We have a goal in the church life, which is to build up the church. In 1 Corinthians 14:4 Paul emphasizes this building: “He who prophesies builds up the church.” One who prophesies not only builds up the individual saints, but even more, he builds up the church. Then Paul continues in verse 12, “Since you are zealous of spirits, seek that you may excel for the building up of the church.” These verses indicate that we should all be like Paul, who wholeheartedly cared for the building up of the church.
The New Testament reveals that God’s goal is the building. Christ as life is for the building, the ministry of the gifted persons is for the building (Eph. 4:11-12), and the functioning of all the members is also for the building. Everything is for the goal of producing and building up the Body of Christ.
The building up of the Body of Christ is not accomplished directly through the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers; the building work is accomplished directly through all the believers as members of the Body. The believers are the building members. Moreover, the work of the ministry, which is the work of building up the Body of Christ, is not only the work of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers but also the work of all the saints. The building up of the Body of Christ is accomplished indirectly through the gifted saints; therefore, they should learn to perfect others. After the perfecting work is done, they should commit the building up of the church to all the members of the Body, allowing all the members to build up the Body directly (v. 16).
The believers need to be the overcomers in the church. In the seven epistles written to the seven churches in Revelation, the Lord charged the saints to be overcomers (2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 21). In chapters 2 and 3, to overcome is not mainly to overcome sins, the world, the flesh, the self, or even Satan; rather, it is to overcome the degradation of the church.
Overcoming in Revelation 2 and 3 refers to overcoming the degraded situation of the church. The reason we need to be overcomers is that the church has become degraded. Today degradation is prevalent, and we need to overcome this degradation.
In Revelation 2:7 the Lord said, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” In this epistle to the church in Ephesus, to overcome is to recover our first love toward the Lord and to hate the works of the Nicolaitans, the hierarchy that the Lord hates (vv. 4, 6).
In verse 11 the Lord said to the church in Smyrna, “He who overcomes shall by no means be hurt of the second death.” In this epistle to overcome is to overcome persecution by being faithful unto death.
In verse 17 the Lord said to the church in Pergamos, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and to him I will give a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.” In this epistle to overcome is specifically to overcome the church’s union with the world, the teaching of idolatry and fornication, and the teaching of hierarchy (vv. 14-15).
In verses 26 through 28 the Lord said to the church in Thyatira, “He who overcomes and he who keeps My works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he will shepherd them with an iron rod, as vessels of pottery are broken in pieces, as I also have received from My Father; and to him I will give the morning star.” Pergamos typifies the worldly church, and Thyatira typifies the apostate Roman Catholic Church. Hence, in the letter to the church in Thyatira, to overcome is to overcome the apostate Roman Catholic Church.
In 3:5 the Lord said to the church in Sardis, “He who overcomes will be clothed thus, in white garments, and I shall by no means erase his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” As a sign, the church in Sardis prefigures the Protestant church from the time of the Reformation to the second coming of Christ. Many have considered the reformed Protestant church to be living, but the Lord says that she is dead (v. 1). In this epistle, to overcome is to overcome the deadness of the Protestant churches, that is, to overcome dead Protestantism.
In 3:11-12 the Lord said to the church in Philadelphia, the church in recovery, “I come quickly; hold fast what you have that no one take your crown. He who overcomes, him I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore, and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” The recovered church has gained the crown already. However, if she does not hold fast what she has in the Lord’s recovery until the Lord comes back, her crown may be taken away by someone. Therefore, in this epistle to overcome is to hold fast what we have in the recovered church.
Finally, in the last of the seven epistles, the epistle to the church in Laodicea, which typifies the degraded recovered church, the Lord said, “He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne” (v. 21). In this epistle, to overcome is to overcome the lukewarmness and pride of the degraded recovered church (vv. 16-17), to pay the price to buy the needed items, indicating gold refined by fire, white garments, and eyesalve (v. 18), and to open the door so that the Lord may come in (v. 20).