The Body of Christ is uniquely one universally, and as believers in Christ we need to simply keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace, that is, we need to keep the unique oneness of the Body of Christ!
This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, The Oneness of the Body and the Function of the Body. On one hand we are quite familiar with these subject, but on the other, we need to see the Lord’s light that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ and keep the principles of the Body.
The first principle of the Body is the oneness of the Body, and the second, is the function of the Body.
The Lord Jesus spoke of the oneness of the Body in John 17; many people desire oneness – in the family life, at work, in an organisation, at school, everywhere we need oneness, but the real oneness is the oneness of the Triune God.
It may be that in a corporation there may be oneness, but inwardly there is no oneness. For us to see and keep the oneness of the Body we need to see the nature of this oneness.
In John 17 we see that the Father glorifies the Son so that the Son may glorify the Father, and the glory that the Father gave to the Son, the Son gave to His believers that they may be one, even as the Father and the Son are one (John 17:22).
Where there’s the glory of God, there’s the oneness; when the Body of Christ is one, there’s the expression of God in glory.
John 17 expresses the Lord’s heart’s desire and longing for real and genuine oneness, and it unveils a model of genuine oneness, which is the Triune God Himself.
The genuine oneness is the Triune God, “That they may be one, even as We are one; I in You and You in Me, that they also may be in Us.”
In other words, the oneness of the Body in the church is the oneness of the Divine Trinity, the Triune God Himself; without the Triune God we do not have the real oneness.
On the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius later, God poured out the Spirit (the consummation of the Triune God) upon His Jewish and Gentile believers to make them one Body, the Body of Christ.
The oneness becomes the oneness of the Spirit; this oneness of the Spirit is the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God; this oneness is not remaining only in the Triune God but is now also in His believers, as He mingles Himself with them to become the enlarged oneness.
The oneness of the Body of Christ is the oneness of the Spirit; we have received the Spirit, we have the oneness, and we need to simply keep the oneness. Eph. 4 tells us to keep the oneness of the Spirit; we cannot keep what we don’t have, so this means that when we remain in the Body, we have the oneness.
We need to grow until we come to the full knowledge of the Son of God, arrive at a full-grown man, at the stature of the measure of the fullness of Christ.
This stature corresponds to Eph. 1:23, where we see that the church is the Body of Christ, the fulness of the One who fills all and in all.
Today the church as the Body of Christ is one and expresses God’s fulness; this is the oneness that the Lord desires, which becomes our oneness in reality and is accomplished in the Body as His fulness.
The Lord is Burdened to Recover the Oneness of the Body of Christ in Practicality
According to the Bible and in the eyes of God, the Body of Christ is uniquely one universally (Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 4:4a; 2:16a). On one hand we are many members of the Body, and on the other, we are one Body in Christ; all the members of the Body are one Body, so also is the Christ.
The Body of Christ in the universe is uniquely one. There is one God; there is one incarnation; there is one crucifixion; there is one resurrection; there is one Body of Christ.
In all the local churches we have this unique oneness, the oneness of the Body of Christ; there’s no such thing as a “local Body” or a “local Spirit” – we have the oneness of the Body and we need to keep it. If we have division, this kills the Body and it kills the oneness.
The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the oneness of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4-6).
The Body of Christ can exist and survive only in oneness (Psa. 133:1), and the Lord today is burdened to recover the oneness of the Body of Christ.
Many times when we meet with other believers in Christianity, they ask us first and foremost, What church do you go to? What kind of Christian you are? Are you a Baptist, a Presbyterian, a charismatic, a this or a that?
We saints in the church life are simply Christians, having no other name, because all other names that we may take put the Lord to shame.
When others hear this, they may also ask us, Since you say that the Body of Christ is in a state of division, are you also another division in the Body?
May the Lord have mercy on us to realise what we really are in the Lord’s recovery; in the Lord’s recovery we have been shown mercy by the Lord to be those who return to the genuine ground of the oneness to build up the church as the Body of Christ according to the pure revelation in the Word of God.
In the Old Testament we see how the children of Israel were taken into captivity – some of them were in Egypt, others were in Syria, and still others were in Babylon; but there was a group of them, a small group, who returned to Jerusalem to build the temple and the city.
Were this small group yet another division? No, they were stirred up by the Lord in their spirit, and they paid the price to leave any other country and division and return to Jerusalem to build up the temple and the city of God according to God’s heart’s desire.
The ones who returned to Jerusalem may not have been in a better condition than the ones in other places, but they were at the right location on the right ground to be God’s testimony and His kingdom.
