Christ’s Body Of Servants


Without a body, a man can do no work, fulfill no mission, execute no plans. He functions through the means of his body. The same is true of Christ: since the church is Christ’s body it follows that He functions through His body. The head plans and commands; the body executes and obeys. So is it with Christ and the church.

Since Christ is the example for Christians to follow, then Christians must also be servants of God and man. Since Christ has built only one church, it follows that the church, Christ’s body, is the Lord’s only “service organization” on this earth.

What is God’s purpose for the church? What the church is and does is decided by God and Jesus Christ. God built the church through Christ, and He gave all authority to our Lord Jesus. The Master chose the mission for His church; He defined its purpose. Since the church is Christ’s body through which He functions among men today, it follows that the mission of the church is the mission of the Master.

The Lord said that His mission was “to seek and save the lost” His mission is the church’s mission-to seek to save the lost. That mission is fulfilled when the church preaches His Word, baptizes the lost and then consistently teaches all the things Jesus taught and commanded.

The church is Christ’s body, and a body functions as the head commands. Now the purpose of the church is an eternal one, determined by God and Christ before time: it is to make known God’s Word and wisdom by preaching the Good News of Jesus.

If the function of the church is primarily to preach, then it is also to teach. Teaching and explain the Word of Christ. Everything the church does is brought about by teaching. How to worship, the spiritual growth of individual Christians, the help that is to be given to the helpless, the care of orphans and widows, how to preach the gospel throughout the world-all of these things require the teaching of the Word. The work of the church is to seek and to save the lost and that is done by the preaching of the gospel, but the church also exists to teach.

The work of the church is preaching and teaching the Word of Christ. The church is in the world to help. Such helping may involve ministries like feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, opening our homes and lives to strangers, visiting prisoners in jails. All of these are itemized by Jesus as the things upon which His final judgement will be made (Matthew 25:31-46). The apostle John warns, “Dear children, let us not love with words tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18). True religion is what apostle James includes “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (James 1:27).

The church is Christ in actions! As Christ’s body, the church is His mouth, hands and feet in this world!

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