16.3 Being Fitted Together
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Synarmologéō (being fitted together): to fit together into one.
In Whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in Whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:21-22).
From Whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:16).
This lesson is built entirely on Symmorphy III: Kingdom Lesson 8.3 Walking in Life Together. Please – read it again now before you continue here.
Only One Thing. This is the ONLY thing real happening on this earth right now. Get your eyes off of everything else, for all else is without meaning. And this synarmologéō has never been conceived of in the Christian mind, not as it is, not as it is happening right now.
When I look at those two lines from Ephesians, they are so BIG. I think – how can I express them through one lesson? Then I realize that the next three sessions are nothing more than an expansion of synarmologéō in three focused directions. And the entirety of Symmorphy V: Life is the practical application of this mind-blowing synarmologéō, a reality I have never heard expressed or known in any Christian thinking.
Inside a Hurricane. I tell you what. I now know exactly how a fully successful Christian Church will stand forth across this earth, fully successful in all the practical fulness of Christ. And with that burning vision in my heart, I am one determined fellow. Yet I remain weak and penniless; yet I am filled with God.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me build our Covenant together for you piece by piece. And yet these two references in Ephesians are so huge I am entirely blown away. How can we speak of these things except inside a hurricane, the very dynamo of the Almighty?
Christ Formed in You. Now, let’s focus ourselves. This session is on the gestation of the child in the womb of the Church.
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19). Christ – FORMED. Morphe – symmorphy – sharing the same form, we inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of us. Remember that “and I IN you” comes third.
Paul, as an apostolic ministry, sent of the Lord Jesus, labors in travail as the Church-in-labor FOR this very form of Christ to be all that we are. Christ is gestating inside of us, yet not us as individuals only, but us together as one Body of God.
Labor FOR the Church. It is not just God who is determined to bring His Church into all the fulness of Christ now upon this earth, but so also are His sent ones, His ministry now, that is, you and me, bearing in our own hearts the very Passion that is the Lord Jesus.
We are the ones who ARE in labor FOR the Church.
If you have being going through a great press of difficulty lately, stop trying to “figure out” what is going on with you. This great press has nothing to do with you. You are a done deal. You ARE seized in His grip. Get over it. EVERYTHING you are going through is for the sake of His Church, the Body of Christ. As you are pressed beyond measure, God is forming Christ in your brothers and sisters.
One Determined God. Oh, we must reckon with the determined God who fills us full.
God is NOT thinking about “you” anymore. He has already heard the one “Yes, Lord,” that He sought from you, no matter how feeble you imagined it to be. And He has already SEALED you utterly into that “Yes, Lord.” You CANNOT escape or depart from the seal of God. Just forget about yourself – its over with. You have no hope of ever being apart from the DETERMINATION of this Mighty Being ever again forever.
And He has ONE FIXED PASSION through all that you are, do, say, think, feel, and go through right now. FOR THE SAKE OF HIS CHURCH!
Fitted and Built. Let’s put in front of us the several similar Greek words Paul uses, then we will establish our perspective before we investigate this incredible gestation taking place right now as we burst with God out of the Holiest and into the Church.
Synarmologéō (being fitted together): to fit together into one. From syn, together with, and harmos, a joint of the body.
This whole concept is descriptive of the action taking place in the development of the parts and organs of a fetus in the first few weeks after conception.
Synoikodomeó (being built together): to build together. From syn, together with, and oikodomeó, to build a house.
The same idea as a body, but more my style since I am a builder and a teacher, not a medical person.
Held Together
Symbibázō (held together): to unite or hold together; to put together in reasoning; to teach or instruct. From sym, together with, and embibázō, to board a ship, that is, to bring everyone “on board.”
In some places symbibázō clearly refers to agreement, but three times Paul used this word to refer to that bond of agreement that ties a body or a building together.
That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God – holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, bonded and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God (Colossians 2:2 & 19).
The Bond
Syndesmos (bond): that which binds together, a bond. From syn, together with, and déō, to bind. A bond of union resulting in loving harmony among members joined closely together.
Bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3).
But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection (Colossians 3:14).
Four Greek words showing up nine times inside of seven verses in Ephesians and Colossians – the dwelling place of God. In Symmorphy V: Life we will explore and place every word and phrase in these seven verses. I cannot express how important this is to our Father.
