Commenting on the seeming disarray with the body of Christ, a beloved and respected minister during one of the recent mission trips lamented on why there was no body of elders or leadership sufficiently grounded in the faith and respected that could put in check the prevailing excesses! Is what we see truly representing the body of Christ?
Let us do a comparison of the following scriptures
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. Genesis 11:4-7
Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Philippians 1:27
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:3-6
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:4-6
For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us… Romans 12:4-6
Consider the complexity of your body and see how our God and Creator wonderfully displays the essence of unity.
- The tongue with 4,000 little taste buds, each capable of discerning the difference between onion and pepper, sweet potato and yam
- The intestinal system with 20 million little mouths capable of digesting almost anything or
- Our cooling system of 650 sweat glands per square inch; no refrigerator can be compared to this, or
- The lungs which house 600-800 million alveoli in the two lungs where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the bloodstream happens and
- The network of millions of neurons (nerve cells), the branches of which send and interpret messages and also formulate a response;
Different, yet each system inherently functions in unison, as in one mind, one objective, and collectively cooperating for the singular purpose of keeping you alive. This is the end of the diversity and unity that must prevail in the body of Christ.
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all…For 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. 1 Corinthians 12:6,12
Translating this to the church structure, can one assembly be all? Perhaps this is the distinction Paul alluded to in admonishing that it is up to the body to recognise the diversities but maintain the unity as depicted in the human body if we are to live.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all… And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:1-6,11-16
Here we see the construct and notion of head powers that is so ill-understood! Selah.
Pastor Afolabi Oladele
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