I Corinthians 12:12

We have a body that is made up of many parts. Shall we call them sheep? Shall we call them saints? But, all of them are important. There is a great deal of diversity of personality and a great deal of diversity of gifts of the Holy Spirit but the body functions as a unit.

Now, you can see all the metaphors here joining together. They all give similar pictures. You cannot have a building that is so loosely joined together that the bricks fall out, or you open up a door and it comes off the hinges, or you put up a window and it falls out of the wall.

No, you see, there is a solidarity there. Every part of the body, every part of the structure, is responsible to all the other parts of the structure and their responsibility includes not only working on themselves but to make sure they are cooperating with the builder—God who is co-working with them and also every body else—cooperating with all the other stones, all the other sheep, all the other saints, all the other parts of the body. That contributes, then, to the overall well-being and strength of the whole.

The body has a head. In I Corinthians 12 we had the church described as a body and it had many parts but none of us are part of the head. We might be fingers, we might be fingernails, or eyelashes, or pieces of hair, or whatever the part might be in the analogy, but there is a head and we are not the head. The Head is the Cornerstone. The Head is also the foundation as well. So the church is not just an institution, it is a living organism that functions only by reason of its vital relationship with the head—because a body cannot operate without a head.

Now we see a further extension of our responsibility. We are not only responsible to each other to make sure the body is well prepared to do its work. We are also, each one of us, individually responsible to the Head that gives the commands.

So, there is an individual responsibility as well as a corporate responsibility to respond to what the Head wants it to do. So, they go together. Both the Head and the body are incorporated as one. The church then, is not just a people that is being ruled by Him, but a society that is living in vital connection to Him.

Every part of the body has to strive to add to its unity—otherwise, what will happen? The body will throw it off, because that is what the body does with its refuse—it throws it off. The human body even has parts functioning within it to attack enemies and to drive them away. The analogy here is very interesting.

I Corinthians 12:12-14

Here we begin to see the structure of unity within the church. Since the members of the church are a new creation, the church body is likewise a new creation. In bringing the church into being, God has done something as entirely new in the spiritual realm as the creation of the universe was in the physical realm.

He did not simply take an Israelite and a Gentile, somehow bring them together in a coalition, seat them at a table, and agree to be friendly. The church is an entirely new creation. This is evident in the body analogy. The body consists of ten fingers, ten toes, two hands, two feet, two legs, two arms, and so on. Although these are individual members of the body, they are not merely a collection of parts, and they have not been created independently or separately and then assembled like a machine.

That is not how the body develops or comes into being. It all starts with one cell, which begins to develop and grow, sending out little buds, and one of these buds will eventually become the right forearm, arm, and hand. Another will form the same on the left. Then the bud that forms the trunk comes down, and the legs come off the trunk. It all comes out of the original primitive cell.

The parts have never had an independent existence. They are all offshoot outgrowths of this central primitive cell. That is why the body exhibits essential unity. By analogy, this illustration shows what is true of us as members of God's church.

I Corinthians 12:12

The key modifier in all of this (for terms of the subject that we are exploring here) is the word "spiritual." We are going to look on this from a related, but yet a different, angle.

Here is the illustration. Christ is like a human body that has many parts. Each one functions separately and yet together. Each part of the Body is empowered by God to carry out its responsibility (or function) within the Body, and yet every part of this Body is functioning for the good of the Body. Verse 13 is a key for understanding this.

I Corinthians 12:12

It is so plain! The apostle is describing "an organic whole" here—with Body and Head. So, Christ is complete. He is Head and Body, and the Body part is called the church. But the church consists of many people—many different parts. When you combine this with Ephesians the first chapter, it is very clear that the Head stands apart from the Body in terms of authority. That's where the authority lies—not in the Body, but in the Head.

I Corinthians 12:12-13

I Corinthians 12. If you know your chapters, this is the body image. No, you have a nice body image, that is not what I am talking about. This is the symbol of Christ's Body.

We are in the Body of Christ. We dwell in Him as members of His church. That is what Paul is getting at. He is getting at the idea that we are all bound into Christ.