Members of One Another
Body Language
In order to ensure the continued success and proper function of any organism, machine, organization or entity, each related part must function properly and interrelate with the other parts. Ball teams, families, machines, business organizations, the human body, and the Lord's church are all made up of interrelated parts whose individual functionality affects the whole. This is certainly true of the local church as well.
The New Testament, the writings of the apostle Paul specifically, present the figurative usage of the word “body” in two different ways. Paul describes the church as a “body” with Christ as Head, thus arguing for the absolute authority and control of Christ. He also uses the term “body” to illustrate the function, harmony, and unity, in the relationships we sustain to each other in the church. Since we are organized into local churches with common oversight, goals, work, etc., the instructions are understood most practically in the local church.
Romans 12:3-5 uses the metaphor both ways and will be a springboard for further studies in weekly articles dealing with our relationships to one another as “Members of One Another.”
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Rom 12:3-5, ESV)
