The Love of the Body

The Love of the Body

Love in a fuller measure can be found in the body of Christ. In referring to it, Ephesians 4 mentions "the building up of itself in love" (v.16). Only in the body can we know what love is in its fullest. We are told in Revelation that the church in Philadelphia had manifested itself in love rather than in doctrine. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that "whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it" (v.26). And Ephesians 5 speaks of the love in the body of Christ, "for no man ever hated his own flesh" (v.29). You may see people beat up on others’ bodies but you rarely see them beating up on themselves. In the love of the body there can be the speaking of the truth (see Eph 4.15). But you cannot admonish a person who is outside the body. Only in the love of the body may you so persuade. Outside the body no frank talk in truthful terms is possible, yet in the love of the body such talk can take place. In the body alone is there real love.

Many words in the Bible are hard to put into practice if there is not the proper setting for them. They can easily be obeyed or carried out, though, if there is the body of Christ. For example, the Bible says that we are all priests. But suppose you tell a "lay" member of a denomination that he is a priest. If he should accept this Biblical truth of the universal priesthood of believers, then at the next communion service of his congregation he may wish to go forward to assist the pastor, saying: "You and I are both priests. We both, therefore, can officiate in the communion." Immediately, trouble will arise. For such a word has no way to be implemented in their denominational context or setting. Or take as another example, this: Suppose a person talks about guidance but ignores body life. Confusion will quickly arise, for guidance is in the body just as love is in the body. No correct result will come outside the body context.

Let us see and understand that love and authority are in the body of Christ to deal with the flesh. If we are truly living in the body, nothing will stumble us.