by Carlos Simpson
A productive and mature body is not an accident. It is the result of carefully obeying God’s instructions. By observing the will of the head, the members will relate properly and build up the body.
For many years I believed that the unity of the church had to be assumed in primarily mystical terms. He thought that the Church would be united only in heaven; but I have come to understand that the Lord wants the unity to be visible, to be united on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus said to pray this way: “Thy will be done on earth…”. He said to his disciples: “Whatever you bind and loose on earth will be bound and loosed in heaven.” The Lord wants the church to be united on earth so that it can carry out its ministry on earth.
The kind of unity the church must have in order to fulfill its mission is that of a body. The goal of the church is not merely to take Christians to heaven, but to be the light of the world. The responsibility of the church is not to go out of the world, but to disciple the nations. The relationships that must exist in the church are not of a mere mystical unity but of a visible harmony. Only when the church functions as a body can it achieve its goal, fulfill its responsibility, and demonstrate those relationships.
When Christians speak of the unity of the church we often think of the unity of all Christians. We take it for granted that we have already achieved unity in the local church; but what kind of unity do we have in the local church and in the Christian group that we are leading? If it is not about the unity of a body then we cannot be on earth what the Lord wants us to be.
ACTIVITIES OR RELATIONSHIPS
The Bible tells us that Christ is the head of his body, the church, and that we are its members. However, reading something in the Bible does not mean “possessing” it. The churches of today, for the most part, do not function as bodies in which all their members are united to the head and to each other. I am glad that my own body is not in the same state as many churches; the mouth could start talking against the ears and the feet could stop listening to the head.
In short, what we have in the church are meetings and activities; but a meeting is not a body. My body does not meet once a week; the parts of my body are in continuous relationship. In the case of the church, being a body does not mean being united all the time, but being related in the right way.
If the members of the church are not related to each other, the meetings and activities will not make them one body, including the activities of worshiping God and preaching the Gospel. There is a difference between a pile of stones and a building; Without a proper relationship, the church is nothing more than a bundle of arms and legs. It is the connection with the head and the other members that makes the parts constitute a body.
UNIT FUNDAMENTALS
To function as a body, the church must be united by relationships; yet many churches today are united by anything but relationships. Some are linked by buildings. While it is nice to have a nice place to meet, the building is not the church, the people of God are.
Some Christians believe they have unity because they share the same ideas about church organization or liturgy or because they agree on certain details of doctrine, such as the specific form of baptism. But if all that unites us are points of doctrine, we cannot be united with Christians who think differently from ours; and our unity is destroyed if anyone changes his mind at any point. The only true and permanent foundation of unity is to recognize the will of the head that we are united.
When we begin to relate to each other as members of a body, there are certain principles that come into play. I want to present seven of them, which function as laws; not as the kind of law that must be obeyed, but as the law of gravity, which works regardless of whether one understands it or not. (Although understanding it can be very useful!).
GOVERNMENT
The first of these is the law of government. It could be stated this way: Entering into a bodily relationship requires the existence of a head. A person cannot be a member of the church until he confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is what I call “the gate principle”; Jesus said, “I am the door.” His is the door to the church. If one is going to venture into any area, one goes to the main person in charge. This is true in the family: if I am going to develop a friendship with a family I need to acknowledge the husband and father of the family; If I am friendly with a man’s wife and I don’t recognize her authority, my friendship is going to cause problems; If I have friendship with the children, but I do not recognize that their parents are responsible for them, my friendship will make them worse children because it will not agree with the education that their parents give them.
Not only is it important that all be properly related to the head, Christ, but it is essential that the members of the body be properly related to human authorities. Paul writes: “Brothers, you know that the family of Stephanas is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have dedicated themselves to the service of the saints. I beg you to subject yourselves to people like them, and to all those who help and work. I rejoice at the coming of Estéfanas, Fortunato and Acaico, for they have made up for your absence. Because they comforted my spirit and yours; therefore recognize such people.” (1 Cor. 16.15-18).
