Jeffrey C. Long

January 9

You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, where Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, on which the entire building, joined together, rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:20,21)

In a house or temple one stone holds up the other and each stone

contributes something to the maintenance and stability and structure of the whole building. Not one is superfluous, and if one stone falls out, it makes at the very least a hole and it may endanger the whole structure. But everything is upheld by Christ the cornerstone. When the entire building is completed, meaning when all those souls called into the kingdom of God are gathered and fitted in, then it will become clear what significance for the whole each saved soul has. How then just each Christian make every effort to maintain his place in the building for the sake of the whole that remains uncompleted; how sad if even one soul is missing who has been called for the whole building depends on each! We need to make it our aim to put the stones in place, which means working together so that people receive the Spirit of Christ and through faith become incorporated into Christ; in this way the entire work will come to completion sooner.

When the whole structure is finished, the perfect glory of God will be

revealed in it, and so it is called a holy temple of God. However, the

individual members here below are already living stones (I Peter 2:5) and a dwelling of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22); thus they are here and now in themselves temples of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19). How I wish that we were more malleable and let ourselves really be led, following more closely the preaching of the apostles and prophets, so that in time we could be something to the praise of his glorious grace (Ephesians 1:6).

Johann Christoph Blumhardt

Translation by Monty Ledford

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