2.
WE looked on a previous occasion at the subject of Union amongst Christians, from the Scripture standpoint of the Christian’s privilege and position as a child of God. Let us now occupy ourselves with the Christian’s privilege and position as a member of the body of Christ.
As it is a reality to be a child of God, so is it a reality to be a member of the body of Christ. We must keep this before us, for divine truths may be so generalized as to lose their real character in the mind. When every professing Christian is said to be a member of the body of Christ the real meaning of that membership vanishes, and instead of the reality, a title arises, which signifies no more than a profession of the Christian faith.
The member of the body of Christ is
UNITED TO CHRIST
for time and eternity, now and forever. The emphatic language of Scripture used to express this union allows of no diluting. “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body ; so also Christ,” or “the Christ”; for the verse speaks of Christ and His members as one,― “The Christ.” In these verses the figure of the closest possible union in the natural world is used by the Spirit of God; and one which carries with it the understanding that the head and the members together form the perfect man. If one member of a body were cut off; that body would be an imperfect man. The member owes its vitality and position to its place in the body of which it forms a part; it does not develop into a member, or acquire a fresh position when a member; it is what it is, by the Creator’s will. “Now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him”; and so it is in the body of Christ. There are
NO DEAD MEMBERS IN THE BODY OF CHRIST.
A man is first quickened “together with Christ,” and then he is baptized by the Spirit of God into the body of Christ. Men become Christians by profession through the baptism of water; they become members of the body of Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Thereby they are made one; they may have been bond or free, Jews or Gentiles, but being formed into the body of Christ, such distinctions are swept away. If a man be a true believer in our Lord Jesus Christ, he is a member of Christ’s body. Manmade distinctions, formed to keep Christian men asunder, are all sins against the true unity of the Church, which is Christ’s body.
The true union of the body exists, hence we cannot speak of reunion of the body. But true Christians should earnestly endeavor to live out the union that God has formed. It is a holy union, as well as one of love. God is its Author, and its object is the glory of His Son. Let us look for a moment upon that which should certainly lead to practical effects.
CHRIST “IS THE HEAD OF THE BODY,
the Church.” It is one of His glories or honors. He is risen from the dead, and, as the risen Man He is Head of the body, so that when we speak of the body of Christ we have upon our tongues a theme very closely connected with His personal honor. There cannot be two heads to one body, and all direction and movement in the body, provided it is in a normal condition, must flow with the head. Now, as members of the body of Christ, we are warned against “not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” The absoluteness of the union is expressed very markedly in the illustration. A healthy subject is before us, acting harmoniously. Joints and bands, flexibility and firmness, are in operation. Nourishment is ministered to the whole, for in a healthy subject one part is not fed at the expense of the other, and the whole body operates towards nourishing itself, and is affected by the nourishment obtained. All is knit together, which could not be if any member were out of place. And there is growth—growth according to God. In the body of Christ the secret to the answer of the figure lies in “holding the Head.” Christ is the Head, and from Him, through the Holy Spirit, the whole energy is exercised. And here lies the first great practical instruction for our behavior. Each member of Christ’s body who would promote practical increase in the body must obtain his supply from Christ in heaven. If a head on earth is substituted for Christ, and we act as if we derived our strength other than from Christ alone, we are sources of weakness instead of power in our day and generation.
“The members should have the same
CARE ONE FOR ANOTHER.”
This is a necessity in the natural body. Our members are part of ourselves; and, if we are acting according to nature, we cannot avoid one member caring for another member. Every true Christian is a member of Christ’s body, and all should seek to care one for the other. If all were true to the Head, all would be thus true one to another.
The ecclesiastical world is looking to a great union or confederation of peoples; the true Christian is looking for more likeness to Christ in Christian people, and hence to more practical union one with the other. There may be again on earth kings and potentates ranging in unity under a spiritual head, and thus there will be again tyranny and bloodshed, but such an unity is not that of the Spirit of God. For the glory of “the unity of the Church” numbers of faithful men in former ages have been persecuted and slain, and “the Church” may sin again as she has done in the past. For the glory of Christ, the Head of His body, men endeavor to maintain the unity of the Spirit; by loving and serving one another; by being careful one for another, tenderhearted, and forgiving; and seeking one another’s good in meekness and purity. We may all of us join in this endeavor.