Blending is the Body

…Our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked.

1 Corinthians 12:24

The word blended also means “adjusted,” “harmonized,” “tempered,” and “mingled.” I was so enlightened that in the Body, we are many members. And since we are many, we are blended by God to become His unique, organic Body. This includes being adjusted and tempered. Just like the one bread in 1 Corinthians 10:17, we are also being made into “one bread.” In baking, the baker doesn’t just mix the ingredients. The baker needs to sift them, to blend them until the distinctions disappear and you will just see the one dough. In the Body, it is the same. Since we are many, we also have a lot of differences, distinctions and peculiarities. And most of the time, we love ourselves too much and we like being unique. We love being different from others. This is why when the Lord tries to build us up into the Body, we feel hurt and sometimes, we try to escape. This is because we have not seen the vision of Body much and we still love ourselves too much. We feel violated and offended. Then we dwell on our feelings. Then we would feel bad about the saints, about the church. Thus, we miss the building. We miss the Body. But in 1 Corinthians 12:24, it is not us who blend the Body. It is not the brothers and sisters. It is God who blends us together. He is the Baker. He is the One crushing us to pieces so that we could be blended perfectly into one.

In a communal living with the saints, the Lord really makes the building and the Body-life so practical to us. I believe God is sovereign in putting us together here in the meeting hall to live together at least for this entire term. He is the Baker, right? As the Baker, He didn’t just put the ingredients together and let them blend themselves. After putting us together here, I believe He started blending us already. For this entire term, we experience a lot of crashing, misunderstandings, clashing of attitudes and characters. Within a month, we are quite exposed to each other already. We saw what each one is like in a normal setting. We get to see who we really are outside the meetings. There are disagreements concerning some arrangements. Even in simple things. But praise the Lord! Crushing is necessary for the building. Truly the Body-life is not just full on enjoyment. There is cutting so that we could be buildable to one another. We are limited by one another and restricted by one another. We clash, we even fight, because God is blending us together. Once we saw this light, everything became clear to us. I personally began to have this prayer, “Lord, I don’t want to miss Your building this term. You out me here so that I could be built into Your Body. Lord, I don’t want to escape Your building.” Through much prayer, light and fellowship with the saints, thank the Lord, I’m still here in the training. Even up to the last month of this term, the Lord is still bringing me to the experience and reality of the building of His Body.

Flesh

The greatest reason that God so deeply hates the flesh is that Satan lives in the flesh. The flesh is the camp of God’s enemy and the largest base for his work. …all the work of Satan in man is accomplished by means of the flesh. And all his work through the means of the flesh destroys the plan and goal of God. … God and the flesh can never exist together.

When they were on their way to the good land, the children of Israel first encountered Amalek (Deut. 25:17-18; 1 Sam. 15:2). Likewise, today, whenever we want to enjoy the Lord, the flesh is our very first enemy against it.

When in our experience the flesh is put to death (Gal. 5:24; Rom. 8:13), the world cannot hold us, sin cannot operate in us, and Satan is powerless to work on us.

Satan uses the flesh against us to keep us from the full enjoyment of Christ and to frustrate the accomplishment of God’s purpose.

In the eyes of God, flesh is the ugliest simply because it is against the very throne of God. Most of the time, we think that flesh only commits minor sins, but we must realize that this flesh that we often times love is directly against God’s throne and is in rebellion against God’s government.

Seeing this great light, we realize why God and the church truly encourage us to deny, to terminate, to destroy the flesh. In doing this, a certain problem arises. We tend to keep the ‘good flesh’ and just terminate the bad one. Paul told us in Romans 7:18 that in the flesh, nothing good dwells. We must realize the whether it is good or bad in our eyes, it is still the flesh that God hates. We must hate it as God hates it, and destroy it as He wants to destroy it.

Quotes from The Experience of Life, pp. 198-199 and Exodus 17:8, footnote 2
Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msg. 46; Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msg. 11
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Exodus 17:16 – For he said, For there is a hand against the throne of Jah! Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Romans 8:3 – For that which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.

Deuteronomy 25:17-18 – Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt, that he met you on the way and struck you at the rear, struck all those who were worn out at your rear, when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.

1 Samuel 15:2 – Thus says Jehovah of hosts, I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they set themselves against them in the way as they came up out of Egypt.

Galatians 5:24 – But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.

Romans 8:13 – For if you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.

Romans 7:18 – For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but to work out the good is not.