One Nation. One Body. One Church

Happily Holidays Everyone!

Before I begin on today's post, I would like to remind you, as I try to often do, that these are merely my words. I pray that God uses them for His purposes, but that is up to Him. When Martin Luther was told to deny his writings, he told the judges this: "I am but a man and I can err, only let my errors be proven by Scripture and I will revoke my work and throw my books into the fire." Martin Luther was a humble man, and willing to be corrected. He also happens to be one of my biggest Spiritual heroes, and I long to be like him in so many ways. This is one specific area. As I've said before, this site is much like a journal. Many of these things I have not researched adequately, but I do try to share the truths that I do find in my journey with Christ. My hope for you, is that you search the Scriptures for yourselves that you might decide whether my words (and hopefully ultimately God's words) are true. With that said, I will begin.

  

My two passages today are Romans chapter 12 as well as 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Specifically Romans 12:4-5 and 1 Corinthians 12:12. However, as always we will use context to back them up. Romans 12:4-5 says this: "For as we have many members in one body; but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another." Similarly 1 Corinthians 12:12 says, "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." These verse contain so many implications it will knock your socks off, and I hope to get to each (or at least several) of them in the future. For today, however, I just want to address one. That is the implications these passages have for every Bible Believing church, regardless of denomination.

Now these passages are often (and rightly so) spoken of concerning individuals. For instance, let's say a church has 100 people. One of those people may be a teacher. One may be missions-minded. One may be charity-minded, a giver of money, theologian, AWANA leader, music leader, and so on for all one hundred. We usually use this Scripture to show that in all our different areas of blessing (talents), we are all of the same body. None is higher than the other, and certainly none is lower. Paul gives a great example of this in the 1 Corinthians passage, in verses 16-20: "And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,' is it therefore no of the body? If the whole body were  an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body."

I know you have all probably heard this before, so you will be happy to know I am not going in depth in this (though some might call it so). What I am proposing, and I am not the first, is that these passages are not in fact talking to individuals, at least not in whole. Let's take a look at the context, specifically of the Romans passage. All three chapters leading up to Romans 12 are talking about the same thing; Israel and the Gentiles.  Paul shows the Romans how the Gentiles came to Christ because of the Jews unbelief, and how one day the Jews will come to belief because of the Gentiles belief. That in itself is a beautiful message, but I will hinder myself from expanding on it for now.

My point from this is that the context is talking about people groups, Jews and Gentiles. Paul then opens chapter 12 with a "therefore." Now, as the age old question goes, what is the "therefore" there for? The "therefore" means Paul is taking everything he has talked about and is now telling his readers what to do about it. Now, has Paul been talking about people groups for three chapters only to suddenly switch to individuals? Maybe. But I think there is much more to it.

You see, verse 5 does talk about individuals, but not first. There is an "and" before the individuals which can only mean that the part before the "and" did not refer to individuals. Verse 5 says, "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually member of one another." This verse does not say we are individually members of the body of Christ. Well wait a second, if we aren't individually the body of Christ, who is?

The Church is the body of Christ. Therefore, what I am suggesting is that, perhaps, the individual is in fact not the body of Christ, but of each other aka a denomination. Now this could be read wrong, so please stay with me. I am not saying that we belong to denominations before Christ, or that if you don't have a denomination you aren't saved or anything like that.

Now, ideally, there wouldn't be any denominations, right? We could all live in peace and harmony with each other with our different gifts. Well, I'm not hear to talk about denominations. The fact of the matter is there are denominations and that likely will not change barring an audible message from the heavens. I want to dive into the realm of uniting these denominations into one...you guessed it...body of Christ.

You see, the problem with thinking of the individual as the body of Christ is this. As individuals, we seek churches that "fit" us. In other words, we end up at churches that promote the gift we have. People who are great great theologians go to churches that teach sound doctrine. People that like to help the poor go to churches more focussed on helping the poor. Missionaries go to churches that promote missions. It's very simple. But therein lies the problem. If each individual is the body of Christ, it is so easy to get lost in the idea that the body parts (individuals) make up the Church, singular. They don't make up all churches, but simply their own single denomination. I believe that is why churches who all are sharing the Gospel of Christ are still at enmity with each other. How could that church possibly be the body of Christ when my church is, after all, THE body of Christ?

You see, no individual church has every gift. Some churches focus primarily on helping the poor, but their doctrine is slightly questionable. Others have terrific doctrine but don't ever help the poor. Some churches sing hymns and some sing rock songs. Some people worship with their hands in their pockets (me) and others worship by jumping up and down, hands raised high. Well do you want to know something ridiculous? Every church that teaches the central message of Christ has people in it going to Heaven. So why the fighting? Why, when we are told again and again, that the world will know us by our love for each other, do we continue to hate? The (or as least one) answer is quite simple. In all our arrogance for defending what we believe, we have forgotten the very Author who's Word we are defending.

We cannot go on living our lives as if we are a Church divided. Like a body, and like a nation, we must  be one and undivided. A body without legs is still a body, but it is a broken body. That is not the way it was created. Humans were made to walk and run. A divided nation is still a nation, but it is a broken one. Untold thousands of soldiers have not died so that we might  be a divided nation, but a united one. That is why it is said "United we stand, divided we fall." If you cut the legs from under a man, he will fall. The Church must not, and cannot, continue to be a broken body, and a divided nation. As followers of Jesus Christ we have our differences, of course. Some Christians do things that others can't stand, and some don't do things that the other finds vital. Just like our body. Just like our nation. But that doesn't pull our body apart, and it doesn't pull our nation apart. Rather, it strengthens the body. It strengthens our nation. California is different than Minnesota in nearly every category. Minnesotans shake their heads at "liberal California" while California rolls their eyes at "ignorant Minnesota." But that doesn't pull our nation apart. The foot thinks the eye useless. You can't walk anywhere without legs. The eye laughs at this. You can't see where you are walking without the eyes. That doesn't pull the body apart.

We too have feet and eyes in the Church, and legs and arms and hands and brains and ears and on and on and on. Too often we wonder, "Why oh why is the Church of God so divided and so broken?" It's because we are breaking it ourselves! We kick at our legs with our feet, we gouge out our eyes with fingers, we bite our tongue with our teeth, and we claw at our arms with our fingernails. And all the while we forget it is not our body in the first place. We are destroying the body of Christ over things that don't matter in eternity.

Brothers and sisters, as a Church, we must let our differences strengthen our testimony, not destroy it. But what does a united Church look like? Where do we start? I think it's very simple. We start with love. From there it works itself out. We must stop fighting before we can ever start rebuilding.

I'm afraid I don't have a great conclusion for this, and I'm sorry if this is a bit of a downer for you, but I can't stress it's importance. The Body of Christ is what a lost world looks to. No wonder they hate us! We hate ourselves, our own body. Before the world is ever going to believe a word you say (I don't care if you have a doctorate in evangelism) they are first going to believe the way you live your life. We hold a message of love in our hands, extended to the world. But the world doesn't see a message of love. They see a message of denominations and rules and hate.

Perhaps that is the reason Jesus stressed love so much. Perhaps He looked into the future and saw what we would do with the Gospel. He knew the thing we needed to remember above theology and works and even loving sinners, was to love each other. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid (Matthew 5:14)." We are that city. Let us so shine that the world will have cover their eyes not to see us.

I pray with all my heart that God unites this Body, that we love each other as Christ loves us, and that through this, the world might see Christ.

God bless you all. Please pray for me as I pray for you.