The Body

This is a short piece I composed in December for Good Works. The prompt: "What does it mean to be the Body of Christ IN the world, FOR the world?" Your thoughts are welcome.

Being the body of Christ in the world and for the world demands much of us. At the most basic level, being the body means being the physical manifestation of Jesus on Earth. As a body, we must also harbor the spirit of Christ. Just as we are incomplete as only physical beings, the body of Christ is incomplete without the spirit. Through the body, we do works. With the spirit, we have faith.

“Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.”¹ There is only one body of Christ, and we comprise its parts. Each part of a body is simultaneously autonomous and dependent. For instance, only the lungs breathe, but they need blood provided from the heart and nervous signals from the brain. As members of the body of Christ, we all have our specific role that only we can do, yet our job cannot happen or does not succeed without the rest of the body functioning. Bodies have room to grow, and we seek to grow the body of Christ by bringing in new members.

“There is one body and one Spirit.”² As keepers of the spirit, we get our purpose, revelation, and energy from it. As the body, we represent Jesus in His absence. We partake in communion, per His instructions, in recognition of this. We go forth and do works for Him. We continue His work. We seek to bring the spirit to those that do not have it. We endeavor to follow His instructions in clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. We do this to spread the glory of God and to expand His kingdom, for He deserves no less than for His kingdom to encompass the world.

By being the body of Christ, we sublimate our individual selves, our personal needs and desires, in favor of the good of the body. We sacrifice so that the collective can thrive. This is not easy; Satan tempts us with individual decadence because he knows people who feel like they have everything they need on their own will not submit to the restrictions of a social conscience. We purposely deny ourselves so that the other parts of the body may benefit. Through this, we all come out stronger. The kingdom of God is stronger as well.

“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.”³ The body of Christ is the light of the world. As the body, we bring that light to those in the darkness, to those that cannot see. In contemporary times, it is the body of Christ that stands as a resisting force to the hyper-individualistic tendencies of society. We recognize the pitfalls of this movement and move to counter it. In essence, we stand to save people from themselves.

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1 1 Cor. 12:27 (NASB).

2 Eph. 4:4.

3 Mat. 6:22