The purpose of us believers being members one of another in the Body is that we would live Christ express Him together, and for this to happen, we must be made Christ for the Body of Christ.
Hallelujah for the Body of Christ, the continuation and extension of Christ on the earth today! Christ is no longer with us physically on earth, but He as the ascended Head of the Body is in the heavens, and the many believers in Christ are His continuation and extension on earth to express Christ.
The main function of the Body of Christ is not merely for Christ to move and work on earth but for Christ to be expressed on the earth.
The church is the Body of Christ; this term, “the Body of Christ” is not a metaphor but a reality, a fact. The church is literally, practically, and actually the Body of Christ, the organism of Christ, on earth today.
As such an entity, the church is and should be what Christ was when He was on earth. Even as Christ lived, so should all the members of His Body live; even as Christ waked, so should all the members of His Body walk.
In Eph. 1:22-23 we see that the church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all and in all. Christ is universally vast and great, and He needs a Body to contain Him and express Him; this is what we are as the Body of Christ – we are and should be the fullness of the One who fills all and in all.
The universally great Head of the Body needs a Body on earth to match Him, express Him, and manifest Him.
How can we be His fullness? First of all, we cannot be the fullness of Christ or express Him fully in and of ourselves, just as no individual member of our human body can express us fully.
Secondly, we all need to enjoy the riches of Christ; the gospel is the riches of Christ as the gospel (Eph. 3:8), and the entire Bible contains the riches of Christ.
When we eat, digest, and assimilate the riches of Christ into our being, we become the fullness of Christ to express Him corporately. The degree to which we have digested, assimilated, and were constituted with Christ, this is the degree to which we become His fullness. Hallelujah!
We are Members one of Another in the Body to Live Christ and Express Him Together
How can we be the fullness of Christ? How can we live the Body life in such a way that we are the fullness of Christ to express Him in all that He is?
On one hand we need to enjoy all the riches of Christ to be His fullness, and on the other, we need to realise that we are members one of another in the Body of Christ so that we may live Christ and express Him together (Rom. 12:5).
What we have as the members of the Body is “together”; we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
We are many members in the Body of Christ, each having different function and being at a different level of growth in life, arriving at the maturity in life; we learn to live in the organic union with Christ, we live in Christ and by Christ, and we have one another.
Hallelujah, in the church life we have one another – we are members one of another!
Everything that we do in the church life should be done in the principle of “one another”; we should not do things independently from other members, neither should we be individualistic.
Rather, we should do everything in mutuality; we need to prophesy by faith, serve the Lord faithfully, exhort one another, teach one another, give to one another, lead one another, show mercy to one another, and function together as members of the Body.
When we come to the church meetings, what is our attitude? We may come and pray that the Lord would speak to us and load us with good, for we are empty-handed and we need to be filled and satisfied with Christ.
But if all the saints come to the meeting empty-handed, who will feed others?
The church life according to 1 Cor. 14 is one of coming to the meeting prepared to minister Christ to one another.
We cannot come empty-handed to the meeting; we all need to come prepared, having a hymn, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation, etc, and all should be done for the building up of the Body.
We need to mutually teach and prophesy to one another; as members of the Body we need to live Christ and express Him together. This should be the controlling principle of our church life.
When we meet as vital groups we need to know the secret of the vital groups, which is “one another”, mutuality. In our small group meetings we need to ask and answer questions, open our situation and pray for one another, enjoy Christ together, live Christ together, and express Him together.
This means that we need to personally and individually enjoy Christ in our private time with Him; we need to be filled with Him, enjoy His riches, and abide in His word, allowing the Lord to saturate us.
Then, when we come together, each one has something to minister to others for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
Thank You Lord for placing us in the Body to be members of the Body of Christ, even members one of another in the Body to live Christ and express Him together. May we learn the secret of mutuality in the church life; may we learn the secret of “one another” – ministering Christ to one another for the building up of the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to function in the Body together with the other members, and we want to live Christ together and express God together as the Body of Christ!
The Body of Christ is Christ, so we must be made Christ for the Body of Christ
Just as our human body is us, not being separate from the head but expressing the head and being one with the head, so the Body of Christ is Christ, and for us to be in the Body we must be made Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11).
We need to realise that the Body of Christ is Christ, and if we want to be part of the Body of Christ, we must be made Christ. Any part in us that is not Christ is not part of the Body of Christ; only the measure of Christ that has been wrought into us is Christ.
