Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
Believers together form Christ's church as a living body, with each person set in a distinct place to do his own appointed part. Christ himself is the Head and center from whom the whole body receives life and power through close union with him. God has established differing gifts and offices in that body to meet different minds, giving to each as he pleases for the good of all. No member can live detached or independent, for all depend on one another in sympathy and service until the whole becomes symmetrical and complete. Those gifts were set to remain in the church to the end, to carry her through the perils of the last days and make her ready for her Lord.
Body and Members Meaning
Believers together are the body of Christ, which is the church, and each person is a distinct member in particular with his own place and part. The body has different parts and functions, and its members do not all have the same office, yet each is essential to the completeness of the work. God has set different members in the church with different places and work — first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues with interpretation — and not all are apostles or prophets or teachers or workers of miracles or healers or speakers with tongues, so believers should covet earnestly the best gifts. The Holy Spirit gives these gifts to the church for its instruction and edification, to be actively used together in that one body and to continue to the end of time. The Lord means the church to be a strong, consistent whole with each part fitted to the other part, growing into a holy temple in the Lord, living in close harmony, valuing different roles as God has arranged them, with no member unnecessary, no division, but care for one another in suffering and joy.
Jesus Christ is the Head, center, and source of life and power to the body, and the members live by union with him. Believers with their different gifts and work belong together as his body under him as Head, centered in him, with different gifts and offices given by the same Spirit. Because members have different work to do, no member is to live in self-sufficiency, dismiss another as unneeded, crowd against another, judge another, or measure one gift by another, for many gifts are needed in unity without crowding or rivalry. This diversity is God’s plan to meet varied organizations and minds in the world, for the strength of one servant is not the strength of another. Each person is therefore to cultivate the powers, identity, and endowment God gave him and become a more efficient laborer in his own place, left free for God to convict and work upon the heart to obtain personal experience and develop individual strength for a special work, without one overgoverning and destroying the will and individuality of another.
The human body from head to feet, with eyes to feet and many organs working under governing intelligence and law, illustrates how the members act in harmony and dependence. Christians together are the body illustrated by the human body with its members acting in harmony and dependent on one another, to teach how church members and the gifts God has placed in the church relate. Believers together are Christ’s body with variety from eyes to feet rather than uniformity, each different member depending on the others to make a perfect whole, with all the variety acting harmoniously in obedience to the laws that control the body. The more believers drink in of the Spirit, the more they are made alive and united by His surpassing love. The ministry of the gospel and medical missionary work are to work hand in hand under Christ as leader, not as separate efforts, their unity testifying that Christ who redeemed them is their leader.
Connection with Christ involves connection with His church; believers cannot be undenominational, detached wholes, or complete in themselves. Christ’s disciples are members of one body, joined to one another and dependent on one another in Christ, who is the head and life of each member, so that when one member suffers all suffer and when one is honored all share the honor and rejoice, and no member can claim to have no need of another. Each believer is only one member of the body and can never be an independent whole, but part of a greater whole marked by mutual love, unity, and work connected from one member to another. The different members are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit under only one Head, Christ, who is Master in heaven, not seeking to be controlled by men nor calling any man master, and unity is preserved only as the different members perform their several offices, whether preaching the Word, teaching in schools, practicing as a physician, cultivating the soil, following a trade, acting in councils, or going to foreign lands, never going beyond the domain of God but giving all tact and strength of mind and heart to do their best. Joining the church does not by itself make a person Christian or secure salvation, for membership and a name on the church books cannot replace a heart united to Christ, yet the church is organized for service and in a life of service connection with the church is one of the first steps, loyalty to Christ demanding faithful performance of church duties as training that leads directly to effort for the world. Membership means cooperating with Christ and not working independently, so spiritual selfishness and a selfish, authoritative spirit have no place in it, and as in heaven before sin each member serves in the place assigned by God and gives glory to Him as the Center of the whole.
Receiving Christ and believing in Him as personal Saviour by personal faith and new creation makes a person a member of His body, a part of His living, working agency. This membership comes by trusting the God who formed people in the beginning and creates them anew in Christ Jesus, who by grace works a change in them day after day toward perfection of character, a good work He will perform until the day of Christ’s second appearing. Through union with Christ the feeble, finite, sinful nature is restored to healthful growth, the life of the Vine becoming the life of the adopted sapling, until through His grace they are complete in Him. This relation is of no avail without personal faith, an identification of heart and mind and soul and strength with Jesus Christ in thoughts and desires and words and actions, constantly receiving His spiritual life and constantly imparting what is received, thus becoming elements of light. A Christian who does not draw life from Christ is like a paralyzed member, connected to the body only in name, for brief, impulsive movements are not the lasting activity of spiritual life, and true membership is shown by drawing life from Christ and growing in grace. Mere outward connection with any church does not save, because belonging to that body requires personal faith in a personal Saviour that brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ.
Dependence on Christ is as real and close as a limb joined to the body; through it He joins humanity to God and members share in the divine nature. To believe in Christ is to put Him on and be united to Him, as a limb is joined to the body, and Christ thus joins humanity to God. Christ alone is the sinner’s hope and salvation, and trust in human merit obstructs the view of His love. A member of Christ’s church is a member of Christ’s body and therefore shares in the divine nature, a privilege calling for a life of purity, chastity, and holiness that makes worldly glory contemptible beside the unseen glory within.
The body is also pictured as a holy temple of living stones, the bride and Lamb’s wife, one family, and many stones of varied light forming one breastplate and one Mind. Together believers form the church which is the bride, the Lamb’s wife, with God as her husband, so unfaithfulness shown to Christ by His people is the unfaithfulness of a wife to her husband. Believers, though distinct in individuality and disposition, are members of Christ’s body and different parts of one great temple, sanctified by the same Spirit to be united in the things of God, and harmony among people of varied dispositions is strong evidence that God sent His Son to save sinners. The church is one family made of many members each having peculiar characteristics, and their differences contribute to beauty and wholeness, as many stones each with its special light and message make one breastplate and many minds make one Mind. No member lives for himself or has a merely private duty, for each has a place of service and each person’s influence is to strengthen the whole, joined through Christ to fellow workers and heavenly intelligences, however insignificant he may feel. Every church member must be active, like a living stone in a building, receiving and reflecting divine light, a vital link joining people to one another.
The Bible itself is like a complete body pervaded by one divine life, like the human body where every part is united to and dependent on the others for life. Each book of the Bible is like a member with its own special office, and every portion of Scripture has its use and lesson for every phase of human life. Together the books form a complete whole, prepared by divine intelligence to express God’s thoughts and intentions, to educate the human race, and to make the human family complete in Christ. The Bible is not a heap of odds and ends but an educator that must be studied with active thought and spiritual effort, with the Holy Spirit bringing Christ’s words to remembrance, enlightening the mind and guiding research, and its value grows clearer the more it is studied.
Severing affection and faith from those once closely united is like tearing members from the body, for the close bond among Christ’s people is as limbs joined in one body.
Diversity of Gifts Given
God has placed in the church first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and diversities of tongues with interpretation. The members do not all have the same office, but each is essential to the completeness of the work, and the list illustrates the variety of roles and gifts placed in the body. The phrase God hath set means more than general communication by the Spirit as in former ages; it means he specially endowed the Christian church with these gifts and established them in it.
Not all are apostles or prophets or teachers or workers of miracles or healers or speakers with tongues or interpreters, so believers should covet earnestly the best gifts. This diversity is his order and plan to meet varied organizations and minds in the world, so the strength of one servant is not the strength of another. Each person is therefore to cultivate the powers, identity, and endowment given him and to become a more efficient laborer in his own place, without one overgoverning and destroying the will and individuality of another. No one must govern others too much, destroy their will and identity and independent natural traits, or mold their judgment and character to his own ideas, because those traits give access to a class others could not touch.
Every person must be left free for God to convict and work upon the heart to obtain his own experience and to call forth powers and develop individual strength for a special work. Among followers there is unity in diversity, with diverse elements blended together, one adapted to the other, each doing a special work for God. To every man, woman, and child is given a work to do in the moral vineyard, one fitted for a certain work and another adapted for a different line, and each is to be the complement of the others.
No one mind alone is sufficient or capable of being a complete whole in planning and directing the work, devising plans, or exerting a healthful, well-balanced influence. Those joined together must therefore put forth special effort in union with the Spirit to blend together, taking time to understand each other instead of standing apart to watch and criticize and judge, finding points of resemblance, helping one another with one supplying the lack of another, accepting that one may have keener perceptions in some things than another, and giving due credit to each one's ability. In providence people of different temperaments are brought together that they might unite in the work, and every individual has his place in the filling up of one great plan bearing the stamp of Christ's image, for God is one.
God gives one gift to one person and another gift to another as he pleases, all for the good of the whole body, assigning some to one kind of work and others to other lines, all working under the same Spirit. Different spiritual gifts, different experiences, and different manifestations of the Spirit are all unto holiness, with every soul aiming at the perfection of the character of Jesus Christ. Recognizing this order guards against rivalry, pride, envy and contempt of one another, and it strengthens unity and mutual love. There is diversity of gifts, but unity in the expression of those gifts makes a complete whole.
Each believer stands in an appointed station with his own office, post, and place in the body, with his own part to act as workman and agent, and each part is to be respected, encouraged, and sustained. God has given to every man his work, and it is pleasing to him when every member is willing to act the part assigned, working for the benefit of the whole and speaking the truth in love under his supervision. Different lines of work are given to different people according to ability, yet all work for the Master belongs to one great whole, to be done in concert under divine control with undivided effort to draw others to him, with hearts blended, moving like well-adjusted machinery where each part depends on the other part while remaining distinct in action.
Taking a position as a member of the body is taking appointed work from God and pledging to act faithfully in that part as a steward, working with the same prudence and wisdom one would use for oneself, using and improving the talents given in proportion to each receiver's capabilities, whether five or two or one, and understanding, appropriating, and employing the treasure of his Word to his glory in every circumstance of life. That includes individual power to devise and execute what is best for the many-sided life of people at large, high and low, rich and poor, and individual responsibility to the whole body in connection with them. That means organizing men, women, and youth of various temperaments, callings, and positions to bring their God-given talents into solemn service, catching souls, recognizing those with tact to watch for and care for souls and to appreciate questions of spiritual life, arousing the dormant energies of the people by earnest experience, and by daily connection with God gaining deep insight into one's own life and others' lives to enlarge the circle of influence and enrich all with special and appropriate gifts as co-workers with Christ and channels of light.
