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member of the Body keeps in close union to the Head--"holding the Head" as Col. 2: 19
expresses it.
In Eph. 4: 16 Paul puts it in this way:
"From Whom all the Body fitly framed and knit together through that which every
joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part maketh the
increase of the Body unto the building up of itself in love" (4: 16 R.V.).
"Fitly framed together" is the same word as is used in 2: 21 of the spiritual Temple.
This close union with the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, is absolutely necessary for
spiritual life, light, nourishment and adequate functioning of each member of the Body.
For any member not to realize this, but in practice to seek to function on their own, is to
court failure and fruitlessness. The same important truth was given by the Lord to the
Twelve under the figure of a Vine and the branches (John 15: 1-6). Strictly speaking
"which every joint supplieth" is rather misleading, for literally it is "every joint of the
supply". The `joints' supply nothing of themselves. This alone comes from the Head,
but each member can be a channel through which the Divine supply can flow to another
member.
This stresses the importance of practical unity and shows that unnecessary isolation is
out of the Lord's will. We should seek to grow together, each one like the individual
organs of the body, all contributing something to the growth of the Body as a whole.
"Till we all attain", and apprehending "with all the saints" (3: 18) stresses this. The
three unities of Eph. 4: are God's creation and not man-made, but we who embrace
them by faith must see to it that we do nothing to cause a practical breakage, for this only
plays into the hands of the Enemy who loves to try to divide and disrupt what God has
united and so upset His people and hinder His work.
No.30.
The Epistle to the Ephesians (10).
pp. 117 - 120
The Apostle now approaches the worthy walk of members of the Body of Christ from
a negative standpoint. In 4: 1 he tells us how to walk positively; in the 17th verse he
shows us how not to walk:
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles
also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated
from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of
their heart" (4: 17, 18 R.V.).
In Rom. 1: 21 Paul had already shown the terrible darkness that the pagan world sank
into because, in rejecting God as Creator, they became "vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened". This is what invariably happens when man turns his
back on God. Left to himself he sinks into utter darkness and deception, yet at the same