Now we go on to 2 Corinthians. This book, which is deeper than 1 Corinthians, shows us that in the church there is a need for ministers who are for the building. Such ministers are persons who have practically experienced the breaking and tearing down by the cross and the full constituting work of the Holy Spirit. Paul was such a minister. First Corinthians says that when spiritual gifts fall into the possession of fleshly believers, such believers may become a trouble to the church. Spiritual gifts must be exercised by those who have passed through the breaking of the cross and who are full of the element of Christ within. Only then can they be a real benefit and help in building up the church. Otherwise, sooner or later they will produce a very great problem in the church. Therefore, 2 Corinthians deals with the matter of the ministry. Ministry is different from gift. A minister is not only a person with a spiritual gift but also a person who, in God’s hand, has passed through burning, pressure, grinding, and breaking. Although his outer man is decaying, his inner man is being renewed day by day. Inwardly he is full of the life of Christ and the constitution of the Holy Spirit.
If a gifted person does not let Christ have the preeminence in him by passing through the dealing of the cross, then the gift in his hand will sooner or later become a problem to the church. Although his gift may seem to benefit the church somewhat in the beginning, in the end it will damage the building of the church. Strictly speaking, the real building up of the church depends not so much on the gifted persons but on ministers like Paul. Paul truly was one whom God had stripped, pressed, burned, beaten, ground, and broken numerous times. He was inwardly full of the constitution of the Holy Spirit and full of the element of life. His outer man was being consumed, but his inner man was being renewed day by day. He was not only a gifted person, but even more, he was a mature minister in God’s hand. Only this kind of minister can cause the church to be truly built up. This is what 2 Corinthians particularly shows us.
Now we go on to the book of Galatians. This book shows us that in the process of the building up of the church there is a serious and disturbing matter—the matter of the law and works. Those in the church who still try to live before God by depending on their works are a big problem to the building of the church. We must realize that all those who have been built into the church are living in Christ, having been freed from the law and from their own works. They have had Christ revealed in them, they have been crucified with Christ, they have been delivered from the control of the flesh through the cross of Christ, and they have been freed from the usurpation of the world so that it is no longer they who live, but it is Christ who lives in them. In everything they simply take Christ as their life until Christ is formed in them so that they become Christ-men in reality as well as in name. Only such ones can be built together to become the Body of Christ. This is what Galatians shows us.
After Galatians, Ephesians speaks even more clearly on the building of the church. In relation to Christ, the church is the Body of Christ, and in relation to God, the church is the dwelling place of God. Furthermore, in relation to the love of Christ, the church is the counterpart of Christ, in relation to God’s warfare, the church is a warrior, and in relation to the nature of the church itself, the church is the new man. Therefore, chapter one says that the church is the Body, chapter two says that the church is the dwelling place, chapter four says that the church is the new man, chapter five says that the church is the wife, and chapter six says that the church is the warrior. These are the many expressions and statuses of the builded church.