Service like the hand's or foot's can be important even when it is not a leading role, for a person need not be the head or heart of the body to serve effectively. No work appointed by God is inferior or of little account, whether great or small, for it is for that person's own best good, for the best good of fellow men, and for the advancement of his cause. The worth of the work depends not on its greatness but on the love and motive with which it is done, and work done cheerfully, humbly, and in meekness results in his glory. Even the least belongs to the body and, through Christ, is connected with the work of other people and heavenly beings, with duty not for personal advantage but so that influence may strengthen the whole. Every gift, even the smallest, has a place and should be valued and used, and members are to work in unity and help one another.
Each member has value with different abilities and responsibilities, and unsuitability for one task does not make a person faithless or unwilling. Members should respect one another's differing trusts and remain free to seek direction about their own work, while persevering effort increases ability to work effectively and bear fruit to God's glory. The body illustrates how each part, however small, affects the usefulness of the whole, so misusing or weakening one part harms the whole, and believers are therefore to guard and use their different gifts and powers faithfully in service.
Different minds may present the same truth with different individuality, figures, styles, and hues without contradiction, uniting as different testimonies into one whole. As many stones each with its special light and message make one breastplate, many minds make one Mind, and different styles are appropriate in different places. God may impress different minds with the same thought, and each may express it in a different way yet without contradiction, for seldom do two persons view and express truth in the same way, each dwelling on particular points which constitution and education fitted him to appreciate, as sunlight falling on different objects gives a different hue. Through the Spirit he gives truth to be expressed according to the development of the mind, without cramping the mind into a mold, and those who view or express truths differently may be just as precious to him.
All draw spiritual supplies from the same storehouse and depend wholly and entirely on God for grace and the Spirit's working, with no thread of selfishness or self-exaltation. All are born by the same Spirit, purchased by the same blood, owned by God, and fed on the flesh and blood of the Son from the same source. Individuality remains, with different figures and different ways of presenting truth to interest and educate different minds, yet there is to be no contradiction and no effort to be entirely different for originality, for it is no virtue to differ. When the same vitalizing current flows through minds and hearts, all act in harmony like bodily machinery where each part works in harmony with every other, and failure to do so denies the Source of all spiritual life. True membership is shown in meekness and lowliness, in tender compassionate love as brethren, not mere emotion but principle manifest in noble unselfish deeds, with all plans and activities appreciated as coming from one Source.
Those writing on the third angel's message may present truth with different individuality, different figures and different ways of presentation to meet varied minds, without speaking the very same things in the same words, yet without contradiction, so all different testimonies unite to form one whole in unity in diversity under the controlling influence of the Spirit. Each person is to use the talents given, in union with others, while allowing room for different ways of working rather than requiring everyone to follow one person's precise method. Unity does not require every worker to bear the stamp of one person's mind, but allows different people to serve in ways suited to their gifts and circumstances, and the work is hindered when members fear they will not be accepted as being in harmony with the whole.
God gives French workers a work among the French that American ministers cannot do, and gives American workers their own work. Each member must exercise his own powers, capabilities, and means in his own place, with self submerged in the divine will and with distrust of his own wisdom. Members who do a different work must be sustained, stimulated, encouraged, and shown sympathy and consideration, and must be given elbow room to act themselves instead of being forced to come exactly to the minds and ideas of other members. Distinct gifts can complement one another, as Luther's courage and energy, joined with Melancthon's gentleness, caution, and exactness, strengthened their shared work in the Reformation.
The church's gifts are to live and work among its members, encouraging the fainthearted and correcting and reproving those who err. Each has liberty of expression, yet no one is to work out a plan of his own invention in raising means, supporting schools, or sustaining the ministry. All must blend capabilities with those chosen to lead, pledge equal interest by prayer, and put away selfishness, with no member launching out against another, but all standing together in opposition and conflict against fanaticism and heresy, so that council meetings, camp-meetings, and all essential work are carried with unity and love and with the glory of God in view.
Unity Through Mutual Dependence
No member of the body is unnecessary, self-sufficient, infallible, or independent, for all depend on one another to make a perfect, symmetrical whole. The body has variety from eyes to feet rather than uniformity, with different parts and functions acting harmoniously in obedience to the laws that control the body. No one is meant to carry the work alone or to live complete in himself, for people with different abilities and experience counsel and help one another, and one member's strengths supply another's deficiencies. Their unity with one another is grounded in their unity with Christ, who is the head, and the more they drink in of the Spirit the more they are made alive and united by His surpassing love.
If one member suffers all suffer with him, and if one member receives a rich blessing or honor all rejoice and share in it with him. Interests and sympathies are joined, and in carrying forward the work there is not to be one indifferent member. Christ identifies Himself with the members of His church, and truly united members show Christlike sympathy and kind interest, rejoicing to help fellow workers, which produces fruits of righteousness, makes light shine to others, and benefits the church through the sanctifying power of grace. The church is made up of varied talents from every rank and class, so no member or contribution is to be belittled, excluded, or treated as belonging only to one class, for its influence depends on working together.
Members are to work together in unity under the sanctified intelligence that governs the whole, like a human body working under the head as a well-regulated machine. There is to be no division, factions, strife about greatness, or contention, for separating into factions contradicts unity as that body and gives a poor witness to the truth. Every believer stands in an appointed station with his own office and place, and each part is to be respected, encouraged, and sustained, with harmonious energy and action, sympathy of every part with the whole, well-regulated action, exercise of every gift, and speaking the truth in love. This forbids fitful, spasmodic movements, envy, evil thinking, evil speaking, and evil acting, and requires every worker under God's supervision to render due respect and recognition to his fellow worker because to every man his work is given.
Recognizing God's order guards against rivalry, pride, envy, contempt, crowding, judging, and measuring one gift by another. God gives one gift to one person and another to another as He pleases, assigning some to one kind of work and others to another, all under the same Spirit and all for the good of the whole body. No member should claim self-sufficiency, dismiss another as unneeded or inferior, crowd against another, or judge another member's gift by his own. Christians should instead value one another's gifts and work rather than envy or belittle them, which strengthens unity and mutual love.
Different experience, minds, and abilities enable members to counsel with and assist one another, blending mind with mind instead of carrying the work alone or rejecting counsel. God gives different people different understanding, so no one person receives everything; members should share plans and thoughts, listen to one another's counsel, and build trust through confidence and faith, with contributions and cautions offered and received in brotherly kindness and love. Members are to help one another fulfill duties and complete the work entrusted to them, to serve God and benefit all, representing truth and honoring Christ rather than glorifying possessors. Believers are baptized into one body and united through sanctification by the Holy Spirit, with truth as a sanctifying, unifying power. That unity is bound by love and brotherly sympathy and joined to one purpose of drawing souls to Christ, with different tasks given according to ability yet all moved by one Spirit, distinct in action while depending on and cooperating with one another. Even the weakest and least experienced believer is a vital member, joined to Christ and connected through Him to the character of Christ, working together in love, humility, and unity rather than one person ruling and planning for all.
Through the union of the human with the divine, Christ being the strength, light, and life of every truly converted soul by His Spirit's quickening power, inspiration, and abiding influence, the world is convicted. Through the blessed union of those sanctified body, soul, and spirit, all blending in keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, the truth is magnified. By the church the manifold wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places, and were all professed members truly converted they would be a power for truth and holiness as laborers together with God in leading souls to Christ, with no repining when Christ is formed within, the hope of glory.
Gifts Continue to End
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular, shows Christians together to be Christ's body, the church, like the parts of a human body working together in harmony and dependence on one another, and introduces the spiritual gifts God placed in the church — apostles first, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and diversities of tongues — given by the Holy Spirit for instruction and edification to continue to the end of time. God hath set means more than general communication by the Spirit as in former ages; it means God specially endowed the Christian church with these gifts and established them to remain until Christ returns. They were given because the church needs them as the primitive church needed them, as the true church needed them to light her path through persecution and martyrdom, and much more to press through the perils of the last days and to make ready to receive her soon-coming Lord.
In the perils of the last days the church becomes a perfect whole representing the wisdom and character of God when every member cultivates every mental and physical power, for God gives the talents and powers of the mind as His gifts to be used in right relation to each other, with each person earnestly cultivating the mind as the Lord's garden to form a character after the divine likeness. As members approach the final conflict they grow into Christ and share more fully in His Spirit, and the latter rain revives and strengthens them to pass through the time of trouble while the glory attending the third angel's message makes their faces shine.
Order and Shared Leadership
The chapter lays out simple organization and church order appointed for the unity and perfection of the church as the body of Christ with members in particular. Office in the church means standing as leader, adviser, counselor and helper in bearing the burdens of the work and as a leader in offering thanksgiving to God, not being appointed to order and command fellow laborers, because the Lord is over His heritage and will lead His people. Those carrying responsibilities must treat fellow laborers with the same consideration they would wish to receive, for position gives no kingly authority, and must learn the meekness of Christ from the great Teacher in order to become Christlike.
No one man has been given all wisdom, so no leader can mold and direct important interests alone or be regarded as the voice for the people. God has made other men just as valuable and is willing to teach and guide them, giving talents to every man according to ability, with one mind having a larger scope than another. Those placed in sacred office and positions of trust cannot bear the responsibilities alone but must modestly regard the opinions of others as worthy of respect and as likely to be correct as their own. They must join with helpers whose minds do not run in exactly the same lines as their own and do God's work in perfect harmony as one complete whole in which each supplies the other's deficiency. Each member has individual work that no one else can stand in his place to do, so no one may make a groove for certain brethren to move in and no minister can embrace the whole work in finite arms and dictate how every other one shall labor. Each must be constantly learning and advancing and receive help through any channel God may send, with those of more experience taking those of less experience by their side, educating them and bearing patiently with them without closing the door of the heart by sharp words and unkind criticism, but letting the love of God rule and be communicated. Those given responsibility are only a part of a great whole set in the church to be a help to others, so each must obtain a clean unselfish character by new conversion through studying Christ's life, conquering and giving up old hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, habits formed in selfishness, love of supremacy, desire for mastery and high opinion of self by close self-examination, because each one's course determines the value of a large number of others.
