All the Sisters and Brothers Serving

Body Testimony God’s Last Recovery Work

We believe that what God wants to recover today is the hardest of all. That which we are most anxious about in our day is the implementation of Ephesians 4. Whenever we read John 3.16 there is no doubt in our hearts that it will be fulfilled. About this we have neither fear nor anxiety. Even if people should say there is no eternal life after one has believed and even if they should say there is no consequence after faith, I entertain no worry or fear about these matters. I have read the New Testament over two hundred times and therefore have no fear regarding John 3.16 and many other passages. I have read the Book of Revelation many hundreds of times, yet I am not even alarmed about its various passages. But I feel most apprehensive about Ephesians 4. I dread the possibility of its unfulfillment.

Ephesians 4 declares that the purpose of ministry is that the Church may arrive at the unity of the faith and full-grown maturity (vv.12-13). The Church is the body of Christ, and the Church is to build herself up in love. We are not concerned about the new heaven and the new earth, the lake of fire, and so forth. On the other hand, as I lie in bed, I often worry that Ephesians can never be fulfilled. I read and pray, and yet I have no confidence that the objective of Ephesians 4 can be fulfilled in today’s Church. Presently there is such confusion and such divisions among the children of God; when, then, can they ever be one? Today there are such complexities in all kinds of ministry; how, then, can this chapter be adequately recovered? Such has been the content of my dire musings of the recent past.

But, my brothers and sisters, we believe one day God’s recovery will arrive at this stated objective. Ephesians 4 will be manifested. Today God is doing the work of recovery everywhere. Of His longstanding work of recovery, the last element to be recovered will probably be the testimony of the body. Currently God is causing us to see the beginning and to return to the earlier positive state.

Both 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 show us that in the plan and arrangement of God there is not the substitution of one pastor or leader for the ministry of the body. Nor is there the dividing of God’s people so that there is a group of brothers and sisters serving while another group of brothers and sisters are being served. In the word of God we see the universal priesthood of all the saints. The entire Church is a priesthood (1 Peter 2.5). God’s thought for Israel was that she become a nation of priests (Ex. 19.6); though as it later turned out not many were priests. Today there is some progress in the churches everywhere. Brothers and sisters are free to pray, sing, preach, and take responsibility. But let us take note that what we have in our midst is still not the Church. For the Church is built on the universal priesthood of the entire body. The Church is not built on the service of a few brothers and sisters or even on the service of many brothers and sisters. Without a universal priesthood, we see the Roman Catholic or the Protestant Church. But with its universality, we see the Church. Let us acknowledge that serving God is not a matter of three or five, thirty or even fifty or a hundred people. Today all must serve.

In the days ahead it is not to be the ministry of the ministers but the ministry of the entire local church. In the past hundred years God raised up many spiritual giants who stood head and shoulders above the rest. From the 1820s to the present time an amazing number of such people were continually being raised up. Yet today we witness very few spiritual giants as though they no longer exist. For it is now to be the ministry of the Church and not the ministry of her limited number of ministers. It is not to be personal evangelism but church evangelism as the focus. It is the church preaching the gospel by the coordination of all her members.

Not only in the area of evangelism, but in that of instruction we also need to put the body to work. Formerly a larger number of converts used to cause a problem for us. When people were saved they needed to be instructed. Such instruction serves as spiritual education. Whether believers are educated or not makes a great difference. Now, though, we need many brothers and sisters to do the work of instructing new believers. Only thus shall the Church build herself up in love (Eph. 4.16).

So the issue now before us is whether we shall see the Church in reality. Three or five people serving do not constitute the local church. When all brothers and sisters in a locality are serving, there shall we see the church. It is quite possible for a group of brothers and sisters to give money to engage a pastor to serve for them. And thus from this you may conclude that the difference between that and body ministry is something quite small. But I say that the difference is vast. Body-working is far different from personal-working; and having all the brothers and sisters serving is also quite different from having just one minister serving. (Watchman Nee, CFP, Revive Thy Work).