Growing in Life by Holding to Truth in Love for the Building up of the Body of Christ

God’s highest and deepest purpose for the church is to head up all things in Christ through the church.

As part of the church, how can we cooperate with the Lord for the heading up of all things in Christ? It is not by our outward doing or “ruling over others” that we bring all things under Christ as the Head but it is by growing into Christ as the Head in all things so that out of Him and one with Him we would function for the building up of the Body of Christ.

The Head, Christ, has been inaugurated and installed by God; Christ is the Head over all things to the church. Now it is the Body of Christ, the church, who needs to be built up so that the Body would match the Head and all things would be headed up in Christ.

How do we build up the Body of Christ so that Christ would head up all things? It is by our growth in the divine life. Our human body is being built up as each member grows; in the same way, the Body of Christ is built up as each member of the Body grows in the divine life unto maturity.

To grow up into Christ, the Head, we must hold to truth in love (see Eph. 4:15). Everything in this world is vanity if it is without God; only God is real, true, and genuine.

Within God we see three main things which can be considered true in Him: God’s economy, God’s Christ, and the church. We need to hold to God’s economy, hold to the all-inclusive Christ, and hold to the church, and we will hold the truth in love to grow up into Christ, the Head.

In His economy God created the heavens, the earth, and all the things on earth, and He created man to be His expression by receiving Himself as life, growing in the divine life, being built up with others as the Body of Christ, and become the enlargement of Christ to manifest God’s multifarious wisdom.

The all-inclusive Christ is immeasurable, His riches are unsearchable, and His love is knowledge-surpassing, and this One is our life, enjoyment, and experience day by day.

The church as the Body of Christ is the corporate Christ, the fullness and expression of Christ and of God in humanity. May we be those who hold to truth in love so that we may grow up into Christ, the Head, in all things!

We Need to Grow in the Divine Life for the Building up of the Body of Christ

God made Christ Head over all things: with Christ everything is done, accomplished, and finished; He is the Head, the King, the Ruler, and the giver of life. As the Body of Christ, we need to match Christ by growing into Him as the Head in all things.

Our problem today is that we are short of God; we do not have much of God in our being, our speaking, our thinking, our doing, and our attitude. We need to grow up into Christ in all things so that out of Him and with Him we may build up the church so that God would head up all things in Christ.

How do we build up the Body of Christ? The organic building up of the Body is actually the growth of the Body – which is the growth of God, the increase of God as life, in all the members of the Body of Christ.

We need to grow with the growth of God by enjoying Christ in our spirit so that we may be built up as God’s dwelling place in Spirit (Eph. 2:21-22). The key to the growth in Christ is practicing to be one spirit with the Lord and growing in life for the growth and building up of the Body of Christ.

We need to grow up into Him in all things by holding Him as the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God (see Col. 2:19).

Christ must increase and we must decrease (John 3:30). To grow in life is to have more of God in us. We need to realize that we are short of God, and this is our problem. For us to build up the Body of Christ we need to grow in life day by day.

These three matters: growth, increase, and building, speak of the same thing related to the Body of Christ: the building up of the Body is the increase of God in the believers, and this increase is the believers’ growth in Christ.

When we cooperate with the Lord to grow in life by eating the Lord, drinking Him, breathing Him in, calling on His name, and allowing Him to grow in us, we build up the Body of Christ, God increases in us, and we grow in Christ.

All believers in Christ who advance in the process of growth in life are the building members of the Body of Christ (see Eph. 4:16). May we be those enjoying the Lord, eating Him, drinking Him, thanking Him, breathing Him, rejoicing, growing, and building up the Body!

When we all grow in life, the Body of Christ is built up. The growth in life of all the members of the Body of Christ is the building up of the Body.

This is our need today: we need to grow in the divine life for the building up of the Body of Christ so that God would head up all things in Christ!

Lord Jesus, grow in us for the building up of the Body. We need more God. Add Yourself to us, increase in us, and cause us to grow in life more today. Lord, we want to be building members of the Body of Christ by growing in life day by day with the growth of God. Oh Lord, we are so short of God, but we open to You, we call on Your name, we eat You and drink You, and we want to let You grow in us for the building up of the Body of Christ!