Christians are one body and every member must stay united to the body, each working in his own appointed place and capacity. No one can disconnect from the agencies God has appointed and work on an independent line in his own supposed wisdom and still succeed or prosper in the end, and even if he flatters himself that he is doing God's work the attempt is a delusion of the enemy. Belonging together as Christ's body means no one should detach from the body and work independently while claiming to do God's work, but each is to use God-given ability in harmony with the others and cooperate where most effective. Members must draw together and work in harmony so that the work advances in an orderly and healthy way, and it is not safe to work on independent lines or to be left alone in the work. To be united to the body members must be likeminded with God, pure, holy and sincere, and no one is to shut himself up to himself to live for himself. For brethren beginning work in a new conference this means humbling hearts before the Lord and building on the solid Rock.
The church on earth is Christ's body and God's channel of light through which He communicates His purposes and will. God does not give one servant an experience independent of and contrary to the experience of the church, nor give one man a knowledge of His will for the entire church while the body is left in darkness. In His providence He places His servants in close connection with the church so they have less confidence in themselves and greater confidence in others whom He is leading to advance His work. All believers are joined in close relationship, Christian to Christian and church to church, and must stay united instead of following independent judgment. God works through appointed leaders and fellow believers as channels of help, encouragement and strength, and has appointed leaders to lead out and bear the responsibilities of advancing and spreading the truth. To despise or pass by those leaders and to expect light directly from God alone rejects God's ordained means and leaves a worker liable to deception and overthrow by Satan. Christ and His church are inseparable, with believers dependent on God and on one another, and independence must not be sought as the fallen angels fell from their high estate through insubordination though beautiful and glorious and dependent on God for happiness and for light and intelligence. The church has authority delegated by God to lead, teach and guide so it may guide others, and members are to remain united with the body and heed its counsel, for choosing independent judgment and refusing counsel works against what God is building and leads to spiritual ruin. Taking a first step independently of the church on private impressions and feelings is the step Satan leads to in order to deceive and destroy, so one whose mind was once yielded to the direct control of the enemy through evil angels must be very distrustful of impressions and feelings that would lead on an independent track away from the church.
The whole body must work harmoniously with no counter-influence, each acting his part in concert with the others in the ministry of reconciliation beseeching men and women to be reconciled to God, because union is strength and variance is weakness and sin. If disagreement arises it must be settled at once between those involved, with prayer and converse instead of recrimination, so heart is cemented to heart and self-will and selfishness die. This united action in sacred duties strengthens and establishes the church and exhibits God's miracle-working power as a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. The church is to act as an undivided whole with members living at peace and in harmony and deferring individual judgment to the judgment of the church body, and a member should not act independently of the body or oppose its members merely because they disagree with him. Unity is required in every church while each member keeps individuality and personal responsibility under the leadership of Jesus Christ, for true unity does not mean consolidation, and workers are to counsel together and bring ideas into harmony with truth with no arbitrary human ruling power ever taking the place and authority of God. Discord among those serving God harms the body whose members belong to one another, which is why sound, wholehearted, capable workers are needed to strengthen and raise God's people.
There are to be no kings in its midst and no man with the right to forbid workers to go where they can work or to control their support, but all are to find a place to work and go to the people and to the waste and destitute places of earth to wrestle in the grace of God and build up the work from nothing, with one part working connected with another part joined by the golden links of heaven and living by living faith founded on the living Word and the living God, not by emotion. The law governing the body is cooperation with reciprocal influence of all members upon one another, with no kingly power of one man controlling the whole and no one-man power, in order to reveal Christ and the cross to a world perishing in sin and iniquity. As members of the body the saints possess precious privileges including the precious freedom of the liberty of the children of God to act out grace bestowed upon them, and no conference president is given power to dictate and control their consciences. Those in trust must daily subordinate their will to Christ and practice meekness and lowliness so members are left free to understand and exercise these privileges. Every church and every conference lives in reciprocal dependence, and the sacred chain of dependence that binds members together is not slavery. Separation and independence to display personal efficiency is opposed to God's order, and allowing evil thinking and evil speaking, discord and separation, breaks the body, robs the church of usefulness and blocks reformation. All believers and all parts of the work are members of one body and no part can stand as an independent whole, so those taking up new work need help from those with experience in both failure and success, attempts to establish sanitariums entirely separate from all other branches of medical work will fail, and conferences and workers in one part of the field must harmonize with workers in other parts, receive counsel and do their work with reference to the whole field.
Building up the cause and producing healthy action in the body requires ministers to overcome deficiencies of character. A minister guided by feeling instead of principle, who will not labor or speak and pray unless inclined, disqualifies himself from this work, and where such influence is felt most the cause languishes, discouragement prevails and those who wait for their shepherd to move forward suffer loss. Christians joined as members of Christ's body depend on one another and have daily obligations both to receive from others and to impart to them, bonds that remain real even when ignored or abused, with each accountable for how he treats others. A Christian teacher should model this mutual responsibility and teach it through a life of purity, impartiality and nobility. The health of one part affects the whole as a weak center affects all branches, so the work depends on different people using God-given abilities with experienced workers encouraging and training others to serve in fitting places.
Medical Work Joined to Ministry
Medical missionary work and health reform are only an arm, a hand, a working hand, a right hand within the body, not the body itself, not the whole work, and not the principal or all-important line. The body must work under its Head's direction, with medical work cooperating with the ministry of the word rather than separating from it, displacing it, or taking the place of the whole. Giving one line first place while neglecting other essential lines reverses the proper relation and makes the arm everything and the body nothing. Health reform is one member of the one gospel body along with the other features of gospel work, and no one branch separated from the others can be a perfect whole. The gospel ministry as a whole is the body, organized for proclaiming truth and carrying forward work for sick and well, with the ministry of the Word as head and Christ as Head over all. Medical missionary work is joined to that body as arm is joined to body, to receive oneness of respect and decided interest, and as head and body direct hand and arm so the church acts in unity under Christ's direction. The body must work the arm and the arm must not work the body, meaning the ministry directs and controls medical work, which must keep proper proportion and sustain the ministry rather than rule the body, absorb its means, and control.
The ministry of the gospel and medical missionary work are to work hand in hand, not as separate efforts, bound closely together because medical work is the gospel in illustration and in practice. By the ministry of the Word the gospel is preached and by medical missionary work the gospel is practiced, the two bound together with neither to stand alone and neither to supersede another member. All parts are to be controlled and guided by wisdom from God, in harmony in every action, with no jealousy and no division over Paul or Apollos or Cephas, drawing in even cords without friction. When evangelical work and medical work blend in perfect unity, with ministers and medical workers laboring unselfishly and unitedly to save sinners, every feature is complete by staying in its proper place. Separating the arm from the body produces imbalance, diminishes or ignores the ministry, brings confusion, and leaves parts of God's work undone and portions of the vineyard unworked.
To disparage the ministry and conduct medical work independently is to leave flying arms dispensing means without the head's direction, producing unbalanced, disproportionate work that unsettles minds, consumes means needed in other lines, consumes but does not produce, saps life and force from the ministry, and at last leads men to scoff at Bible truth. It is not right for all the strength of the body to go into the hand or for all working agencies to be used in medical work alone, and the ministry of the Word must be sustained with all parts moving together in God's plan. The ministry of the Word holds the very first place among human agencies as the great educational force for salvation, and every word spoken to discourage it grieves the heart of Christ and pleases the adversary. No member of the body can be disregarded, and even if unworthy ones are connected with the ministry, no one can ignore the ministry without ignoring God.
Each line must occupy its appointed place in proportionate balance, supporting rather than criticizing or weakening one another, with ministers and medical workers blending in Christian unity. No member or branch should regard its part as vastly more important than the others, and the work is to be managed by shared principles rather than as a separate kingdom, with no narrowness that puts self forward and crowds Christ out. It is wrong to put all strength into medical work alone and also wrong to have no interest in it, since that treats a member of the body disrespectfully. Every feature is complete only when occupying its proper, God-appointed place, with medical work included in the gospel ministry and no medical work complete without the gospel ministry.
The third angel's message is the body of truth, and health reform and medical missionary work as the right arm connected with the body is to work efficiently for its defense. The right hand opens doors through which the body may find entrance and largely prepares the way for present truth to be received, breaking down prejudice so truth goes with power. A body without hands is useless, so honor given to the body must also be given to the helping hands, and a body that treats the right hand indifferently and refuses its aid can accomplish nothing. Treating medical work as the body instead of hands and arms reverses God's order, and that reversal began about 1893 and kept increasing, growing out of ambition and selfishness, drawing means into the wrong place, and becoming a great barrier to the true and regular work.
There is to be no division, so tithes of workers in medical lines must not be separated to the Medical Association but must all go to one treasury, with the conference then supplying ministers to work in connection with the medical work. Disunion between ministers and physicians is displeasing to God, and God's true converting power must circulate through them like the healthful current of blood in the body, bringing great changes. Fault lay not altogether on one side: ministers showed disrespect toward medical leadership on health reform and some acted decidedly against light given against tea, Java coffee, and flesh meats, to injury and division, while medical leadership felt too strongly injured, despised some ministers, and bore down on ministers as a body in an unjustifiable manner. The preaching work that pitches the tent, preaches the Sabbath, raises up a church, and brings tithe into the conference is the body, and medical work with its health interest and cooking schools is the arm and hand that must come in with the body in every city and every place where a church is established to create confidence and interest and leave something solid behind.
Medical work must not be made the body and must not swallow everything else, but every minister of the gospel must do practical medical missionary work, with the two going hand in hand in large cities to open doors for entrance of truth. God's institutions and lines of work are parts of one united work, not separate interests divided by walls or territorial boundaries, and conferences and sanitariums must harmonize with reference to the whole field. A coupling pin firmly unites a person and his work to the body and must not be broken, for keeping the union gives safety while breaking it separates the work from the body. Those taking up new work need help from those experienced in failure and success, and attempts to establish sanitariums entirely separate from other branches will fail. Present truth lies in health reform just as truly as in other gospel work, and indifference toward health books and health work offends God.
Life in the Body
Every member of Christ's family has work to do in God's service, with an assigned task in the Lord's vineyard, and no professed Christian is to be idle. Every addition to the church through conversion becomes one more agency for carrying on the great plan of redemption, following Christ's self-sacrifice to bring others to Him, and each is to be given opportunity to serve according to ability so the church works effectively. Truth that is not lived and imparted loses its life-giving power and healing virtue, while persevering effort increases ability to work effectively and bear fruit for God's glory. The body needs its different members and gifts, with different lines of work given according to ability yet belonging to one great whole, and no worker should reject another for serving in a different way. All are to work together in concert under divine control with undivided effort to draw others to Christ, hearts blended and moving like well-adjusted machinery where each part depends on the other while remaining distinct in action, and when the whole church so blends in perfect union it is a living, active, missionary agency moved and controlled by the Holy Spirit. Time, money, and influence are entrusted for saving souls, gifts grow in power and perfection when used while refusal to serve places a person in opposition to Christ.
