1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. The analogy the apostle here uses is broadly true of the whole fellowship of redeemed and regenerate souls - "the Catholic Church throughout all the world," which acknowledges Christ as its living Head. It also applies to the Corinthian Christians as a local society, a part of the grand whole. The principles on which the constitution of the whole depends are supposed to be illustrated in that of each particular part. The comparison of the Church with a living body is not one that we find in the teachings of Christ himself; but he employed an essentially similar image when he said to his disciples, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches" (John 15:5). Whether we take the figure of the body or of the tree, substantially the same ideas are presented. There is in each case an organization animated by a mysterious principle of life. And the hidden life is the cause of the organization, determines it, shapes it "after its kind." The life is the formative principle. The growth of the body or of the tree is not by addition from without, but by development from within. The materials that nourish and build it up lie without, but it is the life that appropriates them, assimilates them, transforms them into its own substance, turns them to its own proper uses. So with the form of Christian society. We believe in no "visible Church" which is not the spontaneous result of the free play of the Divine Spirit in the minds and consciences and hearts of men. Its beliefs, its worship, its fellowship, its work, all have real worth in them just so far as they are the spontaneous expression of the Spirit that dwells within, and no further. Note respecting the Church - I. ITS UNITY. As the body with its many members is one, "so also is Christ." Here is unity in variety; variety of parts with a principle of unity underlying them, flowing through them, binding them into one connected whole. And Christ is that uniting power. It is the "body of Christ." The body that was "prepared" for him when he became "God manifest in the flesh" (Hebrews 10:5) - the human body in which the "fulness of the Godhead" dwelt, which grew from infancy to manhood, which was crucified and then transformed in the imprisoning tomb, - this body has been withdrawn from the earth. Men see it no longer. It is glorified and immortalized. "within the veil." But he has taken to himself another body, in which the Divine energy dwells, through which the Divine beauty reveals itself, which he is leading on gradually to a perfect manhood - "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." That body is his Church. And just as the unity of our physical frame lies in the indwelling soul which holds all its parts together, and without which they would soon lose their organic form and dissolve into their primary elements, so the rarity of the Church is the presence of Christ by his Spirit in the whole and in every part (ver. 13). The sentient life pervades every fibre of our frame. Enthroned in the centre, it throbs and glows in the remotest part. But the members have no separate and independent life in themselves. Let any one of them be severed from the rest, and it is senseless, powerless, dead. So is it with our souls in relation to him who is to the spiritual body both as the heart and the head, the inspiring energy, and the living bond of unity. "Apart from me ye can do nothing," etc. (John 15:5). Thus it comes to pass that union with Christ and union with the Church, in the deepest and truest sense, are one and the same thing. The old dictum, "Out of the Church no salvation," has profound truth in it; but not as they imagine who by the "Church" mean any outward organization that is of human origin and under human control. The papal doctrine asserts, "Where the Church is, there is Christ." We rather say, "Where Christ is, there is the Church." To be in personal fellowship with him is to have a "part and lot" in it of which no power in the universe can ever rob us. This is the principle of unity - the living Christ dwelling by his Spirit in each and all. II. THE RELATION ITS MEMBERS BEAR TO EACH OTHER. '"The body is not one member, but many." The context shows that the apostle has not mere number but variety also in view, variety as of the hand and the foot, the ear and the eye. The relation between Christian men is spiritual, not formal; one that lies in community of thought and affection and aim, not in any kind of external resemblance. (Note the difference between a body, a living organism, and any mere inert mass the particles of which are bound together simply by mechanical force or even by chemical affinity.) In every form of human society it is the sense of individuality combined with the sense of mutual sympathy that constitutes the real cementing principle. It is a fellowship of life that binds men together, and not the constraint of outward circumstance. The oneness of a family lies, not in the fact that its members dwell together under the same roof or bear the same name, but in the common sympathies and affections that grow out of their natural kinship. The oneness of an army lies in the enthusiasm of its devotion to the common cause, far more than in the force of military discipline. The oneness of a nation is not the mere accident of its coming within one geographical boundary, but the spirit of loyalty and patriotism that pervades its citizens. So in the Christian commonwealth, we cannot be too careful to distinguish between its formal aspects and associations, and those relations that are internal and spiritual and in which the living and enduring reality of it lies. The fact of men forming themselves into a visible society, calling themselves by the same name, meeting in the same place, consenting to the same creed, using the same language, joining in the same modes of worship, doing the same work, does not make them one in Christ. These are but the outward signs and symbols of unity. They may be the mocking semblances of it. They have no value unless they represent what is real and spiritual and divinely true. In this unity of spiritually related parts, each member has its own proper place and function, and the beauty and harmony of the whole structure lie in its faithfully fulfilling it Ephesians 4:16). We best serve the interests of others when we are most simply and honestly "ourselves;" when we think our own thought, speak our own word, do our own deed; when the whole outward form and habit of our Christian life is just the natural outcome of what is deepest and truest within us. Anything that tends to weaken the sense of individuality; anything that prompts us to play a part that is not "our own," anything that tends to obliterate natural differences and reduce all to one common level of artificial sameness, - is altogether evil (vers. 17-19). Some parts of the body are small, hidden, apparently insignificant. But those who are best acquainted with its structure know well that they are not for that reason the less important and even essential. Let them fall out of their place or cease to discharge their function, and it may be the whole frame would suffer dislocation or sink into decay. The true Christian spirit will teach us never to make light of our position, or the sphere we fill, or the influence it is given us to wield. It will make us "content to fill a little space," so that our Lord may but be glorified. And if true to the light that shines within us, and to the noblest impulses of which we are conscious, we only faithfully do our work in lowly allegiance to him and loving helpfulness towards our fellows, we may find in the end how true it is that "God hath given more abundant honour to that part that lacked" (ver. 24). III. THE ENDS FOR WHICH IT EXISTS. The body is created to be the vehicle and organ of the indwelling soul, the channel through which its hidden virtues shall reveal them selves, the instrument by means of which it may work out its nobler purposes. The Gospel records in no way satisfy our curiosity in reference to the physical form and feature of Jesus. But we may be very sure of this, that the body in which he appeared was a fitting vehicle for the Divine soul that inhabited it. It was as a transparent medium, through which the radiance of the spiritual beauty within must often have streamed forth in a way that commanded the honour and admiration of men. Let the Church be true to its high calling, so shall the glory of the indwelling Christ shine through it upon the dark world, drawing all men to him. Upon every section of the Church, and every individual member of the body, according to its measure, this responsibility rests. - W. Parallel Verses KJV: For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. |
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