24.1 One Body Together

We have posited that, just as a human lives in and expresses him or herself through a body, fully of earth and fully of heaven, so also does God.

This chapter is intended to be a thoughtful analysis of that body of humans together inside of which God dwells and through which God acts inside His creation. Just as Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12, used the parts of the human body working together to enable us to understand how we together are the body of the Lord Jesus, so we will do the same. We will also draw meaning from John’s metaphorical visions of the body of Christ in Revelation 1 and 20. Yet through all, we are investigating our own human design.

One Body, One Spirit. For just as the body is one, but has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. Indeed, we also inside of one Spirit were immersed into one body… and have all been made to drink one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).

In our recent study of John 7, we saw how this reality comes directly out from the third ruling verse of the Bible. We saw that “Rivers” of Spirit means at least three things, it means many rivers flowing out from many believers and becoming one mighty River, and one River branching into many. It also means an ocean filled with Rivers in which all things live.

Many coming together as one. One flowing out as many.

Word and Spirit Together. We no longer see the word “body” as physical only, but rather, physic and spirit merged utterly together as one. We also know that the Word becomes flesh, that is, the physic. And so again, there is no Word/Physic apart from Spirit. And there is no drinking of Spirit apart from joining with Word and with others.

Paul, then, all through 1 Corinthians 12, uses the details of Spirit and Physic together in order to define the Church and our relationships together as members of each other. Our gathering together, then, as the “body of Christ,” is NOT metaphorical, but Jesus’ only true outward form and the only visible expression of God.

Human Anatomy and Physiology. The modern knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, especially from the natural health point of view, does nothing but increase the specificity by which we can know God revealed through our gathering together even more than what Paul knew, yet always out from what he knew.

We do not “set aside” what Paul knew, but take it further into the wondrous knowledge of God with us. Paul knew only organs; he did not know cells or DNA. He did not know how truly the Word becomes flesh, that is, written code that draws the molecules of earth together into a living form. But we must begin with the one line in 1 Corinthians 12 that places the heart of how God is revealed through the body of Christ, the second half of verse 25.

The Same Anxious Care. That the members might have the same anxious care for one another. – For we are members of one another. – Adding Paul’s words from Romans 12. “The same anxious care” means “Father revealed.” “Father revealed” means “the same anxious care.” It is Heart, then, that bonds Spirit and Word together.

In reality, drinking of one Spirit together and being one body together are never separated. Here in the classroom, however, we look at them as if distinct. In this lesson, we want to consider the physic-side of Jesus’ body, that is, our togetherness, and in the next lesson, we will look at the spirit-side of Jesus’ same body.

As Humans. How is the Church the physical body of Jesus? We have asserted that, even in the resurrection, we do not become something different from what we are as humans.

I have suggested that the primary mark of the resurrection is the aura, one might say, of kindness resting upon the consciousness and demeaner of a son of God. In Ephesians 4 and 5, Paul places kindness as the leading attribute of being just like God. The point is that we do not look at some addition to our human capacity to discover how our togetherness in the natural is the same thing to Jesus as our physical bodies are to us right now.

Jesus’ Literal Body. That is an extraordinary thought, hard to comprehend, yet what else could Paul mean when He said that we are the body of Christ?

Our togetherness is the same thing to Jesus as our physical bodies are to us right now.

Here is where we have to say that everything is finished right from the start, but it sure looks like a mess in-between. Yet it is as His Body that Jesus carries us all the way through that mess, and for the sake of His Body. And we also – share with Him that same care, as Paul said in Colossians 1. I rejoice in sufferings for your sake, and I am filling up… the travailing pressures of Christ in my flesh for the sake of His Body, which is the Church.

Jesus’ Visible Expression. From Paul, we can list several critical points regarding our relationship together as Jesus’ visible expression on the earth.

1. Each member is different in purpose, in function, in appearance, and in expression, and often VERY different.

2. Each member is held in high regard by all the other members; this is a “body” that knows no loss of the individual.

3. There is a sharing together of joys and sorrows among the members of that body.

4. The powers and gifts of the Devoted Spirit are central to that joining together that is Jesus’ Body.

5. There is an ordering of God in the togetherness. I would not call it a hierarchy, yet there is an order.

Being Built Together.
6. The bond of Love, that is, Father among us, is the essential quality inside this togetherness. From that we extrapolate a far larger role for Love as what causes a bunch of humans to be Father revealed.

At the same time, this is a very detailed and specified “Love.” Paul’s careful definition of Love/Father in 1 Corinthians 13 is worthy of study as a systematic explanation of God.

7. This body is to be “built up.” It is to be “built together.” It is to be “knitted together.”

I am convinced that #7 is our greatest present concern. Evangelizing the lost, being generally kind to the people on your street, these are NOT nearly as important as the knitting together taking place in your local church.

Our Only Destination. Again, we are talking about Jesus’ visible expression. To fail to be knit together, whatever God means by those words, IS to DENY Jesus to your neighbor. Christ is revealed to this world ONLY out from the knitting together.

