When Each Part is Working Properly

Ephesians 4:11-16 ESV

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

As followers of Jesus Christ we have all been gifted with Spiritual gifts, of the Spirit of God, and we have all been assigned our specific roles (parts) within the body of Christ. You can read about these in Romans 12:3-13 and in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31. But regarding our parts (roles) within the body of Christ, there are specific things that God has asked us to all do, which include us encouraging and exhorting and urging one another to leave our lives of sin behind us and to follow our Lord in obedience, in holy living.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6] 

So, although God has called certain people to shepherd his flock, we all have a part in helping to equip the saints of God for the work of the ministry. For this isn’t about some business seminar on how to fill specific jobs in the institutional church. This is about helping one another, and preparing, perfecting, and equipping one another spiritually for the work of the ministry, which we are all called to. We all have a part in helping (enabling) the individual body parts to work together in the correct biblical order.

And this isn’t just about helping one another to serve in our various body parts assigned to us by God, but this is for the spiritual growth and maturity of the members (body parts) of the body of Christ, his church. This is about encouraging (exhorting, urging, provoking) one another to walk in holiness and in righteousness and no longer in sin, and it is about helping one another to discern false teachers who in their cunning, craftiness, and deceitful scheming are leading many people away from the truth.

And so this engages all of us working properly in our assigned body parts using the gifts of the Spirit in those specific areas of ministry to which God has assigned each one of us. And how do we know what gifts we have and what our body parts are? The only answer I have to that is that it involves us forsaking our lives of sin and following our Lord in obedience and in holy living one day and one step at a time. And it means that we must be students of the Scriptures who are obeying the word of the Lord. And in the process of our daily Christian lives the Lord will reveal these things to us.

And then, too, we shouldn’t be falling prey to deceiving spirits, because we are those who are testing the spirits to see if they are of God. And we are to be those who are exposing the lies of the enemy and who are proclaiming the truth of the gospel of our salvation as Jesus and as his NT apostles taught it to us. And in this way, as we speak the truth of the Scriptures to the body of Christ, in love, it helps us all not to fall prey to false doctrines of men which lead people away from the truth to follow after the lies. And then we can all grow to spiritual maturity in Christ as each part of the body is working properly. 

But sadly this is not what is happening in most gatherings of what is called “church,” at least not here in America. Most of them seem to be so institutionalized, following men’s teachings and men’s marketing schemes for how to grow their “churches” (businesses), and so they are following business role models and not the model that Jesus Christ set for us as his body and how we are to function together.

And so “the body” is all lopsided with a huge head (not Christ), which is comprised of men, businesses, and the government, with cult-like leaders who surround themselves with a loyal few, while the rest of “the body” sits and watches the show and are just there in the gatherings as spectators but not as members in the body with each one doing its work. But all of us are to have a part in ministering to the rest of the body which can’t be done in these institutionalized gatherings where one man does all the talking.

And so we need to get back to the biblical role model of what the church should look like, and how it should function with each part doing its work in ministering to the rest of the body in our specific giftings and in our specific body parts, assigned us by God. And then a revival should begin taking place in the church gatherings, and we should no longer be dealing with false gospels and false teachers and people claiming faith in Jesus while they are still walking in sin under the guise of God’s grace.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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