Reading: Psalm 11:3;
Ephesians 4:7,8,11-16.
We shall now proceed with a
further aspect of the important matter of foundations. In that
eleventh Psalm from which we started our meditation there is one
feature which is common to the whole subject of foundations and
building in the Word of God. When we considered that Psalm more
fully you will remember that David was, at the time of writing
the psalm, in the midst of great active treachery, opposition and
antagonism. The wicked were drawing their bow in the dark to
shoot under cover at the righteous, and in the midst of that
hostility the Psalmist refers to the foundations, and then he
also says: “Jehovah is in his holy temple”; so that you
get two things which comprise one whole, that is, building and
battle. The temple, the foundations, the Adversary and the
atmosphere of conflict. You will find that throughout the Word of
God these two things are always found together.
If it is Nehemiah building the
wall of Jerusalem, the sword and the trowel are found
accompanying one another; the building and the battle are
together. If it is the building of the temple of Solomon, David
has reduced all the surrounding enemies to subjection to make
that building possible. The building was not possible until the
battle had accomplished its work. When you come into the
spiritual interpretation of the Old Testament illustrations in
the New Testament, you find those things always together.
Wherever you have to do with the building you will always have to
do with the battle.
When we look into the first
letter to the Corinthians there surely is there a very
conspicuous example of this truth. The building in that letter is
alongside of tremendous battling. The battling is associated with
the building. Now, when you come to the letter to the Ephesians
you see the same thing again. Here is the House, the
“habitation of God through the Spirit”, here is the
church which is Christ’s body, and here you have much said
about the building up of the body; but you will find in this
letter that all that is in the presence of the enemy,
principalities and powers, the world rulers of this darkness. The
building goes on in battle, in conflict, and this fourth chapter
contains in itself those elements. If you were reading those
verses just now thoughtfully, you were discerning that the
apostle in what he was saying about the building up of the body
and all connected therewith was in the presence of antagonisms,
perils, dangers, spiritual opposition. What is this about sleight
and cunning craftiness, the wiles of error, the winds of
doctrine, the waves of falsehood? These are the elements of the
battle, the conflict, these are the opposing forces to the
church, the body of Christ. These are the things with which the
development, perfecting, consummating of God’s purpose in
the church are associated, and with which that progress has to
contend. And the apostle is saying in more words that the
important thing here is that the saints should be well grounded;
that the saints should come to a place of being established, and
established in fulness where every one of them is a responsible,
trustworthy member of the body of Christ. That is the force of
this whole paragraph.
Why the
Foundations Should be Soundly Laid
Now then, let us immediately
bring before our view the end, the object, and then we shall see
what goes toward the realisation of that object. What is the
object in view here? It is that every one member of Christ’s
body shall be a functioning, responsible, effective member, in a
position where they are able, with the ability of Christ to stand
against the wiles, the craftiness and falsehood of the Evil One,
the winds and the waves of error. But, beloved, surely you and I
are alive in these days to the necessity for every member of
Christ to be in that position. The conditions with which the
apostle Paul was contending at that time are conditions which
abound today just as much as then. Of course, it came in his day
through those who were Gnostics, people who claimed to have
wisdom, to be in possession of knowledge. Of the Gnostics, who
claimed to have religious knowledge and wisdom, Paul said their
gnosticism operated in these ways: craftiness, wiles, winds and
waves of error, false doctrine, false teaching. Whoever may be
the counterpart of the Gnostics today, gnosticism is widespread.
That is, there are waves and winds of error sweeping over the
earth, and so subtle that no natural mind can see through, no
ordinary judgment or discernment can detect the flaw, the error.
It is so wrapped up in biblical forms and scriptural phraseology
that the infants, the children to whom Paul speaks, will be
easily carried away, those who are spiritually children in a
wrong sense. It is not wrong to be a child of God, to be a
new-born babe, but it is wrong to be a child when you ought to be
a man, and that is what the apostle is speaking about. In the
presence of these things, and in the expectation warranted by the
Word of God that these things will increase, develop and become
more and more subtle, with the very miracles which will accompany
them, the necessity the apostle saw then, and which is made clear
to us through the Word of the Spirit by him is that every member
of Christ should be in the position to stand against those wiles,
should have their foundations so soundly laid, and should
themselves be so rooted and grounded that they will not be
carried away. The ministry that is needed today is ministry in
that direction. Give heed to this word, you will need it. If you
have not already done so, it will not be long before all of you
are confronted with some of these wiles of error, this craftiness
of false teaching, these waves and these winds of doctrine, and
unless you are grounded and established and know, you will be
carried away, you will lose your footing and will be swept off.
