As we consider the Church as an analogy of a body, the idea not only calls attention to the Head of the body but also to the body’s other components, referred to as the body’s members. This points us to consider further the body metaphor as a window through which to view the Church. A major passage about the Church as the body of Christ is 1 Corinthians 12:12–27. This passage opens with the observation, “Just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” This part of the analogy moves our attention from Christ the Head of the body to those of us who constitute the membership of His body, the Church.
Wide-angle lens
At this point we must clarify our thinking. Are we viewing this analogy in terms of a local congregation or as an image of all true believers who make up the Church at large? To apply truths derived from or illustrated by the imagery of a body we often tend to relate those truths exclusively to our own local congregation.
However, in thinking about the Church as the body of Christ we must view the Church through wide-angle lens. It is true that the Church appears most frequently in the New Testament as a local congregation. In this narrow focus we think of the church at Corinth or in Thessalonica or some other location.
Local, universal body
On the other hand some passages require us to look through the wide-angle lens to see the Church as the totality of the people of God in all places and throughout all time. Church is a term that can have both meanings — the local body of Christ in a specific place and the universal body of Christ composed of all true Christian believers. As Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message puts it, “The body of Christ … includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”
Spirit of competition
Awareness of the Church in its inclusive sense as the body of Christ can go a long way in eliminating any spirit of competition between local churches. Local churches are not properly in competition with one another. We are all on the same team. All of us together compose the one body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:4 declares, “There is one body.” Recognition of this truth compels us to respond with a resounding “No” to the question asked in 1 Corinthians 1:13, “Is Christ divided?” This “one body” truth also is clearly set forth in the language of 1 Corinthians 12:12.
Caring heart
The awareness of being a part of the one body of Christ also serves to create in us a caring heart for the suffering segments of Christ’s body in lands where Christians are oppressed, persecuted and martyred. Since the body of Christ is made up of all true believers, when any portion of the body is hurting the rest of the body should be feeling the pain.
The oneness of the body of Christ is set forth in a portion of a hymn that we sometimes sing in our local church gatherings, “Who serves my Father as a child is surely kin to me.”
Share with others: