The genuine Christian service is based upon the building up of the Body of Christ. The base, the foundation, of all genuine Christian work is the building up of the Body. The real Christian service stands upon the basis of the Body. God’s unique intention in this universe is to have a corporate Body to serve Him. God wants us to serve Him, but He does not want us to serve Him in an individualistic way. God’s intention is to have a priesthood, a priestly body, a corporate people built together, to serve Him. Therefore, we need to see clearly that if there is no building up, there is no possibility of having the genuine Christian service. We should not consider what has been called service in the history of the church as something normal, and we should not take what we see among today’s Christians as a pattern. Most of what we find in the history of the church and in the present situation is something out of order, something altogether contrary to God’s way. God’s intention is to have a Body serving Him. Therefore, He has not regenerated us to be perfect units, each complete in ourselves, but He has regenerated all of us to be members of one Body. How much we all need to see the Body!
You may presume that you have seen the Body because you have heard messages on the Body or because we have spent so much time on this one point in these days. However, I do not have the confidence that you have seen the Body. I have a deep question concerning this matter; I doubt that you have really seen the Body.
During a period of at least two years, from 1940 to 1942, Brother Watchman Nee gave a message each week on the seeing of the Body. His word was not on the Body, but on the seeing of the Body. Have you seen the Body? Every week during that time he gave a message, and every week he spent one morning with us, the trainees. In that morning training time of more than three hours Brother Nee did not do much speaking in the way of a message. Rather, when we came together with him after he had given a message to the whole congregation, he would ask each of us to give a testimony one by one concerning how we had seen the Body. After each testimony, he would shake his head and tell us that we had not seen the Body. Then he would point out how our own words exposed us, how our own words proved that we had not seen the Body. Out of so many trainees there may have been only one or two who received his approval in the matter of seeing the Body. Brother Nee could be very bold with us as trainees because we had given him our permission when we were accepted for the training. I am not as bold as Brother Nee was, but I do ask you to consider seriously this question of whether or not you have seen the Body.
There are some simple ways to test yourself to see whether or not you have seen the Body. I encourage you to test yourself by these few means. In the first place, I would say that if you have seen the Body, you will never be divisive. To be divisive means that you have not seen the Body. If you have seen the Body, you would never be divisive and you could never be divisive from now on. Divisiveness means you have not seen the Body. Could there be more than one Body in this universe? There is only one. Have you seen this one Body, the unique Body? If you have seen this unique Body, this vision will bind you so that you could never be divisive.
The reason there is so much division among Christians today is that they have not seen the Body. When Christians who meet together are not happy with each other, often some stop meeting with the others and start a meeting of their own. This is division, and it indicates that the ones who do such things are divisive. They have not seen the Body. Anyone who has seen the Body could no longer be divisive.
There is only one Body, and I am a part of this Body. It is impossible for me to be separated from this Body and impossible for me to separate myself from this Body. It is crucial that we all see the Body. However, there is the possibility that we will think we have seen the Body when we have not seen it at all.
From the time I began my ministry in this country in 1962, I heard many people talking about the Body life and the Body ministry, but within me I realized that they were talking about something which they had not seen and which they did not know. Of course, I was not so bold as to tell them that they had not seen the Body, but I would ask you now to check whether or not you have seen the Body. Have you seen the Body? If you have seen the Body, you have seen the oneness, and you could no longer be divisive.