To practice 1 Corinthians 14:26, there is the need of revival and an overcoming living; to practice Ephesians 4:11-16, there is the need of total consecration. In everything seek the growth in life, and in all things grow up into the Head, which is Christ. The more consecrated we are, the more we will receive. Today the elders bear a particularly heavy burden. While they feel inadequate for meeting the needs of the saints, they are reluctant to resign. Constrained between the two, they have to give either their all or none at all. In this case, they have to give themselves thoroughly and absolutely. In everything, whether great or small, they must seek the growth in life, and they must seek to grow up into the Head, Christ. By doing so, the elders will find themselves able to do their job. Hence, first there is the need for revival and an overcoming living. Then there is the need for a total consecration. It is not a matter of the availability of time; rather, it is a matter of consecration. When you are consecrated, you will have the time. When we grow up into the Head, Christ, in everything, all our problems will be solved.
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.” The perfecting here is an equipping and a supplying. The ascended Head gave the gifted ones for the perfecting, equipping, and supplying of the saints to be the members of the Body of Christ that all may fully realize their function.
We see two groups of people: one is the gifted ones, and the other is the perfected saints. They all work together for the New Testament work of the ministry in the building up of the Body of Christ. All the members of the Body of Christ live Christ, experience Him, and supply Him to others. In this way, everyone builds up the Body of Christ. Not only will the apostles build, but even the least saint will be able to build. The gifted ones will have perfected everyone. They are like college professors who perfect all their students. Eventually, after the students graduate, they can do what the professors can do. The gifted ones among us, with the coordination of the elders, should perfect all the saints. As a result, everyone will be able to do the same work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ.
The gifted ones continue to perfect the saints until all the members that constitute the Body of Christ arrive at three things. First, we arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. Although we all have the oneness of the Spirit within us already (Eph. 4:3), we must go on to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. The oneness of the Spirit is the oneness of the divine life in reality; the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God is the oneness of our living in practicality. We already have the oneness of the divine life in reality. This is what we have obtained. We only need to keep it. But we need to go on until we arrive at, attain to, the oneness of our living in practicality.
This oneness is of two things: the faith and the full knowledge of the Son of God. The faith does not refer to the act of our believing, but to the things we believe in, such as the divine Person and redemptive work of Christ for our salvation. The full knowledge of the Son of God is the realization of the revelation concerning the Son of God for our experience. The more we grow in life, the more we will cleave to the faith and to the realization of Christ, and the more we will drop all the minor and meaner doctrinal concepts which cause divisions, and will instead take Christ as our center. Then we will arrive at or attain to the practical oneness.