The healing of diseases or injuries in our physical bodies takes place mainly through nourishment. Suppose a certain part of your body is hurt or diseased. It is not possible to feed only this part of the body. On the contrary, you feed your whole body, and this part of the body will be healed. Do not think that the Body will receive some benefit if you select a few strong members of the Body and bring them together. No, the stronger ones and the weaker ones need to be blended together. God does not put all the weak ones into one group and all the strong ones into another group; instead, He tempers them by blending them. It is wrong for the strong ones to group together.
If the strong ones group together, the result will be division. According to verses 24 and 25, God tempers the Body together so that there will be no division in the Body. If the shoulders were to come together, there would be a division in the Body. Although you may have no intention of damaging the Body, you will frustrate the growth of the Body if you group yourselves together as stronger ones or more spiritual ones.
Verse 26 says, “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if a member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it.” A suffering member of the Body should not be left alone. Rather, the Body with all the members must bear the suffering along with this member.
The Body of Christ is not built up with only spiritual giants. On the contrary, the Body is built up with all the different members—the comely ones, the less honorable ones, and the weaker ones. This does not mean, however, that all the different members are arranged in distinct groups. No, all are blended together so that the Body may be tempered. When we are tempered, the uncomely ones share comeliness with the comely ones, and the weaker ones are nourished and supported by the stronger ones. Then we have the Body.
We should never regard ourselves as spiritual or boast of what we have seen. Those sisters in Chefoo who claimed to be today’s Madame Guyons were actually not that spiritual. Likewise, the co-workers in Shanghai who claimed to have seen the Body actually did not see very much. Often our estimate of ourselves is not accurate. Because of this, we should not classify ourselves. Whatever we may be, we need to have fellowship with the saints and shepherd them. Do your best to take up the burden of caring for the saints. By caring for others, you will be tested. As you contact the weak ones, you will discover not only where they are, but also where you are. Before contacting them, you may think that you are all right, that you know Christ and the church, and that you are wholly for the Lord’s recovery. But through your contact with the weaker ones, you may discover that you have no food to feed them, no medicine to heal them, and no clothing to cover them. In other words, you will be exposed and realize that so much of what you have is vanity.
First Thessalonians 5:14 says, “We entreat you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, console the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be longsuffering toward all.” This verse describes the church life.
In the church life the disorderly ones are necessary to prove our patience. Thus, we need to praise the Lord for the disorderly ones. We are told to admonish those who are disorderly. This is very difficult. If you admonish them too severely, they may be stirred up to fight with you. Admonishing the disorderly ones requires a great deal of prayer, experience, and exercise of the spirit. Whenever I have had to admonish the disorderly ones, I have had the sense that I was walking on thin ice over a deep river. It is not a simple matter to have the church life. If we pay no attention to the disorderly ones among us, God will send in even more of them to show us that we cannot ignore them. According to 1 Thessalonians 5:14, we must admonish them. The disorderly ones surely expose where we are.
(All Ages for the Lord's Testimony, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)