Treasuring the other Members of the Body and Denying the Self to be Built up Together

Individualism is hateful in the sight of God, for the self is the enemy of the Body, and when we live in the self, we declare independence from God and from the Body of Christ.

When we believed into the Lord Jesus, we were regenerated with the divine life, and we became organic members of the Body of Christ; as members, we cannot live in detachment from the Body.

We may think that we can enjoy the Lord at home, read the Bible, pray, and fellowship with the Lord, and this is enough, but the divine life within us is the life in the Body of Christ, and we need to live in the Body and function in the Body of Christ.

The supply of the Head is in the Body, and when we live in the Body of Christ as members of the Body, we spontaneously receive the supply, even the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Every believer is a member of the Body of Christ; just as every member of our human body is indispensable, so every member of the Body of Christ is indispensable.

We may think we are a very small member with an insignificant function in the Body, but we are indispensable to the Body, and our function is very much needed in the Body.

We need to have a vision of the Body, that is, really see that we are members in the Body of Christ; when we see the vision of the Body and realise we are members, we will reject the self, and we will refuse to live independently from the other members of the Body.

We will treasure the portion and the function of the other members in the Body, and we will not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.

If we don’t realise that we’re members in the Body but we focus on our apparent growth in life and increase in spiritual knowledge, we will become proud and despise the other believers.

But if the Lord has mercy on us and shows us a vision of the Body of Christ, we will realise that we are simply members of the Body – we’re nothing more and nothing less than members in the Body, and just as we need the supply and direction of the Head we also need the supply and function of the fellow members of the Body.

May the Lord save us from individualism and independence, and may we repudiate and deny the self, the independent soul, the enemy of the Body, so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ today!

Seeing that we are Members of the Body and Treasuring the other Members in Christ

If we as believers see our position in the Body, if we realise we are members of the Body of Christ, it will be as though we were saved a second time (John 1:50-51; 1 Tim. 3:15).

We are not individual Christians and we are not supposed to live an individualistic and independent life on our own; we are members of the Body, and we need the other members for our going on with the Lord in the church life.

As long as we stay in the circulation of the Body of Christ, we will receive the bountiful supply of the Spirit through the other members in the Body.

Seeing that we are members of the Body causes us to treasure the Body and honor the other members of the Body, for we need them and they need us.

In 1 Cor. 12:14-27 we see two erroneous concepts that we as members of the Body may have: despising oneself and coveting the function and work of others, and being proud of ourselves and despising others.

No member in our body is jealous of other members, desiring to be like them, and thinking that, if they are not like other members, they are not in the body. No member of our body is proud of its function and beauty, despising the other members.

In the Body of Christ we should not despise ourselves and covet the work and function of others, neither should we be proud of ourselves, thinking we’re all-inclusive and thus despising the others.

We all need to have the consciousness of the Body so that any individual thought and action may be automatically ruled out. All the members of the Body are indispensable, and we need their function and portion; we need to treasure the Body and honor the other members.

To honor the other members means that we add abundant honor to them, that is, add Christ to them. When we come to the meeting, we should not come as spectators and strangers but rather, we should seek to be filled in spirit to supply the Spirit to others.

If we all come to the meeting as spectators, as an audience, and we don’t follow others in praying and praising the Lord, we will be a burden to the meeting, a heavy weight.

The meeting with all the saints needs strength, riches, comeliness; as members of the Body, we need to exercise our spirit and flow out something of what we enjoyed of the Lord so that we may honor them, treasure them, and add Christ as beauty to them.

As long as we bear the responsibility to be a proper member in the Body fulfilling our function and flowing out our portion, we treasure the Body and regard others.

We all have a particular function in the Body, and others have a function and a portion that we do not have; therefore, we need to receive their function and treasure their portion in the Lord.

Seeing that we are members of the Body causes us to treasure the Body and honor the other members of the Body; we need to pray that the Lord would increase our seeing of the Body and deliver us from individualism and independence, so that we may function as members in the Body.

