The Body

The Body

Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The body is for the Lord. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Present your bodies as a living, acceptable sacrifice to God, for this is your spiritual service. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (the forgiveness of sins). 1 Cor. 6:13-20; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 12:1; Heb. 10:22. The body is an amazing work of creation, a magnificent masterwork, and an instrument with which we perform an unspeakable amount of widely different deeds. With it we do both the evil and the good. And everyone will receive according to what he has done. Everything depends on how we use our body. Each one of us is an independent person with our own body, and as such each one of us will receive his own reward precisely according to what we have done with our own body—neither more nor less. 1 Cor. 3:8; Gal. 6:4. When we have a living faith in this, and are fully aware of it, then it will lead us to repentance. It will constrain us to be reconciled to God, and to seek help from Him to do the good with our body.

Nevertheless, we can say that this truth is mostly a truth for beginners, nourishment for infants and babes in Christ. There is another, central truth that gives us stronger nourishment, and a greater, deeper, and wider salvation: that the Church is the body of Christ, and that we are members individually, and thus we are also each other’s members. Once this truth becomes known and is believed, the result will be salvation as never before. Faith in this truth will make an end of all sin that faith in other truths could not achieve. All overflow of wickedness, all self-love, being self-willed and all other “selfs” will now be destroyed. Just as our body consists of a multitude of members that work together in harmony, thus performing one and the same will in the same spirit, so all of us have been joined together as members of one and the same body—the body of Christ— according to God’s will to perform one and the same will—God’s will. 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4 and 12-16; 5:30, and Col. 2:19. What will then necessarily happen to our self-will? It will disappear! What will then happen to our own opinions, willfulness and conceit? They must necessarily disappear! What will then happen to going our own way, living according to our own desires? That will cease. What will become of divisions? They will disappear! What will happen to our “own possessions” in the deepest sense of the word? They will disappear. What will become of sulking, feeling insulted, and being offended and staying away from the meetings for a longer or shorter period of time? They won’t exist any more! Envy? It will disappear! Jealousy? It will cease! Love of money and greed? They will disappear! Being cantankerous? It will stop of its own accord! Being orderly? It will appear by itself. Brotherly love? It will become natural! A willingness to serve? Of course! Care for each other? It will become perfect! Going to the meetings? Without fail! (This truth once gave a sister, O.O., who was lying on her deathbed, the strength to get out of her bed, get dressed, and travel for 6 hours by train to a conference in Horten, where she was healed. She thought, in the simplicity of faith, that since the other members were traveling to Horten, it would be wrong for her to lie in a corner by herself, seeing that she was also a member of the same body. God did not disappoint her. Praise be to His great and good name!) Selfish ambition and the desire to rule over others will also be exterminated by this unique, blessed, and powerfully effective truth. The only thing that is required is that we find our place in the body in all faithfulness. Everything else is beating the air. Everything else is loss; everything else is folly and madness; everything else is only kicking against the goads; everything else is sin! We cannot do anything greater or better, or on the whole, anything else that is good, than to fill out our place faithfully in the body. According to this truth we cannot do anything without the others. On the whole, a member that is cut off cannot live, and will become an absurdity!

Faith in the fact that we are each other’s members is a sanctifying and preserving power to the highest degree. Think about this truth and live according to it, then your progress in all that is good will be manifested to all!

“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him.” Col. 2:9-10. All that is good and perfect is “bodily!” We are complete in Him “as a body;” we perform our ministry “in the body;” being subject to one another occurs “in the body;” our good order is “as a body;” the sound doctrine of Christ is for “the body;” edification is “in the body;” the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden “in His body”—in Jesus Christ. This is where people get the idea to organize “members” as is done in clubs and church denominations. They misuse the word, because they only think of agreeing in one matter or doctrine without considering being each other’s members. Quite the contrary!

We are not to grow up in Christ as independent individuals, but as a “body!” Eph. 4:16. Everything is and shall be done bodily—as a body— according to the laws of the body.