The Body of Christ

Experience is hard to contradict. But our experience of the church can lead us into error - we must get our ideas of church from the Bible not from personal experience. In Ephesians 4 it is described as a body, working together under the headship of Christ. That calls for mutual love and cooperation in place of the rivalry too often seen. That one body has the one life - the Spirit of Christ', the one hope - of resurrection glory, one Lord so we are all under the same orders, one faith to believe and practise, one baptism so we are united to one another as well as to Christ, one God and Father of all. That one-ness is not uniformity; there is a diversity of gifts and these are all to be used for mutual benefit thus building up the body. That process involves growing up into Christ, in faith and obedience, so that eventually the body will be like him, a fit Bride for the son of God.