The Head and The Body

“From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

The words are as “compacted” as the body itself.

We shall not attempt full or even accurate exposition of the original, but dwell on the figure of the English text, undoubtedly a Scriptural one, and full of profitable instruction.

Four subjects are brought before us in the text.

I. OUR UNION TO CHRIST: “The Head, even Christ.”

1. Essential to life. Severed from him we are dead.

2. Essential to growth. We grow up into him who is the head.

3. Essential to perfection. What should we be without a head?

4. Essential to every member. The strongest needs union to the head as much as the weakest.

II. OUR INDIVIDUALITY: “Every joint”; “every part.”

Each one must mind his own office.

1. We must each one personally see to his own vital union with the body, and chiefly with the head.

2. We must be careful to find and keep our fit position in the body.

3. We must be careful of our personal health, for the sake of the whole body; for one ailing member injures the whole.

4. We must be careful of our growth, for the sake of the whole body.

   • The most careful self-watch will not be a selfish measure, but a sanitary duty involved by our relationship to the rest.

III. OUR RELATIONSHIP TO EACH OTHER: “Joined together”; “that which every joint supplies.”

1. We should in desire and spirit be fitted to work with others. We are to have joints. How could there be a body without them?

2. We should supply the joint-oil of love when so doing; indeed, each one must yield his own peculiar influence to the rest.

3. We should aid the compactness of the whole by our own solidity, and healthy firmness in our place.

4. We should perform our service for all. We should guard, guide, support, nourish, and comfort the rest of the members, as our function may be.

IV. OUR COMPACT UNITY AS A CHURCH: “The body edifying itself in love.”

1. There is but one body of Christ, even as he is the one Head.

2. It is an actual, living union. Not a mere professed unity, but a body quickened by “the effectual working” of God’s Spirit in every part.

3. It is a growing corporation. It increases by mutual edification. Not by being puffed up, but by being built up. It grows as the result of its own life, sustained by suitable food.

4. It is an immortal body. Because the Head lives, the body must live also.

   • Are we in the body of Christ?
   • Are we not concerned to see it made perfect?
   • Are we ministering the supply which the body may fairly expect from us as members?

To Fit In

There is great fitness in the figure of the head and the members. The head is—(1.) The highest part of the body, the most exalted. (2.) The most sensitive part, the seat of nerve and sensation, of pleasure and pain. (3.) The most honorable part, the glory of man, the part of man’s body that receives the blessing, wears the crown, and is anointed with the oil of joy and of consecration. (4.) The most exposed part, especially assailed in battle, and liable to be injured, and where injury would be most dangerous. (5.) The most expressive part, the seat of expression, whether in the smile of approval, the frown of displeasure, the tear of sympathy, the look of love.—G. S. Bowes.

Every one knows that it would be far better to lose our feet than our head. Adam had feet to stand with, but we have lost them by his disobedience: yet, glory be to God, we have found a Head, in whom we abide eternally secure, a Head which we shall never lose.—“Feathers for Arrows.”

The moment I make of myself and Christ two, I am all wrong. But when I see that we are one, all is rest and peace.—Luther.

What a happy condition the Church and members of Christ are in! (1.) Interested in the same love as the Head. (2) Under the same decree of election with the Head. (3) Allied to the same relations, interested in the same riches, and assured by membership of the same life and immortality in the world to come: “Because I live, you shall live also.”—Benjamin Keach.

Of all the symbols which set forth Christ’s church, I prefer this. Bringing out, as well as any other, our relationship to Christ, and better than any other our relationship to each other, it teaches us lessons of love, and charity, and tender sympathy. When bill-hook or pruning-knife lops a branch from the tree, the stem bends; it seems for a while to drop some tears, but they are soon dried up; and the other boughs suffer no pain, show no sympathy—their leaves dancing merrily in the wind over the poor dead branch that lies withering below. But a tender sympathy pervades the body and its members. Touch my finger roughly, and the whole body feels it; wound this foot, and thrilling through my frame, the pang shoots upward to the head; let the heart, or even a tooth, ache, and all the system suffers disorder. With what care is a diseased member touched! What anxious efforts do we make to save a limb! With what slow reluctance does a patient, after long months or years of suffering, consent to the last remedy, the surgeon’s knife! Many holy lessons of love, charity, and sympathy, our Lord teaches by this figure.—Dr. Guthrie.

We must work in concert. Stress is laid on this in Scripture, as may be seen from such expressions as these:—“If two of you shall agree,” “Fellow-helpers to the truth,” “With one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” It is as with the human hand. Take one of the fingers, the forefinger, for example; it can do many things by itself separately. I lay it on my pulse, to know how my heart beats; I turn over the leaf of a book with it; I use it to point a stranger the way; I place it on my lips to signify silence; I single out the individual to whom I would say, “You are the man”; I shake it in warning or remonstrance. But the hand can do, not five times as much as a single finger, not fifty times as much, not five hundred times as much, but five thousand times—and more. So with Christian churches; there must not merely be individual effort, but combined and united effort, on the New Testament principle, “As every man has received the gift, even so let him minister.”

—Dr. Culross.