Romans
12:4-5
THE
BODY
Verse 4) Apostle Paul is
comparing our human body to the church. In our human body there are many
parts. God is the creator of all things, when God creates someting he does it in
perfect order. The perfect example is our human body. See how God
have engineered our human body. There are many parts in us. We do not call
I saw the hand or the face, but we say we saw the person. All these
parts makes one body. All the parts are not the same but different than
each other and they have different functions. See 1 Corith. 12:15-21
Verse 5) We are one body in
Christ, and individual members of one another. See I Cor. 12:12
The
church is called a body. We are a body of believers. When one part of the
body hurts, all parts will be hurting. When you have a tootheache your
whole head hurts. When you burn your little finger, your whole body feels
it. When Mateo was persecuted by his own family, we all should feel
the pain, need to pray, encourage. When the church in Lagtang is
hurting we should all hurt. (1 Cor. 12:26) They are part of us, and we are
part of them. We are a small ministry and God is the one who began the
work in Lagtang. God knows our capabilities and he will not give more than
we cannot handle. When they weep, we weep with them, when they
rejoice we rejoice with them. For us to weep with them and to rejoice with
them we need to eat with them and live with them then we feel them.
Agnes and Jennifer sisters who are not working are very poor, they share
the clothes together, but when their clothes were stolen, we who are
blessed abundantly, as we open our closset, we are concerned what shall I
wear today, according to the weather man, what matches what.
In reality we should feel the pain of Agnes and Jennifer. They are our own
sisters in Christ. We are related to them in Christ blood.
When we are brought out from
the darkness to the light from Satan to God, God becomes our Father and,
no matter what country we come or what color we have we become the church. (Gal.
3:27-28; Col. 3:11) There are different kinds of ministries but the same
Lord. (1Cor. 12:5-6)
In the body the most important
part is the head. The head makes the decissions, it is the most vital part
of the body. We are the body and Christ is the head. Eph.
1:10,22,23; 5:23. Col. 1:18
That means Christ is not apart
of us, but becomes a part of us. We are in Christ. Plato said "that
just as oxen aren’t governed by oxen and goats by goats, so men aren’t governed
by men but by heroic persons.” We are governed by Christ.
As the head and we are the body
he becomes our leader and the commander. Isa. 55:4 That's why he is not
only our Lord and Saviour but also our friend, our brother.
We grow in him. Eph. 4:15-16
The derivation of the word is
generally said to be from the Greek kuriakon (kuriakvon), “belonging to the
Lord.” But the derivation has been too hastily assumed. It is probably connected
with kirk, the Latin circus, circulus, the Greek kuklos (kvuklo"), because the
congregations were gathered in circles. 2. Ecclesia (jekklh"via), the Greek word
for church, originally meant an assembly called out by the magistrate, or by
legitimate authority. It was in this last sense that the word was adopted and
applied by the writers of the New Testament to the Christian congregation. In
the one Gospel of St. Matthew the church is spoken of no less than thirty-six
times as “the kingdom.” Other descriptions or titles are hardly found in the
evangelists. It is Christ’s household, Matt. 10:25; the salt and light
of the world, Matt. 5:13, 15; Christ’s flock, Matt. 26:31; John 10:1;
its members are the branches growing on Christ the Vine, John 15:5
John 15, without Christ we
cannot do nothing.
Calvin’s theology is summed up in that one
principle of absolute dependence upon God; and he was right. Another great
writer has said that absolute, unalterable dependence upon God alone is the
essence of the religion of angels, and should be that of men also. If I
can learn every moment of the day to depend upon God, everything will come
right. You will get the higher life if you depend absolutely upon God.
Remember that the parts of the
body will not get the glory, but the head.
Christ is the head, and we are
the body. The body is sumitted to the head, it is the head that
leads and guides the body.
As we live in this fleshly body
and on this earth we are weak and un-perfect. But praise be to God,
that Christ is the head of the church. Just like we see someone coming we see
the face first and recognize the person by the face, God looks at us in
the face of Christ who is the head of he body, we are still not perfect
and weak but Christ who is part of us is perfect and holy, God sees Christ
in us. He sees us perfect, in Christ. (Col. 2:10) Someone has well said
that the seraphim and cherubim are flames of fire because they know they are
nothing, and they allow God to put His fullness and His glory and brightness
into them. They are nothing, and God is all in them and around them.