For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
~ Rom 12:4-5
In this passage, Paul explains that there are many members in the human body.
What’s that talking about? Well, of course, we have hands, arms, feet, legs, lungs, a liver, eyeballs, a spleen, etc. And then he explains that all of those members in the body do not have the same function. We don’t see with our hands, or filter our blood in our feet. All of the members have different functions. And in the same way, the church has many members, each of which function differently.
But notice Paul’s central point here - we are all members of the body in who? In Christ! When we came to Christ - when we were converted, regenerated, saved - a part of that salvation was losing something. We lost our self-will. We lost our independence. We were united to Jesus.
Salvation is a union with Jesus. But Paul tells us that our union with Christ was into His body. And what is the body of Christ? It is the church.
And we - each of us who are truly united to Christ - are truly united to one another. And this union is so complete that it links us together like members of a body.
We are members of each other and of the church, not because we signed a covenant, or because we take an oath, or because we agree to it. Of course not!
We are members of one another and of the body, the church because Jesus Himself has regenerated us and is living in EACH ONE OF US. We are members of Him, and are therefore members of each other.
Now, of course, pride can make us think that we can live without the other members, or that we are more important than the other members, or even, sadly, that we are less than other members.
But Paul’s point is clear - the members of the body are all distinct, but they are all dependent on one another. In other words, each believer is truly individual—a crucial part of the functioning body. At the same time, each believer is completely dependent—requiring the rest of the body to survive.
We are passive when we receive our membership in the body through our union with Christ. But we must be active in fulfilling our role in using our distinct gifts for the good of the rest of body.
