LESSON THREE – THE CHURCH LIFE IS THE REAL COMMUNAL LIFE

John 13:34-35 — A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

THE GOD-CREATED DESIRE TO HAVE A COMMUNAL LIFE

[People desire] to have some kind of communal life. This desire comes out of our natural makeup. In our natural makeup, in our natural life, there is a kind of desire to have a community where we may live together with others.

In Genesis 1:26 God first said, “Let Us make man,” and then He said, “Let them have dominion.” Man is singular, but them, the pronoun for man, is plural. Did God make one man or many men?…Why did God use the singular noun man and then the plural pronoun them? Did He make one man or many men? The answer is: God made many men in one man. Or you can say that God made one man with many men. This simply means that in God’s intention, man is corporate. God did not create an Adam, then an Abraham, then a David, etc. God created a corporate man—one man with all men. In God’s intention, what He did was a corporate thing. So we all have to realize that the desire to have a communal life was something created in the human nature by God.

THE CHURCH LIFE BEING THE REAL COMMUNAL LIFE

In Christ we all have the same life, and with this common life we have a common nature and a common desire. After we are saved, immediately within us there is a desire to contact some genuine Christians for fellowship. This is the desire for a community, a communal life. The church life is the real communal life.

CHRIST AS OUR COMMON ELEMENT, LIFE, AND PERSON FOR US TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER

We have to know that if we want to have a certain living, we need a certain life. God created man with a life that desires to be in a community, but that life was damaged and poisoned.…Thus, on the one hand, because we have the God-created nature, we have the desire to live with others; on the other hand, because our human life was damaged and spoiled by Satan, in our fallen nature we do not have the proper life for communal living.

But now we have Christ. Christ is wonderful. He is the common factor, the common element, for us to be one in the communal life with love for one another (Rom. 12:10). I do not know the names of all the brothers, but I still love them very much simply because they are brothers in the Lord. There is a common element among all the brothers, and that element is Christ. Christ is the element that causes us to love one another. Also, Christ within us is the life with the ability for us to love one another. (CWWL, 1971, vol. 1, “The Life for the Preaching of the High Gospel,” pp. 447-449)

Reference: CWWL, 1971, vol. 1, “The Life for the Preaching of the High Gospel,” ch. 6

OH, THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS GLORIOUS

The Church—As Christ’s Body 1226

• Oh, the church of Christ is glorious, and we are part of it —
  We’re so happy that the Lord has made us one!
  There’s a Body in the universe and we belong to it —
  Hallelujah, for the Lord has made us one!

• Hallelujah for the Body!
  We are members of the Body!
  We are wholly for the Body!
  Hallelujah, for the Lord has made us one!

• Not the individual Christians, but a corporate entity —
  God must have it for His full expression now;
  Not just individual churches but the Body corporately —
  Hallelujah, we are in the Body now!

• Hallelujah for the Body!
  Satan trembles at the Body!
  We’re victorious in the Body!
  Hallelujah, we are in the Body now!

• There are seven golden lampstands in the nature all divine —
  Nothing natural does the Body life allow.
  When we’re one and share God’s nature, how the lampstand then does shine —
  Hallelujah, it is brightly shining now!

• Hallelujah for the Body!
  For the lampstands of the Body!
  For the golden, shining Body!
  Hallelujah, it is brightly shining now!

• How may we express such oneness, be divine and shining too?
  Hallelujah, eating Jesus is the way!
  He’s the tree of life, the manna, and the feast that’s ever new —
  Hallelujah, we may eat Him every day!

• We are one by eating Jesus!
  We’re divine by eating Jesus!
  How we shine by eating Jesus!
  Hallelujah, eating Jesus is the way