Originally Posted by Bible-believer
A text without a context is a pre-text. I understand Bible passages by comparing verses with verses in the contexts.
There is one body. Paul, Peter, James, and John are in Christ and in God and are indwelt by the Holy Ghost (John 17:21–26). There is ONE BODY and one Spirit, and the same Spirit who baptized Peter, James, and John into it at Pentecost, baptized the Corinthians into it in 1 Cor. 12:13, and us, too.
1Cor. 12:11-12 “11But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. 12For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
1Cor.12:12-27 begins a practical discussion of the Body of Christ.
Eph. 4:12 “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;”
"There is One Body (the Church) and One Spirit (the Holy Spirit), even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord (Jesus), One Faith, ONE BAPTISM (of the Holy Spirit), One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Eph. 4:4-6.
2 Cor.12:13-14 “13For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.14 For the body is not one member, but many.
The fact that the Church is a "Body" made up of "living members". Paul has illustrated v.14 in vss.15-17 that once a man is in the Body of Christ, he is a member.
Paul, in v. 17, said that God has given a particular job to each member of the Body of Christ. Each Christian is to do the job the Lord has set for him to do. v. 18. We are the body of Christ, and Jesus Christ himself is the Head. The body does things according to the Head’s will (see v.11 the One Spirit's will).
Vss. 22–23 are about the Body of Christ and about the cohesion of the Body, how it sticks together and operates together. It shouldn’t have any schism or splits in it. He likens it to a human body.
V. 27, “Now ye are.” Definition: “the body of Christ.” Plural, “ye are the body of Christ.” There’s the one Body. There are many churches, but there is one Body that is THE Church, the Church of God. “and members in particular.”
Why call the Church the "Body of Christ?" A body is for the manifestation of a personality. Christ, who is now in glory, can manifest Himself to the world through His Body THE CHURCH, so the world can see Christ in Christian believers, who are His Body. Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ”.
|