the body of Christ

The Bible says that “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26). It says this is because we are one body, the body of Christ, and individually members of that body (1 Cor. 12:27). There are connections like this all over the Bible. When one man suffers judgment, the whole nation suffers judgment. When one man is godly and blessed, the whole nation is blessed and rejoices with him.

The Bible says there is one bread/loaf, and we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Thus we are one loaf, eating one loaf. Jesus is the Bread of life, but we are his body and thus we are the bread.

This corporate relationship is the third aspect of man. We know about the body and the soul/spirit, but the aspect of man which ties us all together in Christ as his body is the third way in which we are like God. God is triune and so are we. God is Father, Son, and Spirit, and we are body, soul, and community. This is an aspect of man almost wholly neglected by the modern protestant church.

This is why when one individual sins, all suffer. When one individual rejoices the whole church rejoices. It is also why when we love one another our love covers a multitude of sins and how love can be an efficacious thing, changing one another with pure applied love.

Throughout the Bible we see this pattern in governments, families, and people in general—culminating in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We tend to think the connections ended when Jesus died, but this is not true. We are even more connected to one another than before, not less.

As we come together discerning (judging) the body we are not looking at our navels or at some picture of Jesus we have in our heads. We are looking around the room. Looking at the body of Christ in each one of us. Proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes, rejoicing in the Lord’s death until he comes, recognizing that we are looking at Christ when we look at our brothers and sisters in the Lord.