Praise the Lord for His divine revelation in the Bible! In the Bible, there are many things, but there is a CENTRAL LINE, a central revelation, something so basic and so important that all the believers agree with and believe! In our life and service we need to focus not on the “leaves” or “branches” of God’s economy but on the “trunk” of the central line of the divine revelation!
Matters like foot washing, head covering, the way to baptize people, the rapture, and even practices like calling on the name of the Lord, praying over the Word, having a proper meeting with the functioning of all the members, etc – these are NOT the central line of the revelation in the Bible!
We need to focus on the Word of God, the Triune God, the economy of God, the all-inclusive Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem! We are SAFE when we do this, and we definitely build up the Body of Christ and edify the believers when we speak these things and are constituted with these truths!
What is THE BODY OF CHRIST? The Triune God IS – He is everything, the reality of all the positive things in the universe. But He needs an organism, an “organic container” where His life can be expressed.
The one Body of Christ is the constitution of the divinity of the processed and consummated Triune God with the humanity of all His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people! We see this in Eph. 4:4-6 where the Triune God is mingled with man – this is the Body of Christ!
Here, God the Father is the source and the substance, God the Son is the element, the expression, God the Spirit is the essence, and the regenerated human beings are the outward frame / the Body. Hallelujah, the Triune God in His divinity is mingling Himself with us in our humanity, and the result is a divine-human organism – the divine and mystical Body of Christ!
This one Body of Christ is the accomplishment of God’s economy according to His good pleasure, His heart’s desire (Eph. 1:5). All the believers in Christ are the constituents of the Body of Christ, and the Body is expressed in many localities on the earth as the many local churches.
The churches are not the Body – they can have the Body of Christ as the reality, but the church is a congregation or gathering of the believers who are regenerated by God with His divine life and nature! We need to be in the meetings of the church – here we touch the reality of the Body.
But if we are in the meetings and are not in the Body of Christ, it becomes an empty form. The meetings of the church can be “dismissed”, but the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God is something organic, in life, and continues on even when there are no “meetings”!
It is so wonderful to be a believer in Christ and a member of the Body of Christ! Yes, Christ is the One who builds up the church, but it is through us, His many members, that He does it! The Body of Christ is built up by the many perfected members of the Body – the believers are being perfected by the gifted members, and these perfected saints function in their measure to build up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-12)!
It is not the “gifted saints” – the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers – that build up the Body directly; rather, the saints that are perfected through their functioning build up the Body! Also, the Body is built up by the growth in life of each member of the Body!
The more we eat the Lord and enjoy Him, the more we grow in life and we build up the Body! The Body builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:15-16) – it is joined together through every joint of the rich supply and knit together through the operation in the measure of each one part!
There is so much more to be said/shared about the Body of Christ – since it is what God is after today and what will bring in the New Jerusalem… [sharing inspired from, The Ten Great Critical “Ones” for the Building Up of the Body of Christ (bro. Witness Lee). Read this sharing also in Spanish via, La línea central de la Biblia: ¡El único Cuerpo de Cristo, el organismo del Dios Triuno!]
Lord, keep us on the central line of the Bible! Save us from over-emphasizing matters or doctrines that are not unto the building up of the Body! We want to emphasize the crucial matters in the Bible, the matters that You have ordained to be unto building up! Thank You for placing us in the Body! We are now members of Christ, divine-human beings part of the organism of God! Continue to mingle Yourself with us more and more each day! Lord, more mingling of God and man today!
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