１
In His recovery the Lord desires to recover the perfecting of all the members of the Body of Christ—vv. 11-16.
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Paul's thought concerning the perfecting of the saints is that God's intention is to have every believer able to do the things that the gifted persons do—v. 11.
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The Lord wants to recover the perfecting of the saints so that each one part of the Body of Christ may do the work of the ministry by operating in its measure for the building up of the organic Body of Christ—vv. 12, 16.
Ⅳ
When the one new man was created in our spirit through regeneration, it was complete as far as organs are concerned; however, because the new man has not yet been completed in function, there is the need for growth and renewing—Col. 2:19; 3:10; Eph. 4:11-16, 23-24:
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The growth of the new man results in the function of the new man.
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As long as the new man is short of growth and renewing, it will be lacking in function.
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The one new man needs to grow and develop; as a result, the one new man will be perfect in function.
Ⅴ
The New Jerusalem will be the final consummation of the universal one new man—Rev. 21:2, 10:
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God's goal is to have the universal one new man, which ultimately will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
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When we are in the New Jerusalem, we will enjoy the life of the universal one new man.
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Today we may have a foretaste of the consummation of the one new man by setting our mind on the things above and by giving a free way for the new man in our spirit to spread into our whole being—Col. 3:1-2; Eph. 4:23-24.
Morning Nourishment
Eph. 4:11-12 And He Himself gave some as apostles…, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.16 …All the Body…causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
The degree to which we can minister Christ is in direct proportion to our experience of Christ. The more we experience Him, the more we can minister Him to others. As we minister Christ, others will be nourished.
The very Christ who was crucified and resurrected and who has ascended to the third heaven is now working within us to constitute us into functioning members of the Body. He carries out this work by making His home in our hearts and by saturating us with Himself. As He saturates us, we are sanctified, purified, nourished, cherished, and transformed. The result is that we become perfected functionally. In this way the Body grows and builds itself up. The Body is not built directly by the Head or by the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11; it is built up directly by those members who have been perfected by the gifted ones. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 775-776)
Today's Reading
All those who desire to migrate for the spread of the church life must realize that migration is not a movement. It is the move of the one new man, that is, the move of the all-inclusive Christ in His Body. It is the move of Christ, the heavenly Solomon, in His palanquin. If the Lord is to' move among us in such a way, we should not function in an individualistic way. Rather, we should function in the Body in the way of coordination. In order to function in this way, we need to experience Christ and to grow in Him. The measure of our growth will be the sphere, the realm, of our function. If we fail to function, there will be a gap in the Body. But if we function excessively, we shall cause a cancer in the Body.We praise the Lord for opening His Word to us. We thank Him for showing us that the vital need is for Christ to be wrought into our being. The more we are saturated with Christ, the more we become in reality parts of the Body with a particular measure of function. Then wherever we may be we shall function properly, and the Body will grow. This will cause Satan, the enemy of God, to tremble. It will also hasten the coming back of the Lord Jesus. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 776)
The thought of Paul's word concerning the perfecting of the saints is that God's intention is to have every believer able to do the things that the gifted persons do. Every believer should be able to do the work of the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. The thought in today's Christianity, however, is different from this. A certain group of people is a clerical class. They are the ones who do the holy service, whereas the rest of the believers are the laity. This kind of philosophy and practice annuls the spiritual, organic function of all the believers.
There is a capacity in the divine life that the believers possess and enjoy, and this capacity needs to be developed unto their ability. In the human life there is the capacity of hearing, seeing, smelling, speaking, and walking. All these capacities need a certain amount of development, and for the development to take place there is the need of practice…. For the function to be developed, there is the need for the growth of life and practice. An infant learns to speak by practicing and by the growth of life.
The traditional practice of Christianity annuls the capacity in the divine life that the believers possess and enjoy… [and] robs the believers of the opportunities to function. If a person gets saved and sits in a pew for a year, he will not learn how to function….The truth concerning the perfecting of the saints is the opposite of the practice of traditional Christianity. The apostle Paul's way was to perfect the saints in everything. Ephesians 4:11-12 shows us that for the building up of the Body of Christ, the saints need to be perfected by the gifted persons. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 4, “The Advance of the Lord's Recovery Today,” pp. 62-63)
Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 93