Tag Archives: one body

ONE BODY, MANY MEMBERS

Bible Study, ,

ONE BODY, MANY MEMBERS

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:3-5.

It seems to me that Paul is not talking so much about pride as about competition in the church. Perhaps pride does underlie the competition that goes on between the members in many church groups; but what about insecurity? It is the insecure person who craves to be noticed so that he can receive the accolades that boost his self-esteem but, like a drug, the effect wears off after a while, and he needs another “fix” to keep going.

Since the most prominent and visible people get the accolades, he will try to climb up the pecking order by aspiring to gifts and functions which are not his. Paul warns, “Don’t try to become what you are not.” Not only will you not fit the function, but you will also rob the rightful person of his or her place in the body. Those who crave to be noticed by trying to fill the wrong shoes do not understand either the mercy of God or the way the church should function.

Paul uses three images to describe the church in its relation to Jesus and to the world; a body, a building and a bride. Each image points to a specific facet of what it should be and do.

In this passage, Paul highlights the function of the body in relation to its head. A body cannot function without a head. It is the head than controls the body, not the body the head. The head of the church is Jesus, who controls and directs His body by His Holy Spirit. Individuals in each local church are placed there by the head in order to fulfil the function of that particular body in its local setting.

“God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” Ephesians 1:22, 23.

A body has two primary functions; to take care of its own health and to reproduce. It can only fulfil those functions if each part does its own work efficiently. No body part can take over the function of another: an ear cannot see and an eye cannot hear. Why is it that we understand this in the natural and yet we overlook it in the spiritual? The health of the body depends on each part fulfilling its own function so that the whole body can work as a unit.

Once again, this brings us back to the nature of God – He is one in three distinct persons. His nature is reflected in the interdependence of everything in the universe. God’s glory is evident when everything works together in harmony. Unity was destroyed when Adam sinned. Jesus restored the potential for unity through the cross and He will complete the restoration when He returns, bringing everything back under His headship and orchestrating the universe as one harmonious whole. That includes every person who is submitted to him.

Can you see how important it is that every member fulfils his or her function in the body regardless of how visible or invisible he happens to be? Personal ambition has no place in the body. Unity is the goal.

“So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ…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 4:11-13; 16.

Unity and maturity go hand in hand. To grow up in Christ, unlike the independence everyone in the world craves, is to become increasingly dependent on Him and on one another. Jesus said that we are to become like little children – helpless without Daddy and Mommy! When we each do our part without encroaching on someone else’s function, we show the world what God is like and reveal His power that makes unity possible.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

DEAL WITH YOUR ANGER

Bible Study, ,

DEAL WITH YOUR ANGER

Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body. ‘In your anger, do not sin.’ Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need (Eph. 4:25-28).

Members of one body! Here is the motivation for living a new life. Of whose body are we members? We are members of Christ’s body. We no longer belong to ourselves, and we no longer live in isolation from one another in the body. We are not only joined to Jesus, our head – we are also joined to one another. Paul described it in this way:

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 (Eph. 4:16).

The church is not like an organisation or a club where people are loosely connected by their affiliation to the group. Paul described the church as a body, where its members are inseparably joined to its head and to one another, as closely as the systems in a human body are joined and work together. This means that we make choices and decisions and act in unity and harmony with one another, considering how our actions will affect others in the body.

We have a defence mechanism, as human beings, to protect ourselves in our vulnerability from the attitudes and opinions of others. We put on masks of pseudo-holiness to cover our failings. Paul urged his readers to be transparent with each other because we belong to one another. The cells in a body must work together for the systems to function efficiently. So, we, too, must be honest and open with each other if we are to live as a true body.

In the body of Christ, we are supposed to ‘bear with one another in love’ which means that we are not to criticise or judge one another. Within the body, we should be safe to fail and we should be open to correction when we stray from the path. Unfortunately, believers are often so defensive that they are offended when someone corrects them instead of humbly accepting the rebuke and coming back to the path of obedience to God’s Word.

Gentleness and humility are the hallmarks of Jesus. We are to follow Him and not to allow ego and pride to alienate us from one another. ‘Lying’ to one another implies more than telling lies. It includes living lies in our relationships within the body.

Paul deals with another common and confusing problem with which believers wrestle – anger. Many of us mistakenly believe that anger is sinful. If that were true, then Jesus’ anger at the Pharisees would have disqualified Him from being our Saviour. We feel guilty when we get angry because we do not realise the purpose of anger.

