Body of Christ

This morning, we are spending a little time together here, in the last few minutes of this service, on a theme I think is of transcending importance. You know the first thing that a new convert discovers when he comes to know Jesus Christ is the glory of the new light that's been imparted to him. I have had the privilege these past few weeks of speaking to many who have come to know Christ in the Crusade and in every case the thing that has impressed these new converts is the strange things that have happened to them within. There is an awareness of new forces, of new desires, of new urges. And of course, it is just the bearing out the truth that the Bible has long said, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV)

There is a second thing that they quickly learn. That is, that they not only have a new life themselves, but they share it with many others. They discover quickly they have become a member of a new society. They have become part of a new body. They've become members of the church of Jesus Christ. Now, I am not talking about signing any kind of a membership blank, or joining a local church all over the world. I am talking now about becoming part of that great body of Christ called the church. I think we need to change our definition of the word "church". To us, you know, churches, we think of as building oftentimes. We say, "I am going to church today." That means I'm going down to a building and sit there for awhile, to sleep, or listen to a message, or something, and that's going to church. Or we think in terms of an organization, or a collection of units in the denominations we call a church.

Now, you won't find anything of that in the New Testament. The New Testament does not speak of churches in that way. When it speaks of the church, it speaks of that one body born at Pentecost, and growing through the ages, as men and women are born anew by the Spirit of God and added to this new creation being formed, that the Bible calls the body of Christ. Now that is the church. It exists today all throughout the world wherever men and women have come into new life with Christ, they are made members the body of Christ, by a process that the Scripture calls the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You do not feel it. You never know when that takes place. There is no excitement, there is no kind of expression. There are no lights that flash, bells that ring, or tingles that run up and down your spine. When you exercise faith in Jesus Christ, in some mysterious way that no man fully understands , there come flooding into your being the very life of Christ, and also you discover that you share that life and are united with a great organism that the New Testament calls the body of Christ, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think it is very significant that when the Lord wants to explain to us what this new society is like he takes our body as an example. The most marvelous thing in the whole universe today is the human body. There has never been discovered anything more intricately complex, more marvelous in its harmony and design, more wonderful in its amazing capacity, than this human body of ours, the most amazing thing in this far flung universe of God. It is rightly said that the human body is God's masterpiece of creation. You remember in Genesis after He had made all the heavens and the earth and fashioned the world and all the things there in it, then He came to the climactic moment when He stooped and took the dust of the earth and formed a body from it. And into that body He breathed the spirit of life and man then became a living being. .Now that was God's masterpiece. After He had made man, He ceased creating. He rested. He stopped His work.

And now you see, the New Testament tells us God is creating a new being. A new man so to speak. So Paul says of the church, we are God's poem is the word he used; God's masterpiece, God's creative act, now being fashioned into this new body called the church. Now I do not understand this. I do not know how this works. I do not know anybody who does. But I can testify , as many of you can testify, that there is some reality to the truth of this. It really exists. How can we, twentieth-century Americans, living thousands of years after the first Christians were here on this earth, be part of the same body and share the same life that they had? Well, I do not know. Nor do I know how it can be true, as doctors and scientists tell me it is true, that every single cell in my body as it stands here today was not in existence seven years ago. There isn't a single cell left that was here in my body seven years ago, and still I have the same body today. Every seven years they say the total makeup of the human body changes and all the cells die and it is renewed every seven years and still it is the same body. I do not understand it; yet it works that way. And all through these intervening twenty centuries of Christian life , Chrisians have been coming and going . They've appeared on earth and departed the body and gone away to their reward to glory and heaven and still the same body exists here on earth. It's an amazing thing, isn't it, when you think of it like that. This morning I'd like you to think with me together, briefly, about this wonderful organism, the body of Christ.

Now there are four passages, each passage empasizing different parts of the body. I can't spend much time on each. You're going to have to take these and study through yourselves. But I want to point out these four passages and show you the special emphasis each one gives about this special organism you have now become a part of, the body of Christ.

The first passage is found over in Romans 12. I'm not taking it in the order in which it appears in Scripture, but I'm selecting my own order here for my own purposes. In Romans 12 you'll find the apostle Paul talking about the body of Christ. We had it read this morning. I'll just call your attention to two verses out of it, verses 4 and 5.

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.(Romans 12:4-5 KJV)
Now, in that section, we see Paul is emphasizing the unity of the body. All over the world wherever Christians are they are members of the same body, and we have the same life. Now, that's the first thing to notice in this passage. We're one body in Christ. The same life in every cell of my body in human life , isn't it? The same life pervades every part of your body, and so in this body of Christ we have the same life in every part of it. It is the life of Christ.

You remember when the Lord was with His disciples, in the Upper Room before he went to the cross, in the l6th chapter of John, Jesus said, "a little while and ye see Me no more" . What did this mean? He meant He was going to the cross, and then in a little while John would never be able to lay his head upon His breast again. Peter would never again be able to walk beside Him along the sea of Galilee. They would never again hear Him teach the multitudes as He taught before, never again sleep where He slept with them, and eat with Him, and talk with Him. A little while and they would never be with Him in the flesh as they were with Him before. Then he goes on, " yet a little while and ye shall see me". What did He mean by that? He means that when the Spirit of God that comes, on the day of Pentecost, He would be closer to them there than He was before the cross. Now, that's an amazing thing, but it's true. You know, it's quite possible for a man or woman today to know Jesus Christ more intimately, more personally, more thoroughly than any of His disciples ever knew Him before the cross. It's the experience of thousands today. Have you ever noticed in the New Testament how His disciples never understood what He said before the cross? How many times He said things and they didn't know what He meant; they went right over their heads, they puzzled over them, and they wondered about them, and they asked questions about them and they just didn't know what He meant. But when the Spirit of God came upon them, breaking in upon their amazed minds and understanding, and they begin to see all that He said, and all that He talked to them about, all of it begin to fit into the picture. From that moment they were different. They saw with His eyes and they spoke with His courage and they were aflame with His light. Now what was the difference before and after this event? Well, you see, after Pentecost they were sharing His life. They were members of His body then. They were drawing wisdom, courage, and power from the head; and He in turn was feeling all the taunts, all the insults, all the blows, and all the suffering, they were suffering in the flesh. They were all one life together.

Have you ever noticed how concerned your head is with what happens to the rest of your body? You ever get your toes stepped on? Physically, I mean. You know what happens, do not you? Down there where the injury is, the minute your toe gets stepped on, your head reacts. Your mouth opens and you shout, "Hey, get off!"or something like that. Maybe your eyes water a little bit, and your ears redden, and maybe your hair even stands up a little bit. I do not know. But the whole body is concerned about those little toes down there at the foot. Why? Because you have the same life in the toes as you have in the head. You're all one body. You know, it's amazing how the Bible tells us the head is concerned about all the rest of the body in this wonderful organism of the church. We share His life.

You remember that delightful story of the dear lady in Scotland who came to know Christ and some of her friends were twitting her about her faith. "Why, Auntie, you can't possibly believe that Jesus Christ has given you eternal life? What if He should let you slip? What if you come to your deathbed and He can't hold you and you slip right through His fingers?" She looked at them and she said, "You need not worry about that. I won't slip through His fingers. I am one of His fingers." And that is the truth of it. How can you slip through His fingers when you're part of His body? You share His body, you're part of His life. You know, Paul said something important. He said not only are we one body in Christ, but we're members of one another. Does that make you gasp a little? To think that you're sharing, intertwining life, with every other Christian on this earth today; to know that you are all members of one another. That's why Paul says over in Corinthians that when one member suffers, all suffer with it. If one of the members of your body is sore, if you get a sore finger, for instance; you can't let it suffer like a water-tight compartment and let the rest of the body feel strong. It all suffers together, you see. So, in the body of Christ, if one suffers, all suffer. If one is honored, all are honored. You can see that so clearly in this Billy Graham Crusade. You know how the honor and attention and focus that has come to Billy Graham has been transmitted, to some degree, to all Christians everywhere. And we have an open door to men's hearts, more than we ever had before, simply because a man of God, like Billy Graham, was able to grip the attention of the world. If one member is honored, all are honored with it. Likewise, if one is digraced, all are disgraced with it. Now, that is true of your actions. You are part of the body now, and if you suffer or are disgraced, to some degree. We all share the same life.

That is why it is nonsense when you hear, "Well, I'm going to be a Christian, but I think you can be a good Christian without ever having anything to do with church, or without ever going to church." Well, you'll be a Christian because you share the life of Christ, but you can't be a good Christian, a growing Christian, and be separate from the life of Christ in the church. I think it's like this story I heard of a man out in a lifeboat in the sea and the boat had been leaking. He got an idea if he bore a hole under his seat the water would drain out. So he proposed his idea and everybody else objected. He said, " do not get excited, what's it your business. I'm just going to bore the hole under my seat, not under yours." If you think you can live your Christian life outside of contact and fellowship with others, you are just as foolish as he was, because we are all members of one another. We need each other.

You perhaps heard of the pastor visiting a member of the church who hadn't been out for a long, long time. This was a wise pastor. He greeted the man at the door, and didn't say a word about not seeing him for a long time. They went in and sat in front of the fire. As they were talking, the man he was visiting got kind of unrestful. He just had a guilty conscience. Finally he said, "You know, I know why you came. I haven't been to church very much, but you know I believe you can be a good Christian without going to church. That's what I'm doing." The pastor didn't say a word. He reached out and got the tongs and reached into the fire, and got a coal that was aglow, ablaze with light. He separated it from the rest and laid it out on the hearth and as they sat and watched, it began to lose its fire and to fade. The glow was gone and at last it turned to a black lump before their eyes. And then the pastor got up, took his hat, and said, "Thank you, I'll be going." He didn't say another word. As he walked to the door, the man said, "Pastor, I see what you mean, I'll be out at church next Sunday morning." You see, we share life together. We need one another.

