“Discerning the Lord’s Body”
By AUGUSTA C. BAINBRIDGE
READING slowly and prayerfully the eleventh and twelfth chapters of First Corinthians, with kindred texts in Ephesians and Colossians, we have a heavenly picture of the church of Christ on earth. Christ is the head, and his people are members in particular. Christ is the head of all, yes, the head of every individual soul. In this is seen not only Christ’s love for his church, but the love and care of each member for the others. Never in the history of the world was this care needed more than it is now. We are all passing through severe trials, which by God’s grace, will prepare us to pass through more severe ones in the near future. These, as polishing tools, are fitting us to stand when our dear Lord appears. Satan is busier than ever. If he were allowed to have full control of the physical world, not one Seventh-day Adventist would be alive to welcome the Lord when he comes. Accidents, sickness, diseases, afflictions of various sorts, and persecution would lay every waiting saint in the grave. Besides that, with his deceit and lying wonders he would enter Christ’s body, the church, separate members one from another, and destroy the faith of God’s elect, if he could. But praise to the Lord God of heaven and earth, Jehovah reigns! He reigns and all who will may come under his gracious rule and be safe. Much of our safety in body and soul depends upon our holding fast to one another. The members of our physical body are dependent on the head for direction. When all these members hear and heed these directions, they work in beautiful order, and there is harmony in the body. Will it not be the same in his body, the church? Where this is not so, we find division in the body, spiritual sickness, and bodily sickness, too. In 1 Cor. 11:30 we read, “For this cause [not discerning the Lord’s body, see verse 29] many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” These verses tell us that many of the sicknesses among us and many of the untimely deaths in our ranks, are due to our failure to discern the Lord’s body. This means not only the broken body and shed blood typified in the bread and wine at the Communion table, but through these Him, our Head, and his children, our brethren and sisters in the church, as members of his body. If we would learn the lesson of the text, we must learn to see, through the eyes of love, how absolutely we are dependent on one another in Christ. We need one another, just as the eye needs the foot, and the hand needs the head, and vice versa. It would be impossible for the body to be in health, or even fully alive, if the members were out of harmony with one another, or worked against one another. In the church, Christ, the Head, feels the need of every member. Should one seemingly rather unimportant member be spiritually sore or ailing, he wills that the other members work together with him to restore such a one. We can each see that he needs every member, and filled with his love, we shall feel that we need every member. When we see one ill, there will spring up in our hearts an earnest intercession for the healing of his hurt; because Christ and the church have need of him. Since this world is the only place where there will be such weak and feeble ones, it will be the only place where we shall ever have a chance to show compassion or tender pity such as the Master has shown toward us. We read that God has “tempered the body together” (1 Cor. 12:24, 25), that we “should have the same care one for another.” Let us “press together” and care for one another, with love, suffering with one another’s suffering, rejoicing in one another’s joy. We are living in most solemn times. God by his Spirit is preparing a people for translation. There will be in that prepared company perfect accord. There will not be one who does not love every other member of Christ’s body with an intense heavenly love. If our physical bodies are to be kept in health through the trying scenes of the time of trouble that we are just entering, this heavenly love must be abiding in us. Sometimes we may find ourselves saying of another: “I have no need of him. I have nothing against him, and wish him no harm. He may go his way, and I shall go mine. I have nothing in common with him.” Saying that, we have6been saying just what the Word of God says that one member cannot say of another member of the Lord’s body, “I have no need of thee.” It is not a question of holding spite or grudges; that is impossible with those who expect to go all the way with the Lord Jesus to the holy city. There is a deeper experience than getting rid of grudges. We need to get away from the spirit of independence that would cause us to feel that we could get along without any member of the body. When we find this spirit of independence in our hearts, we must make a quick journey back to Calvary. It may mean, too, a drawing very near to the member that we had so coolly shut out. It may mean a confession and a prayer meeting of two members with the Head. That will result in spiritual health in place of soul sickness. Let us heed Paul’s message from the Master, and learn how to discern the Lord’s body. So shall we be of one accord, and so can we ask in faith for the blessed baptism of the Holy Spirit that we so much desire.