The growth of the Body is by the Body's members being perfected to do the work of the New Testament ministry—the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). Not only in Christianity but also among us, very often the saints cannot function in the meetings. The reason for this is that we are short of growth. If we are growing day by day, we will be living. Then when we come to the meetings, either we will offer a prayer or we will say, "Praise the Lord!" This indicates that we are living. But today's situation is for the most part not like this. I have attended prayer meetings where the saints and even the leading ones came in five, ten, or fifteen minutes after the scheduled time. As a result, the entire meeting was deadened. It is impossible for a church in this condition to be built up. We all need to be living, to be growing, day by day. Then the whole church will grow, and this growth equals the building.
Through the growth of the Body all the members are perfected to do the work of the New Testament ministry. This work is done not by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, or shepherd-teachers, but by the ordinary, common members of the Body of Christ. When each member is perfected to do the work of the New Testament ministry, all the members will know how to build up the Body. The building up is the New Testament work. If all the saints are carrying out the work of the ministry, the meetings will become living, and we will escape the deadened situation of today's Christianity.
The building up of the Body is by the Body's growth in the life of God (Col. 2:19). Therefore, it is organic.
The building up of the Body also takes place in the process of transformation (1 Cor. 3:12). Today as we are growing, we are in the process of transformation. Spontaneously, we are being transformed. To be transformed is not to change, to adjust ourselves, or to correct ourselves. These are mere outward changes. Transformation is metabolic, something within in life.
During every meal as we take food into our stomach, digestion, a metabolic process, immediately begins to take place. For the stomach to move metabolically, it must be filled with some element. I have experienced this metabolic process in eating many times. One day after speaking in a meeting, I was physically exhausted. Twenty minutes after eating some food, I was vitalized. A metabolic process had begun to go on within me. After another ten minutes, I was even more vitalized. I was not only vitalized; I was transformed by the metabolic process within me. This is an illustration of transformation. We need to grow that we may be transformed. After being transformed, we are suitable for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:16 says that the Body grows unto the building up of itself. This means that the growth of the Body is the Body's building up of itself.