The Body of Christ

A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick


Recently, one of our guest missionary speakers, a "home" missionary who ministers to our growing mentally challenged population, relayed to us a one sentence sermon by a member of his ministry group. This man simply said, "The Church has CP (Cerebral Palsy) because the Body is not responding properly to the Head."

In case you've forgotten, Cerebral Palsy is "A disability due to damage of centers of the brain before or during birth resulting in imperfect control of muscles and marked especially by muscular in-co-ordination, spastic paralysis, and speech disturbances." (Webster's) Note that bodies with CP don't work together, are often immobilized, and cannot communicate very well. The parallels with the church are obvious.

A few years ago, what was then a new wave of teaching blew through the church under the title, "Body Life." During that time, there was a major change in emphasis. According to the proponents of this new movement, the church is all about relationships and ministry to one another.

    For example, popular author Ray Stedman, in his 1996 book "Body Life" wrote, "We exist to love one another, and to demonstrate Christ-like love to the world. That is our purpose. That is the calling of the church."

    In a later chapter, Stedman wrote, "What is terribly missing in all too many churches is the experience of 'body life' -- that warm fellowship of Christian with Christian which the New Testament calls koinonia, and which was an essential part of early Christianity. The New Testament lays heavy emphasis upon the need for Christians to know each other, closely and intimately enough to be able to bear one another's burdens, confess faults one to another, encourage, exhort, and admonish one another; and minister to one another with the Word, song, and prayer."

This represented a pendulum swing away from the former emphasis on the idea that the primary relationship of the church was vertical, our relationship with God. Now, more recently, we have seen a swing back to where worship isn't about who we're worshipping with, but who it is that we're worshipping. Someone may wonder, so which is it? Is the church to be about our relationship with God, or with one another? And the answer obviously is, "Yes." We cannot choose one to the neglect of the other. Jesus made this clear when He said that the two great commands are to "Love God . . . and Love your neighbor."

    When Matthew (22:37-39) gives us these words of Jesus, He says that the second command, "Love your neighbor" is like the first commandment, "Love God." ("`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.'") When he uses the word "like," Jesus means to say the two commands are "of the same nature" - or to say it another way, the second command "is just as great as this [first] one." (Bauer/Gingrich Lexicon)

    In Mark's rendering (12:30, 31), after stating the command, Jesus says, "There is no commandment greater than these," suggesting that they are equal in strength. ("'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.")

The importance of seeing these two commands as of equal standing is further indicated in other places such as the Parable of the Unjust Servant (Matthew 18:23-35) and in the "Lord's Prayer" when we learn that God's forgiveness is offered to those who forgive others.

You see, it's not one without the other - John explains that, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." (John 4:20, 21)

    There are a couple of simple analogies that help us see this. Notice what happens when you only have the use of one leg? You can do it, but it's very difficult to get anywhere fast. Or notice what happens when you're in a row boat trying to row with only one oar - it's very hard to keep from going around in circles. So it is when we try to love God without loving people, or trying to love people without loving God.

Any religion is a false religion that says, "I love God, and I will kill any neighbor who does not love God." And please understand that we're not just talking about radical Islam here. Even the great Christian leader and writer, Augustine, promoted the idea that those who represented what he believed to be heresy could be legitimately persecuted, even to death.

However, if love of God yields love of neighbor, the opposite must also be true - true love of neighbor will yield love of God. How so? When we make an effort to love our neighbor, we soon find out that there are barriers and obstacles - the desire is there, but the ability is limited.

    Perhaps what Jesus said applies here, "The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Isn't it hard to love the person who appears to be irresponsible, or who is angry at you without a cause, or who has done you dirty in word or deed? Besides, loving some people is like trying to caress an alligator or hug a porcupine.

    We often love to be loved in return, and there are many people who just cannot reciprocate. That's why Jesus instructed us to invite for dinner people who cannot invite us back. The attitude of the world is, "One hand washes another." In other words, "I'll do you a favor so when I need a favor I can come back to you for it." Jesus wants us to give a cup of cold water to the person who doesn't even have a well.

