Knowing how we Ought to Conduct Ourselves in the Church by seeing the One New Man

As believers in Christ, we need to conduct ourselves in the church in a way that brings forth the one new man as the goal of the Lord’s recovery; for this, we need to take care of God’s goal, His heart’s desire, and His central thought.

This week in our morning revival we are prayerfully considering the matter of, How One Ought to Conduct Himself in the Church in Order to Bring Forth the One New Man.

For us to conduct ourselves in the church in a way that is proper, God’s goal, His heart’s desire, and His central thought needs to be ours.

We need to pray daily over Eph. 3:16-21 and open to the Lord, realizing that this heart of the heart of the Bible is what is actually on God’s heart.

In this prayer we see Paul’s spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith, and such needs to be our spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith so that we would work out the New Jerusalem and bring forth the one new man. Is this, however, our spirit, our attitude, our inner mood, our prayer, and our faith?

The Father strengthens us through His spirit so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith; for such a divine operation to take place in our being, we need to cooperate with the Lord in prayer.

We need to pray both for ourselves and for the saints the prayer of Paul in Eph. 3:16-21, asking the Triune God to build Himself into our heart and make His home in our heart for His expression and fulness.

The desire of God’s heart and His goal is for Him to work Himself into us to make us His corporate expression. If there is a day when we miss the divine dispensing, it is a vain day.

We need to pray for ourselves and for the saints that the Lord would work Himself into us for the building up of the church, so that we all may be filled unto all the fulness of God. The highest definition of the church is that the church is the fulness of God.

When we are filled unto the fullness of God, the church comes into being in a practical way; in the fulness of God there is the expression of God. As we enjoy the riches of Christ by allowing Him to make His home in our heart, these riches are assimilated into us metabolically to constitute us as God’s fulness, His expression.

The fulness of God is the issue of the believers being constituted metabolically through their experience and enjoyment of the riches of Christ.

First, the fulness of God came with Christ – John 1:16, who is the embodiment of God’s fulness. With Him the fulness was an individual matter, but this has to be enlarged and expanded to be a corporate matter.

In Ephesians 3 we see the beautiful coordination of the three of the Divine Trinity to produce the fulness of God; the entire Triune God operates for Christ to make His home in our heart, for us to become the fulness of God, the full complete expression of the Triune God in a corporate way.

God the Father as the source strengthens us through God the Spirit as the means, so that Christ the Son as the aim would make His home in us by building Himself into us, so that we become the fulness of the Triune God.

Just as Abraham sent the servant with his riches to bring a wife for his son Isaac, so the Father sent the Spirit with all the riches of Christ to gain the church.

The Spirit strengthens us into our inner man with all the riches of Christ, so that Christ may make His home in our heart; the riches of Christ constituted into us beautify us to become the church, and the church returns to Christ with wealth for His glorification. Amen, to Him be glory in the church!

Such a vision should govern us and direct us. Paul was even obsessed with this matter, with the desire of God’s heart and His goal, with His central thought of working Himself into us.

This should also be our inner mood, so that the church would be the living, actual, active, and real church, the expression of the Triune God, the fulness of the Triune God.

May this prayer be also our prayer, and may this be our reality, so that we may know how to conduct ourselves in the church as the house of God and the one new man.

Father, strengthen us with power through Your Spirit into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart. Lord, work Yourself into us more today, and may Your riches be constituted into us to make us Your church, Your fulness, Your corporate expression. Amen, Lord, make our home Your heart by metabolically saturating us inwardly with all Your riches! May we be filled unto all the fulness of God, so that God may gain all the glory in Christ and in the church forever!

Knowing how to Conduct Ourselves in the Church, the House of God, for the New Man

In 1 Tim. 3:15 Paul tells Timothy, If I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.

What seems to be the situation here is that Paul may have been delayed in coming to where Timothy was, so he was encouraging him to know how to conduct himself in the church.

It refers to Paul’s commission to Timothy to arrange for matters related to the management and administration of the churches. He was instructing Timothy, his young fellow worker and disciple, how to arrange and administrate matters in the church, for he – Paul – was being delayed.

Actually, spiritually speaking, such a charge is not just for Timothy but for us all; while the Lord is delayed in His second return, we need to know how to conduct ourselves in the church as the house of the living God.

Before the Lord comes back – and He seems to be delayed at present – we must know how to administrate the church and how to conduct ourselves in the church. This is the only verse in the entire Bible which clearly speaks of administrating the church and conducting ourselves in the church.

