Now we come to another point. If you have seen the Body, you could never be individualistic, you could never be independent. As a Christian, you will realize that you cannot live without the Body. You cannot move, you cannot work, you cannot serve without the Body, because you have seen the Body, and you realize that you are simply one member of the Body. In the physical body, it is impossible for the nose to exist, function, or serve without the body. Neither could the hand live, move, or work without the body.
I praise the Lord that, by His mercy, in my service for over thirty-seven years, as a brother among you, I have never been independent and have never been individualistic. I may feel that I am one hundred percent right, and the others are one hundred percent wrong, but I have to go along with the feeling of the Body. Whenever the Body feels that something should not be done, I do not do it. It is not a matter of right or wrong, but a matter of either being individualistic or being in the Body.
If you keep in mind all these tests, you will realize that you have not seen the Body because you are so individualistic. It seems that you can do anything you like independently. If you see the Body, it would be impossible for you to behave yourself in an independent way.
During that time from 1940 to 1942, all of us were surprised when Brother Nee shook his head and told us that we had not seen the Body. We had given strong testimonies to prove that we had seen the Body. Right away some of us asked Brother Nee how we could see the Body. He was not one to answer our question directly. He simply replied, “If you have seen it, you have seen it.” Then we would ask him to tell us how we could see the Body. “If you see it, you see it. If you don’t see it, you don’t see it.” Then he would ask another one, perhaps a sister, to give a testimony about seeing the Body. We thought we had already seen the Body. Likewise, if you test yourself, you will realize that you have not seen the Body. If you see the Body, it would be impossible for you to be individualistic.
Whether we see the Body, or we do not see it, is all a matter of the Lord’s mercy. Eventually, this was the ultimate answer Brother Nee gave us. He told us not to try by ourselves to see it, but to look to the Lord’s mercy. If you see it, you see it; if you do not see it, you do not see it—that is all. I believe that this is absolutely true. May we all look to the Lord for His mercy to be brought into the seeing of the Body.
At this time I have the burden from the Lord to take away your self-confidence in this matter of seeing the Body. You think you have seen the Body already, but actually you have not seen it. Be prepared to be a little disappointed, and recognize that you have not seen it yet. Look unto the Lord for His mercy, and trust in Him for His mercy; He will show you His Body.
How could you know that you have seen the Body? The strongest proof that you have seen the Body is that you can no longer be individualistic. When you cannot be individualistic, you have seen the Body. As long as you are not restricted, as long as you are free, as long as you are independent, as long as it is so easy for you to have your own choice, no matter how much you know about the Body and how confident you are that you have seen the Body, you have not seen the Body.
Now we come to a further test concerning seeing the Body. If you have seen the Body, you will be willing to be tempered together. Paul used the word tempered in 1 Corinthians 12:24, “God has tempered the body together.” A lack of willingness to be tempered is another proof that you have not seen the Body. God has not only placed us together in the Body, but even the more, He has tempered us together.
There is no way for two believers to be one in a practical way without being tempered together. In our experience many times the tempering together comes out of practical situations in working together in coordination. For example, another brother and I worked together to prepare the hymnal. There were many details that required fellowship, and many decisions to be made. In point after point we depended on one another, and neither of us worked in an individualistic way. We selected hymns written by others to be included, we translated a number of hymns from Chinese into English, and we improved the meaning in the lines of many hymns. The brother I was working with had certain preferences because of his background, and I had a number of difficulties because English is not my mother tongue. There were problems with the meter, problems with the accents, and problems with the rhymes. In the process, both of us made many mistakes, and many times we corrected each other. In the detailed coordination necessary to prepare the hymnal, we two brothers learned many lessons and we were very much tempered together. I cannot tell you how much blessing we two received through the tempering together in that work on the hymnal.
In practical work together such as this, there are many lessons for us to learn. We all need to learn not to insist too much on a certain way. There may be some mistakes made, but that is not the crucial point. The church life is a life of being tempered all the time. Even if you are one hundred percent right, you still need to be tempered.