Now you get that stressed in this second passage that Paul takes up over in I Corinthians 12. We had Romans 12, now this I Corinthians 12. This is a great chapter, I haven't time to dwell on it at all. I'll just read to you several verses out of the middle of it that have to do with this theme. Beginning with Verse 13,

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, [That's the way this begins.] whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members everyone of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet: I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary. (I Corinthians 12:13-22 KJV)
I could read on, but I want to stop there. You read the rest of it yourself, will you? You see his argument. We're all one body, but we're not all the same within this body. How silly it would be if these bodies of ours were just one big leg. That's all! Just one big leg! It would be a leg, you see, but nowhere to go. What if our bodies were one big eye, and all we could do was see. How helpless we would be! Or suppose we were nothing but one big wiggling tongue. And all we did was talk all day long. Well, you see how silly it would be. The purpose of the body would be defeated.

Yet how often you hear Christians complain because other Christians are different than they are. Well, they ought to be different. The body needs different kinds of members in it. It wouldn't be a body if it didn't have that. I often think when I hear of this kind of things of that old nursery rhyme:

Some like it hot
Some like it cold;
Some like it in the pot
Nine days old.
That's how different we are about our desires, you know. Some like Bible study, some like evangelical preaching, some like loud prayers where everybody prays together, some like to read out of prayer books, some raise their hands when they worship, and others sit still as a statue and think it sacrilegious to wiggle a muscle. We all need each other. We here at Penisula Bible Church need the Pentacostals, we need the Presbyterians (believe it or not), we need the Baptists, Quakers, and African Methodists. We need all of them. They compliment us. We fill our own part in the body, they fill theirs; and we need one another.

You notice the argument of the apostle, "The eye cannot say of the hand, I have no need of you". You know, what if our eye did that in our physical bodies? All the eye can do is desire something. How frustrating it would be to see something that you desire but have no hand with which to reach out and take it. So the eye can't say to the hand, "I have no need of you". The eye needs the hand, as the hand needs the eye. And then he says this, and I think Paul was trembling when he wrote this, "Neither can the head say to the feet, I have no need of you". Who's the head of this body? Why, it's Christ Himself, resurrected living Christ, seated on the throne in glory; and Paul says that the head cannot say to the feet, "I have no need of you". Some of you might be feeling you're the feet here this morning. Sort of lowly and unimportant, maybe covered with dirt and unattractive, and you feel that, "if all I am in the body I'm just the feet; Paul said, the head up there in glory will never look down and say, "Look, I have no need of you". He says, "I need you! I need you! Just as you are, I need you!"

Will you notice verse 18, "But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him." That is, He chooses what part of the body you're going to be. You do not exercise choice in that respect. You're right where He wants you to be if you are in the body of Christ and He designates the functions you are to fulfill. It isn't our choice, but His. I think we need to hear that in these days when so many Christians are overpowered with the impact of the Billy Graham Crusade. I find many young Christians who think if they're not doing what he is doing they're not effective for God. That's not true! I think Billy Graham is the lips for God in the world today. He is the voice of God. He's part of the body that our lips are, where people see them move, and hear the voice, and are affected by it. That's important in the world today. But so are the silent members of our body. All necessary, all equally valuable in God's sight. What a terrible body it would be if the body were nothing but lips, that's all. We need ears and eyes and hands and feet and organs of every type. So it is in the body of Christ. Now, these are simple truths; but I hope you will deal with them simply.

Now let's move on quickly to another passage, Ephesians 4. Now this passage is emphasizing administration of the body. He says, starting in verse 8,

Wherefore He saith, When He [speaking of Christ] ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." (Ephesians 4:8 KJV)
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 into 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 fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13 KJV)

Now, you see here, he's talking about what makes the body work. He names certain offices. You can call those the muscles of the body of Christ; apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. What are they for? Well, they are to obey the orders of the head and direct the activities of the body; and thus the whole body is directed, you see. It's not the muscle that does the work. It is the hand that is reaches out and grasps things. But it is the muscles that move the hand. You may be part of the hand of Christ, reaching out to other people; but you are to move under the direction of these administrative ones in the body who are the muscles that respond to the direction of the head, you see. Fortunately, the body is not all muscle. Some of us think ours is, from the neck up anyway. The body is all controlled by muscle, but the orders always come from the head. I like the way Dr. McGee puts it. He says, "Doctors tell us muscles wait for orders from the head to the nerves before they act. If you touch something hot, the fingers send a message up through the nerves to the brain. The message says, "You know, it's hot down here" and then waits until the message comes back from the brain that says, "Get out of there!" So you get out of there. You move!" The muscle does not act on its own. It waits for orders from the head. How perfectly God has designed our bodies to illustrate this truth in the church of Christ. We're to wait until we get orders from our living head as to where we are to move, what direction our work is to take, and all. Then the whole church is to respond as those within the church in positions of authority, seeking the mind of the Lord, understand what the head wants. You see this illustrated in Acts 13, that wonderful chapter, where the church at Antioch, were waiting before the Lord, and the Spirit of God said, "separate unto Me Paul and Barnabas unto the work for which I have called them" and the Spirit, the head of the church, was directing there what the church was to do; and the whole church responded there. That's the administration of the body.

Now, one other last chapter here, and you'll understand that I am handling this in a very cursory fashion this morning, I can only touch the high spots; but in another great passage, probably the greatest of all, when it comes to the truth of the body of Christ, is the 17th chapter of John's gospel, you'll find our Lord Himself setting forth the purpose of the body. This is wonderful! I want you to listen as I read these words.

Jesus says,

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me. (John 17:20-23 KJV)
Now, what's the purpose of the body? There's a great deal we could spend time on in that passage; but you will notice it twice. Jesus gives the purpose for which He will form this new and marvelous thing, His body. Verse 21, "that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me", and again in Verse 23, "that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me". That's the purpose of the body. Have you ever noticed that when Jesus came into the world He was born in a human body; we could say that was the body of Christ in that day. The body born of Mary and cradled on her breast. The book of Hebrews tells us that He came into the world He paused on the threshhold of this world and He said something. This is what He said, "sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not", speaking to the Father. That is, these sacrifices that have filled in the Old Testament days, they do not mean anything to You. Then He said these words, "But a body hast Thou prepared Me". Now you tell me that that was His body that was sacrificed on the cross, and you're right; but there's something more there. You find all through the gospels that Jesus constantly had a sense of limitation about the body of His flesh. Remember He said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and oh how I am straitened until it be effected". That is, how I am limited and how I am circumscribed, how I am hemmed in here until it is accomplished. You remember when the Greeks came to see Jesus. It says that He hid Himself from them. Why? What made Him angry on the way to the tomb? He said on that occasion, " a corn of wheat must fall in the ground and die first" , then you'll see what's in that. He wouldn't let the Greeks see Him until He'd been freed from this body of the flesh. You remember on the way to the tomb of Lazarus, John tells us that He was moved with emotion. The Greek there means He snorted with anger, like a horse. He was angry. He just cried out in anger. Why? Because He saw this awful enemy, death. He wanted to lay hold of it that thing, but He could not do it right then; other than raise Lazarus up from its grasp. But He was looking forward, He was anxious, He was crying out for the cross so that He might lay aside the body that He came into the world with. Oh, He took it again, when He went into glory., but He took that body up into heaven; and He's waiting for the formation now of a new body, you see, with which He's going to accomplish all the work He ever dreamed of on earth. Now, that's the body we're talking about today. That limited human body of His was laid down in death, resurrected afterward, and was raised into glory. It's now in heaven.

But on earth, where is the body of Christ. Well, He has a body. It's a body that can reach the world. It's a body that has arms and feet, and eyes and lips, and tongues and ears; and with it Jesus longs that the world may know and believe that the Father has sent Him. Now, what is your body for? Isn't it to express your personality, to reveal your character, and your thoughts, and the spirit's cravings within you. If your body is unable to respond, how can you make yourself known to someone else? Your body is the means of doing that very thing. We sometimes hear of cases of total paralysis of the body. What a tragedy they are! The spirit within is still strong and keen. The mind is still quick and understanding. The desires are still strong, and the personality is vivid and resolute within. But you look at somebody totally paralyzed and you can see the agony staring out of their eyes, as they realize they are unable to express themselves. They're hemmed in, they're limited by the unresponsive body in which they live. You know, Paul says, "Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular", and when every member of the body of Christ is at work, alert, doing its prescribed work, sharing the same life, working together in obedience to the head; it is then the world begins to know who Jesus is.

Hasn't this been made clear to us in this great campaign? Why is it that miracles are accomplished today that were never possible before Billy Graham and the Crusade came here? Because it was the first time that the body of Christ in the Bay area began to unite together and to show forth the united testimony of the sharing of the life together. It is that which has created the atmosphere that has allowed the world to see the glory and the beauty of Jesus Christ.

Now shall it all end after Billy Graham leaves or will we not realize that every other Christian around this area, or around the world, wherever we come into contact with him, is part of our own life. We're members of one another. And as we treat them like that, the world will begin to take note that on earth, among human lives, the revelation of the person of Jesus Christ, the body of Christ at work. May we bow in prayer.

Prayer:

Our heavenly Father, we thank you for the marvel of this wonderful body that Thou hast constructed among men. Lord, we thank you that we are privileged to be a part of this; sharing the life with our Lord Jesus Christ, our great head. Now, make us aware, Lord, of our part. Help us to be active and at work; remembering that no only is the whole church the body of Christ, but within our limited sphere, we here in this building this morning are the body of Christ; and as individuals we go out and are in contact with the world. We are to them the body of Christ as well. Make us aware of this, that the Lord Jesus may be made clear and plain in these days. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.

 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Likewise you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, when they see your reverent and chaste behavior. Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of fine clothing, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. So once the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves and were submissive to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are now her children if you do right and let nothing terrify you. Likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered.
Let's jump into this text at verse 31. It's a quote from Genesis 2:24, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one." In the next verse (v. 32) Paul looks back on this quote and says, "This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."

