“You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22, NIV)
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“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:16, NIV)
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Homes can be bought as kits nowadays. One can browse a catalog, choose a kit and have it delivered by truck to a building site, where a foundation already has been poured.
Imagine your kit arrives, holding everything you need, mostly cut to size: pillars, beams, joists, plywood sheets. What’s next?
You need to open up the plans. Your home has been designed, by a skilled architect. Following the plans, you place each structural member of the building in its place and fasten it to what already has been attached to the foundation. Parts must be lifted to be fastened to their neighbors beneath and alongside them. Pillars are raised, beams are fastened atop pillars, joists on beams, planks and plywood sheets on joists, and so on—until the structure is complete.
Your building has been designed by its architect to distribute the weight of all its members and the structure they comprise, safely, evenly and effectively on the foundation on which all of it rests. The load-bearing design and load-bearing members in the lower structure support the members in its upper stories.
What once was merely an assemblage of parts becomes, by stages, an assembly—a single, compound unit comprised of its many constituent parts, arranged by design and firmly, resiliently fastened together.
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The New Testament tells us that Christ’s gathered people are a structure—a city, in fact—whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 10:10). His design and arrangement of that structure are brilliant, and the process of its construction is reflected in the familiar realities of earthly construction. We, its building blocks, however, are living stones, (I Peter 2:5) and fitting us in our places is much harder than working with wood and stone. We cannot be forced into place or simply cut or ground down to fit, like Home Depot lumber and tile. God uses tools such as these: Grace, love, and wisdom shared among believers, and individual members putting selfish ways to death in order to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3) God uses these tools to supernaturally shape his living stones and timbers, rendering us “fitly joined together and compacted, by what every joint supplies.” (Ephesians 4:16, NKJV)
The blueprints for Jesus’ house on earth, his church, come from God in heaven—like those of Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s temple. The delivery of each part or member to the building site is heaven’s work too, spurred on in part by our prayers and seeking fellowship with God’s people—our brothers and sisters.
But look—this building also assembles itself! Paul wrote that what draws and fits this building together comes through its members themselves: “Joined and held together by every supporting ligament, [the Church] grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” God gives the members of his household the grace to distribute the gifts the Holy Spirit gives to them severally to build up the whole house—gifts including scriptural revelation and instruction, wisdom, knowledge, discerning of spirits, overcoming faith, even healing and miracles. (1 Corinthians 12:1-12) He equips members with gifts for serving, leading, giving, encouraging and coaching others. (Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:11-12)
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The members of God’s house were not made to be static spectators, but an all-hands-on-deck team choreographed by their risen Lord to build and become his house. If the Holy Spirit were to give you something to say to instruct or encourage fellow congregants where you worship, would you be permitted to say it? Sadly, in too many houses of worship, the answer would be “No.” None of us are sentenced to serve time in houses like that. Heaven’s blueprints are still to be found in the New Testament, and wherever believers set themselves apart to build by God’s plans, he will, over time, bless their building and make them into the house he intended.
Let us not give up or grow tired of seeking our Lord for the gifts and nourishment he promised to give us to build one another up. The Holy Spirit will supply all that is needed to fasten us together as God has designed, arranging and enabling us to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,” (Galatians 6:2 NKJV) aligning our labors to build the house where he is always welcome and pleased to dwell:
“And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling
in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:22, NIV)
