“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

by Pastor Patrick Cho

The Bible uses several different metaphors to describe the church. In 1 Corinthians 3:9-10, Paul calls the church God’s field and God’s building. In Revelation 19:7-8, the church is pictured as the bride of Christ (cf. Eph. 5:22-33). But there is one metaphor that helps illustrate the way the church functions perhaps better than any other. In Colossians 1:18 and Ephesians 5:23, the church is referred to as the body of Christ, and Christ is called her head.

This is a fitting picture for the church because it illustrates how different people with different gifts and abilities can gather and work together in unity. Just as the human body has various members with varying functions, so the spiritual body of Christ possesses many different members with different personalities, backgrounds, skills, and interests. No two members are exactly the same, and yet with Christ as the head, all the members can work together to build up the body to maturity (Eph. 4:11-13).

Every person who trusts in Christ as their Lord and Savior is baptized in the Spirit and made a part of the body (cf. Mark 1:8; 1 Cor. 12:13). This is one of the great blessings and benefits of becoming a follower of Jesus. He not only forgives our sin, but He gives us the Holy Spirit to lead and direct us to live for His glory. The Spirit serves as our seal and guarantee that we are His and that He will come again for us (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5).

Baptism in the Spirit is not only reserved for some believers, as some churches might teach, but is an experience that is common to everyone who trusts in Christ as Lord. This is why Paul writes that we were “all” baptized into one body (1 Cor. 12:13). The baptism of the Spirit occurs at the moment of conversion when a person is saved by God’s grace. Since all believers share in this common experience and are led by the same Spirit and trust in the same Lord, they are called together into one body (Eph. 4:4-6). This is the church – the body of Christ saved by one Lord through the one true gospel message by the work of the one Spirit in their lives.

We gather together as believers because of our common confession of faith that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and was raised again on the third day. We come to worship God together because of our common understanding that He alone is worthy of all our praise. We study the Scriptures together because we know that it gives life and reveals to us the will of God. We do this corporately because of our shared experience of God’s grace to forgive us and rescue us from the punishment of hell.

Because of these truths, there is a fitting major emphasis on unity in the New Testament. As a result of what we know about the gospel, God calls us to live at peace with one another. We are to be humble and forbearing in our dealings with each other because God has called us as one body. When we persist in our personal conflicts, we live not as though there is one God, but two – the God you serve and the God of the other person you don’t want anything to do with. We live not as though there is one gospel, but two – the gospel that saves you and the gospel that saves the person with whom you are in conflict. We live as though there are two bodies – the one you belong to and the one for your rival. While we might profess orthodoxy, when we stubbornly hate our brothers and sisters, our practice is blasphemy.

The church in Corinth was riddled with all sorts of issues. There were people abusing spiritual gifts. Some members were abusing communion and even getting drunk at their feasts. There was an incestuous relationship that even the immoral pagan citizens of Corinth frowned upon. Believers were taking each other to court in order to defraud each other. But with all these problems, isn’t it interesting that Paul opens the letter by addressing the issue of divisions and disunity? It was the first thing on his mind.

Positively, in the Book of Ephesians, the first three chapters are devoted to explaining our position in Christ. God has saved us and made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in our sins and trespasses. The last three chapters are devoted to our practice in Christ – how are we supposed to live in light of who we are in Him? Again, isn’t it interesting that the section on the Christian’s practice begins with the issue of maintaining unity in the church?

This is how important a matter the unity of the church is to God! Our conflicts and divisions are no small things in God’s sight. Since we are Christ’s representatives on earth, His name is at stake in the way we behave. Any pagan society and organization can have conflicts and divisions. It is our unity as a church body that really causes us to stand out. When people come together to worship God, who have absolutely no business congregating for any other reason, it demonstrates that God is doing something in that assembly.

There is so much emphasis in the church today on our personal walk with Jesus. We speak about a personal relationship with our personal Lord and Savior. We pursue personal growth and develop our personal disciplines. But the Bible’s overwhelming emphasis is on our corporate identity in Christ. God saved us to be a part of the body.

When we gather to worship on Sunday mornings, it isn’t about our personal time and experience. We sing together. We fellowship together. We pray together. We study God’s Word together. What we do, we do as a body in unity because that is what God has called us to do. It isn’t just about having an uplifting time for yourself. It is about worshiping God with one voice and one heart in the unity of the Spirit. We are there for the Lord, but we are also there for one another, to be a blessing and encouragement to our brothers and sisters through our speech and service. This is something to keep in mind the next time we gather for corporate worship. Take a moment to look around and appreciate why we are gathering and what God is doing through us.