Now, I have written an entire book on the Body of Christ; it’s called Symmorphy V: Life. The work of the Spirit in our lives is ALWAYS to present the Body to creation, this body of our togetherness. Church, the fullness of Christ, is our ONLY destination. We have not arrived until we have found our place inside a local Community of Christ.

But let’s look more closely at each of these seven points.

Different Is Essential. God designed each one of us as very different from each other. Paul argued that receiving one another’s DIFFERENCES is essential to being Christ revealed, that is, the Body. We learn to receive one another’s differences at great cost to ourselves. There is no other way. Indeed, receiving one another’s differences is a central part of the suffering of Christ.

A brother has decided that my autistic differences are a “problem” for him to “correct.” This is the same brutal stuff I have endured since I was nine-years-old. Yet this is what Paul (and God) means. My brother, AS HE IS, is as Christ to me. I must receive him as his expression, even while swallowing the hurt of his words, and wait patiently for him to learn kindness and respect. This is what Jesus does towards me.

Respect for the Individual. Losing individuality is the great danger of togetherness. Yet without togetherness, the individual will not be known. A symphony is most beautiful when the composer gives place throughout the flowing together for each instrument to shine. Yet the power of that individual instrument is magnified enormously by the background harmony of all the others.

“Collectivism” is not caused by togetherness; it is caused by contempt for others, by a disregard for the other’s differences. Contempt flows out from a “leader” to compel others to be “the same as ME.” This is what destroys the light of one among many. This is why the core of Church is always life-laid down, that is, lifting others up even when it requires going under with Father.

Sharing Joy and Sorrow. Here is where we find “the same anxious care for one another.” This sharing of joy and sorrow, with one another and with all, is the essence of what makes us together to be Jesus’ physical form, even His very soul. Sharing each other’s joys and sorrows is the personal presence of Jesus inside our togetherness.

Joys and sorrows are the vast range of the human soul. Each individual’s self story is an expression of all the many joys and all the many sorrows of their life, all woven together. As I receive you, I receive all the joys of your life. As I receive you, I receive all the sorrows of your life. This receiving, then, is always reciprocal, for you receive my joys and sorrows as well. That point of reciprocity IS the Person of Jesus revealed.

Joined by Spirit Expressions. Spiritual gifts, powers, and expressions inside the flow of every level of gathering together is a big deal to Paul and is, in fact, the context in which he presents the whole idea of Jesus’ body. In John’s vision, the lampstand is the central metaphor of the local Church. John’s description of the body of Christ in Chapter 1 and Chapter 20 comes out from the giftings and powers of the Spirit among the gathering together.

Without this flow of the “miraculous” expressions of the Devoted Spirit, there is no “body of Christ,” but just a bunch of people together in a room. Yet Paul also presents the orderliness that governs this flow of Spirit-powers from one to another as essential to Jesus being seen and known through His Church.

Order. Knowing what is NOT my gift is of equal importance to knowing and sharing what is my gift. Pretending to be something we are not is the blight of the Body; it is as leprosy.

I have known order inside Christian Community, an order that contained good qualities alongside of not-good qualities. Order is like fire. It is a necessary servant, but a deadly master. God has an order for the togetherness inside each local church. Because of the destruction order can cause, however, I am reluctant to specify beyond Paul’s words what that order is.

But again, the essence of God’s order for His Church is not each asserting their gift, but each KNOWING their lack and need for the gifts of others.

The Bond of Love. Love and hate are not feelings; they are actions. You can “feel” love and do hate, both at the same time. Included in “action” is how we speak to one another, not so much the ideas of the words, but how we send them forth. This is why we use the word “respect” instead of a general “love.” Respect is the actions of high regard.

No human is ever born with an innate respect for other humans as part of their personal fabric. Humans are designed to contain God, not to be God; God alone is Love. Respect, then, is learned. To learn of Jesus is to learn to treat one another with respect. Our faith in God, then, causes our respect for one another to be the Bond of Father Himself.

Knitted Together. We will never come to an end of knowing what it means to be “knitted together” as the revelation of Christ.

Out from Whom the whole body, being joined together and being held together through every joint of its supply or provision, according to the energeia inside the sharing from every part, causes growth of the body into the construction of itself inside of love (Ephesians 4:16).

That word “every joint” is the ligatures or tendons that tie the muscles and bones of the body together. A woven tapestry is also an important metaphor of this joining. The soul of Jesus is found at the joining of each one of our self-stories as we share joy and sorrow, and the revelation of Jesus’ soul is more staggeringly BEAUTIFUL than we can imagine.

The Cost. It is important for us to see that the “ligaments” by which we are joined together as Jesus’ body are tangible and specific. We are not speaking of some ethereal essence, or the shallow nonsense of “just loving one another, brother.”

These ligaments by which we are joined together are COSTLY to each one of us, and even more costly to those who have chosen to share Hheart with Father. And when we say “costly,” we mean that sharing with Jesus of His shattered soul upon the cross, as He joined the Father together with these awful humans upon the Mercy of His Heart. Even so we do for one another.

What price would you pay to be the revelation of Jesus Christ?