Members One of Another

In these words we have a picture of the oneness of the people of God. They are one body. This is the body of Christ. Saints, God’s holy people, constitute His body. He dwells in this body (Ephesians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 6:16). The apostle illustrates this by the human body (1 Corinthians 12:14-24). We can learn many a lesson about the body of Christ—the Church of God—by the study of the human body. Paul here says, “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.”* (1 Corinthians 12:26) These words, perhaps, express as great depth of this oneness as any other words in this illustration. This experience is true in the real body of Christ. If one saint suffers, all the other saints suffer with this suffering one. Let us examine our experience. When one member is honored, all the members rejoice with the honored one. We ought not to pass over this indifferently. There is a solemn truth here. We should not say it is true in our life if it is not really true. If the feet of your body are honored with a nice pair of shoes, see how rejoicing the hands go to work to place these shoes upon the feet. It is so in the body of Christ. Suppose you have held a prominent position in the Church. The time comes when you must surrender it to another. Do you do so rejoicingly? Man can say that he does it rejoicingly, when in the heart it is not true. We ought not to be satisfied unless it is as true as heaven in our heart. Suppose you were aspiring for a position, but it is given to another. Do you rejoice in your heart? It is that way in the human body, and it is even more so in the Church of God. Suppose you are given $100.00. You rejoice. Why do you rejoice? Do you rejoice because of what use you can make of this money for your own convenience and need? You should rejoice because of what use you can make of it in honoring or glorifying Christ. This should be the sole cause of your rejoicing. Let me tell you how you can discover whether you rejoice in it for this one cause. Suppose the $100 be given to another who will use it to glorify God equally as much as you; do you rejoice just as much as if it had been given to you? If not, you are not measuring fully to 1 Corinthians 12:26.