Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 3:17a; 4:16; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:2-3
Ⅰ
The main subject of the Bible is God's building; thus, the entire Bible is a book of building—Gen. 2:22; 28:10-22; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 3:17a; 4:16; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 3:12; 21:2-3.
Ⅱ
God's building is the desire of God's heart and the goal of God's salvation—Eph. 1:5, 9; Exo. 25:8; 40:2-3.
Ⅲ
The central and divine thought of the Scriptures is that God is seeking a divine building as the mingling of Himself with humanity; He is seeking a living composition of living persons redeemed by and mingled with Himself—John 14:20; 1 John 4:15:
A
The principle of God's building is that God builds Himself into man and builds man into Himself; God's mingling with man is God's building Himself into man, and man's mingling with God is man's being built into God—Eph. 3:17a.
B
God intends to have a building in which God is built into man and man is built into God so that God and man, man and God, can be a mutual abode to each other—John 15:4a; Rev. 21:2-3, 22.
Ⅳ
God's building is the corporate expression of the Triune God—1 Tim. 3:15-16; John 17:22; Eph. 3:19b, 21:
A
God's intention is to have a group of people built up as a spiritual building to express God and to represent God by dealing with His enemy and recovering the lost earth—Gen. 1:26; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
B
The building up of the saints into one corporate expression is the real testimony—Rev. 1:2, 12, 20.
Ⅴ
God's building is the enlargement of God—John 3:29a, 30a; Col. 2:19:
A
The proper building is the enlargement, the expansion, of the Triune God, enabling God to express Himself in a corporate way—Eph. 2:21-22; Col. 2:19.
B
The building of God is the Triune God as life being wrought into us so that we may become His one expression, the enlargement and expansion of God—Eph. 3:17a, 19b, 21.
Ⅵ
In the book of Ezekiel, the Lord instructed the prophet to "describe the house to the house of Israel" and to "let them measure the pattern"— 43:10:
A
God's intention was to check the living and conduct of His people by the house; in the book of Ezekiel, God measured them by the temple:
１
Because the house of God was to be their regulation, God charged Ezekiel to show them the form of the house.
２
The temple of God is a pattern, and if the people examine themselves in light of this pattern, they will know their shortcomings—v. 11; 41:15-20.
３
The living of the people must match the temple of God—1 Cor. 3:16-17.
B
According to the book of Ezekiel the requirements of the indwelling Christ are according to His house; everyone must be measured and checked according to the measurement of God's house—43:10:
１
Our behavior and conduct should be examined not only according to moral regulations and spiritual principles but also according to the church, the house of God—1 Tim. 3:15-16.
２
Our main concern should not be with behaving ourselves or with becoming spiritual but with fitting into God's house—1 Cor. 14:12.
３
If what we are and what we do cannot match God's building, it amounts to nothing in the sight of God—3:10-15.
４
The Body is the greatest test of our spirituality; if we cannot pass the test of the Body life, our spirituality is not genuine—12:23-27.
５
Spirituality is a Body matter; everything we have is in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body—Eph. 4:16.
Ⅶ
In Genesis 35 there is a crucial and radical turn from the individual experience of God to the corporate experience of God—the experience of God as El-bethel—the God of Bethel—vv. 1, 3, 6-7, 15; Eph. 3:17-21; 4:4-6:
A
Formerly, God was the God of individuals; at Bethel He is also the God of a corporate body, the God of the house of God.
B
Bethel signifies the corporate life, which is the Body of Christ; thus, in calling God the God of Bethel, Jacob advanced from the individual experience to the corporate experience—1 Cor. 12:12.
C
The altar at Shechem is an individual altar, but the altar at Bethel is a corporate altar—the altar for the house of God—Gen. 35:6-7.
Ⅷ
We need to be enlightened by and fully saturated with the thought that in this universe God is doing only one thing—building His eternal habitation—Gen. 28:16-19; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; Rev. 21:2-3.
Ⅸ
Only the church built up according to the Lord's desire can be the stepping stone into the age of the kingdom; thus, for the sake of His coming back, the Lord needs the church to be built up—Matt. 16:18-19, 27-28.