Belonging to The Body of Christ

Belonging to The Body of Christ
“So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”  Romans 12:5

In the movie, Home Alone, eight-year-old Kevin, was delighted when he woke up and found that his chaotic and irritating family had accidentally left him home alone. He celebrated his independence by jumping on his bed, eating junk food, and watching forbidden shows. It was all fun and games . . . until he started missing them. 

We can be that way in our church lives. Our desire for independence often prevails over our need for community. We do not want others to make demands on our schedules, or our love. We may be happy to attend a worship service, but belong to others, serving them and letting them serve us? Now that is a different matter. 

The fundamental problem that we run into is this: If we are  believers in Jesus Christ we actually already are “individually members one of another.” We do belong to them, and they do belong to us. 

The Bible points its finger at the cause of our preference of independence over community: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3). Due to our fallen human nature we tend to think of ourselves more highly that we ought. 

We do this by thinking too much of ourselves. We find any characteristic in our lives to judge ourselves superior—I am more spiritual, I pray more, my theology is better, or I am more successful, more wealthy, better educated, better dressed, more fit, than the others. Essentially, we look down on the others, thinking that we are too good to belong. “Well, I am really better than the others here, so I don’t want to demean myself by giving myself too freely to them.”

Another way to think too highly of ourselves is to think too often of ourselves. We see the others and think that they fit in, but we do not. On and on we may go convincing ourselves that we are not good enough to belong. “What do I have to offer? I am different and do not fit in. What if I try to serve and fail?” 

What is the cure? To think of ourselves with sober or sound judgment. This means, first, realizing that we actually already are part of the body of Christ, if we are his. It is not a matter of IF we are part, but rather how well we embrace the reality that we ARE part of the Body of Christ. Jesus prays for our oneness with other believers. “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (John 17:23). 

Second, sober judgment means understanding our particular part in the body of Christ, and serving in this way. “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (Romans 12:6). The gifts that we have from God—which we may think set us above others, or, that we may think keep us from being acceptable to others—are actually the very gifts that guide our life into the church community. 

Embracing the reality that we are part of his church, and offering our God-given-gift to others in service, we overcome our reticence and find our place, and our purpose, among the people of God. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian discovered his need for the body of Christ in the 1930s. As a leader of the Confessing Church, which resisted the Third Reich’s takeover of the state church, Bonhoeffer led a training community of young pastors from 1935 to 1937. He wanted these seminarians to experience church community not merely hear of it. The small community worshipped together, ate meals together, prayed together, and served together. 

In the midst of this, Bonhoeffer discovered that he, too, needed church community. He authored a book of that community entitled, Life Together. In this he wrote of the Christian’s essential need of church community: “The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him.” May we all think of ourselves with such sober judgment, for we are, “individually members one of another.”