The Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ is by the Mingling of God and Man

The growth of the Body of Christ depends on the growth of God in all the members of the Body; the Body grows with the growth of God. All the Body causes the growth of the Body by the joints of rich supply and the operation in the measure of each one part (Eph. 4:16).

The church of God as the Body of Christ is not an organization but a living organism; it is the Triune God mingled with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people on earth. As such an organism, the Body of Christ grows unto the building up of itself in love. The sphere in which the Body is built up is love; love builds up.

We need to be rooted and grounded in love, the inner substance of God, so that we may build up the Body of Christ. The love in which the Body builds itself up is not our own love but God Himself in Christ as love which becomes the love of Christ in us; it is by this love that we love Christ and the fellow members of the Body of Christ (see 1 John 4:7-8, 10-12, 16, 19).

God is love; love is the inner substance of God, and throughout the book of Ephesians we see that God’s intention is to bring us into Himself as love so that we may enjoy Him in His presence in the sweetness of the divine love, and as a result we will love others as Christ did. Hallelujah, the Body of Christ is being built up in love!

Since the church as the Body of Christ is the mingling of God and man, the building up of the church is by more mingling of God with man (see Eph. 3:17; 4:4-6, 12, 16).

Christ Himself was God’s building in an individual way when He was on earth; He was the mingling of God with man to form one organic entity, where we see both God and man distinctly – yet mingled together to produce a God-man.

Today all believers in Christ who have been regenerated by God with His divine life are God-men, people who have God in them and who are in the process of being mingled with God for the building up of the Body of Christ. Christ builds up the church by building Himself into us and building us into Himself so that we and God would be completely one as God’s building, the Body of Christ.

The Growth of the Body of Christ is unto the Building up of Itself in Love (Eph. 4:16)

We have seen that the growth of the Body is the addition and increase of God within us, and this growth in the growth of God within all the members of the Body of Christ. The growth of the Body of Christ through the growth of God and the operation of all the members of the Body is unto the building up of itself in love (see Eph. 4:16).

The highest development of the divine life is love (see 2 Pet. 1). Love is the nature of God’s essence and the inner substance of God; God Himself is love. It is in this love which is God Himself in Christ to be our love that the Body builds itself up.

We need to be rooted into the inner substance of God and grounded in the nature of God’s essence that we may build up the Body. The Body doesn’t build itself up in life, truth, or power, but in love; love builds up.

This love is not our own love but the love of God in Christ which becomes the love of Christ in us; by this love we love Christ and all the fellow members of His Body (see 1 John 4:7-8, 10-12, 16, 19).

Do we realize that God loves us? God so loved the world that He gave His Son… (John 3:16) – as part of the world, God loved us. Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her (Eph. 5:25) – as part of the church, Christ loved us.

We need to have the deep realization that God loves us – the Lord loved me and gave Himself up for me (Gal. 2:20). The Lord loves us personally, and it matters to Him concerning us. Every member of the Body of Christ is crucial to Him. We love because He first loved us.

We need to come to know and believe that God loved us and He loves us so much. Because He loves us we also love Him and we love one another. This love is the inner substance of God, and the goal of the book of Ephesians is to bring us into God’s inner substance so that we may enjoy God and His presence in the sweetness of the divine love, and thereby love others as Christ did.

God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love (Eph. 1:4). He is rich in mercy toward us because of the great love with which He loved us (Eph. 2:4), and as He is making His home in our heart we are rooted and grounded in love (Eph. 3:17) so that we may know the knowledge surpassing love of Christ (v. 19).

We hold to truth in love, grow into Christ as the Head, and are being built up in the Body in love (Eph. 4:15-16). Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her (Eph. 5:25). Grace is with all those who love the Lord in incorruptibility (Eph. 6:24).

May we be brought into the inner substance of God, be filled with God in Christ as love, and cooperate with the Lord by growing in life to build up the Body of Christ in love!

