I.　The fellowship of the Body of Christ is the blending of the Body of Christ:

A.　God has blended the Body together (1 Cor. 12:24); the word blended also means adjusted, harmonized, tempered, and mingled.

B.　Fellowship adjusts us, fellowship harmonizes us, fellowship tempers us, and fellowship mingles us (cf. 10:16-17).

C.　In order to be adjusted, harmonized, tempered, and mingled in the Body life, we have to go through the cross and be by the Spirit, dispensing Christ to others for the sake of the Body of Christ.

D.　We should not do anything without fellowshipping with the other saints who are coordinating with us; in our coordination in the church life, in the Lord's work, we all have to learn not to do anything without fellowship.

E.　Blending means that when we are about to do something, we always stop to fellowship with others.

F.　Such a blending is not social but the blending of the very Christ whom the individual members, the district churches, the co-workers, and the elders enjoy, experience, and partake of.

G.　The meal offering is a type of blending for the fulfillment of God's economy:

1.　This type of blending is strongly referred to by the apostle Paul when he says that the church as the one Body is "one bread"—v. 17.

2.　The meal offering in Leviticus 2:4 consisted of cakes made of fine flour mingled with oil; every part of the fine flour was mixed, or mingled, with the oil; that is blending.

3.　The purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ.

H.　The blending is for the building up of the universal Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) to consummate the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2) as the final goal of God's economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3:8-10; 1:9-10).

II.　There is the need today for the fellowship among the churches; this fellowship is to keep the universal oneness of the Body of Christ—4:3-6:

A.　Just as the health of our physical body depends on the circulation of our blood, so the health of the Body of Christ depends on the fellowship of the Spirit—2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1.

B.　The fellowship of the Body of Christ is simply the circulation, the current, of the Spirit; the Spirit today is the "blood" in Christ's Body; if Christ's Body did not have the Spirit, it would be like a corpse—Eph. 4:4a:

1.　When the all-inclusive Spirit is circulating within the Body of Christ, divinity, humanity, Christ's person, Christ's death, and Christ's resurrection are all circulating—Phil. 1:19.

2.　Calling on the name of the Lord causes the Spirit to circulate within us so that we enjoy all Christ's riches—Rom. 10:12; Neh. 8:10.

C.　The trouble in the churches today is due to the shortage of fellowship, the circulation of blood; this lack of fellowship gives the enemy an opportunity to come in.

D.　If any part of the Body is separate, that part will eventually die; the best way to stay healthy is to "receive more blood" and to "give more blood," that is, to stay in the fellowship, the circulation of life:

1.　The circulation of blood within our body carries nourishment to every part of our body and also causes our body to be cherished; in like manner, the fellowship in the Body nourishes us with the riches of Christ and cherishes us with the presence of Christ as the Spirit.

2.　The circulation of blood within our body is like a river that always carries away the waste in our being so that it can be discharged; in like manner, the fellowship in the Body carries away all the negative things.

III.　We need to reign in life in imitating the apostle to bring the local churches into the fellowship of the Body of Christ—Rom. 5:17; 14:3; 15:7-9, 25-33:

A.　We must learn not to despise or judge others in their doctrines or practices according to doctrinal concepts, religious practices, and anything that is unrelated to our basic faith— cf. Jude 3; Titus 1:4.

B.　We should receive people according to God's receiving, not being more narrow than God, thereby demonstrating and maintaining the oneness of the Body of Christ:

1.　We should receive people according to the Son of God, according to God, not according to doctrine or practice, thus maintaining a condition of absolute peace, smoothness, and order, without any deviation and discord, in the fellowship of the Body of Christ to the glory of God—Rom. 14:3; 15:7.

2.　To receive others according to the Son of God is to receive them in His being unbiased and balanced in taking care of both the Jews and the Gentiles; Christ is a servant of the circumcision to fulf ill and confirm all the promises God gave to their fathers, and He is a servant of the Gentiles so that they may glorify God for His mercy—vv. 8-9.

IV.　We need to reign in life in following the apostle's footsteps to bring all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ—Rom. 16:

A.　This is to follow in the apostle's footsteps to bring us into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ by recommendations and greetings so that the God of peace may crush Satan under our feet and so that we may enjoy the rich grace of Christ—vv. 1-16, 21-24, 20.

B.　Through the fellowship in the Body, the crushing of Satan, and the enjoyment of grace, we can carry out the mystery kept in silence in the times of the ages concerning the complete salvation of God in the fulfillment of the eternal economy of God for the Gentiles to have the obedience of faith unto glory to the only wise God through Jesus Christ—vv. 25-27.

C.　This glory is the New Jerusalem, the universal incorporation of the union and mingling of divinity with humanity, in which God will be completely glorified and His economy will be fully accomplished.

V.　In its conclusion, Romans, which gives a general discussion of the Christian life and the church life, gives glory to the wise God—v. 27:

A.　This unveils that all the matters discussed in Romans (such as how God selects us, how He saves us from sin and death, how He redeems us and justifies us, how He makes us, sinners who were dead through and through, His divine sons, how He transfers us out of Adam into Christ, how He sanctifies and transforms us in Christ, how He makes us the members of Christ for the constituting of the Body of Christ, and how He causes us to be the local churches appearing in different localities as the expressions of the Body of Christ on the earth in this age) are planned, managed, and accomplished by God's wisdom, in order that He, the immeasurably rich Triune God, may be glorified, that is, that His incomparable glory may be completely and fully expressed through us who have been perfected eternally by Him and who have become His Body and have been joined to Him as one.

B.　The focus of God's wisdom is the working of His Divine Trinity into the three parts— spirit, soul, and body—of our redeemed being that in His redemption, sanctification, and transformation we may have a full union in the divine life with Him, that His desire for the mingling of divinity and humanity, the joining of humanity to divinity, may be fulfilled in eternity.

C.　This truly is worthy of our appreciation and worship! How blessed and how glorious it is that we can participate in this! This is worthy of our unceasing singing and praise for eternity!

D.　Both our Christian life and our church life should have this as our center and goal; may God bless in this way everyone who has been chosen and perfected by Him.