“For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13). Do we ever lose sight of what the church is? Of its bond and intimacy? Of the importance of our relationship with one another as the body of Christ to our relationship with God?
The relationship of God’s people to God is tied to the church. That is, our relationship with God involves our relationship with one another. Of Christ’s purpose in his death on the cross the apostle Paul wrote, “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through his cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:15b-16). There is one body in which we are brought to peace with one another and in which we are reconciled to God, not simply individually but together. By the one Spirit of God, of Christ, we were baptized into one body, and together given the one Spirit to drink from the same well. Paul also used the image of the temple of God where God dwells by His Spirit. “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). We are together the house in which God lives by His Spirit through Jesus Christ. Our oneness and relationship with God is woven together with our oneness and relationship with each other.
Two images, a body, a house or temple – body parts cannot function alone, bricks standing alone do not make a house. Each body part is important to the whole body. Each body part needs the whole body to survive. Each brick is important to the structure of the whole house. Each brick needs the whole house to experience the presence of the resident of the house. “The eye cannot say to the head, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.” “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:21, 12, 27).
Are we individual body parts seeking to function alone? Are we individual bricks seeking to provide a dwelling place without being joined together with the other bricks of the house? Are we seeking to drink of the Spirit of God, to experience peace with God and His presence, without being a part of the body, of the house? Are we concerned for one another as the body of Christ and the dwelling of God? Do we have a concern that is shown in being together and in encouraging one another in faithfulness?