As those who love the Lord, we also love His appearing and we want to hasten His return. Our living on earth with our work for the Lord is to bring the Lord back.

If we love His appearing to come back, we love His appearing in this age. This means we want Him to appear to us, to have His sweet and fresh presence, and we want to know how to conduct ourselves in the church as the house of God, so that we may bring forth the reality of the one new man in the local churches.

On the one hand we need to personally seek the Lord, have His fresh appearing, enjoy Him, and live a life that contributes to the hastening of His return.

On the other hand, we need to know how to conduct ourselves in the church – the house of God, the church of the living God, for the bringing forth of the one new man in reality. We need to both enjoy the Lord and pursue Him, and administrate the church according to the Lord in His economy.

Lord Jesus, we want to know how to conduct ourselves in the church of the living God, the house of God. We love You, Lord, and we love Your appearing. We love to seek You, pursue after You, and enjoy You. We want to be one with You in Your heart’s desire. Lord, may we learn from Your word how to conduct ourselves in the house of God until You return. May we be those who love Your appearing, seek Your presence, and know how to conduct ourselves in the church today!

Knowing how we Ought to Conduct Ourselves in the Church by seeing the One New Man

If we want to clearly know what the church is and what God desires to do in the church, so that we may know how we ought to conduct ourselves in the church, we need to understand three main portions in the New Testament: Eph. 2:13-16, Col. 3:10-11, and 1 Cor. 12:12-13.

In Eph. 2:13-16 we see the Gentiles and the Jews becoming one new man in Christ. While the Lord was dying on the cross, He was creating the one new man; while He was dying, He was producing His masterpiece, His greatest work.

We are His masterpiece, created in Him for good works. Christ reconciled us in one body to God; as He passed through the cross, He slayed the enmity by it. He slayed all the forms and ways of living and worship on the cross.

In Christ Jesus we the Gentiles who were once far off have become near in the blood of Christ. Through the redemption of Christ with the shedding of His blood, we have come near to the Jews.

Christ Himself is our peace, for He has made both one, and He has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity. Christ accomplished redemption on the cross so that we both – the Jews and the Gentiles – could become one.

He also broke down the middle wall of partition by abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, so making peace.

Between the Gentiles and the Jewish people (the physical people of God) there is the middle wall of partition, the law of the commandments in ordinances, which doesn’t allow the Jews to have any dealings with the Gentiles.

But praise the Lord, Christ crucified the law, and He abolished the enmity on the cross so that He might create the two in Himself into one new man! Amen! For us to know how to conduct ourselves in the church as the house of God, we need to see the one new man created by Christ in His body on the cross.

This new man doesn’t refer to an individual – there’s no such thing as an “individual new man”; rather, the one new man is a corporate man!

The Gentiles and the Jews – who were separated by the law – were created in Christ into the one new man, which is a corporate man! He crucified the law in commandments in ordinances on the cross, and He also crucified us, the persons, together with Him.

Now in the one new man there’s room only for Christ! So when we meet together, we need to repudiate and drop all ordinances, all forms or ways of living and worship.

We may have some forms or ways of living and worship; these create enmity and division, so we need to repudiate them and drop them, for Christ has already crucified them and terminated them on the cross, so that He may make peace in Himself. Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, may we know how we ought to conduct ourselves in the church as the house of God by realizing that both the Gentiles and the Jewish believers are one new man in Christ. Hallelujah, on the cross Christ crucified and terminated all ordinances and rules and regulations, so that the middle wall of partition may be torn down and we may be one new man! Praise the Lord, there’s a new man in this universe in Christ, and all believers are in it in peace, in Christ. Lord, may we practice the proper church life by repudiating all ordinances and living the one new man!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, How to Administrate the Church, ch. 1 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 8, How One Ought to Conduct Himself in the Church in Order to Bring Forth the One New Man.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # But if I delay, / I write that you may know / How one ought to conduct / Himself in the house of God, / Which is the church, / The church of the living God, / The pillar and base, / The pillar and base of the truth. (Scripture song)
  # Take time to behold Him, / The world rushes on; / Spend much time in secret / With Jesus alone. / By looking to Jesus / Like Him thou shalt be; / Thy friends, in thy conduct, / His likeness shall see. (Hymns #643)
  # On the cross ordinances slain, / That He might form just one of twain. / Reconciling us to God, / Thus on the serpent’s head He trod. / He breaks down the middle wall / As upon His name we call; / On the cross ordinances slain, / That He might form just one of twain. (Hymns #1230)