The twelfth and thirteenth chapters define the relation members should sustain to one another as members composing one body, and those brought together in church capacity are to be united understandingly and intelligently. Those chapters are to be committed to memory, written in mind and heart, studied and digested rather than ignored. The one grand necessity for living them is to walk humbly with God in the path of obedience. This calls for continuous humbling of individual self and taking self critically in hand, with self-examination as the beginning. The very first step is denying self and taking up one's own cross of self-denial and self-humiliation and self-sacrifice, not laying the cross on somebody else to carry.
Among members of one body there is to be no crowding, no judging, and no measuring of one gift by another, and no bars are to be placed in anyone's way so he will have courage to engage in the good warfare against temptation. Instead of criticizing one another each is to deal sternly with self, with close introspection examine peculiar temperament and weaknesses of character, and decidedly and bravely overcome perverse disposition so as not to dishonor God. As the body of Christ, members are to show one another the same unceasing tenderness the Lord shows them, speaking good words that help and strengthen brethren when they come together for counsel instead of standing afar off in self-confidence to criticize and condemn. They are to unite in service while jealously guarding one another's interests even though mistakes are made instead of standing apart. Bought by the blood of the Son of God, men and women in that body must treat one another with respect, love, and kindness, and must not use harsh words or actions to weaken, discourage, or wound fellow workers, but resemble Him who bought them.
Those truly united to Christ will show Christlike sympathy and kind interest in one another, rejoicing to help fellow workers, and such mutual care produces fruits of righteousness, makes light shine to others, and benefits the church through the sanctifying power of Christ's grace. Belonging to one another as members of one body, believers should help and encourage one another. Each member must serve beyond itself, for as the heart sustains hand and head by sending life-blood, Christians must impart and serve one another, with Christ's love diffused through the body as life-blood through its parts. Selfishness and refusal to give and serve is death to the soul, and a soul or part that serves only itself and refuses to give will perish and cannot live.
Joining the church and having a name on the books does not by itself make a person Christian or secure salvation, and cannot replace a heart united to Christ. Members are to be actual members, not merely professed Christians, for those who live in worldliness, contribute little to the cause, and fail to adorn teaching through godly lives are not functioning as members, and a church is not complete while its members remain self-centered. People of varying character brought into church capacity by profession need personal faith and identification of heart, mind, soul, strength, thoughts, desires, words, and actions with Jesus, constantly receiving His spiritual life and constantly imparting what is received to become elements of light. The fruitless branch without spiritual connection to the invisible Head is taken away, while the truly fruitful branch manifests absolute allegiance by bearing fruit, with faith and love working to unite and harmonize the body. No one is to be a useless member living without God and without hope, dependent on the minister for experience, but is to put on the whole armor of righteousness, forget self, begin to work however little, tell God every trial in confidence, keep thoughts off self and on Jesus, and trust that Jesus in His holy place gives the same help to high and low, rich and poor, bidding ten thousand times ten thousand angels work for even the weakest trusting saint. Disunity in this joined body grieves Christ and misrepresents truth to unbelievers, so each member is to examine whether he belongs to the body.
As members of the body believers possess precious privileges as God's children, including the precious freedom of the liberty of God's children to act out grace bestowed, which should not be questioned or underestimated and which no president may dictate or control. Those entrusted with sacred responsibilities must daily subordinate will to Christ and show His meekness, wisdom, and lowliness so members are left free to understand and exercise these privileges. By studying the Word old and young alike receive blessing and hope and are taught how to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Membership shares in the divine nature and therefore calls for purity, chastity, and holiness, making worldly glory contemptible beside the unseen glory within. It also carries responsibility for one another's interests through hospitality and practical help that foster love and unity.
Oppressing, censuring, abusing, and severing souls wounds the body, leaving it as it were bleeding from harsh, forcing, driving movements. True work for others must be done in Christ's Spirit and conformed to His pattern, with heart in connection with God, order preserved without demanding too much too fast, and with forbearance, candor, consideration, courteousness, meekness, and piety in words, conduct, family life, and daily management rather than censure, reproach, and harsh measures. Membership is proved by attitude toward fellow laborers together with God and toward fellow men, even God's delegated servants. Allowing personal fancies, likes, and dislikes to shape conduct toward them violates what membership requires, and because of that wrong attitude God withholds many blessings He longs to bestow. Those to be benefited, won, and reformed are Christ's little ones and members of His body, so work for them must leave self-absorption and self-centered thought and talk, be done with kindness in thought, word, and deed, with heavenly attributes cultivated, with Christlikeness and tact born of kindness, sympathy, and love, and the worker must first reform his own defective manners before seeking others' reformation.
A converted slave becomes a member of the body and must therefore be loved and treated as a brother, sharing with his master the blessings of God and privileges of the gospel, for all are made one, washed in the same blood and made alive by the same Spirit. Belonging to one body and complete only in Him, His people are lifted from sin's degradation to a place in heavenly courts as laborers together with God, which grounds the call to develop and support workers from their own communities. Workers together in the printing office are the body and need Christ's Spirit circulating through the institution as blood circulates through the body. This requires true conversion of heart, mind, and spirit with no half-way work and crucifixion of self, and when united repentance and conversion bring the full Pentecost experience Christ and angels will co-operate in daily labor, with workers studying and practicing the character of Matthew 5:3-11 and the principles of Matthew 7.
It is not safe to work on independent lines or to be left alone, for believers are all parts of one great whole calling for unity of purpose and action. For brethren beginning conference work this means humbling hearts before the Lord and building on the solid Rock, while in Greater New York many workers doing many different kinds of work, some great and some small, must all unite to make a perfect whole. Efficiency of the Lord's work depends on stewards of His means being true and not robbing God, with assurance of His help when true. Being a member means receiving an entrusted work of blessing and comforting those of like precious faith, looking up and believing in Jesus, being a light by example, and responding to His life given to save with cheerful service. Those who have taken hold of truth must be in union with the body by doing all God requires without shrinking or unwillingness, especially possessors carrying on the purifying process in the heart, getting possessions upon the altar, imparting substance freely to aid truth, letting love of truth predominate over love of riches, and thereby securing heavenly treasure as earthly things decrease in value and lose attraction.
Each believer is set in a particular place with his own machine to work, and must stay by his own work and diligently and faithfully do it correctly, and then the larger machinery works beautifully with every revolution exact and harmonious. Leaving appointed work to watch and correct the great wheel puts one out of place, fails to move the load, hinders others, and makes disagreeable noise and jarring that disturbs far beyond the local church. Those who leave their place think wisdom and zeal require rearranging and correcting the whole to save the church from going to pieces, but they make things worse, and what is needed is to fall back into place and draw in unison with the rest. There is no more reason for strife about who shall be greatest than for strife among bodily members about which is greatest, and there is to be no division or contention. All have one common interest to cooperate with Christ in restoring the moral image of God in man, each working out his own salvation and that of family and associates, discharging God-given duty according to daily gained knowledge in righteousness, faithfully trading upon talents and endowments through the sanctified influence of the Holy Spirit as Christ's purchased property by creation and redemption. Highest usefulness lies not in possession of talents but in faithful use in blessing others and saving souls, and those recorded as unfaithful servants will find no place in the redeemed family.
The church as Christ's living body with parts joined in shared life is to send a vitalizing, healthful influence to the branches of its work, and when morally and spiritually sick its harmful influence spreads and its sickness appears throughout. Its members and lines of work are connected, so no worker should treat knowledge or ability received from God as exclusively his own but should share it for the good of the whole. Each person's actions should be prayerfully considered in light of effect on the whole, with distinct parts working in harmony as one body. Each member has individual work that no one else can stand in his place to do, so no one may make a groove for brethren to move in and no minister can embrace the whole work or dictate how every other one shall labor. Each must be constantly learning and advancing and receive help through any channel God may send, while those with more experience teach the less experienced by taking them by their side, educating them, bearing patiently with them, never closing hearts by sharp words and unkind criticism, but letting God's love rule and be communicated to associates. The reference to human bodies also applies in urging medical students to seek an experienced physician's instruction rather than take responsibility beyond ability.
No one with his gift alone can carry the work to perfection, for different gifts and agencies are essential to build it strong, proportional, and complete under the Lord's direction. Each has a God-given work and appropriate position, and harmonious cooperation supplies what is lacking in another who alone would think himself a complete whole. No teacher, physician, or minister can ever be a complete whole by himself, for God ordained association in service so varied talents of many minds are blended. Contact of mind with mind quickens thought and increases capability, and deficiencies of one are made up by special gifts of another. This balance checks exaggerated action by the careful and harmful delay by the slow to conclude, and requires encouraging and educating members to work and bear responsibilities, which lifts burdens from ministers and adds years to the cooperating worker's life. When physicians and teachers thus unite in imparting knowledge, youth receive symmetrical, well-balanced education for service, requiring gentlemanly Christian courtesy, growing refinement, overlooking little differences on questions of no vital consequence, denying self and yielding personal opinions on minor matters, speaking plainly and firmly when needed but with Christlike kindness giving no offense, and managers of nearby institutions uniting forces unselfishly and untiringly for mutual upbuilding with far-reaching good.
As members of one body, branches of one root, brothers and sisters of one family united by truth in Jesus, mutual responsibility and natural obligations bind believers together. This requires putting away lying and speaking truth with one another, and preserving friendship true and untainted without partiality and without hypocrisy. Pure love is not impulse or spasmodic feeling but a divine principle and permanent power drawn fresh from love flowing from God's heart, quickening and sustaining by the Holy Spirit to bind heart to heart, to love God supremely and one another truly, sincerely, unaffectedly, and fervently with pure hearts. Sanctified talents with mutual confidence and influence must be exercised for mutual benefit, always tending to good and not to evil, hurt, or injury. As members they receive from Christ the living Head the abilities, light, and strength needed to bless the world, and the church is organized so members can carry out work together with understanding and take missionary responsibilities seriously.
The relation between Christ and His church is very close and sacred, He the Head and the church the body, so connection with Christ involves connection with His church. The church is organized for service, and in a life of service connection with the church is one of the first steps. Loyalty to Christ demands faithful performance of church duties as an important part of training, and in a church imbued with the Master's life this leads directly to effort for the world without. The obligation of church relationship needs to be made plain to youth awakened to Christ's claims.
