WE COME NOW to the next passage in Romans, telling of another phase of the life in Christ: “so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom. 12:5). We not only have to speak the truth in Christ, we have to be related in life and thought and attitude to all others who are in Christ. There is no such thing as being in Christ unrelated to others who are in Christ. “To be is to be in relation,” and to be in Christ is to be related with everyone else who is in Christ. There is no such thing as a Christian in isolation or in insulation. You have to be in fellowship with all who are in Christ, or you are thereby not in Christ.
Everybody who belongs to Christ belongs to everybody who belongs to Christ. One may betray that relationship, but he cannot deny it, for it is inherent. The inspired record puts it: “so we . . . are one body in Christ.” Not “ought to be,” or “are called to be,” or “must recognize ourselves as such,” but “ are one body in Christ.” You are in that body, and you can’t get out of that body without getting out of Christ. As long as you stay in Christ you are in one body.
That doesn’t mean that we are all to be in one church—my church or your church—to be in the “one body.” The text says: “so we, though many, are one body in Christ.” It provides for the “many” and the “one.” The New Testament knows of many churches, but knows of one church. The many churches were branches of the one church. They were the local expression of the one universal church. The modern idea of many churches—separate, sovereign, independent—is unknown in the New Testament. It is utterly foreign to the New Testament. Paul cried out when separate denominationalism put up its head: “Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor. 1:13). You are in Christ, you are in one body.
O Christ, we divide Thee if we divide Thy body, for Thou art the body and to be in Thee is to be in that “one body.” Take down the barriers in my heart, my prejudices and my fears, and help me to clasp everyone who owns and names Thee Lord, as my brother. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Every cord that binds me to Christ also binds me to my brother, and I can’t break with one without breaking with the other.
