1, 2. (a) Why is there need for a unification work within the congregational “body” of the Christ? (b) For that purpose, what has God through Christ bestowed upon the congregation?

THE 144,000 who will form the cooperative body under the “head,” Jesus Christ, are taken “out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” of mankind. (Rev. 5:9, 10) So, since the members of the congregational “body” on earth are drawn from such widely differing sources, there ought to be a great need for a unification work among them, to have them all hold to the one “head,” the glorified Jesus Christ. To carry on this unification work God provided “gifts in the form of men.” (Ps. 68:18) The apostle Paul points to the glorified Jesus Christ as the one whom God used to bestow these human “gifts” upon the congregation on earth for the purpose of unification, saying:

until we all attain to the oneness in the faith and in the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, . . .