“Implications of Being the Body of Christ” (Part Two)

¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts;

and though all its parts are many, they form one body.  So it is with Christ…

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

~ I Corinthians 12:12, 27

On Monday we saw some of the implications for our relationship to Christ himself; today let’s look at implications to each other, to others in the body.

1. We should serve in unity, in sync, with love.

I Corinthians 12 is followed by I Corinthians 13!  (I studied hard to learn that!)

But the point is that for the body to really serve together there must be genuine agape love, putting the other first, considering the other person more important than we are, and serving together as the true body.

When the body fights itself – help me out here, doctors – there is some kind of cancer going on.  One cell eats up another cell.  One person in the church damages the reputation of another.  We fight each other.  We allow conflicts and arguments that are unnecessary.  It certainly should not be.

The body is to work together.

Back to our obedience to the head – when we do obey Jesus Christ our Savior, we are always going to work in harmony and unity with each other.  If the left hand is obeying the brain and the right is too, there’s going to be functional unity.  The head is not going to tell the left hand to hurt the right.

The application for the local church and even for all Christians is pretty obvious.  And the pastor shepherds, prays, and teaches to help this be true.

2. I should not wish I were someone else in the body.

That’s a big part of I Corinthians 12 of course.  The foot should not envy the eye.  The hand should not envy the ear.  We should just be glad for the way God has gifted us, then work together with unity in the body.

It actually can be done.  It actually feels good, because it is healthy.

How genuinely refreshing to watch a church in action, as people with the gifts of helps and desires to support other ministries, behind the scenes, pray and do things that make it possible for those who are publically gifted to say things or teach or help accomplish the work of the church.  But all of this is just as important.  The head is glorified and pointed to.  Jesus is taught and proclaimed.

We work together without wishing we were the other person.

So many in the church often admire certain gifts or talents – singing or speaking, for instance – and play down their own.  As if the gift God gave them is lesser.  We must speak for God here, and help others see and feel the call to faithfulness.

It would be as if the little finger dropped out of human body life and asked not to be used.

3. When we see another Christian in need, we want to help.

One part of the body puts salve on another.  There actually is a whole system of healing that God has arranged that helps the body heal.  It amazes medical people.  The blood rushes platelets where there is a cut.

The eyelids shield the eye from danger by closing immediately.  The hand goes up to protect the face.  These are great illustrations for the church.

We should stand with each other and support each other and meet the needs of widows and orphans and those in trouble.  Even when someone is overcome in a fault – see Galatians 6 – some of us should go to them and try to help them up.

It seems so clear.

And when this is not true in the body, we are to “work out our own salvation (good health) with fear and trembling, for it is God who will work in us” (Phil. 2:12,13).

That means all of us work on our good health as the body of Christ.  We work to help others in unity.  To help others who are hurting the body.  To remind them of who we are.

When churches do this, they get healthier and healthier and stronger and more people see Christ honored as the head of that church.

Pastoral leadership in a church will carefully monitor and manage the church’s budget of time and money for people in need – close to the church building and around the world.  A few percentage points – the norm is very low, often 10% being high – does not seem generous or in line with biblical standards.

4. We must not rip on others, or hurt them, or treat them as if they do not have worth.

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you’” (I Cor. 12:21).  Neither should the old-timer say of the newcomer, “We do not need you.”

Feel it or not, desire it or not, we do need each other.  We are important parts of the body of Christ.  All are.

Do not honor all parts (persons) as important in the opinion of Christ.

It is important and healthy for the body parts to work together in coordination.

And it feels good.  It is healthy.

At times the pastor must speak up when there is tension and call the “parts of the body” to unite and be at peace.  To be His body.

To live like the church.

Tomorrow we will look at the implications of the fact of our being the body of Christ – on people outside that body, the church.