June 25

The Whole Body

From him (Christ) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." Ephesians 4:16

What a beautiful picture this is! Paul used the picture of the human body to show us that every member of the church of Christ is necessary for the body to function to its fullest capacity. The supporting ligaments are just as important as the hands or the foot. The eyelid is just as important as the eye. One cannot function properly without the other. The members of the body do not work independently of one another; they work together under the direction of the head. The church, likewise, works together in harmony and balance, but only if all are under the direction of its Head, Jesus Christ. We cannot remain in working order unless each member takes its direction from the Head. The arm cannot take its direction from the eye, or the eye from the foot: chaos would arise. In addition, we cannot function properly without each supporting member of the body; all are necessary for this "well oiled machine" to work efficiently. Some time ago I fell and injured my knee. The surrounding tissues swelled and the pain made it impossible for me to put any weight on it for some time. The other members of my body had to take over, to make up for what my knee could not do alone. The surrounding tissues swelled to cushion the injury, the nerves caused the pain that kept me from using it and causing the injury to worsen. My other leg took over the work of supporting my body until my knee healed. So it is when one of our brethren are injured; we, the surrounding tissues and other members of the body, must come to their aide. We need build them up in love, to support them and aide them. Our job is to help them to heal so that the body may once again function to its fullest, each part doing the work that God has ordained it to do. Surely we need one another, without our fellow members of the body we could not function, as the LORD would have us to do. This is a picture of unity, unity in Christ and Christ alone. Let each of us resolve today to look to our Head for direction in aiding the body of Christ, that we might work together in unity and love and bring God glory.

Father in heaven, how we thank you for this picture of the body of Christ! May each of us look to Jesus Christ for direction and not set out in our own wills. Let us come to the aide of those who are hurting and in pain, and may we build them up in love, helping each other to grow. Father; help us to do our part in the body. Show us what that job is and let us do it with all our heart, that those around us might see the unity of the body of Christ and be drawn to you because of us. This we pray, in the name of our Head, Jesus Christ, Amen.