Bulletin Articles: Full Article for Record Number 1019
Many Members In One Body
by Larry Ray Hafley
"For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another" (Rom. 12:5). The "many members" are individual Christians-"Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Cor. 12:27). The "one body" is the church-"And he is the head of the body, the church" (Col. 1:18).
The members of the "one body" cannot be denominational churches, for the apostle says individual members are "members one of another." That is not true of Protestants and Catholics. They are not "members one of another." If you think they are, let a Catholic take his infant baptism and present it for membership in a Baptist Church. It will not work. Let a Lutheran take his sprinkling as sufficient for fellowship with a United Pentecostal Church. It will not suffice.
Just as your physical body has many members, but is still one body, so also is the body of Christ, "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free-and have all been made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:12, 13). All the saved are "reconciled unto God in one body," "the same body" (Eph. 2:16; 3:6). Jesus is "the Savior of the body" (Eph. 5:23). Are you a member of that "one body in Christ," having been "baptized into Christ" (Gal. 3:27)?