Much of our anger has to do with unresolved emotional pain. There is no such thing as an ‘angry’ person. People are not angry by nature. People use anger to protect themselves from the hurts they have not resolved. Many carry the pain of abuse from early childhood which they cannot face. They explode and lash out at everyone over minor and often irrelevant issues (called ‘emotional overload’) to protect themselves from being vulnerable to the same hurts again.

This kind of anger is sinful because it destroys relationships and isolates the individual from other people. The way to deal with this kind of anger is not to have counselling on ‘anger management’ which is completely ineffective, but to expose and deal with the cause of the emotional pain. Healing comes from facing the memories, acknowledging the source of the pain and forgiving the person or persons who caused it.

There is another reason for anger, called ‘righteous’ anger, which is a legitimate and important response to injustice.  Jesus was angry with the merchants and money changers who turned the outer court of the temple into a market. His anger produced action which sent a clear message to the offenders, including the religious hierarchy who no doubt benefitted from the profits. He drove the offenders out of the temple with the rebuke from God’s Word,

Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers (Mark 11:17)

This anger is not a volatile emotional explosion but a sustained attitude of displeasure which moves a person to take action against abuse or injustice. This was the attitude that drove William Wilberforce, for example, to persevere in his purpose to rid England of slavery. In this understanding of anger, Paul counsels his readers “not to let the sun go down on their anger”. In other words, he encourages them not to let the matter rest until they bring it to a satisfactory conclusion.

Our responsibility, as members of Christ’s body, is to deal with our anger in the appropriate way. If we are bearing grudges and carrying old offences which cause us to hide behind anger, it is time to bring them out of the closet and to own our reactions and forgive the offender.

If we are angry about the harm caused to others, we should not give up on our efforts to change what needs to be changed so that those around us will receive the respect and dignity they deserve as members of the human race. God needs this kind of ‘angry’ people to change society wherever they can and to bring about harmony, not rebellion and conflict between its members.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

One Body, Many Members

Bible Study, ,

ONE BODY, MANY MEMBERS 

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:3-5.

It seem to me that Paul is not talking so much about pride as about competition in the church. Perhaps pride does underlie the competition that goes on between the members in many church groups; but what about insecurity? It is the insecure person who craves to be noticed so that he can receive the accolades that boost his self-esteem but, like a drug, the effect wears off after a while, and he needs another “fix” to keep going.

Since the most prominent and visible people get the accolades, he will try to climb up the pecking order by aspiring to gifts and functions which are not his. Paul warns, “Don’t try to become what you are not.” Not only will you not fit the function, but you will also rob the rightful person of his or her place in the body. Those who crave to be noticed by trying to fill the wrong shoes, do not understand either the mercy of God or the way the church should function.

Paul uses three images to describe the church in its relation to Jesus and to the world; a body, a building and a bride. Each image points to a specific facet of what it should be and do.

A body cannot function without a head. It is the head than controls the body, not the body the head. The head of the church is Jesus, who controls and directs His body by His Holy Spirit. Individuals in each local church are placed there by the head in order to fulfil the function of that particular body in its local setting.

“God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” Ephesians 1:22, 23.

A body has two primary functions; to take care of its own health and to reproduce. It can only fulfil those functions if each part does its own work efficiently. No body part can take over the function of another: an ear cannot see and an eye cannot hear. Why is it that we understand this in the natural and yet we overlook it in the spiritual? The health of the body depends on each part fulfilling its own function so that the whole body can work as a unit.

Once again, this brings us back to the nature of God – He is one in three distinct persons. His nature is reflected in the interdependence of everything in the universe. God’s glory is evident when everything works together in harmony. Unity was destroyed when Adam sinned. Jesus restored the potential for unity through the cross and He will complete the restoration when He returns, bringing everything back under His headship and orchestrating the universe as one harmonious whole. That includes every person who is submitted to him.

Can you see how important it is that every member fulfil his or her function in the body regardless of how visible or invisible he happens to be? Personal ambition has no place in the body. Unity is the goal.

“So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ…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 4:11-13; 16.

Unity and maturity go hand in hand. To grow up in Christ, unlike the independence everyone in the world craves, is to become increasingly dependent on Him and on one another. Jesus said that we are to become like little children – helpless without Daddy and Mommy! When we each do our part without encroaching on someone else’s function, we show the world what God is like and reveal His power that makes unity possible.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.