We in the church life have been recovered to the ground of oneness; we are part of the Body that has been recovered and is being recovered to the genuine ground of oneness.
The practice of the oneness has been lost, but we wish to satisfy the Lord’s heart to recover this oneness (John 17:21-23).
We hope that we can correspond to what the Lord prayed for in John 17, so that His heart’s desire may be worked within us and lived out among us.
As we see in Rev. 3-4, the Spirit today speaks to the churches, and this brings in the oneness; the local churches are the local lampstands identical in function, shape, nature, and expression, and they are one in God’s speaking.
Lord Jesus, we wish to satisfy Your heart to recover the oneness of the Body. It is Your longing that all Your believers may be one even as the Triune God is one. Lord, we return from any ground of division to the unique ground of the oneness of the Body of Christ. We realise that the Body of Christ is uniquely one, and we want to keep the oneness of the Body of Christ. Save us from any division. Save us from taking any other name besides Your name. Save us from losing the oneness. Lord, may Your heart’s desire be worked within us and among us in the local churches!
The Ground of a Local Church is the Unique Oneness of the Body of Christ, the Oneness of the Spirit
The unique oneness of the Body of Christ is based upon the Triune God, for it is the enlarged oneness of the Triune God. The unique oneness of the Body of Christ is the oneness of the Spirit spoken of in Eph. 4:3.
The Spirit is the essence of the Body of Christ; hence, the Spirit is the reality of the oneness of the Body of Christ (see 1 John 5:6; John 16:13).
Through regeneration, the oneness of the Body (the oneness of the Spirit) was imparted into our spirit, for the Spirit of life came into us and brought the oneness into our spirit (John 3:5-6; Rom. 8:2).
The oneness of the Body is the Spirit Himself; if we have the Spirit, we have the oneness, and if we are in the Spirit and walk according to the Spirit, we are in the oneness. This divine oneness separates us as believers in Christ from the unbelievers, and this oneness unites us to be the Body of Christ.
As we meet in the local churches, we need to realise that the local ground of the church has two main components: the universal aspect is the unique oneness of the Body of Christ, and the local aspect is the ground of locality.
Both the universal Body of Christ and the local churches are uniquely one; in God’s eyes, there’s one unique Body in the universe and there’s one unique local church in each locality.
Such a unique oneness is the basic element of the church life. Our oneness practiced in the local churches must be in the move of the Spirit and under the government of the Spirit.
The Spirit is a basic element of our oneness. The church ground on which a local church is built must be constituted with and prevail in the oneness executed by the Spirit and the oneness safeguarded by the locality.
On the one hand we stand on the ground of locality, the place where the Lord has put us, being one with all the believers in Christ in that locality as the local church in that locality.
On the other hand, we keep the oneness of the universal Body of Christ, realising that there’s one Body in the universe, and we want to fellowship and blend with other local churches in the Body.
The ground of the church is both local and universal; locally, the ground of the church is the ground of locality, and universally, the ground of the church is the genuine oneness.
We cannot refuse to fellowship with other local churches but rather, we should seek to blend and fellowship with all the local churches in the Body of Christ.
The limitation of the ground of oneness is the protection of the Body to avoid any kind of division in the Body. We need to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace with the transformed human virtues (Eph. 4:1-3).
All the local churches must be kept in the unique oneness of the Body of Christ (Rev. 1:11). May we pray and be kept in the transformed human virtues of the Lord to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
Lord Jesus, we want to be those who keep the oneness of the Spirit, the unique oneness of the Body of Christ! Hallelujah, there is one unique Body of Christ in the universe, and there is only one unique local church in each locality! Amen, Lord, may we stand on the genuine ground of the oneness taking the locality as our safeguard and boundary and being in the oneness of the universal Body of Christ by having fellowship with other local churches in the Body! Oh Lord, may all the local churches be kept in the unique oneness of the Body of Christ!
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, 1984, vol. 4, “Vital Factors for the Recovery of the Church Life,” pp. 492-493, 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:
# We are one in the spirit, yet it goes deeper still, / For this oneness is spreading to our mind, emotion, will, / As we all stand together that His purpose He fulfill. / We are one in the spirit in each locality, / For the Lord’s own intention we would consecrated be, / That the oneness He’s given us the whole world may see. (Hymns #1243)
# There is one Body in this universe, / And we express it here on earth; / We stand as one in each locality / For all to see, for all to see. (Hymns #1107)
# This oneness is the Church’s ground, / The ground of common standing, / The only ground of unity / The Spirit is demanding. / The Church in actual practise thus / May keep her vital union, / And her expressions locally / Be built up in communion. (Hymns #831)
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