Serve the Body...of Christ

The church is a body: a living, functioning organism that accomplishes the will of God, Christ being its Head, and each baptized believer in the church is a member of the body. The Apostle Paul uses the body analogy for the church in I Corinthians 12:27: “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”

As a body, we help each other as we serve Christ. In fact, part of serving Christ is helping each other. Christ has given us spiritual gifts toward this end. Think of the human body: the eye helps the body by doing its part, the ear helps the body by doing its part, the hand, the foot, and so on.

One way we help each other in the body is by bearing one another’s burdens. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). When a brother or sister bows under a heavy load, we should come along side and help, give aid. It could be by doing something in a manual way; it could be by doing something in a verbal way. We don’t condemn and we don’t reject. We do what we can out of love for the brethren because we are members one of another in the body of Christ.