5.
Function and Energy
In a living organism like the
human body these two things are so evidently characteristic of
life: namely, specific function and vital energy. Of course, we
refer to a normal and healthy body. As we have before pointed
out, that unique definition or designation of the Church as the
Body of Christ is used to show that God's material creations are
intended to set forth or symbolize His spiritual thoughts.
Probably in no other creation or production of God is there a
more perfect concentration of the Divine mind than in the human
body or organism. There could hardly be a better example of
inspiration than that which led the Apostle Paul to employ this
metaphor for the Church. His alone it was to so designate the
Church. It is itself a feature of the Anointing to see Divine,
spiritual and heavenly meanings in commonplace things. So it was
with the Lord in His parables. Perhaps the fact that a physician
had been Paul's close companion for so long had meant that, on
their long journeys, physical matters had occupied their
conversation. It was not Luke, the Physician, who gave this
enlightenment, although he had all the academic knowledge. It
needed Paul's "open Heaven" concerning the Church to
discern this revelation of eternal thoughts as wrapped up in the
physical organism.
And so we are brought to this
so obvious (when eyes are opened) truth of the Church as the Body
of Christ - that is, function and energy.
In the medical and surgical
world there are many specialists. There are specialists for eyes,
heart, ear, nose, throat, lungs, bones, nerves, brain, etc., thus
indicating that the human body comprises many functions. Those
just mentioned are but a very small number of the immense total
of the functions in a single human unit. Our point is not merely
that there are so many functions in the body, but that every
one of the almost countless number is - in its way and place
- a specialist itself. That is, it has a special purpose
and special place in the body. No other faculty can
fulfil just its function. Every one differs in a
particular respect from the others, although so greatly dependent
upon the others. There is no need for us to enlarge upon this;
everybody knows that this is a fact, and no one ever tries to
make one organ do the work of another; we do not usually walk on
our hands.
There is a sound and true
biological basis to Paul's words concerning the organs, functions
and relations of the human body as representing the Body of
Christ - the corporate life of true believers.
For instance: "We have
many members in one body, and all the members have not the same
office... having gifts differing", etc. (Romans 12:4-8).
"Now there are diversities
of gifts... there are diversities of ministrations... diversities
of workings... the foot... the ear... the eye... the head..."
(1 Corinthians 12).
The point being made is that in
the body there is a multiplicity of functions and all these are
energized by one life. So in the Body of Christ there are a great
variety of faculties and functions, every one of which is
energized by the Holy Spirit of life.
Faculty
Demands Relatedness
The first thing that the
Apostle would have believers know is that every member of
Christ should express the life in some particular way. The Holy
Spirit forms the Body, and just as God's vast and profound wisdom
is concentrated in the physical body with its marvellous system
of related faculties, so it is in a spiritual way with the Body
of Christ, the true Church. No part, however small, is without
meaning. It is to the Church's loss that this truth has been so
much lost to sight. Every Christian who has had an experience of
'new birth', or really coming into 'newness of life', knows that
such an experience is accompanied by a new sense of purpose; a
consciousness of being alive with a meaning, a feeling of
vocation; something has got to be done about it. The infinite
wisdom of the Creator has included the smallest part of the body
in purpose. Not one infinitesimal part is without
meaning. Abnormalities or subnormalities, excesses or
deficiencies, there may be, but this does not argue against the
main truth. Included in the gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians
12:28 is the word "helps". The Apostle spoke of those
that helped him, and he appealed to believers that they might be
helpers together (with him) by their prayers. What a lot of
things can be included in that title "helps"! And what
an explanation of the millions of little corpuscles in the human
body, all busy, all contributing, all 'helping' with a sense of
purpose. If the Spirit of Life is really Lord in the Body, and
every member is rightly adjusted, there will be a wonderful
working according to purpose. It will be spontaneous, not
artificial. We shall find that a certain 'bent', disposition,
mindedness, constraint, or urge will work out in our knowing what
our work or 'gift' is. We shall find that the Lord is with
us along a certain line and that we are at rest in that.
There is a Holy Spirit
sovereignty in this. The Scripture is "dividing to each one
severally as he wills". There is nothing more profitable and
blessed than this order of life in the body of Christ, just as
there is nothing more unhappy and confusing when any member gets
into a false place and tries to do what it was never meant to do.
That is the difference between organization and organism. In
organization people are chosen and appointed to position and work
by the judgment and will of men. In an organism the function is
manifest and obvious before appointment; indeed appointment has
taken place before men act upon it. We - with all our doctrine of
the Church - have still to learn the fundamental principles of
the Divine organism. Neither by popular vote nor by human
selection can it be formed and made to function. Choice of
functioning members is never left to the discretion of
men. We only come into the fellowship and functioning of this
Body of Christ through the gift of spiritual life, and not
into the gift of spiritual life through fellowship in the Body. A
member and a faculty of the human body comes into being only
through the life of the body. It is not given to any
function or organ to have life in itself; it is the life of the
whole body which gives it its meaning. Its life is not inherent
but derived.
Nevertheless, the members
themselves are meant to be each a life-centre. The Church - or a
local church - is not a congregation, an assembly of individuals.
It is the drawing together into vital union of those who have
already received the grace and gifts of the new life, and the
spontaneous expression of that grace in fellowship. Life must manifest
itself! Vital function is the expression of vital force, the
force of "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus".