«　WEEK 4　DAY 2　»

　　1 Cor. 12:24 …God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked.

　　Eph. 1:22-23 And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

　　Concerning the spiritual and divine things for the church, we must keep in mind four crucial points. First, we must go through the cross. Our native flavor should be crossed out by Christ…. In the church there is room for no natural person, but Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11). On the cross both the Jews and the Gentiles were crossed out. Second, everything should be by the Spirit. Third, this is to dispense Christ to others. Fourth, everything is for the building up of the church. In other words, whatever we do should be through the cross and by the Spirit to dispense Christ to others for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

　　But today people would not take the cross or live by the Spirit. Instead, they would live by their flesh. They would not care for dispensing Christ. Instead, they care for their kind of social life. After our meetings we like to congregate with the ones who match our natural background….The Japanese flavor, the Chinese flavor, the Taiwanese flavor, and the American flavor all have to be crossed out. We should not do things according to our feeling but according to the Spirit. We should not enjoy Christ merely for ourselves but to dispense Christ to others. The flavor of our natural man with our culture is the flavor of men, the flavor of the flesh. That has to be crossed out by the Spirit in order that we may dispense Christ for the church. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” pp. 157-158)

　　God has blended the Body together (1 Cor. 12:24). The word blended also means “adjusted,” “harmonized,” “tempered,” and “mingled.”…The Greek word for blended implies the losing of distinctions. One brother’s distinction may be quickness, and another’s may be slowness. But in the Body life the slowness disappears, and the quickness is taken away. All such distinctions are gone. God has blended all the believers of all different races and colors….Only God can do this. A husband and a wife can have the harmony in their marriage life only by losing their distinctions.

　　In order to be harmonized, blended, adjusted, mingled, and tempered in the Body life, we have to go through the cross and be by the Spirit, dispensing Christ to others for the sake of the Body of Christ. The co-workers and elders must learn to be crossed out. Whatever we do should be by the Spirit to dispense Christ. Also, what we do should not be for our interest and according to our taste but for the church. As long as we practice these points, we will have the blending.

　　All these points mean that we should fellowship. When a co-worker does anything, he should fellowship with the other co-workers. An elder should fellowship with the other elders. Fellowship tempers us, fellowship adjusts us, fellowship harmonizes us, and fellowship mingles us. We should forget about whether we are slow or quick and just fellowship with others. We should not do anything without fellowshipping with the other saints who are coordinating with us. Fellowship requires us to stop when we are about to do something. In our coordination in the church life and in the Lord’s work, we all have to learn not to do anything without fellowship.

　　The blending is for the building up of the universal Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) to consummate the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2) as the final goal of God’s economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3:8-10; 1:9-10). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” pp. 159-160, 162)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” ch. 6; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” chs. 1, 2, 5