This imagery of a Body appears quite often in the New Testament. The Church is one Body in Christ.
Romans 12:4-5 (NKJV)
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 SO WE, being many, are ONE BODY IN CHRIST, and individually members of one another.
Colossians 1:18 (NKJV)
18 And He is the head of THE BODY, THE CHURCH, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Because we are one body, we are instructed to care for one another. In 1 Corinthians 12:14-27, Paul uses the imagery of the human body to explain this.
1 Corinthians 12:14-27 (NKJV)
14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it THEREFORE NOT OF THE BODY?
16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it THEREFORE NOT OF THE BODY? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has SET THE MEMBERS, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member (or one body part), where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, YET ONE BODY.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker ARE NECESSARY. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be NO SCHISM (or division) in the body, but that the members should have THE SAME CARE for one another. 26 And if ONE MEMBER SUFFERS, ALL THE MEMBERS SUFFER WITH IT; or if ONE MEMBER is honored, ALL the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are THE BODY OF CHRIST, and members individually.
Paul’s point is this: in Christ, we are all members of the same body. We need each other. We must not look down on anyone. We must care for even the so-called “lesser” parts.
We come TOGETHER to form Christ’s Body in the Earth. Paul writes in Ephesians 1, “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is HIS BODY, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (vv. 22-23). The Church is the FULLNESS of Christ on the Earth. That is, we have ALL of Him NOW.
© Josh Banks Ministries. 2022.