God Must Have a Body. All the problems of creation exist for one reason only – the absence of the knowledge of God. God has demonstrated that the law and obedience to outward word CANNOT reveal God. God must have a Body.
All creation is groaning in travail together for God to be known. God Himself has done everything in creation and in history for one purpose – that He might be known. There is NO gospel except God Himself showing up inside this heaven/earth through His Body, the Church, a family of people. These seven verses tell us precisely how God obtains for Himself His dwelling place.
Two Perspectives. In these illustrations, God gives us two perspectives by which to envision how He fashions an outer form for Himself to be seen and known by all, (a) the formation of a fetus in the womb and (b) the construction of a building.
In Symmorphy III: Kingdom, “8.3 Walking in Life Together,” I quoted from Windows to the Womb: Revealing the Conscious Baby from Conception to Birth by David Chamberlain (2013). I must bring the quote in again here, for this picture must be burning in our minds. I quote from Chapter 3: Body under Construction: The Ultimate Architecture. This quote begins just before the end of three weeks, when the initial mass of cells is large enough for the formation of the body to begin.
The Body Under Construction
“Nearby in the cluster of cells that are about to produce your body, the inner cell mass is preparing for an extravaganza. What only a few privileged observers have ever been able to behold is the coming super spectacle combining an elaborate Olympic opening ceremony, the raising of a giant circus tent, and a dance of a thousand couples doing the quadrille—all rolled into one.
“For starters, the members of the central cell mass begin a bewildering set of movements, streaming past each other left and right until they have settled themselves into three distinct layers. From these magic layers will spring the building materials for all parts of your body, to be labored over by small teams of cells intently focused on their individual projects. Sheets of cells are pulled up, folded over, and attached by microfilaments to form tubes, organs, glands, coverings, linings, bones, and brain!
“Behind this wizardry lies a set of basic construction techniques, which are used over and over again and artistically altered to accomplish a grand architectural plan. Some cells stick together to form masses. Others constrict or expand right where they are. Cells fuse, split into separate layers, form inside and outside pockets, create forks in cords, and bend by altering their rate of growth on one side from slow to fast. At times, a group of cells make the supreme sacrifice: they die to create cavities of open space!”
[This is God forming His Church together as His Body!]
“In a burst of activity, all projects going forward at once, what began as three flat layers will rapidly become a recognizable front and back, top and bottom, with a gut running from mouth to anus, and the earliest beginnings of organs and limbs—all this in the first month after conception.
“In that inner universe, no more than one tenth of an inch long, numberless cells dwarfed by what they are creating, are preoccupied with singular group projects, yet their work is seamless and integrated. Some construction is temporary, a necessary but intermediate step toward a larger goal. Discrete parts may merge into one larger entity, or be moved and altered to serve different purposes. All work goes forward with shimmering purpose.”
We Have Not Known! Now, this picture is the energeia and the intensity by which God is forming Christ, not just in us as individuals, but far more so, forming us together as one body. This one body of Christ is NOT known. We have not known it. We have not seen it. We have not been part of it.
We sit here in our isolation, rejoicing in Christ living as us, and that’s great. We must begin there. But we are nowhere. We are NOT IN the purpose of God. Yes, we are being prepared for that purpose, but until God moves us into the context of Church, of a living, breathing, laughing, worshipping, loving Community of Christ, God does NOT have His Body and we do NOT have the life we desire.
Life ONLY in Church. NOTHING, not one thing found in these seven verses is happening in our lives, nor can happen in our lives as we are presently living separated from Church. And no Christian church on this planet is fulfilling these verses as I will be part of their fulfillment.
You see, all of them are preaching a gospel of death, that the Church is just a means to an end. There is no thought of God revealing Himself through us to His creation, and the life they seek, they imagine that they will find it in death. We will find our LIFE only in Church.
But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. The word “perfection” means the full and final completion of all things – and its not being dead “in heaven.”
Recasting My Vision. I see that this lesson is as much a “rant” as it is a layout of Bible truth. Yet, what I hope to unveil in the next three sessions is a view of LIFE as has never yet been envisioned. We will see that the Life of Christ is practical and real, filled with heaven and alive in the earth.
What I hope to do in the next three sessions depicting the furniture of the Holy Place is to cast anew my vision of Christian Community in a form of reality and at a level of awesomeness I have never seen before.
Here is the motto of the Christian Community(ies) Father and I together will be starting very soon. A Pattern of Wholeness – Patterns of Father at Home