The church is one with Christ in life and nature; according to life and nature, Christ is the church.
Christ is not only the Head of the Body but also the Body of the Head, because the Body’s life is Christ and the Body’s nature is Christ. In other words, even though the Body of Christ is composed of so many believers from so many backgrounds, countries, races, and nations, every member of the Body must be made Christ, for only Christ can be the Body of Christ.
In the Body of Christ, which is the new man, there’s no Greek, no Jew, no circumcision, no uncircumcision, no barbarian, no Scythian, no civilized people, no uncivilised people, but Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11).
How can we become Christ for the Body of Christ? We need to enjoy Christ and we need to be swallowed up by Christ. If we are not made Christ, we cannot be the Body of Christ.
In the Body of Christ, the expression of the church, there is only one person – Christ; we need to enjoy this One, let Him swallow up anything in us that is not Christ, and be saturated with Christ for the Body of Christ.
And when we fellowship with the saints and visit other localities, we should not focus on trying to improve others or correct them; we should simply bring others to enjoy Christ.
We must stay away and guard ourselves from any temptation to correct others and simply show them how to enjoy Christ. This is the unique thing we should do in the church life – we must minister Christ to others to feed them, for others to be filled with Christ, replaced by Christ, and swallowed up by Christ.
When we were baptised, we were baptised into the Body of Christ; now we are a new man in Christ, a new creation, and we need to daily put on the new man which is being renewed according to the image of the One who created Him.
In our daily living we must be made Christ. We must ask the Lord to make us the same as He is for the sake of His Body.
Because Christ really wants to gain His Body in reality to be His fullness, we must cooperate with Him by praying daily that He would make us Christ in life and nature and expression and function (but not in the Godhead) for the sake of the Body of Christ.
We desire to be made Christ not to be spiritual giants or to be better Christians; we desire to be made Christ for the Body of Christ, for the reality of the Body of Christ.
We are one Body in Christ, having an organic union with Him (Rom. 12:5), and in the Body Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:10-11). The church as the Body of Christ comes out of Christ and is one with Christ.
We see a type of this in Gen. 2:22-23 where God put Adam to sleep, took a rib from his side, and built a woman and brought her to the man; he then said, This time this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
If we would enter into the spirit and feeling of the Bible in this portion we will realise the joy and happiness of Adam, who is a type of Christ, for he finally found someone who could match him in every possible way.
Paul referred to this in Eph. 5:23-32 where he unveiled the great mystery – Christ and the church. The church comes out of Christ; the church is the Body of Christ, being purely constituted only of Christ and of nothing and no one else.
We are made the Body of Christ not by having more organisation, arrangements, teachings, or administration, but by being made Christ to live Christ and express Him together.
There’s only one thing in a believer that forms a part of the Body of Christ – Christ; so God is constituting us with Christ for us to become the Body of Christ in reality and practicality.
Lord Jesus, make us the same as You are for Your Body. May we as the members of the Body of Christ be made Christ for the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, may we be daily constituted with Christ so that we may become the Body of Christ in reality and practicality. We want to put off the old man with its old way of living and doing things, and put on the new man, which is being renewed according to the image of the One who created Him. Lord, may we be made Christ in all our living for the Body of Christ, for Christ to have a corporate expression on earth!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by the brothers for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1968, vol. 1, “The Practical Expression of the Church,” ch. 2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Keeping the Principles of the Body (2019 ICSC), week 2, The Oneness of the Body and the Function of the Body.
- Hymns on this topic:
# As members of the Body / Christ we would manifest, / Each learning how to function / His fulness to express; / We would not be spectators / But each as members move, / None bringing death or damage / But each our profit prove. (Hymns #867)
# As the members of His Body, / Each one is now a life supply. / Serving Christ to one another, / In love, His Body built thereby. (Song on, Outpoured for His Body)
# More and more our Person He must be; / That our natural personality / Be eliminated thoroughly / Till Christ is all. / Only Christ, our Person, must remain; / From our aims, our goals we must refrain, / Till the church be only Christ Himself / Built up as the one new man, / Thus fulfilling God’s great plan of— / Mingling fully with the human race / To obtain a proper dwelling place, / ’Stablishing His kingdom’s rule and grace; / Over all the earth. (Hymns #1180)
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