«　WEEK 5　DAY 6　»

　　Eph. 2:21-22 In whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

　　Without being built up into a spiritual house, the living stones can do nothing and thus are useless. The stones need to be built up into a house that will be useful to God. This usefulness of the stones is the priestly service, and this house is the priesthood. There is the need of a priestly body, a priestly group, to offer spiritual sacrifices. If we are not built up as such a priestly body, we are not qualified to offer anything to God. Therefore, if we are not built up, we are not qualified to serve. For the service, we need the Body. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 3871)

　　We all must realize that we cannot serve God by ourselves individually. We must serve in coordination with others. One stone can never be a house; it must be built up together with other stones to form a building. It is impossible for an individual Christian to constitute the priesthood. This means, strictly speaking, that if there is no building, there is no real service to God. It is only when we are built together that proper service can be rendered to God. Real service to God is a matter of the building.

　　Service always follows building. If there were no tabernacle, there could be no priests to serve. As Christians, we are individual persons, but we cannot be individualistic Christians. We cannot serve the Lord independent of others. Each individual priest must be coordinated with all the other priests. It is a dreadful thing to attempt to serve the Lord apart from the proper church life, apart from being built up with others. We must be built together as the priesthood to serve God in the building, the church, in a coordinated way.

　　First Peter 2:5 says that we, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house. However, if we all are clay, how can we be built up? In order to be built up as a spiritual house, we need to become stones, and in order to become living stones, we need to come to Christ as the living stone by drinking the guileless milk of the word.

　　If we long for the milk of the word, this milk will be like a current of living water flowing within us. As we stay in this flow, the current will carry away our natural substance and replace it with Christ as heavenly, divine minerals. Gradually, over a period of time, we will be transformed; that is, we will become precious stones. If we would be transformed, every day we need to come to the Lord as milk.

　　Feeding on Christ by taking in the nourishing milk in the word of God is not only for growing in life but also for building up. Growing is for building up. Although the nourishing milk of the word is for the soul through the mind, it eventually nourishes our spirit, making us not soulish but spiritual, suitable for being built up as a spiritual house of God.

　　Our mutual dependence on one another as the members of the Body comes through a transforming work. When we are transformed into the image of Christ and express Him fully, our individualism will disappear automatically. Only then will we be in the coordination and relatedness of the Body.

　　The spiritual house into which we are being built is God's building. Eventually, this building will consummate in the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem there will not be any clay, for all the clay will have been transformed into precious stones. This means that the New Jerusalem is built with precious stones. We are becoming the precious stones that will be built up into the New Jerusalem. The building work is now going on as we daily, even hourly, come to Christ as milk and drink Him. Then we will have the flow, the current, that transforms us from clay into stone for God's building. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3871-3872)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 383; Life-study of 1 Peter, msg. 18