I.　The unique work in the Lord's recovery is "the work of the ministry"— Eph. 4:12:

A.　In Ephesians 4:12 the phrase unto the building up of the Body of Christ is in apposition to the phrase unto the work of the ministry; this indicates that the work of the ministry is the building up of the Body of Christ:

1.　Our work is not merely to preach the gospel, to teach the truth, and to set up meetings; all these necessary activities are for the building up of the Body—Mark 16:15, 20; Eph. 4:12, 16.

2.　Any activity that is not for the building up of the Body of Christ is a work of division, and it is not for the work of the ministry.

3.　The work of the ministry has only one goal—to build up the Body of Christ—v. 16.

B.　The gifted persons in verse 11 have only one ministry, that is, to minister Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, the church; this is the unique ministry in the New Testament economy—2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:12:

1.　All those who served the Lord and ministered Christ for the building up of the Body throughout the centuries had different ministries that were all a part of the unique New Testament ministry—2 Cor. 4:1; 2 Tim. 4:5, 11.

2.　The Body is built up by one ministry, the unique New Testament ministry—2 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 4:12.

3.　Whatever the gifted persons do as a work must be for the building up of theBody—vv. 12, 16.

C.　The work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ is not accomplished directly by the gifted ones but by the saints who have been perfected by the gifted ones—vv. 11-12, 16:

1.　The work of the ministry is both of the perfecting ones and the perfected ones—vv. 11-12.

2.　The gifted persons perfect the saints unto the work of the ministry in the divine dispensing by nourishing them according to the tree of life with the life supply for their growth in life—Gen. 2:9; 1 Cor. 3:2, 6.

3.　In order to be perfected, we need to pay attention to life and to function; the way to be perfected, completed, equipped, and furnished is to grow in life and to become skillful in function—Eph. 4:11-16.

II.　In doing the work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ, we need to "arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ"—v. 13:

A.　As believers in Christ, we were born into the oneness of the Spirit, the oneness of reality; now we need to go on until we arrive at the oneness of practicality, the oneness of our living in practicality—John 3:6; Eph. 4:3, 13.

B.　The word arrive in verse 13 indicates that a process is required for us to arrive at the oneness of practicality; the oneness of reality is the beginning, and the oneness of practicality is the destination.

C.　The oneness of practicality is the oneness of the faith—v. 13:

1.　The faith does not refer to our act of believing but to the things in which we believe, such as the divine person of Christ and His redemptive work accomplished for our salvation—1 Tim. 1:19; 6:10, 12, 21; Jude 3.

2.　The speciality of the church is the faith; in the church life we have only one thing that is special—the faith, which is composed of our beliefs concerning the Bible, God, Christ, the work of Christ, salvation, and the church—v. 20.

D.　The oneness of practicality is also the oneness of the full knowledge of the Son of God—Eph. 4:13:

1.　The full knowledge of the Son of God is the apprehension of the revelation concerning the Son of God for our experience—Matt. 16:16.

2.　The oneness of the faith altogether depends on the full knowledge of the Son of God; only when we take Christ as the center and we focus on Him can we arrive at the oneness of the faith, for only in the Son of God can our faith be one—John 20:31; Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:4, 6; 1 Cor. 2:2.

E.　If we would arrive at the oneness of practicality, we need to hold to truth in love so that we may grow up in all things into the Head, Christ—Eph. 4:15.

F.　The oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God is both the full-grown man and the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ—v. 13:

1.　To arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God is to arrive at a full-grown man and at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; for this we need to grow in the divine life—vv. 13-15.

2.　A full-grown man is a mature man; maturity is needed for the practical oneness.

3.　The fullness of Christ is the Body of Christ, which has a stature with a measure—1:23; 4:13.

III.　Ephesians 4:17-32 gives us a picture of a life that can carry out the work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ:

A.　Ephesians 4:15 says that we need to grow up into Christ in all things, and then the rest of chapter 4 unveils the details of this growth in Christ to have a life that is suitable and adequate for the building up of the Body of Christ.

B.　In 4:17-32 there are three verses that reveal the dispensing of the Divine Trinity in the believers' living for the building up of the Body of Christ:

1.　Verse 18 speaks of the life of God for supplying His children with His divine riches in His divine dispensing.

2.　Verse 21 speaks of learning Christ as "the reality is in Jesus" for infusingHis believers with His God-man living in His divine dispensing:

a.　Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and forGod; God was in His living, and He was one with God—this is what is meant by the reality is in Jesus in verse 21.

b.　In the daily life of Jesus there was something very real, and that reality was God's divine life realized and practiced as the truth in Jesus' humanity.

3.　Verse 30 speaks of the sealing of the Holy Spirit for saturating the members of Christ with the divine element in His divine dispensing; for the building up of the Body of Christ, we should not grieve the Holy Spirit but always make the Spirit happy.

C.　For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, that is, our regenerated spirit mingled with the indwelling Spirit of God; this mingled spirit spreads into our mind, becoming the spirit of our mind, and in this spirit we are renewed for our transformation—v. 23; Rom.12:2.

D.　A life that is for the building up of the Body of Christ is also a forgiving life; to do the work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ, we need to forgive one another even as God in Christ has forgiven us—Eph. 4:32.

E.　We need to pray that we all will live a life that is adequate and qualified for the work of the ministry, the building up of the Body of Christ—vv. 11-32.