The Body Builds itself up in Love as the Joints are Supplying and Each Part is Functioning

The Body builds itself up in love as the joints are supplying and each part is functioning in their measure.

The joints supplying and the parts functioning in their measure cause the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love; when the joints of rich supply function and each one part function in their measure, the Body grows and is built up in love.

May we be those who hold the Head, Christ, out of whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by the joint of the rich supply, grows with the growth of God by each part functioning in their measure.

The Head is Christ and all the believers in Christ are the Body; He as the Head gave some gifts to the Body for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

We may not be a great gift given by the Body with a large measure of function, but we are one of the “each one part” of the Body who can be perfected in our function for us to build up the Body.

On the personal side, we need to hold to truth in love so that we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.

As we grow up into Christ in all things, giving Him the preeminence and holding Him as the Head, we will receive from Him the growth and also the function for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Many believers in Christ do not know what is their function in the Body, and so they do not know how to function and what to do; therefore, they defer their function and allow others to over-function.

Each one of us as believers in Christ is necessary for the building up of the Body; each member of the Body is vitally crucial for the building up of the Body of Christ.

As we grow into Christ, the Head, we can produce out of the Head many functions for the building up of His Body.

We grow up into Him and we receive from Him the function for the building up of the Body.

And we allow the Lord to perfect us through the many members of the Body so that we may release our function in the Body.

Each one has a measure of our function in the Body; each one of us has a certain measure of our growth in life.

The more we grow in life, the larger our measure will be in our function.

Each part of the Body operates or function in its measure, and their measure is developed through their growth in life.

We do not all have the same measure; we have a certain measure that is the result of our growth.

May we just give ourselves to the Lord every day to grow in life and develop our function for the building up of the Body of Christ!

Amen, the Body builds itself up in love as we are all functioning in our measure.

All the Body causes the Growth of the Body: the Joints Supply and Each Part Functions

All the Body causes the growth of the Body for the building up of itself in love (Eph. 4:16; 1 Cor. 14:4, 31).

How does the Body grow and how is the Body built up? It is by the joints of rich supply ministering life to the saints for the knitting and building of the saints, and by each one part functioning in their measure for the building up of the Body.

And we function in the Body mainly by prophesying, that is, by speaking Christ and speaking Christ forth for the building up of the Body.

Our prophesying is for the building up of the church.

A local church grows by the local church itself; it grows by the growth of all the saints in the church.

The growth of the Body is unto the building up of itself in love, and the more we grow, the more the Body grows.

A local church must build itself up in love through every joint of the rich supply and according to the operation in the measure of each one part.

Those who are joints supply the Body as a whole and also the local churches; they function both in the Body and in and among the local churches.

Even if the number of saints in a particular local church is small, maybe fifteen or twenty, there may still be some with a particular supply.

Through the particular supply of the leading ones and through the operation of each one part, the church will cause the growth of itself in love.

The Body builds itself up in love. The Body is universal, but the Body has local expressions, and these local expressions are the local churches.

It is in the local churches that the members of the Body function in their measure for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Though we may not be the particular gifts given by Christ to the Body, such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, we can be perfected by the gifts to function in our measure for the building up of the Body.

The more we grow in life, the greater our capacity of life is, and the greater development of our function is in the church life to both build up the Body and supply the saints.

Especially the leading ones in the local churches, they need to function as joints of supply to supply the church with the riches of Christ and to nourish the saints, and even teach the saints how to function.

Then the saints can function in their measure, and the local church will be built up for the building up of the Body of Christ.

The growth of the Body of Christ is the increase of Christ in the church, which results in the building up of the Body of Christ itself (Eph. 3:17).

Christ must increase in us. He must spread from our spirit into all the parts of our inner being – our mind, emotion, and will.

He entered into us, into our spirit, and He is seeking to make His home in our hearts through faith.

We need to take care of our hearts and open up all the rooms of our hearts to the Lord so that He can make HIs home there.

When Christ enters into us and lives within us, the Christ within the saints becomes the church (Col. 3:10-11).

The church with Christ living in the saints is the corporate Christ, the one new man, where Christ is all the members and in all the members.

The more we allow Christ to enter into our inward parts and house Himself in our mind, emotion, and will, the more He lives within us, and the more the Christ who lives in us becomes the church.

He’s not only the Head but also the Body; the more we let Christ work Himself into us, the more He lives in us (Gal. 2:20) and this is the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ grows by the growth of Christ within us and is built up in this way (1:18; 2:19).

This is the way the Body is built up: by the growth of Christ in us. The growth in life of each member of the Body added together equals the building up of the Body.

The members of the Body are growing, and the Body grows; the sum total of the growth of all the members of the Body is the growth of the Body, the building up of the Body.

This shows that all the Body causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of the Body in love.

Hallelujah, all the Body causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love! Amen, Lord, grow in us unto maturity today. May we grow in life day by day for the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. Amen, Lord, may Christ increase in the church. May Christ increase in all the members of the Body so that the church as the Body of Christ may grow and be built up in love. We open to You, dear Lord: live in us today and make Your home in all our hearts. Increase in us. May Christ grow in us and increase in all our inner being. May all the saints grow in life with the growth of God so that the Body may grow and be built up in love! Praise the Lord, the Body builds itself up in love!

The Body Builds itself up in Love: the Love of God in Christ becoming our Love for the Lord and the Brothers

The Body builds itself up in love; this love is not our natural love but the love of God, which is God Himself, becoming the love by which we love Christ and the fellow members of the Body of Christ.

