«　WEEK 2　DAY 3　»

　　Eph. 2:4-5 "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)."

　　1 Cor. 12:24 "But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked."

　　Among us we should have the blending of all the individual members of the Body of Christ, the blending of all the churches in certain districts, the blending of all the co-workers, and the blending of all the elders. Blending means that we should always stop to fellowship with others.…If we isolate and seclude ourselves, we will lose much spiritual profit. Learn to fellowship. Learn to be blended. From now on, the churches should come together frequently to be blended. We may not be used to it, but after we begin to practice blending a few times, we will acquire the taste for it. This is the most helpful thing in the keeping of the oneness of the universal Body of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm, “p. 160)

　　The oneness of the Body of Christ is unique because it is a oneness in the uniqueness of the Triune God. God the Father is within us (Eph. 4:6), Jesus the Son is within us (2 Cor. 13:5), and the Spirit is within us (Rom. 8:9-11). We need to realize that God desires to be the God in us. Because we love the heavens, we would like to be in the heavens with Him. God, however, does not love to dwell in the heavens. He loves to dwell in us, in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16). The Triune God today is within us.

　　We may ask, “How do we know that God is in us?” Let me illustrate in this way. Perhaps this morning I was unhappy with a certain person and wanted to correct him in an impatient way. But the very God within me said, “Don't do that.” Is this not evidence that God is in me? Where is Jesus today? Surely He has ascended to the heavens, because Romans 8:34 says that He is at the right hand of God. But at the same time, Romans 8:10 says that He is in us. How could Jesus, on the one hand, be in the heavens and, on the other hand, be within us? Consider the example of electricity. The same electricity in the power plant is also in our home. Our Jesus today is in the heavens, and at the same time, He is in us as the Spirit. The Spirit within us is the essence of the oneness of the Body of Christ.

　　Paul's teaching about the oneness of the Body of Christ is based upon the oneness of the Triune God. We all have to keep the oneness of the Spirit because there is one God and Father as the source with His nature and life; one Lord, the Son, as the very element of the divine life with the divine nature; and one Spirit as the essence of the element of the divine nature and divine life. Since we have the Triune God within us as the source, the element, and the essence, we are one. We need to realize that we are all one. We are not one according to our race or culture, but we are one in the divine essence of the divine element of the divine nature and life. We need to see that the divine nature, the divine life, the divine element, and the divine essence are our oneness.

　　Actually, our oneness is the subjective Triune God, not the objective Triune God. The subjective Triune God is our real oneness. In 1963 I wrote a hymn on the subjectiveness of Christ (Hymns, #537). Our Christ is not merely objective. If He were merely objective, He would have nothing to do with us. He is subjective to such an extent that He has made Himself one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17). He and we are one spirit. This oneness is altogether by the essential Spirit, who is the very essence of the Divine Trinity. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “Five Emphases in the Lord's Recovery, “pp. 4-6)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm, “ch. 6; CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “Five Emphases in the Lord's Recovery, “ch. 1