Believers together form Christ's church as a living body, with each person set in a distinct place to do his own appointed part. Christ himself is the Head and center from whom the whole body receives life and power through close union with him. God has established differing gifts and offices in that body to meet different minds, giving to each as he pleases for the good of all. No member can live detached or independent, for all depend on one another in sympathy and service until the whole becomes symmetrical and complete. Those gifts were set to remain in the church to the end, to carry her through the perils of the last days and make her ready for her Lord.
Body and Members Meaning
Believers together are the body of Christ, which is the church, and each person is a distinct member in particular with his own place and part. The body has different parts and functions, and its members do not all have the same office, yet each is essential to the completeness of the work. God has set different members in the church with different places and work — first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues with interpretation — and not all are apostles or prophets or teachers or workers of miracles or healers or speakers with tongues, so believers should covet earnestly the best gifts. The Holy Spirit gives these gifts to the church for its instruction and edification, to be actively used together in that one body and to continue to the end of time. The Lord means the church to be a strong, consistent whole with each part fitted to the other part, growing into a holy temple in the Lord, living in close harmony, valuing different roles as God has arranged them, with no member unnecessary, no division, but care for one another in suffering and joy.
Jesus Christ is the Head, center, and source of life and power to the body, and the members live by union with him. Believers with their different gifts and work belong together as his body under him as Head, centered in him, with different gifts and offices given by the same Spirit. Because members have different work to do, no member is to live in self-sufficiency, dismiss another as unneeded, crowd against another, judge another, or measure one gift by another, for many gifts are needed in unity without crowding or rivalry. This diversity is God’s plan to meet varied organizations and minds in the world, for the strength of one servant is not the strength of another. Each person is therefore to cultivate the powers, identity, and endowment God gave him and become a more efficient laborer in his own place, left free for God to convict and work upon the heart to obtain personal experience and develop individual strength for a special work, without one overgoverning and destroying the will and individuality of another.
The human body from head to feet, with eyes to feet and many organs working under governing intelligence and law, illustrates how the members act in harmony and dependence. Christians together are the body illustrated by the human body with its members acting in harmony and dependent on one another, to teach how church members and the gifts God has placed in the church relate. Believers together are Christ’s body with variety from eyes to feet rather than uniformity, each different member depending on the others to make a perfect whole, with all the variety acting harmoniously in obedience to the laws that control the body. The more believers drink in of the Spirit, the more they are made alive and united by His surpassing love. The ministry of the gospel and medical missionary work are to work hand in hand under Christ as leader, not as separate efforts, their unity testifying that Christ who redeemed them is their leader.
Connection with Christ involves connection with His church; believers cannot be undenominational, detached wholes, or complete in themselves. Christ’s disciples are members of one body, joined to one another and dependent on one another in Christ, who is the head and life of each member, so that when one member suffers all suffer and when one is honored all share the honor and rejoice, and no member can claim to have no need of another. Each believer is only one member of the body and can never be an independent whole, but part of a greater whole marked by mutual love, unity, and work connected from one member to another. The different members are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit under only one Head, Christ, who is Master in heaven, not seeking to be controlled by men nor calling any man master, and unity is preserved only as the different members perform their several offices, whether preaching the Word, teaching in schools, practicing as a physician, cultivating the soil, following a trade, acting in councils, or going to foreign lands, never going beyond the domain of God but giving all tact and strength of mind and heart to do their best. Joining the church does not by itself make a person Christian or secure salvation, for membership and a name on the church books cannot replace a heart united to Christ, yet the church is organized for service and in a life of service connection with the church is one of the first steps, loyalty to Christ demanding faithful performance of church duties as training that leads directly to effort for the world. Membership means cooperating with Christ and not working independently, so spiritual selfishness and a selfish, authoritative spirit have no place in it, and as in heaven before sin each member serves in the place assigned by God and gives glory to Him as the Center of the whole.
Receiving Christ and believing in Him as personal Saviour by personal faith and new creation makes a person a member of His body, a part of His living, working agency. This membership comes by trusting the God who formed people in the beginning and creates them anew in Christ Jesus, who by grace works a change in them day after day toward perfection of character, a good work He will perform until the day of Christ’s second appearing. Through union with Christ the feeble, finite, sinful nature is restored to healthful growth, the life of the Vine becoming the life of the adopted sapling, until through His grace they are complete in Him. This relation is of no avail without personal faith, an identification of heart and mind and soul and strength with Jesus Christ in thoughts and desires and words and actions, constantly receiving His spiritual life and constantly imparting what is received, thus becoming elements of light. A Christian who does not draw life from Christ is like a paralyzed member, connected to the body only in name, for brief, impulsive movements are not the lasting activity of spiritual life, and true membership is shown by drawing life from Christ and growing in grace. Mere outward connection with any church does not save, because belonging to that body requires personal faith in a personal Saviour that brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ.
Dependence on Christ is as real and close as a limb joined to the body; through it He joins humanity to God and members share in the divine nature. To believe in Christ is to put Him on and be united to Him, as a limb is joined to the body, and Christ thus joins humanity to God. Christ alone is the sinner’s hope and salvation, and trust in human merit obstructs the view of His love. A member of Christ’s church is a member of Christ’s body and therefore shares in the divine nature, a privilege calling for a life of purity, chastity, and holiness that makes worldly glory contemptible beside the unseen glory within.
The body is also pictured as a holy temple of living stones, the bride and Lamb’s wife, one family, and many stones of varied light forming one breastplate and one Mind. Together believers form the church which is the bride, the Lamb’s wife, with God as her husband, so unfaithfulness shown to Christ by His people is the unfaithfulness of a wife to her husband. Believers, though distinct in individuality and disposition, are members of Christ’s body and different parts of one great temple, sanctified by the same Spirit to be united in the things of God, and harmony among people of varied dispositions is strong evidence that God sent His Son to save sinners. The church is one family made of many members each having peculiar characteristics, and their differences contribute to beauty and wholeness, as many stones each with its special light and message make one breastplate and many minds make one Mind. No member lives for himself or has a merely private duty, for each has a place of service and each person’s influence is to strengthen the whole, joined through Christ to fellow workers and heavenly intelligences, however insignificant he may feel. Every church member must be active, like a living stone in a building, receiving and reflecting divine light, a vital link joining people to one another.
The Bible itself is like a complete body pervaded by one divine life, like the human body where every part is united to and dependent on the others for life. Each book of the Bible is like a member with its own special office, and every portion of Scripture has its use and lesson for every phase of human life. Together the books form a complete whole, prepared by divine intelligence to express God’s thoughts and intentions, to educate the human race, and to make the human family complete in Christ. The Bible is not a heap of odds and ends but an educator that must be studied with active thought and spiritual effort, with the Holy Spirit bringing Christ’s words to remembrance, enlightening the mind and guiding research, and its value grows clearer the more it is studied.
Severing affection and faith from those once closely united is like tearing members from the body, for the close bond among Christ’s people is as limbs joined in one body.
Diversity of Gifts Given
God has placed in the church first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and diversities of tongues with interpretation. The members do not all have the same office, but each is essential to the completeness of the work, and the list illustrates the variety of roles and gifts placed in the body. The phrase God hath set means more than general communication by the Spirit as in former ages; it means he specially endowed the Christian church with these gifts and established them in it.
Not all are apostles or prophets or teachers or workers of miracles or healers or speakers with tongues or interpreters, so believers should covet earnestly the best gifts. This diversity is his order and plan to meet varied organizations and minds in the world, so the strength of one servant is not the strength of another. Each person is therefore to cultivate the powers, identity, and endowment given him and to become a more efficient laborer in his own place, without one overgoverning and destroying the will and individuality of another. No one must govern others too much, destroy their will and identity and independent natural traits, or mold their judgment and character to his own ideas, because those traits give access to a class others could not touch.
Every person must be left free for God to convict and work upon the heart to obtain his own experience and to call forth powers and develop individual strength for a special work. Among followers there is unity in diversity, with diverse elements blended together, one adapted to the other, each doing a special work for God. To every man, woman, and child is given a work to do in the moral vineyard, one fitted for a certain work and another adapted for a different line, and each is to be the complement of the others.
No one mind alone is sufficient or capable of being a complete whole in planning and directing the work, devising plans, or exerting a healthful, well-balanced influence. Those joined together must therefore put forth special effort in union with the Spirit to blend together, taking time to understand each other instead of standing apart to watch and criticize and judge, finding points of resemblance, helping one another with one supplying the lack of another, accepting that one may have keener perceptions in some things than another, and giving due credit to each one's ability. In providence people of different temperaments are brought together that they might unite in the work, and every individual has his place in the filling up of one great plan bearing the stamp of Christ's image, for God is one.
God gives one gift to one person and another gift to another as he pleases, all for the good of the whole body, assigning some to one kind of work and others to other lines, all working under the same Spirit. Different spiritual gifts, different experiences, and different manifestations of the Spirit are all unto holiness, with every soul aiming at the perfection of the character of Jesus Christ. Recognizing this order guards against rivalry, pride, envy and contempt of one another, and it strengthens unity and mutual love. There is diversity of gifts, but unity in the expression of those gifts makes a complete whole.
Each believer stands in an appointed station with his own office, post, and place in the body, with his own part to act as workman and agent, and each part is to be respected, encouraged, and sustained. God has given to every man his work, and it is pleasing to him when every member is willing to act the part assigned, working for the benefit of the whole and speaking the truth in love under his supervision. Different lines of work are given to different people according to ability, yet all work for the Master belongs to one great whole, to be done in concert under divine control with undivided effort to draw others to him, with hearts blended, moving like well-adjusted machinery where each part depends on the other part while remaining distinct in action.
Taking a position as a member of the body is taking appointed work from God and pledging to act faithfully in that part as a steward, working with the same prudence and wisdom one would use for oneself, using and improving the talents given in proportion to each receiver's capabilities, whether five or two or one, and understanding, appropriating, and employing the treasure of his Word to his glory in every circumstance of life. That includes individual power to devise and execute what is best for the many-sided life of people at large, high and low, rich and poor, and individual responsibility to the whole body in connection with them. That means organizing men, women, and youth of various temperaments, callings, and positions to bring their God-given talents into solemn service, catching souls, recognizing those with tact to watch for and care for souls and to appreciate questions of spiritual life, arousing the dormant energies of the people by earnest experience, and by daily connection with God gaining deep insight into one's own life and others' lives to enlarge the circle of influence and enrich all with special and appropriate gifts as co-workers with Christ and channels of light.
