The Anatomy of the Body of Christ

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At the time of writing his letters, Paul had no greater knowledge available to him than that the body is made up of parts and so his analogy of the individual Christian to the body of Christ. With our greater knowledge of anatomy, we can better understand Paul's intent.

We are each a very small part of the body of Christ. Even the most brilliant person is not a significant part of the "brain" of the Church, rather he or she might represent a complete neuron. A less brilliant scholar a mere axon. (Some of us feel like the synapse--sitting in the void between the cells and watching the messages flash past with a sense of understanding, but no real grasp of the matter.

When we consider our place in the whole of the body of Christ, it gives us pause. We have nothing to boast of--can a single cardiac muscle fiber boast? Of what use is it without all other such fibers? Can a single islets cell exult in producing insulin--the amount made is minute--useless without all the other cells.

We function only when we function in the body with all the other cells of like function. We cannot function outside of the body at all, and if we spend our time wishing we were other cells, we are more a detriment that a help to the body.

We need to learn to accept who and what we really are in Christ and then humbly and boldly assume that role in the body. We are blessed to have a place and blessed to be able to serve. And when we do so we become part of the corporate body of Love--we bring love into the world and we transform the world through God's love working through us.

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1 Comments

Steven,

WOW! I have heard the body analogy preached dozens of times but taking down to the cellular level really helped me "hear" my place in the Body. Thank you!

PS I liked you John of the Cross stuff about faith moving us beyond intellect. How true. How utterly strange/foreign. And how potentially breathtaking!

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This page contains a single entry by Steven Riddle published on February 22, 2004 2:02 PM.

Heaven Is Not Customizable was the previous entry in this blog.

Some Hard Words of St. John of the Cross is the next entry in this blog.

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