Faithful Friends

What it means to be in the Body of Christ

“Some men brought to [Jesus] a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” Matthew 9:2

“When Jesus saw their faith…” Many times in the Gospels, we see Jesus miraculously healing the sick, but this case stood out to me because it was the faith of the paralyzed man’s friends Jesus is noted for seeing.

How many times in our Christian walk have we had the privilege of laying our friends and loved ones at the feet of Jesus through faith-filled prayer? This is just one way the Church (the Church universal) can minister to one another.

“The Bible uses several metaphors for the Church. It pictures the church as a flock, with Christ as its Shepherd (John 10:14). It views us as branches of Christ, the Vine (John 15:5), subjects of Christ’s kingdom (John 18:36-37), and children of God’s family (John 1:12). While all those metaphors are also used in the Old Testament to describe God’s relationship with Israel, there is one that is unique to the Church. That is the concept of the church as a body, with Christ as its head (Colossians 1:18). All believers become part of the body of Christ at the moment of salvation, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit,” teaches Pastor John MacArthur.¹

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A New Creation

The Apostle Paul helps us to better appreciate the magnitude of what happens to us at salvation in Ephesians 2:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and [Satan], the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (v1-2) But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ…” (v4)

“Remember that at that time (before salvation) you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel (the privileges God’s people enjoy) and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.” (v12)

For He Himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made the two (Jews and Gentiles/Non-Jews) one…His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two…and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross…”(v14-16)

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household (His family!)”(v19)

God places those “made alive in Christ” into the Church, the body of Christ. “To be, “in Christ” means you are so identified with Him that God always views you in connection with Christ. You don’t have a spiritual identity apart from Christ,” MacArthur explains.² Therefore, all believers are our spiritual brothers and sisters and because the Holy Spirit is conforming us into His image, we are also brothers and sisters of Christ our Lord (Hebrews 2:11)!

What amazing news! Praise God!

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A Faith Community is Unique

After Hurricane Katrina passed through Megan Hill’s state in 2005, a Harvard Medical School conducted a survey to assess the hurricane’s effects on mental and emotional health, as well as gauge research subjects’ social support systems at the time.

“How many people in your community would you be comfortable asking to borrow a cup of sugar?” the researcher asked.

“Let’s see. About 100?” Megan replied.

“How many people in your community would you be comfortable sharing your thoughts and feelings with?”

“The same,” she answered.

Megan believed her responses offered the researcher an important clue to her identity. As a Christian, she says, she has “never once—not in storm or sunshine—been alone in the world. And no Christian ever has.” Megan adds the “precious truth that belonging to Christ means we also belong to everyone else who belongs to Him.”³

In 2012, after horrific tragedy struck Newtown, Connecticut, Samuel Freedman wrote a column in The New York Times titled, “In a Crisis, Humanists Seem Absent.” “Freedman was one of many who found it startling that in an increasingly secular society, where now some 20% of the population…[have] “no religious preference,” our society turned so visibly to God and faith to communally face the tragedy,” observed Tim Keller in his book, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering. Freedman quoted Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain at Harvard, who said, “What religion has to offer people at moments like this—more than theology, more than divine presence—is community.”⁴

The community of faith “ties members [not only] to one another but also to believers in past centuries, and thus the past itself. Secularism cannot produce any of these things and has therefore not forged the kind of tight communities that can comfort and console people during times of grief.” Freedman argues that “community among persons is forged only when there is something more important than one’s own interests to which all share a higher allegiance.” Freedman adds “humanism suffers…from the valorization of the individual.” Keller explains, “When I am the final authority for determining right and wrong, and when nothing is more important than my right to live as I see fit, tight supportive community is eroded, perhaps even impossible.”⁵

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A Gift to be Shared

“The spiritual fellowship that a believer enjoys with his Redeemer, is not a solitary or selfish joy, but one which he cannot possess alone, or except in common with other believers.” James Bannerman

So as believers, we are unified as the “body of Christ,” a tightly knit community made up of diverse people with a common allegiance and purpose.

