A Self-Study / Rick McNally

Remember, Jesus is your main teacher and he has enabled you in Christ and you need no other!

The Body of Christ is one of the primary images or metaphors that the Bible uses to describe what the church is. A few of the major ones are as follows as highlighted by the Moody Handbook of Theology.

• The church is the building God is building / Eph 2:11-18
• The church is the priesthood of God / 1 Peter 2:5
• The church is the bride of Christ / Eph 5:23
• The church is God’s flock (think sheep) / John 10:16
• The church are branches / John 15
• The church is the body of Christ / 1 Cor 12:12-27

Paul Minear identified and explained 96 such issues for the church in scripture, his classic work Images of the Church in the New Testament is a study of such things. We will focus on one particular image this coming Sunday. The church as the body of Christ.

This idea shows up in three particular passages, and the headship of Christ (which springs from this image) is mentioned in a few other places.

I would encourage people to study one of the following three passages! Choose one. I have made a few discussion questions after each passage if that is a help to you.

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Option 1 / 1 Cor 12:12-27 / Focus: Diversity and Unity

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 in one Spirit we were all 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 a 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 sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, 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 that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow 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 greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division 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.

• Why does Paul use the word “one” so many times at the beginning of this passage?
• The first half of the passage seems to emphasize the differences we have and the need of those differences. How does Paul explain this?
• The second half seems to focus on the idea that we need each other, and that even those that seem the weaker are just as needed as those who seem stronger or more important. How does Paul try to convince us of that?
• Focus on the way we should treat each other that is described in 1 Cor 12:24b-31. What actions and attitudes are described?
• Note, this passage segues into the chapter on love, and transitions there intentionally. What can be learned from that?

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Option 2 / Eph 4:11-16 / Focus: Equipping the Body to maturity, into the image of the Head (Christ)

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

• What is the focus of this passage?
• Is it on the roles that God has ordained or on their purpose?
• What is that purpose?
• How is that purpose completed or accomplished?
• What is the danger if it fails?

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Option 3 / Colossians 1:24-29 / Focus: Making known the Word of God

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

• What are the things Paul struggled to make known?
• What is the goal?

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Christ as the Head / A focus the church dare not miss

• Colossians 1:18 / And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
• Colossians 2:19 / and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
• Eph 1:22-23 / And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
• Eph 5:23 / For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
• 1 Cor 11:3 / But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

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A couple of interesting things…

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Q / What happens when people usurp Jesus’ headship in the church?

A / Logos AI, focusing on Minear’s images of the Church in the New Testament / When people usurp Jesus’ headship in the church, several critical consequences emerge. Cleavages and claims of superiority persist within the church, and the boundary between “the body of flesh” and “the body of Christ” remains uncrossed due to a stubborn refusal to accept Christ’s victory over “elemental spirits” (ie, tradition, legalism) 1. This means that societal divisions are not surrendered, and the church fails to truly transform its social practices. Instead of being a new creation, it risks becoming just another competing social group that draws invidious distinctions between people.

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Q / What happens when people usurp Jesus’ headship in the church?

A / Logos AI, focused on my (RLM) library / larger sample group /

When people usurp Jesus’ headship in the church, several serious consequences occur. The church is meant to teach, but only as Christ teaches through her. Any attempt to teach or claim authority apart from Christ is a presumptuous usurpation of His role as the great Teacher[1].

Specifically, no human can legitimately claim to be the head of the church – this is an “awful blasphemy” that usurps the “crown rights of King Jesus”. The true Church of Christ recognizes Jesus as its only head[2].

When humans try to take Christ’s place, the church forgets it is a “widow” waiting for her Lord’s return. This leads to numerous spiritual abuses, including:

• Dishonoring Christ’s sacrificial work
• Introducing additional mediators
• Ascribing efficacy to saints’ intercession that belongs only to Christ[3]

The Holy Spirit emphasizes that any teaching which removes Christ from the throne is not of God. Those who dare to usurp Christ’s divine prerogatives will face His “summary vengeance” when He ultimately returns[4].

The fundamental truth is that Christ reigns supreme. He does not serve, but ordains service. He does not obey, but commands. He does not submit, but rules – with special relation to His Church[5]. The consequences of usurping His headship are spiritually catastrophic, undermining the very foundation of Christ’s relationship with His people.

• [1] James Bannerman, The Church of Christ: A Treatise on the Nature, Powers, Ordinances, Discipline, and Government of the Christian Church, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1868), 208–209.
• [2] C. H. Spurgeon, “‘Jesus Our Lord,’” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 48 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1902), 558.
• [3] W. W. Andrews, “The Catholic Apostolic Church,” Bibliotheca Sacra 23, no. 89 (1866): 117–118.
• [4] C. H. Spurgeon, “The Spirit’s Office Towards Disciples,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 53 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1907), 508.
• [5] Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: Ephesians (New York; Chicago; Toronto; London; Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company, n.d.), 113.