We Are Members of the Body of Christ

Today’s Key Verses for Pray-reading

We are not complete units; we are members one of another

Romans 12:4-5

“We who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

The fullness of Christ is entered into together by all the saints, not assembled from separate experiences

Ephesians 4:13

“Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith” … “at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”

Ephesians 3:17-19

“That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith” … “filled unto all the fullness of God.”

More than sharing with one another: the living Christ acts, builds, and multiplies among us

Matthew 18:18-20

“Where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.”

Today’s Prayer Burden

We are members of the Body of Christ, not complete spiritual individuals! Therefore, in the reality of the Body, the companions’ experiencing together the Christ who surpasses each one’s individual measure is crucial to the building up of the Body, because the members experience Christ the Head together with the other members in the Body. May everyone practice the vital groups, and may more and more companions have fresh experiences of Christ together, so that the reality of the Body of Christ will continue to spread with impact!

Today’s Prayer

Lord, completely overturn our understanding of ourselves! We are not complete units; we are members of the Body who cannot live independently. The same is true of our experience of Christ. Lord Jesus, open our eyes and completely overturn our concept of being a Christian! We have thought that each of us is a complete spiritual unit, able to pray, read the Bible, enjoy You, experience You, preach the gospel, shepherd people, and even pursue maturity in life and become an overcomer all by ourselves. Although we acknowledge the truth concerning the Body, in our actual living we still center on ourselves, aim at our individual spiritual progress, and are satisfied with our own experience and measure. Companions, a hand cannot live apart from the body, nor can an eye function apart from the body; neither can we attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ apart from the Body.

Lord, save us from the spiritual individualism hidden deep within us! Deliver us not only from being alone by avoiding the meetings and coordination, but also from the independent concept that even when we meet, pray, preach the gospel, and shepherd people, our individual experience of the Lord is still everything!

Lord, cause us to acknowledge from the depths of our being: I am not complete; only the Body is complete! I cannot express Christ by myself, represent Christ by myself, or experience the fullness of Christ by myself!

Lord, cause us to stop being Christians who seek only individual maturity. May we truly know that we are members who need all the other members, depend on them, and are joined to them. We need to experience Christ together in the reality of the Body!

Companions, one person may go to Europe and return to tell of the Christ he experienced; another may go to Australia and share his experience; and another may beget, nourish, perfect, and build in mainland China, supplying everyone with the riches he has gained. All these things are precious, yet each one is still supplying others according to the measure he already has!

Lord, bring us higher! Cause us to go together, pray together, seek You together, face the circumstances together, shepherd people together, and accept the Head’s directing together. May we experience Your living presence among us together! Cause us not merely to share You as we experienced You in the past, but, in our common living, praying, and serving, to experience You as You are with us now in ways none of us has experienced before!

Lord, we want not only to experience You in me and in him, but to experience You together among us! We want not only for me to supply him and for him to supply me, but for us to receive Your supply together, be enlightened together, be adjusted together, be broken together, be transformed together, and be built together!

Lord, lead us into the reality of Ephesians 3, to apprehend together with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ with strength, and to know Your knowledge-surpassing love together! We do not want merely to add together the Christ each of us knows. In the reality of the Body, bring us together into Your boundless riches, which surpass all our individual knowledge, experience, and measure. Through our experience together, give us new seeing that we have never had individually, new divine dispensing, and a new constitution in life!

Lord, show us that the reality of the Body is not the simple sum of individual spiritual experiences. It is the living Christ continually spreading among all the members, filling us together unto all the fullness of God!

Lord Jesus, save us from formality, arrangements, and routine meetings. Save us also from a condition in which we share, encourage, and pray for one another, yet still act independently! Lord, make each vital group more than several spiritual people added together. Build together these members, who cannot be independent, in a real way in Your name and in one Spirit, joining and blending them together. May we gather two or three at a time not merely to meet, but to receive Your speaking and leading together in Your living presence. Instead of merely discussing how to preach the gospel or shepherd people, may we come together to the Father, pray in harmony, hear the Holy Spirit’s sending, and enter together into Your move!

