Living in the Fellowship of the Body
I. Introduction
The fellowship of the Body of Christ is the fellowship of the apostles—the divine fellowship between all the believers and the Triune God…. This fellowship is to keep the universal oneness of the Body of Christ (John 17:11b, 20-23; Eph. 4:3-6). Ephesians 4:3 charges us to endeavor to keep the oneness of the Spirit. We can keep this oneness because it is our possession already. We have this oneness; thus, we only need to keep it. Regardless of how weak we may be, we still have this oneness. This is because we still have the circulation of the “blood,” the circulation of the Spirit. If we did not have this circulation, we would be spiritually dead. As long as we have life, regardless of how weak we may be, we have this oneness. It is the possession of every believer. What we need, then, is just to keep this oneness. When we keep this oneness, we are in the unique fellowship of the Lord’s recovery. (A Brief Presentation of the Lord’s Recovery)
II. Six aspects of the fellowship: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, ch. 10)
A. Fellowship with God:
We must bring all the matters in the church before God and fellowship with God not according to our own wisdom and capacities.
B. Fellowship with the elders:
In order for the church to be strong and healthy, we need to come together and spend time having the fellowship every day.
C. Fellowship with the deacons:
We need to maintain continual fellowship with those who are the responsible ones for the districts, the group-meeting responsible ones, the business-office serving ones, and those who are responsible for visitation, for cleaning, for chair and hall arranging, for ushering, and for clerical work, in order to perfect people and take them onward.
D. Fellowship with the saints:
We should fellowship with the saints, including the solid ones and the backslidden ones, the weak ones and the strong ones, the ones who are not gifted and the gifted ones, for touching their feelings of the saints and knowing their needs.
E. Fellowship with all the churches:
The church is the Body of Christ. Do not lose any blessing from any part of the Body. We must be willing to live in the Body and receive the supply from it. We should have this Body-consciousness. We must learn to fellowship with the churches in all the localities, beyond our church and stay away from our nation and region. We must supply others, and we must receive the supply from others.
F. Fellowship with the co-workers:
We are not an individual member of the Body. There should be much fellowship in the Body. Witness Lee said, “This mutual fellowship must be a one-hundred percent, undiscounted, without any reservation, and complete fellowship.”
III. Eight barriers of the fellowship: (2014 ITEROS, msg. 4)
A. Not willing to open:
Through the fellowship we receive the supply and also supply others for the building up the Body of Christ. We should never be separated from the fellowship. The fellowship is for the Body. We have to be open so that we may receive the supply from the members of the Body of Christ.
B. Desiring to control:
If we have a thought to control others, to control the situation, and to control the church, we would not be able to practice this fellowship.
C. Insisting on our own view:
In the fellowship, no one should insist. If we fellowship in the spirit of insisting, it will spoil the fellowship.
D. Expressing our own opinions:
Fellowship is not a platform for us to express opinions. Otherwise, it will bring in the confusion and opposing. We have to let aside our opinions. However, we should share whatever the Lord put in our heart in a proper way.
E. Being superior:
Do not think that we are more superior to others. Superiority also would damage and frustrate the fellowship. We need to fellowship with brothers in a same level.
F. Playing politics:
Those who plays politics in the fellowship for own private strategy and interest would spoil the fellowship.
G. Being clever:
We need to be wise, but not clever. To be clever is our natural mind. In our fellowship, we need to be simple.
H. Evading problems:
We do not be afraid of and evade problems when we have problems in the church life. Instead, we should face the problems by coming to the Lord and one another. If we evade problems, we leave the fellowship.