The Mystery of Marriage

Now why is the coming together of a man and woman to form one flesh in marriage a mystery? Paul's answer in verse 32 is this: the marriage union is a mystery because its deepest meaning has been partially concealed, but is now being openly revealed by the apostle, namely, that marriage is an image of Christ and the church. Verse 32: "I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."

So marriage is like a metaphor or an image or a picture or parable that stands for something more than a man and a woman becoming one flesh. It stands for the relationship between Christ and the church. That's the deepest meaning of marriage. It's meant to be a living drama of how Christ and the church relate to each other.

Notice how verses 28–30 describe the parallel between Christ and the church being one body and the husband and wife being one flesh. "Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it." In other words, the one-flesh union between man and wife means that in a sense they are now one body so that the care a husband has for his wife he has for himself. They are one. What he does to her he does to himself. Then he compares this to Christ's care for the church. Picking up near the end of verse 29, he says the husband nourishes and cherishes his own flesh, " . . . as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body." In other words, just as the husband is one flesh with his wife, so the church is one body with Christ. When the husband cherishes and nourishes his wife, he cherishes and nourishes himself; and when Christ cherishes and nourishes the church, he cherishes and nourishes himself.

If you want to understand God's meaning for marriage, you have to grasp that we are dealing with a copy and an original, a metaphor and a reality, and parable and a truth. And the original, the reality, the truth is God's marriage to his people, or Christ's marriage to the church. While the copy, the metaphor, the parable is a husband's marriage to his wife. Geoffrey Bromiley says, "As God made man in His own image, so He made earthly marriage in the image of His own eternal marriage with His people" (God and Marriage, p. 43).

The Roles of Husbands and Wives

One of the things to learn from this mystery is the roles of husband and wife in marriage. One of Paul's points in this passage is that the roles of husband and wife in marriage are not arbitrarily assigned and they are not reversible without obscuring God's purpose for marriage. The roles of husband and wife are rooted in the distinctive roles of Christ and his church. God means (by marriage) to say something about his Son and his church by the way husbands and wives relate to each other.

We see this in verses 23–25. Verse 24 speaks to the wife about her half of the metaphor and verses 23 and 25 speak about the husband's half of the metaphor. Wives, find your distinctive role as a wife in keying off the way the church relates to Christ. Verse 24: "As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands." Then to husbands: find your distinctive role as a husband in keying off the way Christ relates to the church. First verse 23: "The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior." Then verse 25: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."

The Redeeming of Headship and Submission

Think about this for a moment in relation to what we have seen so far in this series. I tried to show from Genesis 1–3 that the when sin entered the world, it ruined the harmony of marriage NOT because it brought headship and submission into existence, but because it twisted man's humble, loving headship into hostile domination in some men and lazy indifference in others. And it twisted woman's intelligent, willing submission into manipulative obsequiousness in some women and brazen insubordination in others. Sin didn't create headship and submission; it ruined them and distorted them and made them ugly and destructive.

Now if this is true, then the redemption we anticipate with the coming of Christ is not the dismantling of the original, created order of loving headship and willing submission but a recovery of it from the ravages of sin. And that's just what we find in Ephesians 5:21–33. Wives, let your fallen submission be redeemed by modeling it after God's intention for the church! Husbands, let your fallen headship be redeemed by modeling it after God's intention for Christ!

Therefore, headship is not a right to command and control. It's a responsibility to love like Christ: to lay down your life for your wife in servant leadership. And submission is not slavish or coerced or cowering. That's not the way Christ wants the church to respond to his leadership: he wants it to be free and willing and glad and refining and strengthening.

In other words what this passage of Scripture does is two things: it guards against the abuses of headship by telling husbands to love like Jesus; and it guards against the debasing of submission by telling wives to respond the way the church does to Christ.

Defining Headship and Submission

Maybe what would be most helpful here would be to give a crisp definition of headship and submission as I understand them from this text, and then raise an objection or two and close with some practical implications.

Headship is the divine calling of a husband to take primary responsibility for Christ-like servant leadership, protection, and provision in the home.
Submission is the divine calling of a wife to honor and affirm her husband's leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts.
I'll come back to some practical implications of those definitions in a moment. But first let me say a word about a couple common objections.

What About Mutual Submission in Ephesians 5:21?

The ideas of headship and submission are not popular today. The spirit of our society makes it very hard for people to even hear texts like this in a positive way. The most common objection to the picture I just painted of loving leadership and willing submission is that verse 21 teaches us to be mutually submissive to each other. "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ."

So one writer says, "By definition, mutual submission rules out hierarchical differences" (Gilbert Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles, p. 154). In other words if mutual submission is a reality between husband and wife, then it's a contradiction to say the husband has a special responsibility to lead and the wife a special responsibility to support that leadership and help carry it through.

What shall we say to this? I would say that it is simply not true. In fact the writer who said that mutual submission rules out all hierarchical relationships shows that it's not true a page later when he says, "The church thrives on mutual subjection. In a Spirit-led church, the elders submit to the congregation in being accountable for their watch-care, and the congregation submits to the elders in accepting their guidance" (p. 155, on p. 251 he even says, "the congregations submit to their leaders by obeying . . . "). In other words, when it comes to the church, he has no trouble seeing how mutual submission is possible between two groups, one of whom has the specially responsibility to guide and the other of whom has the special responsibility to accept guidance.

And that's right. There is no contradiction between mutual submission and a relationship of leadership and response. Mutual submission doesn't mean that both partners must submit in exactly the same ways. Christ submitted himself to the church in one way, by a kind of servant-leadership that cost him his life. And the church submits herself to Christ in another way by honoring his leadership and following him on the Calvary road.

So it is not true that mutual submission rules out the family pattern of Christ-like leadership and church-like submission. Mutual submission doesn't obliterate those roles; it transforms them.

Does the Term "Head" Even Refer to Leadership?

One other common objection to the pattern of leadership and submission is that the term "head" does not carry the meaning of leadership at all. Instead it means "source," somewhat like we use the word "fountainhead" or the "head of a river" (Bilezikian, pp. 157–162). So to call a husband the head of his wife wouldn't mean that he is to be a leader, but that he is in some sense her "source" or her "fountainhead."

Now there are long studies to show that this is not a normal meaning for the word "head" in Paul's day. But you'll never read these articles because they are too technical. So let me try to show you something from these verses that everyone can see.

The husband is pictured as the head of his wife as Christ is pictured as the head of the church, his body (see vv. 29–30). Now if the head means "source," then what is the husband the source of? What does the body get from the head? It gets nourishment (that's mentioned in verse 29). And we can understand that because the mouth is in the head, and nourishment comes through the mouth to the body. But that's not all the body gets from the head. It gets guidance because the eyes are in the head. And it gets alertness and protection because the ears are in the head.

In other words, if the husband as head is one flesh with his wife, his body, and if he is therefore her source of guidance and food and alertness, then the natural conclusion is that the head, the husband, has a primary responsibility for leadership and provision and protection.

So even if you give "head" the meaning "source" the most natural interpretation of these verses is that husbands are called by God to take primary responsibility for Christ-like, servant leadership and protection and provision in the home. And wives are called to honor and affirm the husband's leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts.

Practical Implications

Now I said I would come back to some practical implications.

1. The Transformation of Leading

The call in verse 25 for husbands to "love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her" revolutionizes the way he leads. This is where we ended last week in Luke 22:26 where Jesus says, "Let the leader become as one who serves." In other words, husbands, don't stop leading, but turn all your leading into serving. The responsibility of leadership is given not to puff yourself up, but to build your family up.

2. The Transformation of Submission

Submission does not mean putting the husband in the place of Christ. Verse 21 says you submit out of reverence for Christ. Submission does not mean that the husband's word is absolute. Only Christ's word is absolute. No wife should follow a husband into sin. You can't do that in reverence to Christ. Submission does not mean surrendering thought. It does not mean no input on decisions or no influence on her husband. It does not come from ignorance or incompetence. It comes from what is fitting and appropriate (Colossians 3:18) in God's created order.

Submission is an inclination of the will to say yes to the husband's leadership and a disposition of the spirit to support his initiatives. The reason I say it's a disposition and an inclination is because there will be times when the most submissive wife will hesitate at a husband's decision. It may look unwise to her. Suppose it's Noël and I. I am about to decide something foolish for the family. At that moment Noël could express her submission something like this: "Johnny, I know you've thought a lot about this, and I love it when you take the initiative to plan for us and take the responsibility like this, but I really don't have peace about this decision and I think we need to talk about it some more. Could we? Maybe tonight sometime?"

The reason that is a kind of biblical submission is because

Husbands, unlike Christ, are fallible and ought to admit it.

Husbands ought to want their wives to be excited about the family decisions, because Christ wants us to be excited about following his decisions and not just follow begrudgingly.
The way Noël expressed her misgivings communicated clearly that she endorses my leadership and affirms me in my role as head.

When a man senses a primary God-given responsibility for the spiritual life of the family, gathering the family for devotions, taking them to church, calling for prayer at meals—when he senses a primary God-given responsibility for the discipline and education of the children, the stewardship of money, the provision of food, the safety of the home, the healing of discord, that special sense of responsibility is not authoritarian or autocratic or domineering or bossy or oppressive or abusive. It is simply servant-leadership. And I have never met a wife who is sorry she is married to a man like that. Because when God designs a thing (like marriage), he designs it for his glory and our good.

Ephesians 5:22-33 Wives and Husbands

English Standard Version (ESV)


22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband

new creation: in Christ

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! --2 Corinthians 5:17

   Paul believed each and every follower of Jesus was a New Creation (2 Cor. 5:17), a term referring to an individual disciple of Christ. In Paul's writings, three basic components were present in each person who became a new creation, providing a full profile of Christian personhood:

an initial change experienced by each new believer;
personal attributes a changed believer should exhibit;
and active membership in a community of faith, where these personal attributes were to be practiced.
   For Paul, the initial change was an absolute requirement in order to be a new creation.(1) Appropriate personal attributes and active membership in a faith community were possible because of the change and were also ideals to which each follower of Jesus must aspire. While Paul himself endeavored to reach these ideals, he urged others to do so, as well (Phil 3:12-16) [standard link].





