FOUR LAYERS OF BUILDING
We need to have the proper understanding of the building up of the Body of Christ. First, according to Matthew 16:18, the Lord builds. Then He builds through the gifted persons, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11). He then builds the church through us, the perfected saints (v. 12). These are three layers of building. Eventually, the Body builds itself up (v. 16). This is the fourth layer. This is all by ministering Christ as the daily supply, as food, water, and breath.
We cannot build the church. We can only minister Christ to others. When they are nourished with Christ as their supply, a spiritual metabolism within them transforms them into His image and makes them just Him. Such a metabolic transformation is both the growth and the building up. This is the way the Lord Jesus builds us into the church.
DAVID’S HOUSE BECOMING HIS SEED
This is the proper teaching of the New Testament; this is the proper way to build the proper church; and this is the very thing that Jehovah prophesied to David in typology in 2 Samuel 7 when He said that He would build David a house. This house is the seed of David. Humanly speaking, we cannot explain how David’s house could become David’s seed. The only way David’s house could become his seed was by God in Christ becoming a man, the God-man. Christ is the house, the seed, the life, and the food. He is everything. Today we are cooperating with Him to build up God’s habitation and David’s habitation, a mutual abode.
(Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel, Chapter 26, by Witness Lee)