Service like the hand's or foot's can be important even when it is not a leading role, for a person need not be the head or heart of the body to serve effectively. No work appointed by God is inferior or of little account, whether great or small, for it is for that person's own best good, for the best good of fellow men, and for the advancement of his cause. The worth of the work depends not on its greatness but on the love and motive with which it is done, and work done cheerfully, humbly, and in meekness results in his glory. Even the least belongs to the body and, through Christ, is connected with the work of other people and heavenly beings, with duty not for personal advantage but so that influence may strengthen the whole. Every gift, even the smallest, has a place and should be valued and used, and members are to work in unity and help one another.
Each member has value with different abilities and responsibilities, and unsuitability for one task does not make a person faithless or unwilling. Members should respect one another's differing trusts and remain free to seek direction about their own work, while persevering effort increases ability to work effectively and bear fruit to God's glory. The body illustrates how each part, however small, affects the usefulness of the whole, so misusing or weakening one part harms the whole, and believers are therefore to guard and use their different gifts and powers faithfully in service.
Different minds may present the same truth with different individuality, figures, styles, and hues without contradiction, uniting as different testimonies into one whole. As many stones each with its special light and message make one breastplate, many minds make one Mind, and different styles are appropriate in different places. God may impress different minds with the same thought, and each may express it in a different way yet without contradiction, for seldom do two persons view and express truth in the same way, each dwelling on particular points which constitution and education fitted him to appreciate, as sunlight falling on different objects gives a different hue. Through the Spirit he gives truth to be expressed according to the development of the mind, without cramping the mind into a mold, and those who view or express truths differently may be just as precious to him.
All draw spiritual supplies from the same storehouse and depend wholly and entirely on God for grace and the Spirit's working, with no thread of selfishness or self-exaltation. All are born by the same Spirit, purchased by the same blood, owned by God, and fed on the flesh and blood of the Son from the same source. Individuality remains, with different figures and different ways of presenting truth to interest and educate different minds, yet there is to be no contradiction and no effort to be entirely different for originality, for it is no virtue to differ. When the same vitalizing current flows through minds and hearts, all act in harmony like bodily machinery where each part works in harmony with every other, and failure to do so denies the Source of all spiritual life. True membership is shown in meekness and lowliness, in tender compassionate love as brethren, not mere emotion but principle manifest in noble unselfish deeds, with all plans and activities appreciated as coming from one Source.
Those writing on the third angel's message may present truth with different individuality, different figures and different ways of presentation to meet varied minds, without speaking the very same things in the same words, yet without contradiction, so all different testimonies unite to form one whole in unity in diversity under the controlling influence of the Spirit. Each person is to use the talents given, in union with others, while allowing room for different ways of working rather than requiring everyone to follow one person's precise method. Unity does not require every worker to bear the stamp of one person's mind, but allows different people to serve in ways suited to their gifts and circumstances, and the work is hindered when members fear they will not be accepted as being in harmony with the whole.
God gives French workers a work among the French that American ministers cannot do, and gives American workers their own work. Each member must exercise his own powers, capabilities, and means in his own place, with self submerged in the divine will and with distrust of his own wisdom. Members who do a different work must be sustained, stimulated, encouraged, and shown sympathy and consideration, and must be given elbow room to act themselves instead of being forced to come exactly to the minds and ideas of other members. Distinct gifts can complement one another, as Luther's courage and energy, joined with Melancthon's gentleness, caution, and exactness, strengthened their shared work in the Reformation.
The church's gifts are to live and work among its members, encouraging the fainthearted and correcting and reproving those who err. Each has liberty of expression, yet no one is to work out a plan of his own invention in raising means, supporting schools, or sustaining the ministry. All must blend capabilities with those chosen to lead, pledge equal interest by prayer, and put away selfishness, with no member launching out against another, but all standing together in opposition and conflict against fanaticism and heresy, so that council meetings, camp-meetings, and all essential work are carried with unity and love and with the glory of God in view.
Unity Through Mutual Dependence
No member of the body is unnecessary, self-sufficient, infallible, or independent, for all depend on one another to make a perfect, symmetrical whole. The body has variety from eyes to feet rather than uniformity, with different parts and functions acting harmoniously in obedience to the laws that control the body. No one is meant to carry the work alone or to live complete in himself, for people with different abilities and experience counsel and help one another, and one member's strengths supply another's deficiencies. Their unity with one another is grounded in their unity with Christ, who is the head, and the more they drink in of the Spirit the more they are made alive and united by His surpassing love.
If one member suffers all suffer with him, and if one member receives a rich blessing or honor all rejoice and share in it with him. Interests and sympathies are joined, and in carrying forward the work there is not to be one indifferent member. Christ identifies Himself with the members of His church, and truly united members show Christlike sympathy and kind interest, rejoicing to help fellow workers, which produces fruits of righteousness, makes light shine to others, and benefits the church through the sanctifying power of grace. The church is made up of varied talents from every rank and class, so no member or contribution is to be belittled, excluded, or treated as belonging only to one class, for its influence depends on working together.
Members are to work together in unity under the sanctified intelligence that governs the whole, like a human body working under the head as a well-regulated machine. There is to be no division, factions, strife about greatness, or contention, for separating into factions contradicts unity as that body and gives a poor witness to the truth. Every believer stands in an appointed station with his own office and place, and each part is to be respected, encouraged, and sustained, with harmonious energy and action, sympathy of every part with the whole, well-regulated action, exercise of every gift, and speaking the truth in love. This forbids fitful, spasmodic movements, envy, evil thinking, evil speaking, and evil acting, and requires every worker under God's supervision to render due respect and recognition to his fellow worker because to every man his work is given.
Recognizing God's order guards against rivalry, pride, envy, contempt, crowding, judging, and measuring one gift by another. God gives one gift to one person and another to another as He pleases, assigning some to one kind of work and others to another, all under the same Spirit and all for the good of the whole body. No member should claim self-sufficiency, dismiss another as unneeded or inferior, crowd against another, or judge another member's gift by his own. Christians should instead value one another's gifts and work rather than envy or belittle them, which strengthens unity and mutual love.
Different experience, minds, and abilities enable members to counsel with and assist one another, blending mind with mind instead of carrying the work alone or rejecting counsel. God gives different people different understanding, so no one person receives everything; members should share plans and thoughts, listen to one another's counsel, and build trust through confidence and faith, with contributions and cautions offered and received in brotherly kindness and love. Members are to help one another fulfill duties and complete the work entrusted to them, to serve God and benefit all, representing truth and honoring Christ rather than glorifying possessors. Believers are baptized into one body and united through sanctification by the Holy Spirit, with truth as a sanctifying, unifying power. That unity is bound by love and brotherly sympathy and joined to one purpose of drawing souls to Christ, with different tasks given according to ability yet all moved by one Spirit, distinct in action while depending on and cooperating with one another. Even the weakest and least experienced believer is a vital member, joined to Christ and connected through Him to the character of Christ, working together in love, humility, and unity rather than one person ruling and planning for all.
Through the union of the human with the divine, Christ being the strength, light, and life of every truly converted soul by His Spirit's quickening power, inspiration, and abiding influence, the world is convicted. Through the blessed union of those sanctified body, soul, and spirit, all blending in keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, the truth is magnified. By the church the manifold wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places, and were all professed members truly converted they would be a power for truth and holiness as laborers together with God in leading souls to Christ, with no repining when Christ is formed within, the hope of glory.
Gifts Continue to End
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular, shows Christians together to be Christ's body, the church, like the parts of a human body working together in harmony and dependence on one another, and introduces the spiritual gifts God placed in the church — apostles first, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and diversities of tongues — given by the Holy Spirit for instruction and edification to continue to the end of time. God hath set means more than general communication by the Spirit as in former ages; it means God specially endowed the Christian church with these gifts and established them to remain until Christ returns. They were given because the church needs them as the primitive church needed them, as the true church needed them to light her path through persecution and martyrdom, and much more to press through the perils of the last days and to make ready to receive her soon-coming Lord.
In the perils of the last days the church becomes a perfect whole representing the wisdom and character of God when every member cultivates every mental and physical power, for God gives the talents and powers of the mind as His gifts to be used in right relation to each other, with each person earnestly cultivating the mind as the Lord's garden to form a character after the divine likeness. As members approach the final conflict they grow into Christ and share more fully in His Spirit, and the latter rain revives and strengthens them to pass through the time of trouble while the glory attending the third angel's message makes their faces shine.
Order and Shared Leadership
The chapter lays out simple organization and church order appointed for the unity and perfection of the church as the body of Christ with members in particular. Office in the church means standing as leader, adviser, counselor and helper in bearing the burdens of the work and as a leader in offering thanksgiving to God, not being appointed to order and command fellow laborers, because the Lord is over His heritage and will lead His people. Those carrying responsibilities must treat fellow laborers with the same consideration they would wish to receive, for position gives no kingly authority, and must learn the meekness of Christ from the great Teacher in order to become Christlike.
No one man has been given all wisdom, so no leader can mold and direct important interests alone or be regarded as the voice for the people. God has made other men just as valuable and is willing to teach and guide them, giving talents to every man according to ability, with one mind having a larger scope than another. Those placed in sacred office and positions of trust cannot bear the responsibilities alone but must modestly regard the opinions of others as worthy of respect and as likely to be correct as their own. They must join with helpers whose minds do not run in exactly the same lines as their own and do God's work in perfect harmony as one complete whole in which each supplies the other's deficiency. Each member has individual work that no one else can stand in his place to do, so no one may make a groove for certain brethren to move in and no minister can embrace the whole work in finite arms and dictate how every other one shall labor. Each must be constantly learning and advancing and receive help through any channel God may send, with those of more experience taking those of less experience by their side, educating them and bearing patiently with them without closing the door of the heart by sharp words and unkind criticism, but letting the love of God rule and be communicated. Those given responsibility are only a part of a great whole set in the church to be a help to others, so each must obtain a clean unselfish character by new conversion through studying Christ's life, conquering and giving up old hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, habits formed in selfishness, love of supremacy, desire for mastery and high opinion of self by close self-examination, because each one's course determines the value of a large number of others.