Component 1:
The "Change" in the Believer

   Paul addressed his letters to people who had undergone a personal change-- a "switching of faith."(2) These folk had switched from not believing in Jesus to having faith in Jesus as God's means for salvation (Romans 5--8). This change was the basis of hope for the redemption of the body and adoption as God's child:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:18-25)

   The change made a fundamental difference in the ethical and moral make-up of the individual,(3) happening at the very root of a person. The event was:

a dying and rising with Christ (Rom 6:6) [standard link]:
a change from bearing fruit for death "in the flesh" to bearing fruit for God "in the Spirit" (Rom 7:4-6) [standard link].
     Paul told the Corinthian believers that they were not to be characterized by former vices because they had been washed; they were sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God (1 Cor 6:9-11) ([standard link]. Imbedded in this statement are clues about the faith-switching event. "Washed" probably refers to the point in time in the past when the Corinthians were baptized.(4) The term is used in with a Greek verb which means "to consecrate and include within the inner circle of what is holy."

Paul's Singular Purpose

   Keep in mind that Paul wrote to instruct believers who had already undergone this process. His remarks were intended to aid the faithful in becoming more faithful.

   Paul's purpose was singular: he wrote to direct believers toward some activities and away from others. He did not write to guide an inquiring person through the steps of gaining faith in God. He neither described the details of his own conversion systematically, nor did he outline the components in a sequential orderly manner for his readers.

   Sometimes he accomplished his purpose by means of positive address and other times by negative address, defining what a person "in Christ" was not. Paul's remarks in 1 Cor 6:9-11 are one example of both positive and negative address. Other examples are: Galatians 5:16-26; Romans 1:29-32, 6:17-18, 7:4-6, 8:5-11, 13:11-14.



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Component 2:
Personal Attributes A Believer Should Exhibit

   Paul used catalogues of vices and virtues to teach followers of Christ which personal qualities were appropriate (virtues), and which were to be avoided (vices). Catalogues were literary devices commonly used by Roman philosophers of Paul's day to elaborate ethical lists.(7) Each philosophical school had an opinion about how a person became virtuous, and also about what constituted virtue itself. The most familiar Pauline virtue and vice catalogue is Galatians 5:16-26. Paul also used a modified version of the virtue catalogue in 1 Corinthians 13 as he explicated the components of love, and in the letter to the Philippians 4:8 as he listed qualities to "think on."

Virtues = Fruit = Character

   In Galatians 5:16-26, Paul referred to virtuous qualities as fruit of the Spirit. Since ones initial encounter with the risen Christ was a time when the believer received the Spirit, fruit marked the Spirit's presence and equipped the believer to live an appropriate lifestyle.

   We may think of virtues, or fruit, as referring to character, although Paul used the Greek term for character only once in his writings (Phil 4:8). "Character" means the values and orientations to the world which shape the actions and responses of humankind. Our character is determined by our consistent and persistent habits which shape our behavior. Thinking of fruit in terms of character imposes contemporary terminology and understanding on Paul but it does not misrepresent Paul.

   Paul left a clue for us in Romans 5:4 about the constitution of character. He used a term which refers to character that has come through test and trial. This tells us that Paul believed character (virtue) was realized and manifested through suffering and patience. Hope was brought forth through tested character. If we apply this clue to the discourse concerning fruit of the Spirit, it seems Paul believed that while virtues (fruit) were not gained by human effort, they realized through ongoing human effort.

What Is Fruit?

   Fruit is mostly used by Paul in a metaphorical sense (Rom 1:13; Phil 1:11; 4:17). An exception is 1 Corinthians 9:7, "who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit," which indicates the term's literal meaning. Perhaps the literal meaning tells us why Paul used the term to describe virtues. In nature, fruit is a natural product of a vital source; it gains its life and growth from the source. Figuratively, fruit of the Spirit may be described as the natural product of a vital source, Spirit. When a person received the Spirit, s/he was also given the source out of which fruit was to grow.(8)

   In Galatians 5:22, the word for "fruit" is singular. In its singular form, fruit represents all the virtuous qualities in the catalogue as a unity, together constituting the result of living by the Spirit.

   It would be a mistake to think that a person automatically exhibited the fruit Paul listed at the time s/he first encountered the risen Christ. Paul realized this possible line of thought and ended the vice and virtue discussion with a conditional command, "if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (Gal 5:25). This warning and the specific negatives which follow in the form "let us not have..." leave no doubt but that Paul assumed the person connected to a vital source was actively involved in the growth and development of fruit.

Fruit of the Spirit

    The nine qualities (fruit of the spirit) Paul lists as attributes for Christian personhood are:

love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
and self-control.
Love, Joy, and Peace

   The first three fruits are the most significant of the nine. Hans Deter Betz writes that love, joy, and peace "represent spiritual power of the first order, and come close to being psychosomatic dispositions which must first be created in a person before they can be required as deeds.(9) He states the implications for Pauline ethics: "…people cannot be expected simply to act in an ethically responsible way, but they must first be empowered, and motivated before they can so act."(10)

    The empowerment and motivation to act according to these qualities were a part of the faith-switching process. In the process of encountering Christ, a person became disposed to exhibit love, joy, and peace as personal qualities, through the power of Christ's Spirit.

Love (Gal 5:26, 1 Cor 13)(11)

"If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body, so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor 13:3)

   The most comprehensive description of love to be found in Paul's writings is a poetic piece in the Corinthian correspondence (1 Cor 13) [standard link]. Here Paul underlined the necessity of love. He said that even if one

does something helpful,
does something for a good cause,
gives one's own physical self for another,

that action is empty and devoid of meaning if not undertaken in the spirit of love. Without the motivation of the spiritual power of love, an action was not related to the fruit of the Spirit.
   The thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians begins with a claim that love is a supreme and necessary component of Christian personhood (1 Cor 13:1-3). What follows is two sections in which love is personified and described in terms of its specific expressions.

   In these two sections Paul described love's expressions positively and negatively. Then he connected the expressions to real life experience in a concrete, visceral way. Keep in mind that as he listed negative expressions of love, i.e., what love was not, Paul was thinking not only of intentionally unloving expressions, but also of actions undertaken for a good cause, without the spiritual power of love as empowerment and motivation.

    Paul believed that, through love, each believer was freed from the negative aggressions and personal anxiety which would otherwise motivate actions toward others. Each believer was empowered to regard others with love and not as a possible threat to her/his personhood. (12) This is why Paul writes that love is necessary for a believer; he believed a person's attitude and behavior was inextricably connected to the spiritual power of love to motivate. The positive qualities of love that Paul lists describe the changed attitude of a person who had encountered the risen Christ.


    Described positively, "love is patient and kind. Love rejoices in the good. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Cor 13:4-7) An interpretive paraphrase might read as follows: "Love supports our very lives, believes and hopes all things are possible, looks to the maximum potential of goodness; goodness exists and may in any moment be made evident. Therefore, love endures all things, because nothing can cause love to let go of the inherent possibility of goodness in life."(13)

   Two parallels between 1 Corinthians and the virtue catalogue in Galatians are worth noting. First, patience, kindness, and believing all things (1 Cor 13) [standard link] parallels three qualities in the Galatians list - patience, kindness, and faithfulness (Gal 5:22-26) [standard link]. Secondly, a communal component is present in both 1 Cor 13 and Gal 5:22-26. Paul prefaced the Galatian list by stating that love was "a love toward others." (Gal 5:12, 14) In 1 Corinthians 13, love was the way in which the gifts of the spirit were to function among the community's members. In fact, love and not spiritual gifts was to be recognized as the sign of the Spirit (1 Cor 13:2).

Joy (14)and Peace (15) (Gal 5:26)

"For the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom 14:17)

    If we read the parts of Paul's letters which refer to joy, we see that he strongly emphasized that joy was a divine gift.(16) Joy was grounded in a conscious relationship to God, which began during a person's faith-switching encounter with the risen Christ (Rom 14:17; 15:13; Phil 1:4, 25). Joy continued to be an integral part of Christian growth. Thus we read Paul's comments to the Philippians concerning their "progress and joy in the faith," their reason for rejoicing being that Christ was proclaimed (Phil 1:18, 25).

    As divine gift, joy took concrete form through human agency, in fellowship with others. Like love, joy operated within the context of community and was the means of participating positively in the community. This is why we read Paul's instructions to the believers in Rome to "rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." (Rom 12:15)

   Peace, the third of the more significant spiritual powers, occurs frequently in Paul's writings. Paul believed peace came about as a result of a personal encounter with the risen Christ. This is the meaning of "being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1). Paul believed peace to be empowering because it was based on the consciousness of ones right relation to God. This meaning is found in the equivalent Hebrew term for peace, shalom, and in a more limited basis, in Greco-Roman culture.(17)

    The concept of peace carried a much more positive connotation in the Hebrew culture than in the Greco-Roman environment. Its root meaning was "well-being," with a strong emphasis on the material side.(18) It is also used to refer to a nation enjoying prosperity, and to a person's bodily health.(19) In the Greco-Roman culture, peace indicated only the absence of strife and hostility. "Peace" referred to the Pax Romana which characterized the reign of Augustus. In Greco-Roman culture, the more positive attitude of peace, according to Paul, was indicated by terms meaning "friendly love" or "harmony."

    As he did with love and joy, Paul connected the expression of peace to a community setting. At various points in his writings, Paul firmly situated peace as a power which was to be operative within the community with words like these: "Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you." (2 Cor 13:11: other examples are: Rom 12:18; 1 Cor 7:15; 1 Thess 5:13) The qualities of fruit which follow these first three are also directly related to a personal encounter with Christ and to a community setting.