    So to love our neighbor, we need to love God, and out of that divine/human relationship, we can have the willingness and the ability to love others.

The point is this: in the church, we are to do both things at once. We are called on to "walk and chew gum," to pat our heads and rub our stomachs at the same time - develop our relationship with God as well as with man. As it was said of Jesus, may it be also said of us, "He found favor with God and man."

The Biblical image of the church is that of the body. We are the Body of Christ. This carries with it the understanding that the body is the temple. Jesus referred to this when, as John explains, "He spake of the temple of his body." (John 2:21) Paul is clearly speaking of the church when he writes, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in [among] you?" (I Corinthians 3:16) Yes, our own physical bodies are to be viewed as the temple, that is the place where worship takes place, and consequently we make every effort to avoid defiling our bodies. But it is just as clear that we together, the church, are the Body. That's what the man had in mind when he pointed out that the Lord must have CP - the Body that is the church is not responding to the Head which is Christ.

Much of what the Bible has to say about the church is found in Paul's letters to the churches of his day. Several times mention is made of this idea that the church is a body. For example in the book of Romans, Paul writes, "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)

To the Christians at Colossae Paul explains that Jesus Christ ". . . is the head of the body, the church. . . ." (Colossians 1:18) In the next chapter he writes about proud teachers of false doctrine who have ". . . lost connection with the Head. . . ." (Colossians 2:18, 19)

Then he adds, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)

Even more emphasis is given in another Prison Epistle, Ephesians, where Paul clearly states that "God . . . appointed him [Jesus] to be head over everything for the church, which is his body. . . ." (Ephesians 1:22, 23 - also 5:30) In that letter, Paul seemed to be especially concerned about the Jew/Gentile division, and wants to stress that there is but one body. This can be seen in 2:11-18, but also in 3:6 ("through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body") and in 4:3, 4 ("Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body.")

However, it is in Ephesians that Paul also points out that as with any other body, there is a need for "body building," and for that reason the Lord has provided ". . . apostles . . . prophets . . . evangelists, and . . . pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11-13)

A few verses later Paul adds that ". . . the whole body . . . grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (4:16)

But the most thorough explanation of "body life" is given in I Corinthians 12:12-27 from which we can glean these four points:

1. Within unity there is multiplicity; this is due to there being one Spirit and one baptism. (verses 12-16). Here the message is that each individual part has a self awareness of being necessary and important.

    There's a well-known story about a traveler in the Middle Ages, who visited a city where many stone cutters were working. Approaching several, he asked the same question: "What are you doing?"

    The first stonecutter he met replied, "I'm cutting stone. It's dull work, but it pays the bills."

    A second stonecutter responded, "I'm the best stone cutter in the land. Look at the smoothness of this stone, how perfect the edges are."

    A third pointed to a foundation several yards away, and said, "I'm building a cathedral."

In this passage, Paul explains: "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body -- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free -- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body."

2. There is diversity with purpose; every individual part having a distinct role determined by God (verses 17-21). In this part of the teaching we understand that each member needs to affirm the importance of the others.

Sometimes we quip while watching someone eat, "Have you ever noticed that each time the elbow bends, the mouth opens?" Can you just imagine how difficult it would be to feed yourself if your elbow didn't do its job?

Again, Paul expresses it this way: "If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you!'"

3. There is a reverse ranking of the members; the obvious parts are less necessary than the hidden ones (verses 22-24). The message here is also simple, "Image isn't everything." It's not what's on the outside that counts, it's what is on the inside. That's why Samuel explained to Saul, "Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart." (I Samuel 16:7)

Listen again to Paul: "On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it."

4. The unity of this diversity is based on mutual care and empathy (verses 25-27).

This is where the true meaning of "body life" comes into play. When there is true love for one another, divisions become impossible. We may disagree, but we won't disfellowship.