Christians are one body and every member must stay united to the body, each working in his own appointed place and capacity. No one can disconnect from the agencies God has appointed and work on an independent line in his own supposed wisdom and still succeed or prosper in the end, and even if he flatters himself that he is doing God's work the attempt is a delusion of the enemy. Belonging together as Christ's body means no one should detach from the body and work independently while claiming to do God's work, but each is to use God-given ability in harmony with the others and cooperate where most effective. Members must draw together and work in harmony so that the work advances in an orderly and healthy way, and it is not safe to work on independent lines or to be left alone in the work. To be united to the body members must be likeminded with God, pure, holy and sincere, and no one is to shut himself up to himself to live for himself. For brethren beginning work in a new conference this means humbling hearts before the Lord and building on the solid Rock.
The church on earth is Christ's body and God's channel of light through which He communicates His purposes and will. God does not give one servant an experience independent of and contrary to the experience of the church, nor give one man a knowledge of His will for the entire church while the body is left in darkness. In His providence He places His servants in close connection with the church so they have less confidence in themselves and greater confidence in others whom He is leading to advance His work. All believers are joined in close relationship, Christian to Christian and church to church, and must stay united instead of following independent judgment. God works through appointed leaders and fellow believers as channels of help, encouragement and strength, and has appointed leaders to lead out and bear the responsibilities of advancing and spreading the truth. To despise or pass by those leaders and to expect light directly from God alone rejects God's ordained means and leaves a worker liable to deception and overthrow by Satan. Christ and His church are inseparable, with believers dependent on God and on one another, and independence must not be sought as the fallen angels fell from their high estate through insubordination though beautiful and glorious and dependent on God for happiness and for light and intelligence. The church has authority delegated by God to lead, teach and guide so it may guide others, and members are to remain united with the body and heed its counsel, for choosing independent judgment and refusing counsel works against what God is building and leads to spiritual ruin. Taking a first step independently of the church on private impressions and feelings is the step Satan leads to in order to deceive and destroy, so one whose mind was once yielded to the direct control of the enemy through evil angels must be very distrustful of impressions and feelings that would lead on an independent track away from the church.
The whole body must work harmoniously with no counter-influence, each acting his part in concert with the others in the ministry of reconciliation beseeching men and women to be reconciled to God, because union is strength and variance is weakness and sin. If disagreement arises it must be settled at once between those involved, with prayer and converse instead of recrimination, so heart is cemented to heart and self-will and selfishness die. This united action in sacred duties strengthens and establishes the church and exhibits God's miracle-working power as a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. The church is to act as an undivided whole with members living at peace and in harmony and deferring individual judgment to the judgment of the church body, and a member should not act independently of the body or oppose its members merely because they disagree with him. Unity is required in every church while each member keeps individuality and personal responsibility under the leadership of Jesus Christ, for true unity does not mean consolidation, and workers are to counsel together and bring ideas into harmony with truth with no arbitrary human ruling power ever taking the place and authority of God. Discord among those serving God harms the body whose members belong to one another, which is why sound, wholehearted, capable workers are needed to strengthen and raise God's people.
There are to be no kings in its midst and no man with the right to forbid workers to go where they can work or to control their support, but all are to find a place to work and go to the people and to the waste and destitute places of earth to wrestle in the grace of God and build up the work from nothing, with one part working connected with another part joined by the golden links of heaven and living by living faith founded on the living Word and the living God, not by emotion. The law governing the body is cooperation with reciprocal influence of all members upon one another, with no kingly power of one man controlling the whole and no one-man power, in order to reveal Christ and the cross to a world perishing in sin and iniquity. As members of the body the saints possess precious privileges including the precious freedom of the liberty of the children of God to act out grace bestowed upon them, and no conference president is given power to dictate and control their consciences. Those in trust must daily subordinate their will to Christ and practice meekness and lowliness so members are left free to understand and exercise these privileges. Every church and every conference lives in reciprocal dependence, and the sacred chain of dependence that binds members together is not slavery. Separation and independence to display personal efficiency is opposed to God's order, and allowing evil thinking and evil speaking, discord and separation, breaks the body, robs the church of usefulness and blocks reformation. All believers and all parts of the work are members of one body and no part can stand as an independent whole, so those taking up new work need help from those with experience in both failure and success, attempts to establish sanitariums entirely separate from all other branches of medical work will fail, and conferences and workers in one part of the field must harmonize with workers in other parts, receive counsel and do their work with reference to the whole field.
Building up the cause and producing healthy action in the body requires ministers to overcome deficiencies of character. A minister guided by feeling instead of principle, who will not labor or speak and pray unless inclined, disqualifies himself from this work, and where such influence is felt most the cause languishes, discouragement prevails and those who wait for their shepherd to move forward suffer loss. Christians joined as members of Christ's body depend on one another and have daily obligations both to receive from others and to impart to them, bonds that remain real even when ignored or abused, with each accountable for how he treats others. A Christian teacher should model this mutual responsibility and teach it through a life of purity, impartiality and nobility. The health of one part affects the whole as a weak center affects all branches, so the work depends on different people using God-given abilities with experienced workers encouraging and training others to serve in fitting places.
Medical Work Joined to Ministry
Medical missionary work and health reform are only an arm, a hand, a working hand, a right hand within the body, not the body itself, not the whole work, and not the principal or all-important line. The body must work under its Head's direction, with medical work cooperating with the ministry of the word rather than separating from it, displacing it, or taking the place of the whole. Giving one line first place while neglecting other essential lines reverses the proper relation and makes the arm everything and the body nothing. Health reform is one member of the one gospel body along with the other features of gospel work, and no one branch separated from the others can be a perfect whole. The gospel ministry as a whole is the body, organized for proclaiming truth and carrying forward work for sick and well, with the ministry of the Word as head and Christ as Head over all. Medical missionary work is joined to that body as arm is joined to body, to receive oneness of respect and decided interest, and as head and body direct hand and arm so the church acts in unity under Christ's direction. The body must work the arm and the arm must not work the body, meaning the ministry directs and controls medical work, which must keep proper proportion and sustain the ministry rather than rule the body, absorb its means, and control.
The ministry of the gospel and medical missionary work are to work hand in hand, not as separate efforts, bound closely together because medical work is the gospel in illustration and in practice. By the ministry of the Word the gospel is preached and by medical missionary work the gospel is practiced, the two bound together with neither to stand alone and neither to supersede another member. All parts are to be controlled and guided by wisdom from God, in harmony in every action, with no jealousy and no division over Paul or Apollos or Cephas, drawing in even cords without friction. When evangelical work and medical work blend in perfect unity, with ministers and medical workers laboring unselfishly and unitedly to save sinners, every feature is complete by staying in its proper place. Separating the arm from the body produces imbalance, diminishes or ignores the ministry, brings confusion, and leaves parts of God's work undone and portions of the vineyard unworked.
To disparage the ministry and conduct medical work independently is to leave flying arms dispensing means without the head's direction, producing unbalanced, disproportionate work that unsettles minds, consumes means needed in other lines, consumes but does not produce, saps life and force from the ministry, and at last leads men to scoff at Bible truth. It is not right for all the strength of the body to go into the hand or for all working agencies to be used in medical work alone, and the ministry of the Word must be sustained with all parts moving together in God's plan. The ministry of the Word holds the very first place among human agencies as the great educational force for salvation, and every word spoken to discourage it grieves the heart of Christ and pleases the adversary. No member of the body can be disregarded, and even if unworthy ones are connected with the ministry, no one can ignore the ministry without ignoring God.
Each line must occupy its appointed place in proportionate balance, supporting rather than criticizing or weakening one another, with ministers and medical workers blending in Christian unity. No member or branch should regard its part as vastly more important than the others, and the work is to be managed by shared principles rather than as a separate kingdom, with no narrowness that puts self forward and crowds Christ out. It is wrong to put all strength into medical work alone and also wrong to have no interest in it, since that treats a member of the body disrespectfully. Every feature is complete only when occupying its proper, God-appointed place, with medical work included in the gospel ministry and no medical work complete without the gospel ministry.
The third angel's message is the body of truth, and health reform and medical missionary work as the right arm connected with the body is to work efficiently for its defense. The right hand opens doors through which the body may find entrance and largely prepares the way for present truth to be received, breaking down prejudice so truth goes with power. A body without hands is useless, so honor given to the body must also be given to the helping hands, and a body that treats the right hand indifferently and refuses its aid can accomplish nothing. Treating medical work as the body instead of hands and arms reverses God's order, and that reversal began about 1893 and kept increasing, growing out of ambition and selfishness, drawing means into the wrong place, and becoming a great barrier to the true and regular work.
There is to be no division, so tithes of workers in medical lines must not be separated to the Medical Association but must all go to one treasury, with the conference then supplying ministers to work in connection with the medical work. Disunion between ministers and physicians is displeasing to God, and God's true converting power must circulate through them like the healthful current of blood in the body, bringing great changes. Fault lay not altogether on one side: ministers showed disrespect toward medical leadership on health reform and some acted decidedly against light given against tea, Java coffee, and flesh meats, to injury and division, while medical leadership felt too strongly injured, despised some ministers, and bore down on ministers as a body in an unjustifiable manner. The preaching work that pitches the tent, preaches the Sabbath, raises up a church, and brings tithe into the conference is the body, and medical work with its health interest and cooking schools is the arm and hand that must come in with the body in every city and every place where a church is established to create confidence and interest and leave something solid behind.
Medical work must not be made the body and must not swallow everything else, but every minister of the gospel must do practical medical missionary work, with the two going hand in hand in large cities to open doors for entrance of truth. God's institutions and lines of work are parts of one united work, not separate interests divided by walls or territorial boundaries, and conferences and sanitariums must harmonize with reference to the whole field. A coupling pin firmly unites a person and his work to the body and must not be broken, for keeping the union gives safety while breaking it separates the work from the body. Those taking up new work need help from those experienced in failure and success, and attempts to establish sanitariums entirely separate from other branches will fail. Present truth lies in health reform just as truly as in other gospel work, and indifference toward health books and health work offends God.
Life in the Body
Every member of Christ's family has work to do in God's service, with an assigned task in the Lord's vineyard, and no professed Christian is to be idle. Every addition to the church through conversion becomes one more agency for carrying on the great plan of redemption, following Christ's self-sacrifice to bring others to Him, and each is to be given opportunity to serve according to ability so the church works effectively. Truth that is not lived and imparted loses its life-giving power and healing virtue, while persevering effort increases ability to work effectively and bear fruit for God's glory. The body needs its different members and gifts, with different lines of work given according to ability yet belonging to one great whole, and no worker should reject another for serving in a different way. All are to work together in concert under divine control with undivided effort to draw others to Christ, hearts blended and moving like well-adjusted machinery where each part depends on the other while remaining distinct in action, and when the whole church so blends in perfect union it is a living, active, missionary agency moved and controlled by the Holy Spirit. Time, money, and influence are entrusted for saving souls, gifts grow in power and perfection when used while refusal to serve places a person in opposition to Christ.