Now with the consciousness of
so solemn and serious a situation and need, this word is, I
believe, given to us by the Lord, and we must lay it to heart.
Every member of Christ, without an exception, must be a
responsible, intelligent, functioning member, and inasmuch as
that is not true of any one member, that member is in a perilous
position. But you are not surprised that the coming along of
these winds and these waves carry away multitudes of Christians.
Sooner or later they are landed high and dry and do not know
where they are because, in spite of having the New Testament, and
in spite of having the letter to the Ephesians, which itself is
enough for this purpose, so many of the Lord’s children are
not taught, instructed, and established in Christ, to be able to
discern, to understand, judge, and to remain firm in a perilous
day.
The Saints
as Builders
Now then, let us look at this
passage of the Word a little more closely. “He... gave gifts
unto men”, that is, “He gave some apostles.” He
gave apostles unto men. “...some prophets.” He gave
prophets unto men. “...some evangelists, and some pastors
and teachers.” These are the gifts which He gave to men.
“Men” here, of course, represents the whole company of
the elect. The evangelists to bring in the elect, the others
mainly to do with those who have been brought in. So that the
church which is the body of Christ is in view, and it is in
relation to the church as the body of Christ that these gifts
were given by the Lord in His ascension. These are the
gifts—but note, they were given for an express purpose and
with an express object. They were given for “the perfecting
of the saints unto the work of ministering, unto the building up
of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the
faith...” Do not break in with punctuation there. There
ought not to be a break. “For the perfecting of the saints,
unto the work of ministering”, as though the work of the
ministry there related to the apostles, prophets, pastors,
teachers, evangelists. It does not relate to that. The work of
the ministry there relates to the saints as they are perfected
through the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers.
The work of these gifts is to result in the saints being in a
position to minister, and it is only as the saints are in a
position to minister (that is what I mean by functioning) that
the saints are safe. It is not alone the apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors and teachers who are in the ministry, it is
all the saints who are called to be in the ministry. All the
saints, every member of Christ’s body is a minister
according to the divine intention. And only as they are in that
position to minister, in a state which qualifies them to
minister, is the church safe. The ministries may be as varied, as
numerous as there are members of the body of Christ. “For
the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering.”
Let us be quite clear in our
terms. That word “perfecting”. You may say: Well, of
course, if we were perfect we could minister. Surely that is a
long way ahead, that is something toward which we have got to
move, to which we have to come. But that word perfecting there
does not mean that. It is used as a medical term very often, and
a more literal translation would be “mending”, for the
mending of the saints. If you have an accident and get broken and
are taken to a hospital you get mended, and that is exactly what
this word means. The mending of the saints, making them whole.
Sometimes the word is used for the furnishing of a house. You
would not like to live in an unfurnished house. We must furnish
it before we can live in it. The word is used in Matthew
concerning the nets, when the Lord saw certain men mending their
nets. This is the same word. There were holes in their nets, and
those nets had to be made good so that they were complete,
suitable for their work. They might not have been in that higher
sense the most perfect nets you could find, but they were whole
nets, complete nets. And what the apostle is pointing out here is
just that. Not a state of divine perfection in us but a state of
completeness in Christ. “For the mending of the saints unto
the work of the ministry.” The mending of the nets was unto
some hope of catching fish. The trouble with so many, and the
reason why so many are carried away with these winds and waves of
doctrine, is that there are gaps, gaping gaps in their
apprehension of Christ, in their knowledge of Christ, in their
understanding of the truth; gaps, breaks, openings through which
the error comes, and they want mending. And these gifts are given
just to mend the saints that the saints may fulfil the ministry.
It is so different from the traditional order to which we are
accustomed, that the ministry is something we sit under so many
times a week, from a pulpit or platform. And having sat under it,
and either enjoyed it or endured it, that is the end so far as we
are concerned; we have done what is incumbent upon us, we have
done our duty, we have “sat under the ministry”. That
is not the ministry here at all. The ministry is the result in
your practical functioning of what the pastor, the teacher, or
the evangelist does, what you do as the outcome. That is the
ministry: the resultant exercise in the heart of every member of
Christ. If we really did get that we should be a long way on, we
would be much further on than we are. Just think where we would
be if that had always been the case. The evangelists, prophets,
pastors, teachers, would have fulfilled their function in our
midst and we would have gone away and got before the Lord on that
and said: Now Lord, that has to be wrought in me, I am going to
make that mine, and work in the strength of it.