The love in which the Body builds itself up is the love that is the very element, the inner substance, of God.

This is the love of God in Christ, which becomes the love of Christ in us, by which we love Christ and the fellow members of His Body (1 John 4:7-8, 11, 16, 19; Rom. 5:5; 8:39).

First we have the love of god; God is love, and love is God Himself.

The love of God is in Christ, and nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Rom. 8:39).

This love is also the love of Christ, and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:35).

He came to us and drew us with cords of a man, with bands of love (Hosea 4:11).

God’s love reaches us in Christ; if the love of God were only in God, it would never reach us, but it is a love that is in Christ, and through the processes, He went through, it has reached us.

The love of God reached us and entered into us to be the love of Christ in us.

The love of Christ was poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5).

Love begins with God, it is then in Christ, and through Christ’s processes and becoming the life-giving Spirit who came into our spirit, this love comes into us.

2 Tim. 1:7 says that God didn’t give us a spirit of cowardice but of love and power and sober-mindedness.

Our spirit is a spirit of love. We need to fan our spirit into flame, in particular, we need to exercise our spirit of love to love the Lord and to love the saints.

What we lack is love; we may have the power and may be sober-minded, but we need more love, and love is in our spirit.

Rom. 15:30 mentions the love of the Spirit; the Spirit is love.

The entire Triune God is love, and this love through the Spirit has been poured out into our hearts and is now in our mingled spirit.

May we love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves God has been begotten of God (1 John 4:7-8).

We have God’s life and nature: we have the capacity to know God.

In John 17:3 the Lord said that this is eternal life, that we may know God, the only true God, and Him whom He has sent; in us, there’s the capacity to know God in the divine life that we have received through the divine birth.

The God whom we know is love; if we do not love, we do not know God, but we know God and we can love because He loved us and He poured His love in our hearts.

Everyone who has been begotten of God loves the brothers.

We passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

Something came into our being through regeneration, and now we love the Lord and we love the brothers.

The love of God, which is Christ, has been poured into our hearts and into our spirits, and now we have the capacity to love God and the brothers.

It is in the condition and atmosphere of such a divine love that we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish before Him (Eph. 1:4).

The Father chose us in the Son before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and without blemish before Him in love.

We have a predetermined destiny; He predetermined a destiny for us in love, that we would be holy and without blemish before Him.

This is in the atmosphere and condition of the divine love.

The more we love the Lord, the more He will have the opportunity to saturate us and sanctify us both positionally and dispositionally.

Also, He will perfect us, He will make us perfect as He is, without any blemish.

Today we have blemish, but if we live in the divine love, a sanctifying work is being done day by day, and we are saturated with God’s holy nature to be made holy as He is holy.

As members of the Body, the church, we are loved by Christ and washed by Him by the water in the word so that we may be presented to Him glorious, not having spots or wrinkles or any such thing, but that we would be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:25-27).

This is a carrying out of what God determined when He chose us in eternity past.

It is in such a divine love, realized and experienced by us in a practical way, that we are rooted for growth and grounded for building (Eph. 3:17).

It is in such a divine love that we bear one another for the oneness of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:2-4).

We are able to bear all the saints in the divine love.

In our natural love, we are not able to bear some of the saints; we may be able to bear those whom we love and prefer, but those that we don’t like, we may not bear them.

Phil. 2:2 says that we need to have the same love for every member of the Body.

We should not have any preferential love but love every member of the Body.

It is in such a divine love that we hold to truth, that is, to Christ with His Body (Eph. 4:15).

It is in such a divine love that we need to walk – to live, act, and have our being – as the beloved children of God, who are God-men, born of God, possessing the life and nature of God, and belonging to the species of God (Eph. 5:1-2).

May we walk in love. May we as beloved children of God walk in the divine love and live as the species of God, species of love! Amen!

Thank You, Father, for loving us and predestinating us to be holy and without blemish before You in love! Thank You for showing Your love toward us by coming to be a man to redeem us and bring us back to Yourself. Hallelujah, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Thank You, dear Lord, for pouring out Your love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We want to live and walk in love so that we may build up the Body of Christ. Amen, may the love of God in Christ become the love of Christ in us by which we love Christ and our fellow members of the Body! Hallelujah, our spirit is of power and of love and of sober-mindedness, and we can fan our spirit into flame as we live the church life! Amen, Lord, may we be in such an atmosphere and condition of the divine love to be saturated with God, be rooted for growth and ground for building, bear one another for the oneness of the Body, and hold to truth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 4, “Further Light concerning the Building up of the Body of Christ,” chs. 2-4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Loving the Lord and loving one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ (2022 fall ITERO), week 4, entitled, The Organic Body of Christ Building itself up in Love.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – This will keep the Church’s oneness, / Saving us from every sect; / This will ever test our motives, / And our aim will thus correct. / Lord, deliver us from our work, / From the work of any sect; / For Thy Church alone we’d labor / And its building up effect. (Hymns #914 stanzas 7-8)
  – To the Head fast holding ever, / That we may together grow, / From the Head supplies incoming / Thru us to the Body flow. / Lord, anew we give our bodies; / May we be transformed to prove / All Thy will, to know Thy Body, / And therein to serve and move. (Hymns #913 stanzas 7-8)
  – By Thy Spirit daily strengthened / In the inner man with might, / I would know Thy love surpassing, / Know Thy breadth and length and height; / Ever of Thy riches taking, / Unto all Thy fulness filled, / Ever growing into manhood, / That Thy Body Thou may build. (Hymns #840 stanza 4)