Wednesday

Related Verses
Rom. 12:2, 4-5
2 And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.
4 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function,
5 So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Eph. 1:22-23
22 And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church,
23 Which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

Eph. 4:15-16
15 But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ,
16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.

Col. 2:19
19 And not holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.

Col. 3:15
15 And let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, to which also you were called in one Body; and be thankful.

1 Cor. 1:1-2
1 Paul, a called apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Sosthenes the brother,
2 To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours:

Related Reading
[A] great revelation in the New Testament is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23)…The first mentioning of the Body…is in Romans 12:5…We must present our physical bodies (v. 1) for the mystical Body of Christ (v. 5). When we present our bodies and are renewed in our mind, we see, discern, and prove by testing that the will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness and expression (v. 2). (CWWL, 1991–1992, vol. 1, “The Central Line of the Divine Revelation,” p. 561) 

—

[Romans 12:2] speaks of “the” will of God…God does not have many wills but only one will…Strictly speaking,…God’s will is nothing less than to have the church, that is, to have a Body for His Son. When we see this, we will sacrifice everything for it, because we will realize that this is the unique will…No matter how good we are or how many things we do, if we are not in the church, if we do not practice the church life and live for the church, we are not in the will of God. 

Therefore, to prove what the will of God is, is to practice the church life. If we are proper members of the Body, acting and functioning in the church life, then we will have everything else. We will be persons in the will of God. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 2, “A General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, Part 2—Romans through Philemon,” pp. 241-242) 

Strictly speaking, according to the revelation of the New Testament, a person who truly touches God’s heart and is an overcomer in the eyes of God is one who is living in the Body and practicing the Body life. He is not spiritual individually and is not overcoming individually. Rather, he understands clearly that he is a member in the Body. 

No member can live apart from the Body, yet almost all of us live an abnormal life. We may think that as long as we do not love the world or lust after sin, we are all right. But in fact this is not enough. The most important thing is whether or not we are living in the Body. Is our loving of the Lord and being spiritual, sanctified, and overcoming something in ourselves or something in the Body? If it is in ourselves, it is not worth much…From the view of God’s eternal economy, unless we are in the Body, whether or not we are spiritual and whether or not we sin are not worth much. God is not after a group of spiritual and sinless people. Rather, He is after a Body. Only our being in the Body will have eternal value in the eyes of God. 

To live in the Body is to live corporately with the members under the Head (Col. 1:18). To live the Body life, first we must be under the Head and take the Head as the life, the principal object, and the center (Eph. 4:15-16)…To have the Body life, whatever we think or do has to be under the control of Christ the Head; we have to take Him as the center of our whole being. Second, we have to coordinate with all the members to live a life that expresses the Head (Rom. 12:5). We have to learn to live in the Body and submit to the Head all the time, to care for the feeling of the Body, and to live together with all the members. We should not take our own spirituality, holiness, or victory as the center. This will make us particular and individualistic and will cause us to condemn others and make demands on them. Neither should we try to keep some regulations and conform ourselves to others. Rather, we should live in the Spirit to express Christ in an organic and coordinated way. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 2, “The Oneness and the One Accord according to the Lord’s Aspiration and the Body Life and Service according to His Pleasure,” pp. 92-93) 

Further Reading: CWWL, 1990, vol. 2, “The Oneness and the One Accord according to the Lord’s Aspiration and the Body Life and Service according to His Pleasure,” ch. 3