We have seen that we need to cooperate with the Lord to save sinners and to nourish and cherish the newly baptized ones. In this chapter we want to see the crucial matter of the perfecting of the saints. This crucial item has been lacking among us, but Paul stresses this matter to the uttermost in the book of Ephesians, a crucial book concerning the Body of Christ. Paul said that the ascended Head, Christ, in His ascension has given some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers for the perfecting of the saints (4:11-12). Our concept may be only that the Head gave all these persons as gifts to His Body so that they could do their work. The apostles set up churches and appoint elders, the prophets speak for the Lord, the evangelists go out to preach the gospel to bring sinners to the Lord, and the shepherds and teachers do their shepherding and teaching work. It is correct to say that these gifted persons do their particular work, but according to the New Testament they do something additional to this. They perfect the saints.
To see this crucial matter of the perfecting of the saints we have to look at the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul went to Ephesus, preached the gospel there, and established the church in Ephesus. Then he appointed the elders in the church. Afterwards, Paul came back to visit the church in Ephesus. At one time he stayed there for three years (Acts 20:31). According to human experience, three years is a complete course of time. Our concept may be that of inviting a gifted person to come to help us and then sending him away. We do not have the concept of a gifted person coming to us and staying with us for an extended period of time for our perfecting. Paul’s pattern in Acts 20 was that he stayed with the church in Ephesus for three years. This was after the church in Ephesus had been established and the elders there had been appointed. He stayed there to perfect the saints.
We must admit that we are short of the perfecting of the saints by the gifted persons. I practiced to perfect the saints in my hometown of Chefoo in mainland China from 1940 through 1942. I taught them publicly in big meetings on the Lord’s Day and on Wednesday evening. The rest of the time, day and night, I visited the saints. I visited them in two ways. Quite often a helper and I rode our bicycles to their homes. Also, on the evenings when there was no meeting, I invited twenty to twenty-five saints to come to eat with me in the meeting hall. I hired a brother to cook for us. I did this every week until after a period of time, I had invited quite a few hundred saints in Chefoo to eat with me. I ate with them and talked to them face to face. That was wonderful! In the day I went to visit them, and in the evening I invited them to come to eat with me. After three years of this kind of labor, a big revival broke forth on December 31, 1942. There was a period of revival for one hundred days. Paul’s example in Acts 20 and my experience in Chefoo showed me that we desperately need the perfecting of the saints.
In Acts 20 Paul said that he taught the saints publicly and from house to house, admonishing each one of them for three years night and day with tears (vv. 20, 31). The phrase, “from house to house,” means “according to houses.” Paul went to all the homes of the saints in Ephesus to teach them. If we merely hold big meetings, we can only pass on general messages and do a general work, but we cannot do a particular work. The particular perfecting work can be carried out in the homes of the saints. If we go to visit the saints in their homes, we can talk to them face to face, discover their particular needs, and meet these needs in a particular way. This is what it means to perfect the saints.
To perfect the saints is to equip them and to furnish them. People who join the army are taught, equipped, and furnished with what they need to fight the battle. In other words, they are perfected to be fighting soldiers. An apostle’s perfecting of the saints is his equipping of the saints so that they are qualified to do the same work that he does. A professor of mathematics at a teachers’ college also has such an intention. He has a planned curriculum that he takes his students through so that they can graduate. His students are then perfected, equipped, furnished, to teach as he does. In the past, many saints have been to “classes” year after year without ever “graduating.” In other words, many saints have attended meeting after meeting for years, without being perfected to do what the gifted persons do. The reason why not many among us have graduated, that is, have been perfected, is that we have mostly had general meetings with general “lectures.” We have not had the particular perfecting work. Some saints who have been in the Lord’s recovery for thirty-three years could not give a word concerning the truth of justification by faith or the truth concerning our reconciliation with God. This indicates a lack of perfecting.
To perfect the saints is to equip them and furnish them so that they can do the same work as the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. Eventually, all the saints will have the ability of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. If the joints (the gifted persons) rise up to do their duty to perfect the saints, the church in our locality will spread to other localities, and there will be many churches in our area.
Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” The “ministry” here is the unique ministry, the New Testament ministry. According to the grammatical construction, the building up of the Body of Christ is the work of the ministry. The gifted persons perfect the saints, and the perfected saints do the direct building work. After being perfected, the perfected saints do the work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ directly. Many of us have not received that much perfecting by the gifts the Lord has given to His Body. In our speaking for the Lord to prophesy, the content may be good, but our presentation, tone, and style may not be suitable because we have not received that much perfecting.