Patience,(20) Kindness,(21) Goodness(22)

Love is patient and love is kind. (1 Cor 13:4)

    In Paul's letters, the term patience refers to a quality of steadfastness or restraint which believers were to exercise toward people whose conduct provoked anger.(23)

   Paul is the only New Testament writer who associates patience with kindness. Pauline literature (including later writings by Paul's followers) is the only New Testament literature in which kindness is attributed to God (Rom 2:4; 9:23; 11:22; Titus 3:4). The kindly disposition of God, an aspect of God's patience, was the basis for the kindness Paul expected believers to exercise toward other people (Rom 15:14; 2 Cor 6:6).

   Paul believed goodness was possible only in association with God's Spirit. This is stated most clearly in Romans 7:18: "that which is good does not dwell within the flesh." It is important to bear in mind that Paul used flesh figuratively in his writings. Flesh referred to anything which was opposed to the Spirit.

   Patience, kindness, and goodness form a trilogy of sorts in the Galatians catalogue. They each underline an aspect of fruit, which must be read together to grasp the full meaning of any one quality. A kindly disposition expands the significance of patience; goodness indicates that moral excellence, and not evil intention, was an aspect of the Spirit's fruit.

Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control

Faithfulness(24)

"...whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." (Rom 14:23)

    This passage from the letter to the Romans underlines the necessity Paul accorded faith for the Christian life. Faith occurs frequently in Paul's letters, and is used by Paul in a variety of ways. Paul used faith to mean faithfulness in the sense of reliability (Rom 3:3; Gal; 5:22; 2 Thess 1:4). He also used the term to mean "have faith" or "believing" in the religious sense of the term. Believers were to have faith in God, and in Christ.(25) Faith can also mean "have faith" when it is used with reference to God or Christ, i.e. when "having faith" indicated true piety and refers to the fact that one is a Christian.(26) When faith referred specifically to Christian virtue, the term was used in conjunction with other terms, such as love (1 Cor 13:13; 2 Cor 8:7; 1 Thess 3:6; 5:8; Phlm 5; 1 Thess 1:3; 5:8.

    In any usage, faith was a product of God's Spirit, and initially a part of a person's encounter with the risen Christ. Faith signified the turning to, and constant, continued reference to God's saving act, and one's personal salvation history. This saving act was actualized for the individual in the act of baptism.(Gal 3:27-29) Faithfulness was a quality which permeated all of life, so that being a believer was a constant act of living in relation to God's act of salvation. This included ones life in community. Faithfulness empowered and motivated the person who had encountered and believed in the risen Christ to "walk in the Spirit."

Gentleness(27)

Shall I come to you with a rod or with love in a spirit of gentleness? (1 Cor 4:21)

   In this quote, Paul recommends the quality of gentleness to the Corinthian believers, whom he considered to be acting arrogantly. Gentleness, in Paul's writings, meant courtesy, or the act of being considerate. Paul believed that gentleness would empower and motivate a believer to correct an erring sister or brother without arrogance, impatience, or anger (Gal 6:1).

   Paul modeled this quality of fruit in his relationship with the Corinthian believers. Even though the Corinthians behaved arrogantly, Paul was unable to think in terms of harsh punishment toward them (1 Cor 4:21). Even if the Corinthians were arrogant, they would not make it impossible for him to bring the gentleness of Christ to bear against them (2 Cor 10:1).

   As was the case with the other characteristics of fruit, the potential for gentleness was endowed upon each person during their encounter with the risen Christ. Each person was to exercise gentleness within the faith community.

Self-control(28)

"If they do not exercise self-control, let them marry." (1 Cor 7:9)

   Originally introduced into Greek ethics by Socrates, the term "self-control" was a central concept of Greco-roman ethics and was also a theme used by Hellenistic Jewish writers.(29) The term occurs in Paul's writings only three times. It is also rare in other New Testament writings, appearing only in Acts 24:25 and 2 Peter 1:6. The expression occurs more commonly in early Christian writings beyond the New Testament period.(30)

   Traditionally, self-control referred to matters of sex-related activities. However, in Paul's letters, it is used once to refer to self-control over sex-related matters (1 Cor 7:9), and twice in a general sense. One general usage of the term occurs in 1 Corinthians 9:25, in which Paul points out the need for athletes to practice self-control. In this instance, the verb tense and mood indicate that Paul is referring to a universal principle concerning bodily health, rather than to a specific admonition against sexual promiscuity. Since vice and virtue catalogues usually contained general qualities, it is probable that here, too, Paul intended to refer to self-control over ones bodily health, of which sexual activity was a part. Christians who had encountered the risen Christ had the potential to embrace self-control as a means of caring for and attending to their bodies. This was a way to maintain themselves as "fit" people while they sought to attain their goal of perfection (Phil 3:16).

Summary

    The fruit, or virtues, which Paul listed were not merely abstract qualities - they were the result of the Spirit which motivated and empowered believers to realize through human agency the divine gift of fruit, an essential part of ones initial encounter with the risen Christ. The qualities Paul listed in Galatians 5:22 were aspects of fruit each believer were equipped to bear, and not individual fruits.

   The fruit of God's Spirit was to be exercised within a social context and yielded a social, as well as personal, influence. By contrasting the qualities of flesh (5:19-21) and Spirit (5:22-23), Paul argued that emancipation from one life (flesh) was possible because freedom to participate in another (Spirit) was possible. As a result of an individual's faith-switching experience, a person moved from the realm of the flesh to that of the Spirit. This move involved responses and obligations on the part of the believer which issued forth from the qualities of the new realm. In this sense, the characteristics of fruit could be viewed as regulators of personal conduct in relationship to a larger community.

   A final point to note regarding fruit is its affiliation to Christian freedom. Fruit and freedom are both phenomenon of the Spirit, fruit being the qualities which accompany the freedom. By defining appropriate personal attributes for a freed person, fruit of the Spirit regulates personal conduct. By associating fruit and freedom, Paul used these personal attributes to set parameters for freedom in the Spirit. This is an important point to keep in mind while reading the Corinthian correspondence.



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Component 3:
A Believer In Community

For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. (Romans 12:4-5)

    In Paul's mind, the change to the realm of God's power for righteousness required one to operate within a social and relational context. The body of Christ motif lays out the contours of such a relational context (1 Cor 12:12-26; Rom 12:4-5). By using this motif, Paul explained in metaphorical style how the fruit of Spirit operated within a faith community.

    The body metaphor was commonly used in antiquity to restore unity among dissident members of society.(31) Paul also used this metaphor to promote unity, but his metaphor was the body of the crucified and risen Christ. Along with the theme of unity, Paul used his metaphor to promote a form of caring for each other among the individual limbs of the body.(32) Unity among believers is explicitly tied to relations of each individual to another in the letter to the Romans, although it is certainly implied in 1 Corinthians 12 [standard link].

    Rom 12:5 reads, "So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." In 1 Cor 12, "individually members one of another" is missing; "individually members of it," i.e., the body of Christ occurs in 1 Cor 12:27. In the Corinthian letter, the description of interdependency among parts of the body (12:20-23) along with the description of reciprocal care (12:25-26) implies what is clearly stated in Rom 12:5. Paul developed his metaphor more fully in 1 Cor 12:12-26, so it can tell us the rules which were necessary if members of a faith community were to be "individually members one of another."

Paul's View of Unity in the Christian Community

    1 Cor 12:12-26 consists of three sections. In the first section (12:12-14), Paul delineated several points which he believed to be essential for an adequate understanding of Christian personhood. As he had stated in 12:4-11, the basis for unity was the one Spirit whose manifestation was given to each believer for the common good (12:7). Thus unity among members meant the elimination of values which had previously been determined by social and cultural factors.(33) Not only did the Spirit unite members to each other, it was also the means for the union of members with Christ.

    Solidarity, not uniformity, characterized this unity. Diversity was necessary if the body was to be totally functional. Paul promoted diversity because the community was one body. Therefore, many different functions were necessary for its operation.(34) Since the body was determined by its parts, its wholeness as well as its unity lay in its diversity.

    The implications of the unity among many members for the community are explained in the two remaining sections of the passage (12:15-26). This is a more elaborate explanation for the practical significance of diversity: first through the necessity for diverse functions (12:15-20), then by means of a detailed plan by which diverse members could effect and maintain unity among themselves (12:21-26).(35)

    The overall relationship among diverse members was to be marked by mutuality and general solidarity.(36) Different manifestations of the Spirit were given to be used for the common good (1 Cor 12:7). While honoring the necessity of diversity among members, Paul clearly prioritized the community's needs over the needs of its individual members throughout 12:15-26.(37) Thus Paul can state in Romans 12:5 that the members who make up the body are "individually members one of another."

    The rhetorical questions in 1 Corinthians 12:17 and 12:19 indicate that Paul's strategy in 12:15-20 was to point out all members were needed for the existence of the body.

   Paul rejected the idea that some members could deny or disown their place in the body.(38) This is an important point. It not only means that everyone could be accepted in the body and given their place of service in accordance with their gifts. Paul also meant that everyone should be responsible to the body by participating in its life. He did not advocate freedom to choose if one would or would not participate.

Paul's Idea Freedom in Christ

   Paul believed that a body characterized by mutuality and solidarity allowed each member freedom in Christ. The freedom Paul advocated was for each member to be free to be who s/he was, not in an individualistic sense, but as a whole person who was gifted by the Spirit and treated by respect and mutual love by the other members. Participation in the community was necessary for one to realize freedom.

    We can understand Paul's idea about freedom more clearly by noticing two applications of it in (1 Corinthians 12:21-26 [standard link]. In this section, Paul explained some necessary commitments the members of the body must make in order to insure unity in diversity. First, in 12:21-24a Paul used body imagery to address the system which was operative in the Corinthian community.(39) He specifically refuted the position held by the powerful, which suggested that they could experience freedom in the body without other community members who did not share their superior rank. According to Paul, the problem was twofold:

self-sufficiency on the part of the powerful,
and a demeaning attitude toward other body members over whom they held power.
The solution he offered was that the powerful members needed to share power with their weaker community members.

