The writers of the New Testament, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, used more than 50 metaphors to describe what it is like to be a Christian and to be a part of the corporate Church. The Church is the collection of all the people who have ever trusted Jesus Christ for forgiveness, extending from the resurrection to the return of Christ.
One of the most famous and most important metaphors ever given to describe the Church is that of the Body of Christ. The implications and applications of this metaphor are significant and numerous.
Here are a few of the most important elements of the metaphor of the Church as the Body.
One Body With Different Gifts
We need to each think soberly and accurately about our individual faith and giftedness as we fit into the Body of Christ.
When believers are accurate and humble about their faith and giftedness, they are the most helpful and encouraging to the Body of Christ. When believers are arrogant and have an inflated view of their gifts, they are the most discouraging to the Body.
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” -Romans 12:3
There are many members of the Body of Christ—billions to be sure—and we do not all have the same gifts and functions.
Even though we are one of billions, we are each valuable and we are each intentionally gifted by the Holy Spirit to contribute what we can each uniquely contribute to the Body.
“For 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, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” -Romans 12:4-6a
The billions of us are one Body and we are members one of another. We have a remarkable, inexplicable, spiritual bond together as the Body of Christ—greater than our biological family bond.
We have different gifts but they are all necessary and valuable. These gifts must all be exercised with faithfulness. The gifts we each have are by the Holy Spirit’s wise intention. Our gifts matter whether we are on the platform or behind the curtain.
One Body With Different Members
It was the Holy Spirit who, at the time of our salvation, placed us into the corporate Body of Christ. We don’t get in or stay by merit. We get in and stay in by the will and the power of God.
We all, every last believer, have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us no matter our backgrounds, track records, ethnicity, or giftedness. The indwelling of the Spirit is a fact of salvation at the moment of salvation. Salvation is the one condition for His indwelling.
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” -1 Corinthians 12:12-14
Therefore, we are all part of the Body no matter what our giftedness or passions.
We rejoice in God’s intention to redeem and gift every member—no matter what that gifting is. We are all valuable and necessary to the Body.
“Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being 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 stop being part of the body. 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 placed 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.” -1 Corinthians 12:15-20
If God put someone in the Body of Christ, it is both sinful and foolish for us to say that they do not matter. God intentionally placed each one of us in the Body by His will, wisdom, and intention.
This is God’s brilliant choice, whether we see the strength and giftedness of each person.
“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!’” -1 Corinthians 12:21
Even members of the Body that seem to lack are the ones whom God highly esteems. This is the upside-down and glorious economy of God in which the first is last and the last is first and the least is the greatest.
“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.” -1 Corinthians 12:22-24a
God’s design is that we have no division in the Body and that we each have intense care for the other members of the Body. We would want no division in our physical body, and we would not want to ignore an infection in our heart simply because the infection is not in our head. The Body of Christ must be as valuable to us as our physical bodies.
We are so integrally connected that when one member suffers, we all suffer. When one member is honored, we all rejoice.
“But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that 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.” -1 Corinthians 12:24b-26
We are in this together—both for the suffering and for the honor, for the losses and the victories, for the tragedies and the triumphs.
All together we are Christ’s Body. Individually we are members of it. Each individual in the Body matters.
One Body From Different Nations
The Body of Christ is made up of Jews and Gentiles.
Today this includes Iranians, Russians, Indonesians, Mexicans, Canadians, Americans, Kenyans, Germans, Chinese, Ukrainians, and all peoples from all places as they are drawn to the Father through the Son.
“This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” -Ephesians 3:6
One Body Under Christ
Christ is the Head of the Church. He is our Director, Master, and Leader. Without Him we are headless, and that’s fatal.
“For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.” -Ephesians 5:23
Christ is the Savior of the Church. He is the One who rescued us and created us. He willed the Body of Christ. Without Him, we are lost.
Christ is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and has first place in everything. He is premier, exalted, first, unique, and our God!
“And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” -Colossians 1:18
The Church is the Body of Christ. This is a metaphor with so much meaning and profound depth that we could not mine the depth!
All physical bodies will be destroyed. The Body of Christ will live and thrive forever. Jesus, the Head of the Body, will see to that!