Supposing we had done that with
every message we had received, don’t you think the church
would have been in a solid place of establishment? A very
different history would have been written in the presence of the
wiles of the devil and the cunning craftiness, if that had been
the case. We will not look abroad too much, we will look within
our own hearts, and say, Now this is for me. We have to look into
our hearts and say: Now what is the practical result and abiding
value in my life as a functioning member of Christ of that
ministry to which I have listened, of that work of the gifts of
the Lord, the apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, evangelist.
Where am I as the result? Have I heard it, regarded it as the
ministry, left it there and let them get on with their ministry?
Or am I as a result, a minister of Christ? That is a distinct
question is it not? Oh, for the strength in the people of God, in
the church His body, which would be the sure result of our so
apprehending the Word of the Lord. We are badly in need of that
strength today, that assurance, that establishment.
Individual
Responsibility for Building
Now notice: “For the
perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering, unto the
building up of the body of Christ.” Then the work of
ministering, which is the work of each member of Christ is to
result in the building up of the body of Christ. Now let us test
it again backwards. How much are you and I contributing toward
the building up of the body of Christ? How much are we
functioning with that result, the building up of the body? That
is our business, every one of us. That is our ministry. Are you
prepared to accept that responsibility, to take, by the grace of
God, that work on your heart, not to be an adherent, a follower,
a passenger, an attendant, but a live, functioning member whose
very presence in the body of Christ means its building up?
Later you notice the apostle
puts his finger upon this very matter in a specific way. He says:
“...through that which every joint supplieth, according to
the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the
increase of the body unto the building up of itself in
love.” Each several part working in measure, resulting in
the building up of the body in love. He has the physical body at
the back of his mind. How much Paul knew about the physical body
as we understand it today I do not know, but the Holy Spirit knew
all about it, and when you remember those minute organisms of the
human body, the cells of the human body, and how the entire
growth of the physical body hangs upon the functioning of each
minute cell, and the body is only built up, increased as each
minute cell functions and does its work, you have a wonderful
illustration and perfectly true one of how the spiritual body of
Christ is built up and increased. You say: “I am only a
minute part, I do not count.” Well, try and count the cells
in your body, how many cells can you pack into a square inch of
your physical body?—almost countless. You may be in your own
mind like one of those, lost in the crowd, but there is a mighty
responsibility for the whole body resting upon you. The point is
not how big you are but whether you are contributing your
measure. Each several part working in measure. The sense is that
every part must do its measure, come up to its measure, toward
the building of the body of Christ. That is our function and our
ministry.
Oh, beloved, we shall have to
regard this as an ordination service, and go out regarding
ourselves as in the ministry and responsible for the whole body
of Christ in our measure. We cannot understand that; we never
shall understand it; we are in the presence of a mystery. Who can
understand the physical body to the full? There are mysteries
about it which have never yet been fathomed, and I doubt whether
they ever will be fathomed. We have often illustrated that
mystery of the human body in this way, that the oration of a
Demosthenes should be the result of a Demosthenes having had his
breakfast. You have read some of those orations which swayed
crowds and made men do what they had no intention of doing, the
power of reasoning and of human language. If the orator had
stopped eating he would have stopped giving orations and
therefore his orations were in some way the outcome of his having
his food, but how you translate bacon and eggs into orations I
don’t know. But it is true! You see what I mean. And how you
and I, being the atoms that we are, the cells which may be so
small as humanly to be beyond recognition, can affect the whole
body of Christ for good or ill I do not know, but there it is. It
is a truth definitely and positively in the Word of God:
“And whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer
with it; or one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with
it.” And if you and I are not contributing in our measure
then the whole body is suffering, is weak.
