1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular. God has chosen the most familiar objects to be the emblems of Christ and His Church — tree, rock, house, wheat, bread, and here the human body. In the "body." I. ALL LIFE IS IS THE HEAD. If you separate the smallest particle of the body from it, that moment it dies. And so the Church is in such union with Christ that if you wilfully break the union by sin or unbelief, you are, spiritually, as dead as an amputated limb! II. ALL FEELING AND ALL SPRINGS OF POWER AND ACTION LIE IN THE HEAD. When any spot in the body is injured, a nerve communicates the fact to the brain, and there is the suffering. And then, from the brain, a nerve communicates back to the injured place what is to be done under the circumstances. And so whatever touches any living member of the Church, either for weal or woe, it goes up at once to Christ; and from Him again there flows down to you the never-failing cords of His sympathy, guidance, and power. III. THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF OUR BODY ARE ALL HELD TOGETHER BY THEIR MEETING IN THE ONE HEAD. So there is no real unity of Christians, except as they all meet and unite in the one Christ. Christ is, and must be, the centre piece of the arch of unity. If that centre piece is not there, the arch will fall! IV. NO ONE PART OF THE BODY CAN COMMUNICATE WITH ANOTHER EXCEPT THROUGH THE HEAD. My right hand cannot touch my left but through the head. Just so it is in the Church. All true service and charity must be through Christ. If I have been kind to any one it is the Head has done it, from first to last. V. SOME MEMBERS ARE COUNTED "MORE HONOURABLE" AND SOME LESS, BUT ALL BELONG TO THE SAME "HEAD," AND SO SHARE IN THE SAME DIGNITY. So it is with the Church. The poorest, meanest man that walks this earth, if he be a "child of God," is in the Head. You meet him there; he is equal with you there. Conclusion: 1. Away with all selfishness, pride, isolation! We are all one body. 2. This principle reaches beyond this world. In heaven itself there is "the Body of Christ." And there is nothing greater than that. The saints in glory are my fellow-members in it. (J. Vaughan, M.A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.WEB: Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. |
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