THE CHURCH BUILT NOT BY OUTWARD ORGANIZATION
BUT THROUGH INWARD TRANSFORMATION
Concerning the building up of the church, we do not trust in outward organization; rather, we pay our full attention to the inward transformation, that is, to the inner constituting by the spiritual metabolism. In different kinds of meetings, we endeavor to minister Christ into the saints as their spiritual food and drink. The more we receive Christ in this way, the more we will experience the inner, spiritual metabolism. This metabolism is transformation, and transformation is the building.
Just as every member of our physical body is organic, so every member of the Body of Christ is organic. The church is a group of transformed people who have grown into one organism, the organic Body of Christ. The way to be built up as this organism is to grow, and the way to grow is to eat, drink, and breathe Christ. No matter what our race or nationality may be, we are all undergoing the same metabolic process that day by day produces transformation, which equals building. This is the spiritual growth and also the spiritual building.
Every member of our physical body is not only organic but also inseparably connected to our body, for all the members have grown together organically to be one body. The principle is the same with the Body of Christ. As one who has been in the church for over sixty years, I can testify that I cannot be separated from the church. Without the church I could not live, for apart from the church, life would have no meaning.
JEHOVAH’S PROPHECY TO DAVID
IN THE WAY OF TYPOLOGY
This organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ through the process of spiritual metabolism is actually what Jehovah prophesied to David in the way of typology in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a. It is only through this process that human beings can be transformed into sons of God. It is only through this process that something human—the human seed—can become divine—the sons of God. In typology God prophesied to David regarding this when He told David that his seed would be God’s son. This indicates that a human seed would become a divine son. This is what we are experiencing today. Therefore, we, the believers in Christ, are a very particular and peculiar people. We are a precious treasure in the eyes of God.
(Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel, Chapter 26, by Witness Lee)