    A rebuttal was developed by drawing an analogy between the "weaker" organs of the body and the less powerful members of the Corinthian community. Essentially, Paul conveyed the message, "Looks are deceiving!" The apparent weakness of some body parts has no relationship to their real value and necessity to the body.(40) To further his point, Paul told the Corinthians the weaker parts of the body were indispensable and then referred to the sex organs as being one of those weaker parts.

   Secondly, Paul delved deeper into his analogy to urge the powerful toward a commitment of compensation for the weaker.(41) For example, Paul wrote, we put clothing over our sex organs because this is a weaker part which needs more attention. This is not the case with the face, which needs no covering. Thus he advocated a system for the community whereby the needs of each member was met. This system was crucial for Paul because it was necessary in order for each person to experience the freedom to be a whole member of the body, with personal integrity intact, i.e. a person of virtue. The system of care was also necessary because the suffering of one member caused all members to suffer (12:26).

Paul's Plan for the Community of Believers

    Paul's communal plan for believers in the risen Christ involved the proper use of power, diversity, and mutuality. In the midst of a society in which governing power would have normally been bestowed on some members and not on others, Paul argued for a transformed perspective, a renewed mind (Rom 12:2).

First emphasizing the fact that those with power over others needed to make an adjustment in their conduct, Paul argued that members of the body of Christ were to receive honor and respect based not on their social rank but on their status as partakers of the one sacramental loaf (1 Cor 10:17; 11:27). Those members who were weaker should be compensated so that they, too, shared power and were free to be virtuous body members responding to their Lord and other community members with integrity.
Secondly, Paul stressed the crucial importance of diversity and solidarity in order for unity to exist. Diversity was possible because the Spirit of Christ permeated the entire body, and bestowed the various spiritual gifts needed by the body to each individual member. Uniformity among members was not possible, since the body needed diversity in order to function, and thereby sustain each member's freedom in Christ. Solidarity was necessary because, due to diverse distribution of gifts, members needed each other for the community to be functional. The need for each member's participation called for the practice of mutual care, one for the other. After all, the Corinthians were "individually members one of another."


Summary

   I have traced Paul's description of a New Creation from a person's initial "faith-switching" encounter with the risen Christ, to the description Paul gives of the potential virtues each person holds as a result of the encounter, to the guidelines for the community in which each believer is meant to participate, exercising those virtues and fulfilling their potential. Taken together, these three components provide a full picture of Christian personhood, according to Paul.

One body and members individually

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

   Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body.

   The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. (1 Corinthians 12:12-26)

We are the Body of Christ

The Church came into being when Christ died on the Cross, but the advent of the Spirit happened on Pentecost, when He sent the Holy Spirit as He had promised. St. Paul speaks of all Believers as members of Christ, so that with Him, they form one Body and we (Cf. 1 Cor 12:12-31; Col 1:18; 2:18-20; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19; 4:13). There is no church or organisation that represents the members of the body but the individual believers.

The Church, the Body, exists on this earth, and is called the Church redeemed, because its members struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil. The Church triumphant is the Church in heaven. The unity and cooperation of the members of the Church on earth, in Heaven is also called the Communion of Saints. When St. Paul uses the word "Saints" in opening an Epistle, he does not mean they are morally perfect. He has in mind Hebrew qadosh, which means set aside for God, or coming under the covenant. Being such means of course they are called to moral perfection which happens through the union with the Head, the Christ Himself.

The word "Saint" in the modern sense means someone who has been set apart for God and not as canonized by the so called organised Churches, or was accepted as such by the Church. The foolish churches consider saints as a person is shown to have practiced heroic virtue--beyond what people in general do - in all virtues, the title "Venerable" is given; with two miracles by that one's intercession, the title is "Blessed"; two more miracles can lead to canonization and the title of Saint. For them they are popes!!

We are the body of Christ!

The Church (the Body of Christ)

Introduction

From the following passages it is easy to analyse the title clearly.

Ephesians 1.22-23;
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Psalm 110:1  &  Matthew 22:44
A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The process of making the enemies under his feet is in progress now. When the task is completed Lord will come back to collect His bride to rule with him. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
1 Corinthians 15:25 Jesus also told his disciples that he is going to take up all authority in heavens and on earth.
Matthew 26:64
"You have said so," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

He needs His church and Lord is doing everything to claim His church.

We have been the lost generation in the Eden. We listened the voice of God's enemy, and lost our position God has devised for us in the Universe. Satan has usurped it from us through his craftiness and cunning ways but God promises for restoring the order with an ultimate sacrifice. It was completed on the cross but now God is building places in our soul. Once the work is completed he will come back to take His elect to reign for a hundred years and then with all the faithfuls for an eternal sojourn..

But first God's needs to work ...

Hebrews 1:13
To which of the angels did God ever say, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"?

Hebrews 10:13
and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.

First he needs to call his faithfuls out of the corrupted world! This world is corrupted God calls out to see if there is any wise man. Psalm 14:2, Psalm 53:2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. Psalm 33:13
From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind;

Psalm 33:14
from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth--

Psalm 92:6
Senseless people do not know, fools do not understand,

Psalm 102:19
"The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth,

Lord is always

Jeremiah 8:6
I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Each pursues their own course like a horse charging into battle.

-- Unfortunately many will never turn to truth!!

God's calling is totally different. He is not interested in strong men or women --- God sees all mankind but very few are intelligent enough in understanding the God's calling. only the wisdom of God can make one understand and listen to the calling of the Lord!! God choose the foolishness to to shame the wordily intelligent ones!! All those who are called are according to the eternal mercy of the Lord!!

1 Corinthians 1:26
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,[a] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being[b] might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him[c] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Once you are called you are totally in the hands of the Lord! He will complete the work what he has started in you!! It is a long process in the life of the believer who is saved according the blood of Jesus Christ, until one's glorification.

Romans 8:30
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Glorification is the end product of this process. All those who are called came out of the gentiles, including Abraham. it is the infinite mercy that he revealed the great truth to us. I have seen many believers and non-believers in close quarter and also have personal relationships with them but the sad realization is that none of them live for the "world to come" but live in the tension and fear of their daily life. Those who were once far away from Christ and God's authority are now have the privilege with Christ forever and ever!!

Ephesians 2.11-22;
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called kthe circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—12 remember lthat you were at that time separated from Christ, malienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to nthe covenants of promise, ohaving no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were pfar off have been brought near qby the blood of Christ. 14 For rhe himself is our peace, swho has made us both one and has broken down tin his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in uordinances, that he might create in himself one vnew man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might wreconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and xpreached peace to you who were yfar off and peace to those who were znear. 18 For athrough him we both have baccess in cone Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer dstrangers and aliens,4 but you are efellow citizens with the saints and fmembers of the household of God, 20 gbuilt on the foundation of the hapostles and prophets, iChrist Jesus himself being jthe cornerstone, 21 kin whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into la holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him myou also are being built together ninto a dwelling place for God by5 the Spirit.

What is God doing? you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. This is the same process of confirming towards in the image of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 3.3-9;
how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is1 that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7 aOf this gospel I was made ba minister according to the gift of cGod's grace, which was given me dby the working of his power. 8 To me, ethough I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, fto preach to the Gentiles the gunsearchable hriches of Christ, 9 and ito bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery jhidden for ages in2 God kwho created all things,

Colossians 1.24-27;
24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 1 Corinthians 12.12-13;
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[a] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Galatians 3.26-28,
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[a] nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

and

Romans 16.25-27.
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.


The Church is the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1.22-23; 1 Corinthians 12.12-13; Colossians 1.24).

Membership into the Body of Christ is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12.13; Galatians 3.27).

The Church was future from Christ’s pre-cross ministry (Matthew 16.18).

The Church was future from Christ pre-ascension ministry (Acts 1.4-5).

The Church was born on the day of Pentecost with the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.1-4 cf. Acts 11.16-17).

After Pentecost, the term ἐκκλησία, which had occurred previously only in Matthew 16.18 and 18.17, becomes common, e.g. Acts 5.11, 8.1, 8.3, 9.31, etc.–23 times in Acts and 115 times outside of the Matthew passages.

(Ephesians 1.3; Philippians 3.20; Colossians 1.5).

The Meaning of ἐκκλησία (Ekklesia)

Before proceeding further we should examine the Greek word ἐκκλησία. Whenever a word is used in the Scriptures we need to examine its use in its context. Just because the same word is used does not ensure that it always has the same meaning. When we make a careful examination of the Scriptures we discover that when Jesus and the Twelve used the word ἐκκλησία it referred to a group of Jews who believed Jesus was the promised Messiah. When Paul used the term, however, it meant the Body of Christ, i.e., equality of Jews and Gentiles in Christ.

The word ἐκκλησία is usually translated “church.” But it is also translated as “assembly” or “congregation.” These are the common translations in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The Hebrew word most often translated into ἐκκλησία is קָהָל which is usually rendered as “assembly” or “congregation.”

A good example of this sense is found in Acts 19.32, 39, 41. When Paul went to Ephesus, he aroused the anger of the silversmiths and other tradesmen whose were in the idol business. One of the silversmiths named Demetrius stirred up a riot against Paul. Each of the verses below contains the Greek word ἐκκλησία. Nowhere do we find the word translated as “church.” In each case the word is translated “assembly.”

“So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority did not know for what cause they had come together” (v. 32).
“But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly” (v. 39).
“And after saying this he dismissed the assembly” (v. 41).
From the context, we can see that in verses 32 and 41, “crowd” or “mob” would serve as a better translation of ἐκκλησία. In verse 39, “court” would be a better translation. Therefore, while ἐκκλησία is usually translated “church” in the New Testament, it need not be. The most basic sense of ἐκκλησία is an assembled group.

