You Are the Body - A Week of Fasting, Day 5

1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ 

and individually members of it.

We practice a faith that is highly relational and highly personal. The church has even taught us that Jesus is “our personal Savior”, a saying that has always made me uncomfortable, seemingly placing the Lord of All Creation on the level of a valet or handmaiden.

Individualism is the bedrock of our culture. It is the essence of our national identity as Americans. This is not bad, but we should be aware of how deeply this impacts our understanding of the Scriptures and how we apply them to our daily lives. We strive for personal, individual meaning in the verses we study. Seldom do we search for collective application.

This is a good thing. But, it can affect our perception of how

we fit into a local body of believers. The body can easily become a collection of individual believers, each one of them working hard to derive personal meaning and definition from the ministries of the church. It’s so easy to define the success of a church by measuring “what it does for me.”

Yet, Scripture tells us, we are the “body of Christ”, a familiar phrase. It appears 5 times in the New Testament (Rom 7:4, 1 Cor 10:16, 12:27, Eph 4:12). Examining the context of each of those occurrences, we see this; each time it is mentioned, it is mentioned with a plural pronoun. The writers either use “we” or “you”. Whenever “you” is mentioned, the original Greek reveals a plural, not a singular “you”.

It’s so easy, and appeals to our national sense of individualism to read “You are the body of Christ” and believe it speaks of us as individuals, participating in some vague notion of collective experience as a church.

Instead, what is described is something far more organic, held together by a common thread, Jesus Christ as our head,

knitting our hearts together, causing us to become brothers and sisters moving among us individually but weaving us into an incredible tapestry of His glory, love and grace. 

“You” really means “us”. 

None of us can fulfill the call of the church alone. We need each other in order to show Christ to the world. We need each other to show the world that Christ forgives, Christ loves, Christ sacrifices, teaches, cares for, mends, binds and heals. We need each other, not just to do these things for the lost…but for each other...as a display to those outside the walls of His presence among us.

This is why Paul wrote 1 Cor 12, particularly vs 7, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Consider including this chapter in your devotions today.

God is preparing us for eternity by making us into an organic whole, a healthy body of individuals, all working together, using our gifts and talents, sacrificing for, loving, edifying, serving, forgiving and helping each other, all to put on a fabulous display of His glory to the world...and to each other.

John Kuvakas

September 2013