Growing up into Christ, the Head, by Holding to Truth in Love

In order for us to grow up into Christ, the Head, we must hold to truth in love (see Eph. 4:15).

What is truth? As Solomon said in Eccl. 1:2, everything under the sun is vanity of vanities; there’s no reality or truth in the things we see on earth. The only One who is real and true is God Himself, and when God occupies the proper position in everything, then everything is true.

In God who is true there are three things: the economy of God, the Christ of God, and the Body of Christ (the church). Apart from God’s economy, God’s Christ, and the church, there’s nothing true on this earth.

For us to grow into Christ the Head we need to hold to God’s New Testament economy. The greatest truth in the Bible is God’s economy, which actually covers the entire Bible.

God’s economy is His plan to dispense Himself in Christ as the Spirit into man so that He would have a corporate man as His corporate expression and representation consummating in the New Jerusalem.

For this, God created the heavens, the earth, and millions of things; He then created man in His image so that man would receive Him as life, be filled with Him, grow into Him, and be built up with other believers to become the Body of Christ, the church, for the manifestation of Christ as God’s multifarious wisdom (see Eph. 3:10-11; 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 1:30).

The more we enjoy Christ and are filled with Him, the more we become His enlargement for His corporate manifestation and the subduing of His enemy. We need to hold to the truth in God’s economy so that we may grow into Christ.

We need to hold to the all-inclusive Christ (Eph. 3:9). The Christ of God is all-inclusive and all-extensive; He fills all in all. He is so immeasurable that Paul said of Him, “the breadth and length and height and depth” (Eph. 3:18).

His riches are so immense that the Bible calls them “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). His love is so great that it is knowledge surpassing (Eph. 3:19). We need to hold to the all-inclusive Christ by enjoying Him and experiencing Him daily in all His riches.

To grow into Christ as the Head we need to hold to the church as the Body of Christ, the pillar and base of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). The church is not an organization but an organism; it is the organism of the Triune God constituted of those who are regenerated by God, saved in the life of God, and growing in the divine life.

The Body of Christ is Christ Himself in all His members, the corporate Christ composed of Christ as the Head and all the believers in Christ as the members of the Body (see Acts 9:4; 1 Cor. 12:12).

The Body of Christ is the fullness of Christ and the corporate expression of God (Eph. 1:23; 3:19). We want to be filled with all the fullness of Christ to become His Body, His expression!

Our holding to truth is in love: the sphere and element of our holding to God, the economy of God, the all-inclusive Christ, and the church as the Body of Christ is in love.

Praise You Lord for revealing to us God’s economy, the mystery hidden deep in God. Lord, fill us with Yourself until we become Your enlargement for Your corporate manifestation and the subduing of the enemy. Keep us enjoying You in Your unsearchable riches and Your knowledge-surpassing love. You are all-inclusive to be more than what we need. Lord, we praise You for making us Your Body, Your fullness and expression. Fill us unto all the fullness of Christ to express You in full. Grow in us more today as we hold to truth in love!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Perfecting of the Saints and the Building Up of the Body of Christ (ch. 3), 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 3 / msg 3, God’s Purpose for the Church (3) – To Head Up All Things in Christ.
• Recommended further reading: see The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, ch. 3, by Witness Lee.
• Picture credit for Eph. 4:15 and more spiritual quotes via, Christian Pictures Blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # But holding to truth in love / We may grow up in all things / Into Him who is the Head / Christ is the Head / Out from Whom all the Body / Being joined together and / Being knit together through / Ev’ry joint of the rich supply / And through the operation / In the measure of each one part / of each one part / Causes the growth of the Body unto the / building up of itself in love, / in love, in love. (Song on Eph. 4:15)
  # Truth we must be holding, which is Christ Himself, / That we be delivered from the sects of self, / That in all things growing into Christ the Head, / Built will be the Body and to fulness led. (Hymns #832)
  # O the riches of my Savior, / So unsearchable, immense; / All the fulness of the Godhead / I may now experience. / O the riches, O the riches, / Christ my Savior has for me! / How unsearchable their measure, / Yet my full reality! (Hymns #542)