The Mystery, The Body of Christ

The Church, the Body of Christ, was a new creation, a “secret” (μυστήριον) God revealed to Paul. As such, it did not exist before Paul (Ephesians 3.3-9; Colossians 1.26-27; Romans 16.25-27). Paul wrote to the Ephesians about the Body of Christ. He declared that it was a secret God had revealed to him alone. Paul wrote:

“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles–if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,  which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.  To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things;  in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:1-10).

Paul wrote the Ephesians that “by revelation” the “secret” was revealed to him (v. 3) and that this secret had not been made known to “other generations” or to the “sons of men” (v. 5). What was this secret? The secret was that “Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body” (v. 6). What body did Paul mean? He meant the Body of Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 12.13).

One might be tempted to conclude that when Paul wrote “it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets” that God had revealed this secret to the other apostles, the Twelve. But reading further into this passage it is clear this was not the case. Paul declared that it was to him (v. 2-3) that God gave the grace to preach to the Gentiles the “unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God” (v.8-9). The Twelve learned about the “secret” of the body of Christ through Paul. No biblical evidence exists to support the view that they knew of it before Paul. The teaching of the Body of Christ is unique to Paul for no other biblical writer mentions it. We will discover more evidence to support this fact as we examine the passages in Acts which recorded the events surrounding Pentecost. These passages show that the Twelve knew nothing of the Body of Christ. God did not reveal this “secret” to them. Consider Paul’s words to the Colossians:

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1.24-27).

We need to notice carefully Paul’s words. Paul wrote, “of this church I was made a minister” (v. 25). Which church did Paul mean? Did he mean the Jewish church to which the Twelve had been ministering? No, he meant the Body of Christ. Notice the personal pronoun “I.” Were Peter and the Eleven ministers of the Body of Christ? They were not if we are to believe Paul. This was a ministry the ascended Lord gave to Paul, not the Twelve. More evidence of this fact is in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Paul wrote:

“But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)–well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me.  But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised (for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles), and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised” (Galatians 2:6-9).

Paul met with the Twelve and declared his commission and gospel to them. He revealed that God had commissioned him as “apostle to the Gentiles” and that his gospel was the “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20.24). The Twelve had not been commissioned as apostles to the Gentiles and had not been ministering to Gentiles. No scripture indicates that the Twelve ever ministered to Gentiles. They did not preach the “gospel of the grace of God.” They preached “the gospel of the kingdom.” In their meeting with Paul, the Twelve officially recognized and set as policy that Paul would go to the Gentiles and that they would go to the Jews. It is helpful to pause and consider when this occurred. Paul was probably converted about 37 A.D. He spent three years in the desert in Arabia. In about 50 A.D. the counsel in Jerusalem met (Acts 15). After this Paul most likely wrote Galatians–perhaps in about 54 A.D. Therefore, a considerable amount of time had passed when Paul met with the leaders of the Twelve. During all this time the Twelve had never evangelized Gentiles (with the exception of Peter’s meeting with Cornelius–Acts 10). The reason they had not done so is because they had not been told to. Jesus had commanded them to go to Jews. Matthew recorded:

“These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matthew 10.5-7).

The Twelve ministered to Israel and preached the gospel of the kingdom. They knew nothing about “the Body of Christ” even after Pentecost. Outside of Peter’s going to the house of Cornelius in Acts 10, no Scripture supports the view that the Twelve ever evangelized Gentiles. Luke’s account of Peter’s visit to Cornelius reveals that Peter did not initiate the visit and that the Twelve were outraged when they learned he had gone to a Gentile’s house. Only when Peter recounted the entire story of how he came to go to Cornelius’ were they silenced. But even after Peter’s defense before his fellow apostles we read,

“So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone” (Acts 11.19).

Could words be more clear?

What Was Pentecost?

Pentecost was a Jewish feast day which occurred fifty days after Passover. It was the time that Jesus told his disciples to await and remain in Jerusalem to receive the Holy Spirit (Luke 24.49; John 14.16-17, 26, 15.26; Acts 1.8). The coming of the Holy Spirit was a key component of God’s prophetic program to Israel (cf. Isaiah 44.3, 59.21). It was not the birth to the Church, the Body of Christ for nothing in the Old Testament spoke of the Church. Rather, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was an essential part of the fulfillment of the New Covenant which Jesus had initiated at the Last Supper (Matthew 26.27-28). God had promised through His prophets that He would make a new covenant with them different from the old or Mosaic covenant. Jeremiah had written:

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31.33 cf. Ezekiel 16; 37).

Jesus had initiated the new covenant at the Last Supper. During the three years prior to this event he had preached that the kingdom of God was near. His death and resurrection had fulfilled all that was required to atone for sin. He had risen from the dead. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended and Jewish believers were baptized. Israel was at the threshold of achieving all that the prophets had foretold. Only one thing was required: the nation had to repent (Acts 2.38; 3.19a). If they would, God would establish His kingdom on the earth (Acts 3.19b-21; cf. Matthew 6.9-10).

Peter and the apostles understood that the great prophetic plan was unfolding according to the Scriptures. The great theme of the prophets besides the prophesied Messiah was the kingdom of God on earth. Jesus had preached that this kingdom was near for three years. The disciples understood this clearly. The last question they asked Jesus before he ascended was about the kingdom. In Acts 1.7 they asked, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” And why not?  Jesus had promised they would rule over the twelve tribes of Israel in this kingdom (Matthew 19.28; Luke 22.30). Wouldn’t you have done this same?

Who was Peter’s audience at Pentecost? Pentecost was a Jewish feast day. The nation of Israel had assembled for Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon them as John and Jesus had prophesied. The result was that they spoke in unlearned, foreign languages. What also happened? They received power as Jesus had told them in Acts 1.8. What was this power? They were able to perform the same kind of miracles Jesus had performed in his earthly ministry to authenticate His messiahship. These miraculous powers confirmed their ongoing divine message and program that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah and that the kingdom was near if the nation would repent. What was Peter’s message to the Jews? He said,

“Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time” (Acts 3.19-21).

He told the Jews that if they would repent God would send the “times of refreshing.” What was the “times of refreshing” but the prophetic and covenanted promise of the kingdom of God on earth. This was the first clear offer of the establishment of kingdom of God to Israel. Prior to this time, the kingdom had been “near.” This message was still “all Jew.” No Gentiles were in view. Therefore, it makes no sense for the Church, the Body of Christ, to have begun at Pentecost when Peter continued to preach the prophesied “kingdom of God” to Jews only following Pentecost.

Had Israel repented and accepted Jesus as the Messiah, the apostles would have begun to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28.19-20). Gentiles would have found salvation and blessing through Israel in fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant and the other prophetic Scriptures. This was the whole point behind the Great Commission. Israel refused to repent, however. But the plan and will of God cannot be defeated. One day Israel will repent. The prophesied kingdom the prophets, John, and Jesus proclaimed will be established. But for now, in this present time, according to Paul, Israel’s transgression has resulted in placing Gentiles into the place of blessing (Romans 11.11-12) and has brought reconciliation to the whole world (Romans 11.15). Had Israel obeyed God, the Gentiles would have been blessed through the success of Israel. But in grace, Gentiles are being blessed due to the failure of Israel. Men fail but God is gracious. Our God is indeed awesome.

Removal of Jewish and Gentiles distinctions that characterized the Jewish program clearly did not occur at Pentecost. Peter addressed only Jews in Acts: “men of Judea,” Acts 2.14; “men of Israel,” Acts 2.22; “brethren,” Acts 2.29; “all the house of Israel,” Acts 2.36; “men of Israel,” Acts 3.12; “brethren,” Acts 3.17; “you who are the sons of the prophets and the covenant which God made with your fathers,” Acts 3.25. We have no hint that Gentiles were included in Peter’s message. The apostolic focus continued to be the prophetic plan, i.e. repentance and preaching the kingdom of God that had begun under John the Baptizer and Jesus.

The Jewish or Prophetic Program

All of the attention of the gospels and the first half of the book of Acts (including Pentecost) is upon Jews. Gentiles are hardly in view. Matthew 18 provides a good example of how the word ἐκκλησία should be interpreted prior to Paul. Jesus said,

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector”  (Matthew 18.15-17).

In this passage, Jesus gave his disciples instructions on how to deal with a sinning brother. He enumerated a series of procedural steps to follow. One of these restorative steps for the sinning brother who continued to be recalcitrant and unrepentant was to take the problem to the church, (ἐκκλησία). If the sinning brother refused to listen to the church, then he was to be regarded as a “Gentile and a tax collector.” This statement only makes sense in a Jewish context. It make no sense whatever in the existing Body of Christ. Jesus clearly maintained the distinction between Jew and Gentile. Such a distinction is now over. How do we know? Paul explains that the Church is composed of both Jews and Gentiles and that they are equal.

Some may be troubled by the fact that Jesus made a distinction between Jew and Gentile and that under his teaching the Jew had priority. This priority had been God’s plan ever since God chose Abraham from among the Gentiles to be the father of a new race through whom he would reveal himself and establish covenants. By means of this calling, God chose to reveal himself through the Jewish race and nation to the Gentiles. When Jesus came he preached repentance to Israel and presented himself to the nation as her Messiah. Establishment of his kingdom was contingent upon Israel’s repentance and acceptance of Jesus as Messiah.

Failure to recognize the nature of Jesus’ mission has led to grave interpretive misconceptions. Tragically, many people have been taught that Jesus came to found the Church. Even a cursory reading of the Gospels reveals this is false. Jesus did not come to found the Church; He came to present himself to Israel as their Messiah-King (cf. Romans 15.8). His message to the nation was one of repentance because the kingdom of heaven was near, i.e., the King was present. Repentance was the basis on which the Messianic kingdom, prophesied by the Jewish prophets for hundreds of years, was to be established. God’s prophetic program was “Jew first.” Once the Jewish nation repented and accepted Jesus as their King God would establish his earthly kingdom. Israel would then fulfill its destiny as the source of blessing to the Gentiles (cf. Zechariah 8.20-23; Isaiah 42.6-7; Luke 2.32; Acts 13.44-48). Because of this prophetic plan, Jesus ordered his disciples not to go to the Gentiles (Matthew 10.5-7).

