Msg. 4 Keeping the Principle of the Body

GENERAL SUBJECT:
CRUCIAL PRINCIPLES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CHURCH

Message Four
Keeping the Principle of the Body

Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:3-6; Phil. 1:19; 1 Cor. 12:12-22; Col. 2:19; Rom. 15:6; Psa. 133

I. The elders and the leading ones should see the Body, know the Body, care for the Body, honor the Body, and keep every principle of the Body of Christ, for the full expression of Christ—1 Cor. 12:4-5, 12-13; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:18-19; 4:1-6:

A. The Body is one—Rom. 12:4-5:

1. The Body can exist and survive only in oneness—Eph. 4:3-4.

2. The oneness of the Body is the oneness of the Divine Trinity—John 17:21, 23.

3. The keeping of the oneness is the primary virtue of our Christian walk—Eph. 4:1-3.

B. The Body of Christ is Christ; thus, if we would be in the Body, we must be made Christ—1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11:

1. The church as the Body of Christ comes out of Christ and is one with Christ—Gen. 2:22-23; Eph. 5:23-32.

2. There is only one thing in a believer that forms a part of the Body of Christ—Christ—Col. 1:18; 2:19; 3:4, 10-11, 15.

3. The Body is the corporate Christ; Christ and the church are one corporate Christ, the Body-Christ—1 Cor. 12:12.

C. The function of the Body is to express Christ—Eph. 1:22-23:

1. The universally great Christ needs a Body to be His fullness, His expression—vv. 22-23.

2. The purpose of the believers being members one of another in the Body of Christ is that we would live Christ and express Him together—Rom. 12:5.

D. The work of the cross consummates with the Body and ushers us into the Body—Eph. 2:16:

1. The cross leads us to the Body and operates in the sphere of the Body.

2. The self is the enemy of the Body; only when our self has been utterly dealt with by the cross are we able to touch the life of the Body and come to know the Body—Matt. 16:24-25; Rom. 8:13; 12:4-5.

E. In the Body only Christ is the Head—Col. 1:18; 2:19; Eph. 1:22; 4:15:

1. For Christ to be the Head means that only He has the authority in the Body—Col. 1:18; 2:19.

2. Whatever we think, feel, and do must be under the authority of the Head.

F. The divine fellowship is the reality of living in the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 1:9; 12:13, 27:

1. The divine fellowship is the flow of the divine life among and through all the members of the Body; the Body in a practical way is in the fellowship—1 John 1:3; Rev. 22:1.

2. Fellowship tempers us, adjusts us, harmonizes us, and mingles us—1 Cor. 12:24.

II. We should always consider the Body, care for the Body, honor the Body, and do what is best for the Body—vv. 23-27:

A. Whenever we do something, we must have a proper consideration for the Body and care for how the Body would feel about what we are doing—v. 26.

B. We should be concerned not for our individual profit but for the Body and the building up of the Body—Eph. 4:16; 1 Cor. 12:23-27.