If I had gone to the Corinthian church and refused to acknowledge Stephanas saying, “I acknowledge God and not men,” I would have been wrong. Paul says: “Submit to people like them and recognize them.”
HONESTY AND RECONCILIATION
The second principle is the following: To remain in unity one must walk in the light. Walking in the light means telling the truth to each other, living honestly.
John says: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1.7). That means that if we walk in truth and openness to each other we are cleansed. If I understand this passage correctly, it even says that the blood flows when there is fellowship. If I isolate a member of my body or put a tourniquet on my arm, I die. Why? Because the blood has stopped circulating, impurities block the passage, new life cannot flow.
The same thing happens in the body of Christ. If you see a Christian who is failing to do right, one thing he will do is start to separate himself from the body: he will not attend meetings, and if you talk to him there will be no real communication.
To remain in communion with one another it is necessary to walk openly and honestly; It is for this reason that the Bible talks so much about confessing our offenses to one another. James 5 speaks of healing: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another.” We cannot know how to pray for each other if we do not confess our faults to each other; and this must be done in the church. Frankly, many of us would do well to confess our sins to someone; if we bring them to light, then God can work.
I have been raised Baptist, and most Baptists and other Protestants I know have rebelled against the confession to priests practiced by Catholics in such a way that they do not confess to anyone, and many times not even to God. We say: “Forgive us our debts”, but that is not a confession, it is a generalization. “Forgive me for that lie I told about So-and-so…”, that’s a confession; if we then go and confess it to so-and-so, God knows we are sincere. Matthew 18 is very explicit: “If your brother sins, go to him in private first; if he does not hear you, he takes another person with you; if he does not hear them, tell the church.” How many problems would we save ourselves if we Christians put Matthew 18 into practice. I dare to say that most of the divisions within Christianity have occurred because Matthew 18 was not applied.
As long as we are divided we will not see the grace of God work perfectly among us. If we believe what God says, we should practice that: “If you bring your gift before the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go, first be reconciled with your brother.” brother…” (Mt. 5.23).
I have tried to make it a habit to clarify directly with the affected person, when I hear that they have said something against me, this has kept me quite busy and it did not always work; but I am not free before God until I have tried.
The Bible says, “If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven.” We need to take it seriously, if we are not kidding ourselves. Especially as leaders, we must practice reconciliation to the best of our ability.
MODESTY
The third law is that of humility: Humility of heart is required for harmony and success. Romans 12:10 says, “As for honor, preferring one another.” This is a difficult verse to practice, how many of us are happier when a brother or sister is honest than when we are? We often think, “Well, if they knew him like I know him, they wouldn’t have said such a thing.”
1 Peter 5.5-6 says: “Young men, be subject to your elders…Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time.” Humble yourselves and He will exalt you. Exalt yourselves and He will humble you.
Contention is directly related to pride. A functioning body is one in which each member serves the body and not just himself. Serving other members is direct evidence of humility.
FIDELITY
The fourth law is that of fidelity: An increase in the responsibility of the body demands fidelity to responsibility. This means the following: In a body, if a person is to be promoted, he should be promoted on the basis of his faithfulness in what he has been asked to do. Otherwise, the body will stop working.
Luke 16.10-12 says: “He who is faithful in a little is also faithful in much; and he who is unjust in very little, is also unjust in much. For if you were not faithful in unjust riches, who will give you what is yours? We can observe three parts in this law of fidelity: faithful in the very little, faithful in riches, faithful in what belongs to others.
When we see people who are not performing well in the body, we will see that these laws have been violated.
The Bible says that you should not take any person (a novice), lest he be filled with pride and fall into the trap of the enemy. A person must begin by serving, especially, in few and small things. For example, a person who has just been converted to the Lord comes to me:
–Have you met Jesus? That is wonderful! Could you set up the chairs for next Sunday morning? -I tell him.
-Chairs? –he answers me–. I feel the call of God and I am…