Jesus rarely interacted with Gentiles. One exception was the Roman centurion Matthew recorded in his gospel in chapter 8. Another was the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15.21-28. Jesus told this woman when she confronted him, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Could words be more clear? If Jesus commanded his disciples not to go to Gentiles He could not have been forming the Church, the Body of Christ, in which Jew and Gentile are equal. Jesus made an exception with the Canaanite woman. He yielded to her plea to heal her demon-possessed daughter because in the midst of an unbelieving and obstinate Israel, a Gentile woman responded in faith to Jesus. She followed the pattern of Jacob, who refused to turn loose of the God-man he wrestled at Peniel until he was blessed, and Ruth, who refused to turn loose of Naomi. Even though the woman wasn’t Jewish, even though she didn’t fit into Jesus’ immediate mission, Jesus made an exception to the divine plan of “Jew first” and responded to her because of her great faith. Jesus said to her,

“‘O woman your faith is great; be it done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed at once” (Matthew 15.28).

As late as Acts 10, long after Pentecost, Peter and the apostles had gone to no Gentiles. In Acts 10, God gave Peter a vision and a specific command to go to the the Gentile Cornelius’ house. Peter obeyed, but not joyfully. Luke recorded,

“And a voice came to him, ‘Arise, Peter, kill and eat!’ But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.’ And again a voice came to him a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’  And this happened three times; and immediately the object was taken up into the sky (Acts 10.14-16).

“And as he talked with him, he entered, and found many people assembled. And he said to them, ‘You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean’” (Acts. 10.27-28).

How did Peter’s fellow apostles respond to Peter’s action?  Did they say, “Wonderful! God has sent you to the Gentiles to preach the gospel!” Hardly, Read Luke’s record:

“Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, saying, ‘You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them’” (Acts 11.1-3).

They “took issue with him.” In their view, Peter had abandoned the divine program. Only after Peter related the entire episode did his fellow Jews quiet down and accept him. Peter concluded:

“If God therefore gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” And when they heard this, they quieted down, and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life’” (Acts 11.17-18).

Jesus proclaimed the prophetic plan of God. This plan had been manifested and prophesied throughout the Old Testament by the prophets. God further revealed the plan through his covenants with Israel. But God also had a μυστήριον or “secret” plan unknown and unrevealed until he disclosed it to Paul. God revealed his “secret” following Israel’s rejection of the Messiah. Paul wrote about this in Romans 11.25-27:

“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery–so that you will not be wise in your own estimation–that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.”

The Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Church but His earthly ministry was to Israel, not the Church. Paul is the founder of the Church, the Body of Christ, because God revealed this new program through him. The Lord Jesus as the foundation of the Church is its Head and Lord (not King) and this relationship is heavenly, not earthly.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

We have noted that the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurred at Pentecost. Was this the same baptism that Paul described in 1 Corinthians 12? According to what Paul wrote the Corinthians, the Holy Spirit is the baptizer of the Church:

“For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Geeks, whether slaves or free, and we ware all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12.12-13).

The Holy Spirit is the person of the Godhead who baptizes us into Christ as the Body of Christ. In the Jewish program for the Jewish Church present at Pentecost, Jesus is the baptizing agent, however. He is the baptizer of Israel (Matthew 3.11; Mark 1.8; Luke 3.16; John 1.33 cf. Acts 1.4-5; 11.15-16).  John the Baptist prophesied saying,

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is  coming after me is mightier than I, and I, and am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3.11).

According to John the Baptist’s testimony, Jesus was the one who was the baptizer of believers at Pentecost. Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit before his crucifixion (John 14.16-17, 25-26; 15.26-27; 16.5-15). After his resurrection he told his disciples:

“for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1.5).

Christ’s Death As Good News

Peter’s message in Acts was a message of repentance. His message echoed the message of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Twelve except that it followed Jesus’ resurrection. Peter did not preach the death of Christ as a glorious victory over sin but as a cause of condemnation for Israel. As for Christ’s resurrection, it offered the nation a renewed opportunity to accept their King and bring forth the promised kingdom. Not until Paul was Christ’s death and resurrection preached as good news and the message of reconciliation declared (2 Corinthians 5.18-21). For Peter, the kingdom of God, proclaimed throughout the gospels, was still the plan of God. He called upon the nation to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2.38). Paul’s message was “believe and be saved” not “repent and be baptized.” Paul’s gospel is the message for the Church today.

All Goods Common

Notice also in Acts 2 that the believers in Jerusalem sold their possessions and held them in common. Such was the character of the Jerusalem church.  Jesus required this for citizens of the kingdom of God (cf. Matthew 19.21; Mark 10.21; Luke 12.33, 18.22). The disciples, obedient to Jesus, left everything to follow him (cf. Matthew 19.27; Mark 10.28; Luke 5.11, 28). How many sermons have you heard the preacher tell his congregation to sell their possessions and give all the money to the church? Paul never told believers to leave everything, sell their possessions, and give them to the Church. A new and different order began with Paul–the Church, the Body of Christ.

The Church and Israel

The Church is composed of all believers who have put their trust for salvation in the death and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15.1-4). Unlike Israel, the Church is not under a covenantal relationship with God. Prior to the calling of Abraham, God made a covenant with mankind through Noah in which he promised never again to destroy the world with a flood cf. <chrome_find class=”find_in_page findysel”>Genesis 9.9-17. After God created the Hebrew race he made covenants with them (see the Covenants of Israel). But God never made a covenant with the Church. God’s relationship to the Church is grace alone and is not under the Law of Moses. The Church does, however, share in the blessings of the New Covenant as the blessing of this covenant are spiritual rather than physical (as are the blessings of the other covenants).

The Church is separate and distinct from Israel. The below chart outlines the key differences.

Israel Church
Established by and under covenants Established by grace alone (a “secret”)
Has earthly promises Has heavenly promises
Operates under Law Operates under Grace
Is a Kingdom Is a Body
Has a King Has a Head
Israel was established by a covenant God made with Abraham who became the father of the Jewish race. Subsequent covenants followed. The final covenant was the New Covenant. The Church’s life is Christ as his Body. The Church was a creation held secret in the mind of God until God revealed the secret to Paul (Ephesians 2.11-22; 3.3-9; Colossians 1.26-27). Both Israel and the Church are beneficiaries in God’s plan under the “eternal covenant” (Hebrews 13.20-21). This covenant was not made with either Israel or the Church.  The Eternal Covenant was sovereignly made by God the Father and God the Son in eternity past as the means of redeeming fallen mankind, solving the problem of evil, and bringing glory to God.  The Church’s domain and destiny is heaven (Philippians 3.20). Israel’s promised realm is earth (Matthew 6.9-10). God promised Israel an earthly kingdom (Acts 1.6). The Church has no earthly kingdom. The operative means of life for the Church is grace (Romans 6.12). Throughout most its history the nation of Israel operated under the Law of Moses and Jesus operated under the Law (Matthew 8.4) during his earthly ministry. In a future day, under the New Covenant, Israel will have the Law written on their hearts (Jeremiah 31.33). The Church is described as the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12.12-13, 27). Israel is described as a kingdom.  Jesus is the Head of the Church, i.e., the Body of Christ, (Ephesians 1.22). He is never called the king of the Church. Jesus is the King of Israel (Luke 1.31-33). Ironically, the Roman governor Pilate, a Gentile, recognized Jesus’ Jewish kingship (Matthew 27.37; Mark 15.26; Luke 23.38; John 19.17-22 cf. John 18.33-39) even though the Jews rejected His title (Matthew 27.29-31; Mark 15.17-20; Luke 23.35). In the Messianic kingdom, Jesus will rule as Israel’s King in his role as David’s greater Son. In this role he will fulfill the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, Sabbatic, and New covenants.

Conclusion

God established the Church, the Body of Christ, with the conversion and commission of Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles. It has the following characteristics.

The Church is the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1.22-23; 1 Corinthians 12.12-13; Colossians 1.24).
All who put their trust in Christ in this age are members of the Body of Christ, i.e., the Church (1 Corinthians 12.12-13).
Membership into the Body of Christ, i.e., the Church, is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12.13; Galatians 3.27).
One is baptized by the Holy Spirit when one exercises faith in Christ (Galatians 3.26-27).
Members of Christ’s body, i.e., the Church, are indwelt by Christ (Colossians 1.27).
In order to understand what “church” means one must make Scriptural distinctions and understand where one falls in God’s plan. A “church,” an ἐκκλησία, in the broad sense of an assembly of those who have put their trust in YHVH or Jesus. In Jesus’ day, the “church” or “assembly” was composed of those who repented, were baptized, and believed that He was the promised Messiah. This was the requirement to be a citizen of the Messianic Kingdom. After Paul, however, God created a new entity, the Church, the body of Christ, in which no distinction exists between Jew and Gentile. This was a “secret” God revealed to Paul alone. Paul was commissioned as the “apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11.13) who revealed this new Church, the Body of Christ. These key verses describe the Church: Galatians 3.26-29, 1 Corinthians 12.12-13, Ephesians 1.22-23, Ephesians 2.11-22, Ephesians 3.1-10, Colossians 1.24-27.

For further reading on more “mysteries” or “secrets” God revealed to Paul alone, see the author’s article, Paul’s “Mystery”.

1 S. Lewis Johnson, “The Birth of the Church.” Dr. Johnson’s excellent lecture is online. The text above is an abbreviated rendition of Johnson’s argument. Dr. Johnson went to be with the Lord, January 28, 2004. He now knows the Church, the Body of Christ, began with Paul, not Pentecost. Given his wit and humor this revelation must be a source of mirth to him.