Again, listen to Paul: "There should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."

Pressing the body-church analogy a little further, I'd like to take the liberty to add two more points.

5. A body is something you can see. There's no such thing as a "spiritual" body - that would be a contradiction, or oxymoron. The point is, when we speak of the church, we are specifically speaking of the gathered church. In fact, we can go so far as to say that there is no such thing as a universal or "catholic" church - there is only a "local" church. Of course this goes against the grain of efforts made throughout history to unite the church into one monolithic, world-wide church. There is no such thing, and every attempt has failed for this reason, and has resulted in the creation of something that ends up being a humanly organized and maintained entity. To say that we all belong to the universal church is nonsense. If the church is a body, and a body is something that can be seen, then it can only be the local church. Look around you today - what you see here is the church.

This may be confusing to some people because if this is the church, what about the church across town. If we are the church, how can they be the church unless we together make up the church? Remember what Jesus said, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20) And we note that this is one of only two times Jesus is recorded in Scripture referring by name to the church. The point is simply that wherever, and whenever, a few people are in the same place, gathered to honor the Name of Jesus - He is there, and that's the church, His body.

By the way, this phrase "two or three" is found 7 times in the New Testament, four of them having to do with establishing the truth by way of witnesses.

6. And the last point is simply this, all parts of the body need to be healthy in order for the Body to be healthy. If a part is not functioning well, the whole body is affected by that weakness or illness. Unfortunately our culture places a higher premium on pleasure than on well-being. When there is pain, whether physical or emotional, we take pain killers rather than deal with the true source of the pain. If something causes us to feel good, we will prefer it over what may be good for us. On a physical level, how else can we explain the extreme abundance of obesity?

The question for each member of the church, the body, is this: "Am I making a contribution to the well-being of the body?"

You see, as with all analogies, there is a major limitation when we compare the church to a body. That is, each member in the Body of Christ is a living breathing thinking person with freedom of choice. In our physical bodies, much of what we do is involuntary - the particular parts do not have a mind of their own. With Christ this is not true, and that's why there is the possibility of CP - the Body not responding properly to the Head. If the Body is not functioning, it's simply because we have decided not to respond to the directions sent from the Head.

The time has come to change that.

Discussion Questions
The Body of Christ

1. What is Cerebral Palsy, and how can this be applied to the church?

2. With regards to our understanding about the nature of the church, if the pendulum swings and ministry to the Lord is at one end, what is on the other end of the swing?

3. Why is it that being at the extreme end of such a pendulum swing is not acceptable?

4. When Jesus talked about the two great commandments, what are they, and what about them is alike?

5. What is the story Jesus told about an "unjust servant," and what was the lesson taught from this story?

6. What are some possible experiences in our lives that point out that there is great disadvantage when one of two important parts is not functioning properly?

7. What is wrong with a religion that does harm to people while claiming to serve God?

8. If love of God leads to love of neighbor, how is it that love of neighbor can lead to love of God?

9. The Bible says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. What does that mean, and what should be our response when we come to agree that this is true?

10. In Paul's letters, several times mention is made of church being a body. What is the essential meaning of these passages: Romans 12:4, 5; Colossians 1:18; 2:18, 19; 3:15; Ephesians 1:22, 23; 5:30; 2:11-18; 3:6; 4:3, 4, 11-13, 16?

11. Complete each of these phrases:

    One body with many ____________

    According to God's wisdom, every member has a distinct _____________

    The least noticeable members are often the most __________________

    The glue that keeps us together and helps avoid division is _________

12. What are some examples where it is clear that one part of our physical bodies is dependent on another?

13. Why do you think that image has become so important in our American way of life?

14. What is "empathy," and how can it be practiced in our daily lives?

15. What may be some of the dangers of trying to form a catholic (universal) church?

16. What is required for the church, the body of Christ, to be healthy?

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