Dear Friends,
Of the many descriptions of the Church of Christ in the New Testament, there is none more precious than that which presents the Church as a "body". Not only is the description of the Church as a body a precious one, but it is also a very helpful one when it comes to any individual and local Church of Christ endeavouring to be what the Lord has called it to be. This is mainly due to the fact that under the figure of a body we are enabled to see, not only that a Church of Christ is called to a position of unity and oneness under God, but we are also enabled to see the kind of unity and oneness that a Church is called to.
The unity of the Church is the unity of a body. And whereas the Church is "one", it is one in the sense of being one composed of many. The unity of a Church is a "unity in diversity". One body; many parts – with all the parts being "members in particular", and "members one of another" within the body, functioning in their own place and in their own way to the good of the whole. It is a precious concept, and it is a very helpful concept, indeed, when it comes to our own local church situations and workings.
For one thing, it is meant to keep all the members from despising any of the member's place or functions within the body. The apostle Paul has some very straightforward things to say along that very line in his first epistle to the Corinthians (1Cor 12:21). "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 thee:" And then to drive that lesson home even more forcibly, he says, "Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour ..."
Can any one part of the body say to another, "I have no need of thee"? Indeed, no, says the Lord's apostle. And although some part of the body might appear more feeble, or less honourable, than some other parts, that member is most necessary and requires the attention of the whole just like the rest.
The apostle's words are worthy of our deepest concentration when it comes to the functioning of the Church of Christ that we are part of. Something that the devil will always endeavour to rob the Church of is her own identity and dignity – both with regards to her totality and her parts.
There is reputedly a famous painting somewhere in Venice that is reckoned one of the world's masterpieces. One of the things that especially marks out the painting as a masterpiece is the exactness of the shoes that the characters in the painting wear. They are intricate and precise, right down to the last detail of the eye-lets, and so forth. The story behind those shoes runs like this: a local cobbler had been repairing a pair of the artist's shoes and had called with them on the very day that the artist had completed his painting – or so he thought. The cobbler looked at the painting, and at the shoes that the characters were wearing, and very gently said to the artist, "Begging your pardon, sir, but the latchets and the eye-lets of your shoes are all wrong". And so, there and then, under the expert guidance and advice of the old shoemaker, the artist reworked and remodelled that whole part of his painting until he eventually produced the masterpiece that is known to-day.
The artist knew a lot about painting; the shoemaker knew a lot about shoes. Between them, each functioning in his own sphere, they produced a masterpiece for all the world to see.
Philip Dodderidge, who wrote "The Family Expositor", tells us how he went about much of that great enterprise, when it came to some particular portions of scripture. For example, in dealing with those passages relating to "length of days", and "grey heads", etc., Dodderidge used to draw aside with the older members of his congregation, and he would search their hearts and search their minds concerning those things that he himself, as yet, had never felt nor experience. Dodderidge was nobody's fool, and had an immense stature of intellect; but there were other members within that body of Christ that knew a thing or two as well from another angle.
Indeed, "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 thee." Each member within the body is dignified by being in the body in the first place. And as each member performs in its place in the body no other part of the body may rise up and despise it and say, "I have no need of thee".
For another thing, the concept of the Church as one body and may members, each dignified in its own particular place and function, greatly helps to combat the spirit of any one member wrongly desiring another's place in the body.
In that same chapter 12 of first Corinthians already referred to, there is one mighty statement of the sovereign workings of God that we can in no wise overlook. It is in connection with the numerous workings of the body, and it says this – "But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him". The creator of the body knows where He wishes the members of the body to be, and there He places them, in all His sovereign skill and with all His sovereign purpose.
Now, it is not a fatalistic view of any believer's place or function within the body of the Church of which that believer is a part. Indeed no; "If any man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work". But the feasibility of that desire has numerous acid test that can be applied to it to see if that desire prompted by God's Holy Spirit, or merely a human desire, albeit honourable and sincere in itself. The best kind of indication to our souls is not where we best feel we should be in the body, but where we best function in the body to the glory of Christ.
I don't know if my foot would ever desire to read a book! Being a basically orderly body I don't suppose the question ever arises. But, this I do know, that if my foot ever did decide to try and read a book, there wouldn't be much reading done! The eye does the reading, the foot does the walking. What is very often patently obvious in the natural body, can be just as obvious in the spiritual body of the Church when Christ, the Head of the Church is guiding His body by His Word.
However we are speaking about "wrong" desire, and the issue of any one member of a body of Christ's people "wrongly" desiring another member's place in the body; and this can be an attitude of heart and mind perhaps more common than we think. How it usually expresses itself in in that plain, old-fashioned "faraway fields are green" mentality.
Sometimes we see someone doing a certain job, or a certain work, within the Church, and we immediately think, "That would be the job for me in the Church. It doesn't seem to take a lot of effort – or, at least, if it does, it seems to have a lot of "reward" attached to it. I wish I had that part of the work to do", and so forth. But, does it not take a lot of effort? Remember, what is normally seen in any job or undertaking is the "end product" not the labour etc., that went into producing it.
It has been said that within the Christian life we bear our own crosses best. That is absolutely true; God matches the cross to the cross-bearer. When we come to see that, we come to a great deal of peace in our souls. It is exactly the same with regards to our place and our calling with in the Church of Christ; God matches the function to the member – "as it hath pleased him". As we look for that which we can best do within the body to the good of the whole, then we will find the joy and the peace of serving the Lord in all things. It is not the function that Christ will take into account at the end, but the faithful discharge of that function whatever it may happen to be.
There is a famous story of a lame man and a blind man who were both called to dine with the king of their country. The blind man couldn't find his way to the palace, and the lame man's legs wouldn't carry him there. After some discussion they hit on the obvious solution: the blind man would carry the lame man to the palace, and in that way the blind man would have a pair of eyes and the lame man a pair of legs.
"But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Christ has given "every one of us" a "gift" – a function and a place within His body, the Church; He has also given us "grace" in accordance with that gift and in connection with that gift. God grant us grace to use that grace in order that we might exercise that gift to the glory and the praise of Christ.