Lord, do not let us stop at an arrangement in which “I preach the gospel, you shepherd people, and he perfects the saints.” Teach us to bear people together, pray together, contact people together, shepherd them together, and perfect them together. In our coordination, teach us to accept the cross’s dealing, lay down our opinions, and experience the mingled spirit, so that Christ may be lived out from among us!

Lord, in the reality of the Body, let us experience together the great wheel of God’s economy in its move! Let Your move be in our move, and give us together unprecedented seeing, dispensing, and constitution in God’s move. May we beget, nourish, perfect, and build together, so that new ones are saved, young believers are nourished, the saints are perfected, and every member functions according to his measure!

Lord, may it no longer be merely that I grow and he grows. Cause us to grow up together into Christ the Head and to hold Him as the Head, so that the whole Body grows gradually and builds itself up in love. Make the vital groups the practical living of the Body, the corporate experience of Christ, and the corporate reality of the dispensing, constitution, flowing, and multiplication of Your divine life!

May we no longer seek to become complete spiritual individuals. May we willingly be living members of the Body who need one another, are joined to one another, and experience Christ together. Gain not many separate spiritual people, but one built-up, mature bride, prepared to welcome You when You return!

Amen!

Ministry Fellowship

Believers are not merely individual persons. Although we may appear to be complete people, we are not individuals; we are members. Being a member is different from being an individual. An individual is a complete unit, but a member is not. We may think that, as Christians, there is no problem with doing things our own way. We can sing, pray, read the Bible, and preach the gospel independently of others; we may even help others and fight against the enemy independently. We think we can do everything because we consider ourselves complete Christians. Even if we have never declared this openly, we may have this thought deep within us. One day the Lord will open our eyes to realize that we are nothing other than members; we are not complete units.

As human beings, we are individuals and complete units; but as Christians, we are not complete units—we are members. Without the brothers and sisters, we cannot live, act, or do anything. We are simply members. Our hand is a member of our body. Without the body, how could our hand be living and active, doing so many things? We should not consider ourselves individual grains; we are one loaf, one Body. Many grains must be blended together and blended into one loaf. None of us Christians, the regenerated ones, is complete in ourselves. We can never be complete in ourselves, because each of us is a member of the Body of Christ. If we realize this, we will feel the need to be one with all the members of the Body. We will realize that without the Body of Christ we cannot live or act. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1963, vol. 1)

God does not intend for you to express Christ independently, nor does He intend for me to represent Christ independently. In His heart’s desire, God wants to gain one corporate, Body entity in the universe to represent and express Him.

Each of us is a complete unit, but after being saved we are no longer a complete unit. Why? As soon as a person is saved, he becomes a member, and a member of the Body cannot be independent. As individuals, you and I can each go our separate ways when we disagree. But a member cannot live independently. A hand cannot say to the body, “I do not like you. I do not want to serve you anymore. I am leaving you,” because the hand cannot live apart from the body. The eye cannot say, “I hate the body. I am leaving it to live by myself,” either. Once a person is saved, he becomes a member who must be in the Body. If you are a member but are not in the Body, you are detached. A detached member is finished: it loses life and function and becomes something fearful and repulsive. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1971, vol. 1)

If you are not in the Body and for the Body, then no matter how much you pursue, you will not be spiritual in a genuine way. Genuine spirituality is always in the Body and for the Body, because God does not want many separate vessels; He wants one corporate vessel.

In this last age the Lord is coming soon. What is He coming to do? He is coming to marry His bride. He is not marrying thousands upon thousands of brides; He has only one bride, the church. Romans 12:4-5 says that we who are many are one Body in Christ and individually members one of another. Ephesians 1:23 says that the church is His Body. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1968, vol. 2)

No one can experience the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ outside the Body. In fact, even in the Body a person cannot attain it by himself. The measure of the stature of Christ is a matter of the Body; therefore, only the Body can attain it.

The Bible mentions a full-grown man only once, in Ephesians 4:13. This does not refer to the saints individually but to the Body of Christ, the church, which will one day reach this condition. Ephesians 3:18 also says that we apprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ together with all the saints. These two passages show us that neither the measure of Christ’s stature nor His unsearchable fullness can be experienced by one person alone. We experience them together with the saints as we are joined in the Body. (The Experience of Life, message 19)