Here, then, is the call, the
challenge, that every member of Christ should be a responsible
functioning and intelligent member, fulfilling the ministry. Yes,
but there is something more, “...till we all attain unto the
unity of the faith...” Well, now we have got our finger upon
something which is very vital. We are very much concerned about
unity, oneness. We pray for it, we agonise for the lack of it in
manifestation, we long for it. How will it come about? What is
the principle of coming to the unity of the faith? Every member
fulfilling his ministry, a functioning member. What is the cause
of discord, division, schism? Well, look again at our first
Corinthian letter: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto
you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in
Christ... for ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you
jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and do ye not walk after
the manner of men? For when one saith, I am of Paul, and another,
I am of Apollos, are ye not men?” There are divisions among
you resultant from your being carnal, your carnality means
spiritual immaturity, no unity of the faith. When everyone comes
into full functioning that is a mighty factor in bringing about
the unity of the faith. The enemy is out to split the body of
Christ on earth into as many fragments as he can. How does he do
it? Very largely by the ignorance of the Lord’s people. Very
largely by their delay in spiritual development, very largely
because they are in a passive state instead of an active state
spiritually. You will find these things lie behind most of the
activities of the enemy along the line of schism. The unity of
the faith, says the Word quite clearly, is through every member
functioning, and making their contribution, livingly, to the
whole. There was a day when certain men went to Moses and
complained that there were certain people in the camp who were
prophesying, and they thought it was a movement toward
sectarianism or division or something like that, they thought
this was a break in fellowship, but Moses said: “Would to
God all the Lord’s people were prophets.” The positive
line is the better one. When some are fulfilling the ministry and
some are not it is quite impossible to come to the unity of the
faith. We have all to be in it.
Then again: “...and of the
knowledge of the Son of God.” The Greek there is literally:
to the full knowledge of the Son of God: “...unto a full
grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ.” All that is bound up with his active life of all
the members of Christ. We will not stay with it in its fragments
but read it again more carefully.
The apostle has in view these
things which are circling round: “...that we be no longer
children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles
of error.” If only we could stop with the apostle’s
language it would throw so much light on this matter. “...by
the sleight of men.” Literally, in the deceit, but the Greek
words refer to the throw of the dice and the element of cheating,
it is something like the loaded dice by which there is a fraud, a
cheating, and that is what is here in the language. The wiles of
error. The throw of the dice which is always so arranged that it
comes out to the good of the one who is using it. This error that
is going round is to cheat the saints of their advantage in
Christ, to cheat them of their place. Is not that the effect of
error in the long run?
Yes, believers who are carried
away like this wake up to the fact that they have been cheated of
the reality by a fraud, they have lost the food by something that
pretended to be to their advantage. “...in craftiness”,
that is literally, in their clever trickiness. The words are very
rich. He uses the word here which is “in every deed, or
every work, in craftiness”. Every deed of theirs has some
subtle craftiness in it, some trickiness in it. And oh, the
trickiness of the devil in his false doctrine. The thing seems so
right, so thoroughly good, according to the Word, but there is
something hidden in it, a trick, a snare. The Lord’s people
need to be alive to that and it is only as we are out on full
stretch, active, positive in our spiritual life that we come to
the place where our senses are so exercised that we can discern
the good from the evil, and discern the trick. What a great thing
it would be if every real child of God who ought, by reason of
time to be in such a position, was really able to see in these
wiles, these waves and these winds of falsehood, an error, just
where the flaw is, just where the trick is, and be in a position
to warn those who are children in a right sense, who have not yet
come to the time when they ought to be mature; to be a safeguard
to them. These foundations are very important. This is all
foundation work, and we must, without exhausting all that is in
these verses, just leave the main emphasis and indication of the
apostle to take hold of us, grip us. When everything is said that
could be said, however much we might add to it, it is just this,
that you and I, every one of us without an exception should be so
reaching out and moving on with the Lord in an active and
positive way, as over against a passive way, so that our
spiritual life and our spiritual senses are being developed,
brought to maturity, that no matter what the wiles are, what the
winds are, what the waves are which sweep like a hurricane or
tornado, or even like gentle summer breezes over the earth, we
are never moved, never carried away, we are alive to the subtle
secret snare, and we stand. We are in the battle. The building is
in the battle. There is no realm in which the battle is more
real, more furious, more relentless than in the realm of the
perfecting of the saints, the building of the body of Christ.
That is why this one letter outstandingly brings those two things
together. On the one hand there is the church, His body, to be
built and perfected, on the other hand the raging and the subtle
working of the enemy. The enemy is out to deceive the saints, to
destroy the church, and the only way in which he can be defeated
is by you and I being stretched out for the fulness of Christ, to
go on in an active way, not being satisfied that we are saved,
but wholly given to all that fulness which is possible in Christ.
With all the saints in fellowship till we come to the measure of
the stature of the fulness of Christ.
The Lord impress His Word upon
our hearts.