In addition to this wonderful truth, this group of people is each individually and uniquely gifted by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of the whole body. John MacArthur adds, “If one member doesn’t use his gift, the body suffers.”⁶

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

Some of us are gifted the ability to give wise advice, some are given great faith, while others are given the gift of teaching. Other gifts include exhortation, encouragement, generosity, administration, knowledge (understanding the deep things of God), mercy, leadership, and helping.⁷

MacArthur explains, “A spiritual gift is not a human ability or talent.” In contrast to a natural talent (through which spiritual gifts may be expressed), “a spiritual gift is a God-given channel through which the Holy Spirit ministers.”⁸

No believer has every spiritual gift, and no one gift is given to every believer. Each gift is important, just as each believer is a vital part to the body as a whole.

MacArthur illustrates, “In a normal, healthy human body, all the parts work together. If they don’t, that body is disabled, unable to function normally. No single part functions independently of the rest. So it is also in the body of Christ.”⁹

Closely related to the topic of spiritual gifts is fellowship. “The fellowship of the body is the mutual care and concern its members have for each other. True fellowship takes place when Christians come together to minister to one another in the power of the Holy Spirit. And no member was meant to function in isolation from the rest of the body.”¹⁰

And that is where I got myself in to trouble.

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Withering on the Vine

I am an over-achiever. An A+ kind of girl. I will work myself to exhaustion on a task I’ve promised to finish—and finish well. I am also slow to ask for help because I am prideful.

For many years I’ve labored under the tyrant of pride. Self-sufficiency its siren call. Believing the lies that “I’ve got this” and to reveal weakness would be my undoing. Believing it a necessity to convince the world (and myself) that I had it “all together.” That my life was organized, efficient, well-managed. That I had everything “under control.”

Ah, control. That elusive power so many believe can be attained. (If we only work hard enough, right?)

So, I kept people at arm’s length. I had learned to believe that my worth was wrapped up in my productivity. Pride would not allow me to show anyone the chaos my heart contained.

Part of the privilege and joy of being “in Christ” is belonging to His body. And for so long, I was missing it. Withering on the vine, I was isolated and alone. Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do no good thing.”¹¹ I had been made a part of His body, but I was trying to do life apart from His body.

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By the Grace of God

The Lord, in His grace and kindness, has been pointing out to me the many masks of pride I wear. Like a good father, He got down on my level so I could see His eyes looking into my eyes and feel secure in the love behind His discipline.

He has brought me to points where the burden I was trying to carry alone became unbearable, and I had no choice but to turn to Him for help.

Like last fall, when I learned my autistic son spent most of his days hidden in a supply closet at school. My husband was on the road for work and each day had been filled with guilt and anxiety. Our son was not finishing any work there, so the teachers sent it all home to be finished here.

Powerless, exhausted, and afraid, I waved the white flag and cried out to God for help. And His help came in the form of an invitation to join a small group of women for Bible study.

I let down my guard and allowed these women into my messy life. And they ministered to me. They encouraged me. They prayed for me. And they lifted my burden by sharing it.

You see, there’s a reason Jesus addresses the paralytic’s sin before he heals his physical ailment.

Our battle, friends, is truly a spiritual one.

And oftentimes, the wages of that war leave us unable to take ourselves to Jesus for the healing we desperately need.

So, in love and prayer, our brothers and sisters in Christ intercede on our behalf, pick us up, and lay us at His feet.

We are not meant to travel this road alone. And in His infinite wisdom, compassion, and love—through the Body of Christ, we never have to.

1. John MacArthur. The Keys to Spiritual Growth. (Crossway, 2001) p. 154

2. Ibid. p. 156

3. Megan Hill. “Member: Connected to the Church.” Identity Theft, edited by Melissa Kruger, (The Gospel Coalition, 2018) p. 69-70

4. Timothy Keller. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering. (Penguin Books, 2013) p. 65

5. Ibid. p. 66

6. John MacArthur. The Keys to Spiritual Growth. (Crossway, 2001) p. 158

7. See Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 1 Corinthians 12:28

8. John MacArthur. The Keys to Spiritual Growth. (Crossway, 2001) p. 159

9. Ibid. p. 160

10. Ibid. p. 159-160

11. John 15:5