THE HOUSE AND THE BODY
THE HOUSE AND THE BODY
Your difficulty is, I apprehend, no uncommon one, namely, to distinguish between the house and the body. To begin then, the house can have in it bad building, the body cannot. Christ’s building in the house is good building, and every living stone in the house, or [p. 356] assembly - the house aspect, is a member of His body. Every baptised person is in the house; only the Spirit-baptised person is in the body.
The house is in ruin. The faithful are called to follow righteousness, etc., with them who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. When it is so, a corner of the house is kept clean for the Lord. “Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever” (Psalm 93: 5). The body is on the earth, but not maintaining the unity of the Spirit.
The house aspect of the assembly is spoken of in the first nine chapters of 1 Corinthians, and in the Hebrews. The faithful in the house, led of God, are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; and they, breaking bread together, are on the ground of the one body (because the one loaf) of which Christ is Head. At the same time they refuse to admit any one to the table in any way disqualified for the Lord’s presence. When discipline in the house is in question, the Lord is owned; when it is edification for mutual blessing, it is Christ the Head who is before us. Each one in his individual capacity answers to the Lord in God’s house.
The true course of action at this time is, that every saint should look out for those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart; and all such, gathered to His name, He in the midst of them, act according to His pleasure in the assembly, and are nourished and cherished by Him through the instrumentality of gifts, etc. Every professor, even though genuine, if disqualified by his conduct, is refused at the Lord’s table. Every believer has a right to a place there, and I deny the one body if I refuse him his place, unless disqualified by his conduct; and any one at the table acting unfitly for the Lord, we are bound to put away from amongst us, though we cannot now put any one outside the house, seeing that it has become even more extensive than the kingdom of heaven. Perhaps when you weigh carefully the above, your difficulty may in some measure be solved. If I can help you, kindly write again.