Introduction to the Church as the Body of Christ

I Corinthians 12:12-13
“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.”

Every church or denomination has certain distinctive teachings, emphases, or practices that form part of identity and set it apart from all others. For our churches, one of the central teachings is the church as the Body of Christ. Of course, almost every group of Christians believes that the church is the Christ’s Body in some sense*. For us, however, the Body is something we live on a daily basis, and emphasize constantly in our teachings. Our beliefs about the Body are connected to our belief in God’s revelation – we believe that the Holy Spirit still speaks today and wants to guide and teach God’s people, so we believe that the Body of Christ is dynamic, alive, always learning and progressing toward a goal. This understanding of the Body affects our approach to ministry, evangelism, salvation, how we handle spiritual gifts, worship, and church finances.

When we talk about church, we begin with the assumption that a church can choose to be either faithful to the Lord or unfaithful to the Lord. We understand that some churches exist for social reasons, or because of cultural traditions, and have no commitment to God. Instead, they see themselves as human institutions that exist to serve human needs and interests. We are not criticizing such groups, but we believe something much different about the church: we believe the church’s ONLY purpose is to please the Lord and obey His will. This is our only commitment; unlike the groups mentioned, we have no commitment to human interests or people’s ideas or agendas. We believe the church is supposed to be truly spiritual, existing only to learn the will of God and obey it.

We call this the “faithful church.” We do not say this to imply that our church members are better than other people. Instead, we believe the measure of a church is its faithfulness in obeying the Lord, who is alive today and wants to speak to the church through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We want to be part of the “faithful church,” the obedient church; we believe that following man’s ideas, opinions, or agendas would make us an “unfaithful church.” We want our members to understand the difference between the faithful church and the unfaithful church. The difference must be clear.

The New Testament uses the Greek word “ekklesia” for church; the word implies a group or gathering of individuals called out or separated from the rest. God has a project of salvation that runs all through human history. He has included certain criteria for people to be saved, to have eternal life. One of the first criteria is for a person to come out of darkness, out of a worldly life. Jesus said that no one can serve two masters. A person who is truly saved cannot continue to serve the world or the flesh at the same time that they claim to serve the Lord. We are called out of this world to serve the Lord wholeheartedly; and the “church” is supposed to be the group of people the Lord has called from this world to receive and experience salvation.

Living in the Body, therefore, requires that we leave behind a life of sin, selfishness, and worldliness and live according to a standard that comes from eternity. The Body of Christ is the image and likeness of what is in eternity – it conforms to the pattern in eternity. Man’s body was originally made in the image and likeness of God. There is a Body that is eternal, and the human body reflects God’s project in eternity.
The human body is an amazing system of integrated parts that work together in harmony. So is the Body of Christ. Every part of the human body depends on the others – no single organ can survive on its own. All work together constantly to preserve the life of the Body overall. There is no competition between parts – your nose, for example, does not try to steal blood or nutrients from your ears or hands. Each part of the Body supports the life of every other part. And this is how the Body of Christ should be as well. In order to be faithful, to be the faithful church, we need to follow this pattern.

As members of the church, we understand that our function is to contribute to the life of the Body, to show concern with the spiritual life of all the other members, and to avoid things that harm the Body of Christ. The spiritual life of each member contributes to the spiritual life of the Body as a whole.

*One of our concerns in Maranatha is that many Christians equate the “Body of Christ” with some religious movement, like revivalism, Pentecostalism, fundamentalism, or mainline evangelicalism. Movements are a mere social phenomenon – groups of people rallying around some ideas, a style of worship or prayer, or a person with a strong personality and great communication skills. Religious movements come and go as their talented leaders rise and fall, or as people get bored and move onto the next new thing. There is little personal commitment in a religious movement – individuals can accept the basic ideas, attend meetings and rallies, and then decide for themselves how to live or what to do in their personal lives. Leadership in a movement is the same thing as being a celebrity – people go to hear the leader speak, or buy his books and tapes, because the person is famous. This does not resemble the integration of a human body at all. It is just a social movement, a group of people latching on to certain styles, rhetoric, or famous personalities. THE DOCTRINE OF THE BODY is one of the most important messages we have to offer the world at this hour. We recognize that this emphasis makes us different from other churches, but we must be obedient to the calling the Lord gave us.

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