5. The One Body (1 Corinthians 12)
“The body is one” (v. 12). It is the
Father’s wisdom generally to place believers together in
“families”. The ecclesia is more often the object of concern than is
the individual standing alone. We are all, whether we like it or not, members of
a body. No man should live to himself; that would be selfishness, stagnation,
sterility, and a direct contradiction of Paul’s elaborate allegory. The
most important lesson of our spiritual education is to learn to think and to act
unselfishly as part of the One Body, and not selfishly as a separate individual,
even as regards our own salvation.
The body is one, yet it has many
members (v. 14). Some are less beautiful or feebler than others (vv. 22,23),
but these too are necessary. “God hath tempered the body
together” (v. 24); these individuals have been welded together with the
ecclesia. In faith and obedience they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Those for whom Christ died must not be treated haughtily or
indifferently.
“The beauty and usefulness and purpose of
the human body is in its diversity. A severed foot or hand is a repulsive
monstrosity. It is obviously dead and useless — detached, broken off,
lost, cast aside, rejected; yea, worse: decaying, corrupting, putrefying. But a
complete, living, healthy body, with all its parts functioning smoothly
together, all perfectly coordinated in grace and symmetry and harmony of
movement and purpose, all instantly subject to the one Head — is of great
attractiveness, and obvious power and usefulness. No single member can be a body
in itself: however accomplished, however skilled, however wise. No one of us can
stand alone. We may, by unavoidable force of circumstances, be confined to
lonely isolation, like Paul shut up in prison, but we are still part of the
Body; and we must, like Paul, think and live and move and breathe as part of the
Body. Those who live for themselves alone, however holily they may strive to
live, are monstrosities and abortions” (G.V. Growcott, “The Same
Care for One Another”, The Berean Christadelphian, Vol. 57, No. 10
— Oct. 1969 — pp. 308,309).
“And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I
have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of
you” (v. 21). So Paul presses home the point: There should be no schism
(division) in the Body (v. 25). “And whether one member suffer, all
the members suffer with it” (v. 26). Life itself teaches everyone that
pain in one member affects the whole body; and the loss of one member, even a
small toe, can seriously affect the balance of the whole. It is by no accident
or meaningless rhetoric that we find Moses interposing himself as a would-be
sacrifice on behalf of his blind and erring countrymen (Exod. 32:30-33). Neither
is it to be thought unusual that Nehemiah and David and Daniel and the other
prophets showed no sign of dissociating themselves from Israel, no matter how
wayward their countrymen became. (And even when Jeremiah ceased praying for his
brethren, it was God’s decision and not his! — Jer. 14:11.)
These men had learned the Bible doctrine of the One Body long before Paul. They
lived fully Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 13:
“LOVE suffers long” (v.
4).
“LOVE thinks no evil” (v.
5).
“LOVE bears all things, hopes all
things” (v. 7).
“LOVE keeps no score of wrong,
does not gloat over other men’s sins, but delights in truth” (v. 6,
NEB).
If we might by any means see how often our
spiritual perceptions are out of line! In our small and often self-centered
“fellowships”, are not our prayers frequent and fervent for the
fortunes of Israel “after the flesh”? (And well they should be!) And
we feel almost at one in spirit with these long-suffering sons of our father
Abraham. But how often do we make mention of other Christadelphians, from
whom we may be divided by only a single point, except to find fault? These, who
— even by the strictest standards — are much more nearly our true
brethren than any of the unbelieving Jews! Dare we ask again? Is this the
attitude of Paul? of Moses? of Jeremiah or Ezekiel or David?
“It may perhaps be argued that when
gangrene sets in, amputation becomes an urgent necessity if life is to be saved.
Precisely! Gangrene (like cancer) is a condition in which the damaged or faulty
member is not willing to receive and use the healing influences which all the
rest of the body, via the blood stream, tries to bring to bear. Instead it is an
aggressive evil which, left to itself, will certainly bring death. Here is the
false teacher who refuses the help which the ecclesia can make available to him,
but who instead employs every effort to spread the corruption which has affected
him. For such, excision or amputation is the only course. On the other hand, to
take off a toe because the nail is ingrowing, or to gouge out an eye because a
squint has developed, is plain folly. In such cases, the body puts up with the
defects and takes what action is advisable to restore normality to the defective
member” (H. Whittaker, “Block Disfellowship”, The
Testimony, Vol. 43, No. 513 — Sept. 1973 — p.
342).
There is a simple, common-sense lesson that we
must all learn. It is a lesson in humility and patience and faith among other
things. The ecclesia does not exist in order to keep the Truth pure as a
theory (i.e. ‘The purer our ecclesia, the better!’). The Truth
(as an abstract principle, or set of principles communicated from God) cannot
be anything but pure! The ecclesia does exist to help impure
men and women (with imperfect beliefs and impure ways) to move
toward purity, even if their progress is slow.
There is no point in an ecclesia existing if it
does not understand and confidently accept this duty. If perfect
“purity” (i.e. non-contamination) is all the members of the
“Body” desire, then the best course would be to disband the ecclesia
and allow each individual to bread bread at home. Chop the “Body”
into a hundred separate pieces, and isolate each piece in an airtight container!
And then you can spent your time wondering what happened to the love, the joy,
the fellowship, and the family feeling which you once enjoyed.
Consider again Paul’s beautiful inspired
allegory: The One Body! “Fearfully and wondrously made.... how marvelous
are thy works, O Lord!” (Psa. 139:14). The spiritual body, like the
physical body, is not a sterile laboratory “experiment”, existing in
a fragile regulated environment, behind locked doors! The spiritual Body of
Christ, like the “fearful and wondrous” physical body, is much more
akin to a hospital. Like a hospital, with its Great Physician at its
head, it is constantly working even in its imperfection to heal its
diseased members and to strengthen its weak members. And so it must
continue, until its work is finished and the One Body — perfected at last
— is glorified with its Head for a joyful eternity.