remain a piece of clay. We need Christ to increase and expand within us from one corner of our being to the other—from our heart to our mind and from our heart to our emotion. Thus, we must allow Christ to increase and expand in us all the time.
Many of the Christian books written today mention the building of the church. However, the books that I have read that speak of building do not have the proper understanding of this matter. Building is not the result of Christian work. The church is not built by some form of work that attempts to bring believers together. The church is built only by the growth in life. Only when all the believers experience Christ as life day by day and allow Him to increase and expand in them so that they will grow up in Him will the church be built. Any message, book, or literature that speaks of the building of the church must stress the experience of Christ as life. If it does not, it is talk that is vain and useless and teaching that can never be worked out. We must remember that the growth of the church depends upon the growth of the believers. Apart from this growth there is no building of the church.
Since we have received Christ as our life and all, we must walk in Him as our kingdom, our spiritual sphere, and since we have been rooted in Christ, we must grow up in Him in order to be built together with others to be the house of God.