Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Ephesians 4:11-16
The obvious key to a healthy body is when all the parts
are handling well their specific function, in concert with all the other
parts. It is so with the heart, pumping
blood to the organs, and the spleen doing its’ filtering job, and the lungs
providing oxygen to the brain, which, in-turn sends the right impulses to all
the muscles. And on it pulses, thirty-seven
million times a year (give or take a few hundred thousand, depending on your
metabolism).
The “kicker” to this scenario is when any body part is
infected, diseased, injured, or just plain not responding. It can set off a falling domino
effect, where all the parts begin to lose effectiveness, and finally
shut down. Dead in the water!
There are so many parallels that can be seen in the
physical, or biological aspects of life, which reflect spiritual truths. One such comparison is the body’s
interdependence – all of the parts doing their respective jobs, results in a
healthy, growing body. Evangelists, pastors,
and teachers might be compared to the nervous system, receiving messages from
the brain (God’s will and word), sending appropriately-timed signals to alert
muscles and organs to needs of both the body, and outside influences which need
to be addressed. The parts of the body
receiving those messages are comparable to those members with gifts (strength,
mobility, dexterity) to accomplish tasks which facilitate the body’s health and
growth. When all is working like a
well-oiled biological/spiritual machine, there is a health that produces
well-being.
The church (in Paul’s metaphorical approach) is the body
of Christ. We are his hands, feet, and
heart, doing the will of God, in His mission to the world.
In the grand scheme of things God chose to do it this
way. He is omnipotent, meaning whatever
power can accomplish is within God’s ability.
He could have chosen to make us like robots, mechanical, always doing the
right thing, never a sniff of rebellion or hair out of place. But love chose differently; God chose to
share his way, his life with us. To do
that he chose to come to be with us, dwell in us, and share all, like a body
shares…both joy, pain, loss, and strength.
It isn’t an easy thing, this life; it will never be. But it is worth it!
For You Today
What part of the
body are you? Are you listening and
watching for the signals coming from God’s Word? Are you corresponding to the rest of the body’s
needs and strengths? Do you make the
body of Christ healthier? Do you tend to
His world, his mission?
[1] Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
