The Body, Not the One

Romans 12:4-5 (NIV) -

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.

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1 Corinthians 14:26 (NIV) -

What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.

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I will start by expanding on my thought from last night. I pray that God will speak to each of you as you read and give you the same revelation that he has given me.

If you look closely at Paul's letters to the churches (from Romans through to 2 Thessalonians), you will see that Paul almost exclusively uses words such as we, our, and us. He also addresses each letter either, "to the church," to the, "holy people," or to the, "brothers and sisters in Christ."

What does this mean? It means that everything that Paul said, he said to the church as a body! Everything that Paul teaches throughout his letters was meant to be applied not as individual people doing their own thing and coming together once a week, but as a united body who strives towards holiness as one!

I've been reading a series called The First-Century Diaries lately, which has been a big part of this revelation for me. One line, from the Gaius Diary, sums it up better than I could: "Always, as you read, keep in mind that this letter was not written to an individual. The secret of living the Christian life always belongs inside the corporate body of believers."

In Western culture, we have such a strong emphasis on individuality, and rightly so - God made each of us uniquely and has given each of us a calling according to how he made us! But in putting such a strong emphasis on that, we have collectively fallen into a mindset that says, "Grace is for me." In doing so, we have isolated ourselves, and we've kept ourselves from discovering and living in the full truth that is available - that grace is a gift, not for me, but for us, the church, the Bride of Christ working as one Body, and that I find my purpose and fulfilment as a member of that Body, not on my own.

The beauty of the Body, as opposed to other worldly structures, is that though I am one with the Body, I do not lose my individual expression. Instead, it is encouraged! As we see in 1 Cor 14, "each of you," has something to offer, "so that the church may be built up." Even here, Paul's encouragement is that when we express our unique gifts and personality with love in the context of the church, everyone benefits.

As believers, we need each other. The ecclesia, God's community, isn't a nice add-on or a side benefit to Christian living. It is an absolutely central part of its true expression, and if we miss that, then we are almost missing the whole point.

As we begin to unpack the implications behind this over the coming days, it is my prayer that God will do in each of you what he has been doing in me - that he would set you free from ever again thinking that the Christian walk has anything to do with each of you as individuals, and that he would help you know deep in your spirits that it has everything to do with God equipping his church to live holy lives in community with one another.