Training Category: Body Life
Reaching God’s goals for Body Life in the Church will take functioning according to His design.
He’s the Architect so He knows how it must all come together for His blueprint to become a reality.
What’s Required to Function According to God’s Design for Body Life
In 1 Corinthians 12:14-26 God compares the functioning of the Church to the way our physical bodies function. Here’s what’s required for all the parts to live in unity:
- God purposely designed the Body with diversity so we must function in a way that expects members to be different from one another.
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? (1 Cor. 12:14-17)
- God determines what each member’s part is so we simply need to identify our parts and function accordingly.
But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. (1 Cor. 12:18-20)
- Because of the way God designed the Body, with each member having a part, we must function interdependently.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” (1 Cor. 12:21)
- God’s design gives value to each member and so we affirm each person’s contribution no matter what their part may be.
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. (1 Cor. 12:22-25)
- All of this can only happen if function like we truly care for one another.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Cor. 12:26)
The Body Life Ministry Manual provides some additional input on each of the above points.