The twelfth and thirteenth chapters define the relation members should sustain to one another as members composing one body, and those brought together in church capacity are to be united understandingly and intelligently. Those chapters are to be committed to memory, written in mind and heart, studied and digested rather than ignored. The one grand necessity for living them is to walk humbly with God in the path of obedience. This calls for continuous humbling of individual self and taking self critically in hand, with self-examination as the beginning. The very first step is denying self and taking up one's own cross of self-denial and self-humiliation and self-sacrifice, not laying the cross on somebody else to carry.
Among members of one body there is to be no crowding, no judging, and no measuring of one gift by another, and no bars are to be placed in anyone's way so he will have courage to engage in the good warfare against temptation. Instead of criticizing one another each is to deal sternly with self, with close introspection examine peculiar temperament and weaknesses of character, and decidedly and bravely overcome perverse disposition so as not to dishonor God. As the body of Christ, members are to show one another the same unceasing tenderness the Lord shows them, speaking good words that help and strengthen brethren when they come together for counsel instead of standing afar off in self-confidence to criticize and condemn. They are to unite in service while jealously guarding one another's interests even though mistakes are made instead of standing apart. Bought by the blood of the Son of God, men and women in that body must treat one another with respect, love, and kindness, and must not use harsh words or actions to weaken, discourage, or wound fellow workers, but resemble Him who bought them.
Those truly united to Christ will show Christlike sympathy and kind interest in one another, rejoicing to help fellow workers, and such mutual care produces fruits of righteousness, makes light shine to others, and benefits the church through the sanctifying power of Christ's grace. Belonging to one another as members of one body, believers should help and encourage one another. Each member must serve beyond itself, for as the heart sustains hand and head by sending life-blood, Christians must impart and serve one another, with Christ's love diffused through the body as life-blood through its parts. Selfishness and refusal to give and serve is death to the soul, and a soul or part that serves only itself and refuses to give will perish and cannot live.
Joining the church and having a name on the books does not by itself make a person Christian or secure salvation, and cannot replace a heart united to Christ. Members are to be actual members, not merely professed Christians, for those who live in worldliness, contribute little to the cause, and fail to adorn teaching through godly lives are not functioning as members, and a church is not complete while its members remain self-centered. People of varying character brought into church capacity by profession need personal faith and identification of heart, mind, soul, strength, thoughts, desires, words, and actions with Jesus, constantly receiving His spiritual life and constantly imparting what is received to become elements of light. The fruitless branch without spiritual connection to the invisible Head is taken away, while the truly fruitful branch manifests absolute allegiance by bearing fruit, with faith and love working to unite and harmonize the body. No one is to be a useless member living without God and without hope, dependent on the minister for experience, but is to put on the whole armor of righteousness, forget self, begin to work however little, tell God every trial in confidence, keep thoughts off self and on Jesus, and trust that Jesus in His holy place gives the same help to high and low, rich and poor, bidding ten thousand times ten thousand angels work for even the weakest trusting saint. Disunity in this joined body grieves Christ and misrepresents truth to unbelievers, so each member is to examine whether he belongs to the body.
As members of the body believers possess precious privileges as God's children, including the precious freedom of the liberty of God's children to act out grace bestowed, which should not be questioned or underestimated and which no president may dictate or control. Those entrusted with sacred responsibilities must daily subordinate will to Christ and show His meekness, wisdom, and lowliness so members are left free to understand and exercise these privileges. By studying the Word old and young alike receive blessing and hope and are taught how to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Membership shares in the divine nature and therefore calls for purity, chastity, and holiness, making worldly glory contemptible beside the unseen glory within. It also carries responsibility for one another's interests through hospitality and practical help that foster love and unity.
Oppressing, censuring, abusing, and severing souls wounds the body, leaving it as it were bleeding from harsh, forcing, driving movements. True work for others must be done in Christ's Spirit and conformed to His pattern, with heart in connection with God, order preserved without demanding too much too fast, and with forbearance, candor, consideration, courteousness, meekness, and piety in words, conduct, family life, and daily management rather than censure, reproach, and harsh measures. Membership is proved by attitude toward fellow laborers together with God and toward fellow men, even God's delegated servants. Allowing personal fancies, likes, and dislikes to shape conduct toward them violates what membership requires, and because of that wrong attitude God withholds many blessings He longs to bestow. Those to be benefited, won, and reformed are Christ's little ones and members of His body, so work for them must leave self-absorption and self-centered thought and talk, be done with kindness in thought, word, and deed, with heavenly attributes cultivated, with Christlikeness and tact born of kindness, sympathy, and love, and the worker must first reform his own defective manners before seeking others' reformation.
A converted slave becomes a member of the body and must therefore be loved and treated as a brother, sharing with his master the blessings of God and privileges of the gospel, for all are made one, washed in the same blood and made alive by the same Spirit. Belonging to one body and complete only in Him, His people are lifted from sin's degradation to a place in heavenly courts as laborers together with God, which grounds the call to develop and support workers from their own communities. Workers together in the printing office are the body and need Christ's Spirit circulating through the institution as blood circulates through the body. This requires true conversion of heart, mind, and spirit with no half-way work and crucifixion of self, and when united repentance and conversion bring the full Pentecost experience Christ and angels will co-operate in daily labor, with workers studying and practicing the character of Matthew 5:3-11 and the principles of Matthew 7.
It is not safe to work on independent lines or to be left alone, for believers are all parts of one great whole calling for unity of purpose and action. For brethren beginning conference work this means humbling hearts before the Lord and building on the solid Rock, while in Greater New York many workers doing many different kinds of work, some great and some small, must all unite to make a perfect whole. Efficiency of the Lord's work depends on stewards of His means being true and not robbing God, with assurance of His help when true. Being a member means receiving an entrusted work of blessing and comforting those of like precious faith, looking up and believing in Jesus, being a light by example, and responding to His life given to save with cheerful service. Those who have taken hold of truth must be in union with the body by doing all God requires without shrinking or unwillingness, especially possessors carrying on the purifying process in the heart, getting possessions upon the altar, imparting substance freely to aid truth, letting love of truth predominate over love of riches, and thereby securing heavenly treasure as earthly things decrease in value and lose attraction.
Each believer is set in a particular place with his own machine to work, and must stay by his own work and diligently and faithfully do it correctly, and then the larger machinery works beautifully with every revolution exact and harmonious. Leaving appointed work to watch and correct the great wheel puts one out of place, fails to move the load, hinders others, and makes disagreeable noise and jarring that disturbs far beyond the local church. Those who leave their place think wisdom and zeal require rearranging and correcting the whole to save the church from going to pieces, but they make things worse, and what is needed is to fall back into place and draw in unison with the rest. There is no more reason for strife about who shall be greatest than for strife among bodily members about which is greatest, and there is to be no division or contention. All have one common interest to cooperate with Christ in restoring the moral image of God in man, each working out his own salvation and that of family and associates, discharging God-given duty according to daily gained knowledge in righteousness, faithfully trading upon talents and endowments through the sanctified influence of the Holy Spirit as Christ's purchased property by creation and redemption. Highest usefulness lies not in possession of talents but in faithful use in blessing others and saving souls, and those recorded as unfaithful servants will find no place in the redeemed family.
The church as Christ's living body with parts joined in shared life is to send a vitalizing, healthful influence to the branches of its work, and when morally and spiritually sick its harmful influence spreads and its sickness appears throughout. Its members and lines of work are connected, so no worker should treat knowledge or ability received from God as exclusively his own but should share it for the good of the whole. Each person's actions should be prayerfully considered in light of effect on the whole, with distinct parts working in harmony as one body. Each member has individual work that no one else can stand in his place to do, so no one may make a groove for brethren to move in and no minister can embrace the whole work or dictate how every other one shall labor. Each must be constantly learning and advancing and receive help through any channel God may send, while those with more experience teach the less experienced by taking them by their side, educating them, bearing patiently with them, never closing hearts by sharp words and unkind criticism, but letting God's love rule and be communicated to associates. The reference to human bodies also applies in urging medical students to seek an experienced physician's instruction rather than take responsibility beyond ability.
No one with his gift alone can carry the work to perfection, for different gifts and agencies are essential to build it strong, proportional, and complete under the Lord's direction. Each has a God-given work and appropriate position, and harmonious cooperation supplies what is lacking in another who alone would think himself a complete whole. No teacher, physician, or minister can ever be a complete whole by himself, for God ordained association in service so varied talents of many minds are blended. Contact of mind with mind quickens thought and increases capability, and deficiencies of one are made up by special gifts of another. This balance checks exaggerated action by the careful and harmful delay by the slow to conclude, and requires encouraging and educating members to work and bear responsibilities, which lifts burdens from ministers and adds years to the cooperating worker's life. When physicians and teachers thus unite in imparting knowledge, youth receive symmetrical, well-balanced education for service, requiring gentlemanly Christian courtesy, growing refinement, overlooking little differences on questions of no vital consequence, denying self and yielding personal opinions on minor matters, speaking plainly and firmly when needed but with Christlike kindness giving no offense, and managers of nearby institutions uniting forces unselfishly and untiringly for mutual upbuilding with far-reaching good.
As members of one body, branches of one root, brothers and sisters of one family united by truth in Jesus, mutual responsibility and natural obligations bind believers together. This requires putting away lying and speaking truth with one another, and preserving friendship true and untainted without partiality and without hypocrisy. Pure love is not impulse or spasmodic feeling but a divine principle and permanent power drawn fresh from love flowing from God's heart, quickening and sustaining by the Holy Spirit to bind heart to heart, to love God supremely and one another truly, sincerely, unaffectedly, and fervently with pure hearts. Sanctified talents with mutual confidence and influence must be exercised for mutual benefit, always tending to good and not to evil, hurt, or injury. As members they receive from Christ the living Head the abilities, light, and strength needed to bless the world, and the church is organized so members can carry out work together with understanding and take missionary responsibilities seriously.
The relation between Christ and His church is very close and sacred, He the Head and the church the body, so connection with Christ involves connection with His church. The church is organized for service, and in a life of service connection with the church is one of the first steps. Loyalty to Christ demands faithful performance of church duties as an important part of training, and in a church imbued with the Master's life this leads directly to effort for the world without. The obligation of church relationship needs to be made plain to youth awakened to Christ's claims.