1 Cor. 12:12 For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. (26) And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it.
The same thing can be said about the Body of Christ. We must see the Body of Christ not only as a principle or a doctrine but also as a matter of feeling. Suffering is a feeling, and joy is a feeling. Although there are many members, the life they have is one, and the feelings they have are also one. Some people have artificial limbs. Outwardly their limbs look much the same as real limbs. But artificial limbs do not have life and therefore do not have the feeling of the body. When other members suffer, an artificial limb does not suffer. When other members rejoice, the artificial limb does not feel anything. Other members have feelings because they have the same life. But the artificial limb does not have any feeling because it does not have life. Hence, it is impossible to imitate life, and there is no need to imitate life. If you have it, you have it, and there is no need to imitate it. If you do not have it, you do not have it, and even if you imitate, it will not look like the real thing. The most obvious manifestation of life is feeling. Once a Christian sees the life of the Body, he will immediately have the feeling of the Body and have the same feelings as other members. Hearing the teaching of the Body of Christ and seeing the Body of Christ are two entirely different things. Hearing the teaching of the Body of Christ merely means understanding a principle outwardly. But when one sees the Body of Christ, he will have a different feeling within him. When one hears the teaching of salvation, he merely knows how God saves sinners. But when he receives the Lord Jesus as the Savior, he will have the feeling of sin and the feeling of God within him. Brothers and sisters, can you see the difference here? This is why we cannot neglect the feeling of life. (We are not speaking about outward conscious feelings but inward conscious feelings.) This feeling is the expression of life. The presence or absence of feeling is the test that shows whether or not we have something real within us; it shows whether we have the life of God within us.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Watchman Nee, General Messages, Vol. 37, The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, pp.237-238. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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