Lord Jesus, grow in us unto the building up of the Body of Christ in love. Bring us to the realization that You love us personally. Thank You for dying for us while we were sinners and for giving Yourself up for us as the church. Lord Jesus, we love You. We want to be rooted and grounded in Your love so that we may be filled with God in Christ as our love to love God and love the saints. Lord, may a spirit of love pervade all the local churches for the building up of the Body!

The Building up of the Church is by the Mingling of God and Man

“Mingling” is a crucial word in understanding what the building up of the church as the Body of Christ is. God’s will, the desire of His heart, is to mingle Himself with us. All He has done in His redemption and all He is doing in His organic salvation is for the mingling of God with man, because mingling is the way of building.

The church as the Body of Christ is the mingling of God and man; the way to build up the church is to have more mingling of God with us. The key to building is being mingled with God in the divine economy to be a God-man.

The Lord Jesus was the building of God in an individual sense by being the mingling of God with man, and the church today is the enlargement of Christ who personally is the mingling of God with man. The true meaning of building is that God is building Himself into man and He is building man into Himself; this is the mingling of God and man (see Eph. 2:21-22).

The work of God in His creation and restoration took six days to be completed, but God’s work of building has been going on for 6000 years and it is still not finished. In His creation God made the heavens, the earth, and millions of items; all these were apart from God and nothing of God in them. But in God’s work of building God is building Himself into man and building man into Himself.

When man and God are mingled and built together, they become the Body of Christ, God’s building, consummating in the New Jerusalem as the universal house of God with man.

If we are not mingled with God to become one with God but rather live a life to please God yet without God, we are empty and homeless. If God doesn’t mingle Himself with man to become one with man but remains outside of man, God doesn’t have a dwelling place.

God’s real dwelling place and man’s true home is the mingling of God and man, the oneness of God being mingled with man and man being mingled with God.

God is building Himself into us in the principle of incarnation: God in Christ as the Spirit is constantly dispensing Himself into us as we are open to receive His dispensing and stay under His shining. God is building us into Himself through death and in resurrection to enable us to be in Him in the divine and human incorporation (John 14:21-23).

Through God building Himself into us and us into Himself we dwell in God and God dwells in us; we are God’s dwelling place and God is our dwelling place.

In our experience we need to remain open to the Lord and receive His divine dispensing, allowing God to build Himself into us day by day, and we need to get out of ourselves and into God through death and resurrection, having many inward transactions with Him as we pass through things so that we may be built into God.

In this mingling of God with man there’s no third entity being formed; rather the elements of divinity and humanity are distinct yet one.

This is the paradox of our Christian life in the light of the high peak of the divine revelation: God became a man in Christ so that in Christ the redeemed and regenerated humanity may become God in life, nature, constitution, and expression but not in the Godhead.

The more God mingles Himself with us, the more Jesusly human we become. We do not develop in a strange spiritual creature; we become divinely-human people who are built up together as the Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, we open to receive Your dispensing and be under Your shining. Mingle Yourself more with us today for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Lord, build Yourself into us and build us into God for the church. O Lord, our home is in You and Your dwelling place is in us: Make Your home deep down in our heart and build us into the Triune God through our experience of death and resurrection. Gain the mutual dwelling of God and man through the mingling of God with man!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Building Up of the Body of Christ, ch. 4, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 9 / msg 9, The Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ (3) – The Organic Building by the Growth of Life and the Mingling of God and Man and the Lord’s Need of Overcomers to Care for the Body and Build Up the Body.
• Further reading on the mingling of God with man: see Luke 1:35 footnote 2 in Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine, / My Savior, Jesus; yet this soul of mine / Would of Thy love in all its breadth and length, / Its height and depth, its everlasting strength, / Know more and more. (Hymns #154)
  # In our daily life and all we are and do and think and say, / How we need a deeper mingling just to gain the Lord each day; / Lord, we give ourselves completely just to take the mingled way. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
  # God’s economy and goal / According to His heart’s desire / Are to build Himself into our being / And to build us into His being / In order to mingle His divinity with our humanity / Into one entity (one entity)— / The Body of Christ, / Which consummates the New Jerusalem! (Song on God’s economy – His building by mingling)