Articles
Think Like Your Body Thinks
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the disciples at Corinth, he likened the church there at Corinth to the human body and drew the analogy throughout the twelfth chapter to make the point that they should have all been working together to accomplish God's will and do great things, rather than each disciple considering himself or herself an individual member. As it was, the local church there had found just about every way possible to divide themselves up, draw lines of distinction and/or separation, and act selfishly in just about everything they did — from the worship to the Lord's Supper to the use of the miraculous gifts given to them by the Spirit.
In attempting to correct their thinking, Paul reminded them,“in fact the body is not one member but many,” and “now indeed there are many members, yet one body,” and, “you are the body of Christ, and members individually” (1 Cor. 12:14, 20, 27). They could not be a part of the body of Christ [the church at that location] and act as if they were merely individuals who all happened to be meeting together at the same time and in the same place each week; they needed to start thinking like a body and start working together!
That is an admonition that we would do well to heed even today, for the local church depends on each member contributing its part and working together with the other members to accomplish any work and to secure peace and unity amongst all members. Far too often, though, individual disciples keep to themselves, have no true fellowship with members of the same church, and have little to no interaction with those members outside the assembly on Sunday mornings. Is it any wonder churches diminish in number and die off?
Let us consider Paul's divinely-inspired instruction to the brethren of Corinth, and how thinking like your body thinks will contribute to a church being more productive, more at peace with one another, and more pleasing to the Lord.
Responding to Direction From the Head. In the human body, there are several things such as breathing and blood pressure that are involuntary; that is, we don't have to actually think about doing those things or controlling it by persistent thought because the body is designed to continually operate without having to constantly be making decisions and adjustments to the circulatory and nervous systems. We just do it!
I don't mean to sound like an old Nike advertisement, but that is how we disciples should respond to the direction from our head, Jesus: We should "just do it!" Paul reminds us “the church is subject to Christ…in everything” (Eph. 5:24), so, like the human body, we shouldn't have to stop and consider each command He gives us and make a determination of a need to obey or not. He is the head, we are the members; we should just obey His commands. It's as simple as that!
Except it's not always so simple for us. Sometimes, we don't like the command; sometimes, it is inconvenient to carry out; sometimes, we reason it away in our own minds and make palatable excuses as to why we will not obey. Can you imagine a body where this happened on a regular basis? I think most of us would recognize something is not functioning properly in that body!
Work With the Other Members of the Body. A body that is unable or unwilling to function is one that will soon be a corpse. A part of the body that is unwilling or unable to work signals that something is seriously wrong inside that body; it is not operating normally. We say it is dysfunctional. Why should we believe any differently with the spiritual body of believers?
Paul taught the brethren of Ephesus about what Christ had done for the church in establishing “some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11, 12), and would later note, “the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:16). Let us not overlook the fact that it is only when “every part does its share” that the result will be growth of that body and the strengthening of it; any part not contributing to the work of the collective body is not doing its job and becomes a drag to the rest of the body. Others have to compensate and fill in, and less is able to be accomplished.
But how much can we do when every member of the spiritual body is involved, contributing and working alongside and supportive of all other members? It is amazing what a human body can do when it is at its peak physical condition and the individual has a will to do great things. How much more so when a spiritual body has all members working to their best ability, with a mind to do great things? I daresay we would achieve some amazing feats and make an impact on all around us, if we did!
Work With the Other Members of the Body. The emphasis is now only slightly changed, but the difference is something worth our consideration. You see, the problem at Corinth, as has been noted, was that the individual members of that church were living simply as individuals, and not as a community of believers. Oh, they might have separated themselves into cliques based on who taught or baptized them (1 Cor. 1:11-17), but they acted independently in regard to the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11:17-34), in the eating of meats offered to idols (1 Cor. 8:4-13), and the failure of the women to continue wearing a head covering in the assembly (1 Cor. 11:2-16). In each case, someone disregarded or ignored other members and simply did what they wanted, with no concern as to how it might offend or exclude a fellow believer.
It is this lack of love that motivated Paul to take time out in between discussion of the spiritual gifts to address what true love is and does (1 Cor. 13:1-8). While these brethren were busy fighting with one another and dividing themselves into useless designations, not much was being accomplished for the Lord's work!
In the human body, fingers really are not a big part of the overall unit. If I had a task of lifting a 200-pound object and I relied only on my fingers, it would be impossible. But, if I decided my fingers would work together with my hands, my arms, my torso, my spine, my legs, and my muscles, I believe I might be able to do the job! Likewise, we have been given tasks by our Master that are not meant to be done alone, as individual disciples; He wants us to work together with one another, because it is then we can accomplish great things for the Lord!
I imagine if every member of this church, and the church wherever you may be all started do their best and working together, the world would soon know about it and might even be talking about the good things we may do. But, friends and brethren, isn't that exactly the way it should be (cf. Matt. 5:16)? Well, yes, it is!
Let us set our minds to be the church our Lord wants us to be; let's start thinking like a body thinks! —— Steven Harper
