The Body of Christ & The Peace of God

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

But God has so composed the body giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

1. The Body consists of all its parts. And the whole is greater than its parts.

1. The Body consists of all its parts. And the whole is greater than its parts.

2. The unity of the Body is not of man but of God. The Christian Community is a New Creation of God even as we are all new creation individually.

1. The Body consists of all its parts. And the whole is greater than its parts.

2. The unity of the Body is not of man but of God. The Christian Community is a New Creation of God even as we are all new creation individually.

3. The Christian unity is a unity of life. It is a unity of relationships found in Christ who has reconciled us to Himself and us with our neighbor.

Isolationism (lone-rangernism)

Isolationism (lone-rangernism)Self-sufficiency (as if ‘I’ am the Body,

“without me the Church will die”)

Isolationism (lone-rangernism)Self-sufficiency (as if ‘I’ am the Body,

“without me the Church will die”)Rivalry

Isolationism (lone-rangernism)Self-sufficiency (as if ‘I’ am the Body,

“without me the Church will die”)RivalrySelf-glorification for reason of function.

Isolationism (lone-rangernism)Self-sufficiency (as if ‘I’ am the Body,

“without me the Church will die”)RivalrySelf-glorification for reason of function.Indifference to the whatever is happening to

the Body

“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food and with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

“Truly, I say to you, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?”

What is the greatest miracle

of God?

What is the greatest work of

Jesus?

The Cross of Calvary: He

reconciled us to God.

The greatest miracle of all is the healing of relationships.

Christian community is a Sanctuary – a

place of forgiveness, healing and renewal.

At peace with God, at peace with men, at peace with our loved ones in the presence of God – that’s Community.