“…because we are members of his body.” (Eph. 5:30)

Christ is the head of his body which is the church. Think about the possibility of being part of Christ, of being in his body. No, more than being in the body we can be apart of the body, a member of the body.

When we think of this as being a member of the church, we lose something. Mostly we lose sight of how enormous this concept is. We think of being a member of the church as our association of a group of like-minded people who gather in one place on Sunday and maybe Wednesday.

The body of Christ is all over the world, and when we are thinking about being members of that body, we are contemplating something much bigger than a local assembly or even a national group such as Southern Baptist or United Methodist.

The body of Christ is composed of all the believers all over the world and in every time period. The faithful saints of Ephesus were members of the body, and you and I can be members of the same body. Think about it, Christ living in us so that we can live and abide in him.

Paul says that the body has many members and he says that in the sense of use and purpose. The members of the body are compared to our physical body in that we have internal and external parts and all of them work in unison to allow the body to function as it was designed. He talks about body parts like hands, eyes, ears and so forth just to help us understand the variety of the body and how all members (parts) are important and equally so.

Christ loves the church in the sense that he loves his body. His body, like our own, is an integral part of who he is. In order to have his spiritual body, the church, he had to give up his physical body. In order to be his spiritual body, we have to give up our former body of sin.

We are in union with Christ, and that puts us in union with each other. Body parts each performing their function that the whole of the body of Christ may bring glory to God.

Task for Today: Accept your place in the body of Christ and perform the function to which you were appointed. Give up self and live for Christ because that is what the body does. Our physical bodies serve our head. Christians serve their head, Christ.The body you love is attached to the head it serves.