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Membership Is Not A Club

By Phillip Ross

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 10Sep2009 Word count: 997 Viewed: 406 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

"Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food -- and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body" (1 Corinthians 6:13). The worldly wisdom expressed in this popular saying was that bodily activities -- eating, drinking, sexing, etc. -- are intended for the body and have no impact upon the mind or the spirit. It amounts to what can be called philosophical compartmentalization, which simply means that various elements of life and living can be sealed off from one another. For instance, many of the Corinthians falsely believed that food had no effect upon the mind or spirit; that education had no effect on the body (it is for the mind or spirit), and that prayer or other spiritual practices do not impact the body.

We practice a similar kind of compartmentalization today. We think that we can cordon off our private lives from our public lives, or our home lives from our work lives, or our church lives from our work lives. Compartmentalization is simply the belief that some aspects of life and living have no effect or relationship to other aspects of life and living. Paul's example was that the Corinthians believed that extra-marital sexual relationships had no connection to their salvation or faithfulness. They argued that because their salvation did not depend upon what they did or didn't do or were able to do, that what they did or didn't do was in no way related to their salvation.

Wrong!

Paul was saying that God trumps the body and everything related to it. "God will destroy both one and the other" (1 Corinthians 6:13). God will destroy both the stomach (or body) and the food intended for it. He was trying to shake them out of their complacency by saying that arguments or postulates about God are categorically different than arguments or postulates about humanity. What is true for the human body is but a shadow of what is true for God.

And yet, God's truth is for the body. God's truth has taken the body and its various needs and activities into consideration. Here's the crucial verse: "The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body" (1 Corinthians 6:13). Our bodies are not free to express whatever they want, whatever they desire, whatever they think they need. Rather, we are to live in submission to God, to God's law, to God's desires. Christians are not free to do whatever they want. They are free to do what God wants them to do in Christ. I pray that your ears will take care to hear this aright.

Just as it was necessary for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to manifest in a human body, it is also necessary for God's Holy Spirit to manifest in the bodies of His people. Christianity is a religion of incarnation, of Christ's incarnation in the flesh, and the incarnation of His Holy Spirit in His people through regeneration.

Paul runs with this argument by telling us that "God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power" (1 Corinthians 6:14). God raised what? By whose power? God raised the dead body of Jesus Christ who had been slain upon the cross. God raised His body, His human body, from death. But that's not all! God will also raise us. He will also raise Christians, those who willingly believe, those who have been born again, those who are blood-bought by Christ. Just as Christ's body was raised, so our bodies will be raised. Christians are resurrected people!

Paul was saying here that Christianity is not so much about heaven. Please listen carefully. It is about heaven, of course. Heaven is real and eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven is real. But the greater concern for this world is the coming of the Kingdom of God (heaven) to earth. Christianity is about the manifestation of the Kingdom "on earth, as it is heaven" (Matthew 6:7). The point is not so much that Christians get to spend all eternity with Christ in heaven -- though they most certainly do. The point is that Christians are the leading edge of the Kingdom of God on earth, which is in the process of manifesting on earth. Christians are the manifestation in Christ or through Christ of God's Kingdom on earth. The locus or theater of Christianity is not heaven, but earth, and the earth has been created for bodies.

"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 6:15). To be a member of something is to be part of a greater whole. The argument of membership in Christ is critical to overcoming the duality of Greek thinking. It is an argument that is uniquely trinitarian. And like all discussion of the Trinity it is subtle, even difficult. But it is not difficult because it is hard to understand. It is difficult because our minds have been captured by Greek categories of thinking and analysis. All public education is saturated in Greek philosophy, so anyone who is a product of public education is a product of Greek philosophy -- even today. The Trinity is a difficult concept because we have all been trained to think otherwise. The doctrine of the Trinity does not fit Greek categories.

Nonetheless, the reality of the Trinity is the linchpin of Christianity -- its understanding and practice. The reality of the Trinity is difficult because it is below the surface of ordinary awareness. You can't tell if someone is a member of Christ by looking at him. We are not talking about membership in a 501(c)(3) organization or about attending a worship service in some particular place. We are talking about being a member of Christ. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 6:15). It's related to church membership, but it is not the same thing.

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