Lord Jesus, may we see our position in the Body and realise that we are members in the Body of Christ so that we may be revolutionised in our Christian life and church life. Amen, Lord Jesus, may we see our position in the Body of Christ so that we may experience being saved a second time – saved from individualism and independence into the Body of Christ! Thank You Lord for the function and the portion of all the members in the Body. We treasure the Body and we honor the members by seeking to minister Christ to them to add Christ to them as their beauty and comeliness.

Seeing that the Self is the Enemy of the Body and Denying the Self to be Built in the Body

By nature we are individualistic and independent, and as we grow up in the human society in our family and in the education system in the society we live in, we are taught to be independent.

The adamic life is independent, and our self is the enemy of the Body. Just as the Father is versus the world, the Spirit is versus the flesh, and Christ is versus Satan, so the Body is versus the self.

For us to be built up in the Body we need to see a vision of the self. The enemy of the Body of Christ is the self, the independent soul, the soul declaring independence from God and from the Body.

When we live in the self, we don’t have the Body, and when we live the Body life, the self is denied.

The self is the independent I, the independent me; when we are independent, we are in the self, and we do not live in reality in the Body.

We need to realise that, for us to live the Body life and to be built up in the Body of Christ, the greatest hindrance is the self; for the Body to be built up, the self must be repudiated, denied, and dealt with.

If we would be built up with the other members of the Body, the self must be condemned, denied, rejected, and denounced.

The Body life is a corporate life, a life of depending not only on God but also on the other members of the Body.

We should be dependent not only on God but also on the Body, on the brothers and the sisters. By being dependent on the Body we don’t mean merely come together to fellowship with them, but really depend on the Body.

The way Paul depended on the Body was by being helped by the brothers to escape the crowd who was seeking to kill him; the brothers lowered him down in a basket outside the city through a window so he could escape.

We all have situations, difficulties, and hardships, and we need to not only open to the Lord but also open to the fellow members of the Body.

When we are independent or isolated from the brothers and the sisters, we have the sense that we are also independent or isolated from God. Individualism is hateful in the sight of God, for just as we cannot be independent from the Head, so we cannot be independent from the Body.

On one hand we are individual members in the Body who need to pursue the Lord, love Him, read the Bible, and pray personally, but on the other, we are also members in the Body, and everything we do should be in the Body and for the Body.

We should not only care for our personal spiritual progress and growth in life; we should also care for the members of the Body and coordinate with the fellow members in the Body to be built up with them.

We shouldn’t think that we can accomplish everything by ourselves; rather, as we serve and live the Christian life, we need to realise we need the Body.

We often receive help from the most insignificant member in the Body, and if we deny the self when we meet with the saints, we will receive the supply in the Body through the members.

Sometimes we may think we cannot break through, but as we open to the Lord and put our self aside, we realise that what we don’t know, another member in the Body knows, and what we can’t do, another member can do.

Lord, grant us to see a vision of the self to realise that the self is the greatest enemy of the Body. Amen, Lord, we agree with You: the self must be denied, repudiated, and put aside, so that we may be built up with the fellow members of the Body! Amen! Lord, we depend on You and we also depend on the Body, on the fellow members of the Body; we need You, Lord, and we need the function and the portion of the brothers and the sister. May we live the Body life in the church life as members of the Body, being those who condemn, deny, reject, and renounce the self for the sake of the Body!

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 Watchman Nee, vol. 44, “The Mystery of Christ,” chs. 99-100, 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 4, The Supply of the Body, the Members of the Body, and the Limitation of the Body.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Built up in love together, / Not one would criticize; / To perfect one another, / We all would exercise. / Each one from self delivered, / The natural life forsakes; / In grace each trained in spirit / The Body-life partakes. (Hymns #867)
  # Freed from self and Adam’s nature, / Lord, I would be built by Thee / With the saints into Thy temple, / Where Thy glory we shall see. / From peculiar traits deliver, / From my independent ways, / That a dwelling place for Thee, Lord, / We will be thru all our days. (Hymns #840)
  # Prone to be misled, I know it, / By my lofty thoughts of Thee, / Easy ’tis for self to seek Thee, / Yet not touch reality, / Oh, how much I need to find Thee, / In Thy members here below. / God eternal dwells among us, / Manifest in flesh to know. (Hymns #1225)