Our Identity in Christ [Members of the Body]…

February 16, 2007 | 10:31 PM

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27, NIV)

“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 who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5, NIV)

I would first, before saying anything, encourage you to read all of 1 Corinthians 12 to get a more descriptive explanation of the Apostle Paul’s “body of Christ” analogy. Likewise, Ephesians 4 relates Paul’s desires that the members of the body, or the people of what we call the Church, love one another. I think that there is one primary encouragement that we find in this imagery: that we, as a body, must work together in cooperation with other believers just as our senses and organs work together in our own physical bodies.

I think Paul is speaking on a very individual level when he talks about being a member of the body. He’s speaking to individuals within the church who have different and unique gifts from God. In 1 Corinthians 12, he really talks specifically about the gifts that God gives believers, and that we should not be jealous of those with particular gifts that are different from our own. Moreover, members of the church should not hate each other. This should be completely obvious, but it’s unfortunately not a reality.

Think of HIV/AIDS. Human Immunodeficiency Virus, once it’s inside the body, begins to attack the immune system- that is the cells that fight off infections and diseases. Once enough of the cells that make up a body’s immune system are destroyed, AIDS is diagnosed. The process and transition from HIV to AIDS can take from several weeks to many years. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is one of the greatest enemies of life. According to some sources, once a person is diagnosed with AIDS, if treatment isn’t administered, the median survival time is less than 10 months. I think the Church in America has HIV/AIDS, but I think it can be saved.

The key is that we have to stop hating on each other. We have to stop looking for as many differences, distinctives, and points of dissent among ourselves and start looking for points of cooperation. I read blogs set up by people who identify themselves as new creations in Christ- believers, followers, lovers of Jesus- that are openly antagonistic and hateful toward their local church, pastors, and denomination. I’m not talking about simple disagreement. I’m talking about utter hate. Some identify themselves as still on staff at, or serving at, the church they are so defiantly speaking against. Their words undermine and destroy. They tear down. Like a cancer they destroy from within, turning the body against itself so that it is cannibalizing itself. Eventually the body withers to skin and bones; it is a shell of its former self. Like HIV, there is rarely an escape from this cannibalization.

But if we embrace our identity in Christ as members of a body, we will work together despite our different ideas, our different gifts, our different purposes. When we work together as one, we become healthy again. The internal rebellion is quashed, and the body functions as it should. As it was fully intended. Or, we can choose to cannibalize ourselves and make our body completely ineffective in its purpose in the world and unable to fight the diseases that so often destroy it.

Last week I heard Scot McKnight say “the gospel we preach produces the churches we get.” Perhaps it’s time to look to our Great Physician, our great God, our Savior Jesus, and preach the true gospel- the good news- the treatment to our body’s HIV/AIDS and cancer.

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Posted in Christianity, Identity in Christ Series, Life, Prayer, Theology