Body Parts

...because we are members of His body (Eph 5:30).

For years I drove past a business with a very curious sign.  “Roberts Wholesale Body Parts.”  My imagination ran wild every time I road by.  What in the world is inside that place?  I pictured shelves of dismembered arms, hands, legs and feet.  I envisioned boxes of ears, eyes, noses and toeses.  Was Mr. Roberts some sort of a middle man supplying a modern day Dr. Frankenstein?  OK, I’m just a bit twisted.  Most folks probably realized that this business was related to the junk yard across the road.  These body parts were car parts.  But not me.  This mysterious metal building had to be full of body parts.  Right?  Right?!?!

So what in the world does this have to do with Ephesians?  The Apostle Paul reminds us here that as followers of Jesus we’re body parts in the body of Christ.  The Lord pampers and feeds us “because we are members of His body” (v30).  Wait a sec!  Wasn’t man from Tarsus in the middle of telling married men how to love and lead their wives?  Suddenly there’s this dismembered mention of body parts.  It makes perfect sense when we back up and realize that he’s writing about the relationship between Jesus and His bride and how human husbands relate to their wives.  There’s such an intimacy between Christ and His church that they are actually one person and one flesh.   We’re “members of His body” (v30).  We’re body parts.

Paul drops the term “members” (v30) by using the Greek word melos.  This describes a limb, a human body part or generally one part of a larger whole.  Jesus uses it when talking about lopping off or poking out any body part that causes you to sin.  “It is better that you lose one of your members (Gr. melos) than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Mt 5:29-30).  Since we’re body parts in the body of Christ, it’s easy to see how this 

has come to mean one person in a Christian community.  A huge part of the apostle’s point is to realize that I’m not flying solo.  I’m only complete when I’m part of the whole.  I must remember that I’m a member.  

His purpose for reminding the Ephesians that they are body parts is because of the false teaching that’s tearing the body of Christ limb from limb just down the road in Colossae.  A team of spiritual hucksters have duped followers of Jesus into believing a false gospel of self-salvation.  According to these snake oil salesmen, Christ might be able to get you into God’s kingdom but He can’t keep you there.  We need to keep saving ourselves.  And wouldn’t you know it, they have just the list of religious rules to follow so we can do just that (Col 2:16, 18, 21-23).  After setting the Colossians straight, Paul writes to the Ephesians just 100 miles down the road.  He knows that heresy dismembers.  Trying to save myself takes my eyes off of Jesus and everyone else around me.  

I need to remember that I’m not flying solo.  I’m only complete when I’m part of the whole.  I’m complete when I’m part of the body.  His body.  There are no Lone Rangers in the body of Jesus.  Our enemy is licking his satanic chops for one of us to wander off.  He loves to get us alone.  That happens when I try to do it all on my own.  I must remember that I’m a member or I’ll be dismembered.  And Satan just loves to sink his teeth into severed body parts.

We’re not just members of any body.  We’re members of HIS body.  Jesus’ body.  Paul uses the Greek word soma.  It can mean the physical body of humans or animals or a group of people closely united for a single cause.  The apostle tells the folks in Rome that each one of the body parts has a unique role in the church.  “For as in one body (Gr. soma) we have many members (Gr. melos), and the members (Gr. melos) do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body (Gr. soma) in Christ, and individually members (Gr. melos) of one another” (Rom 12:4-5).  And because we’re part of Jesus’ body, we need to be VERY careful what we do.  “Do you not know that your bodies (Gr. soma) are members (Gr. melos) of Christ?  Shall I then take the members (Gr. melos) of Christ and make them members (Gr. melos) of a prostitute?  Never!” (1Cor 6:15).  We’re members of HIS body.  Jesus’ body.

Paul doesn’t say that we WILL be members of the body of Christ.  He clearly says that we ARE members RIGHT NOW.  This is not a pipe dream.  This isn’t something that happens on the other side of eternity.  This is a present reality.  This is right now.  In the words of the great theologian Brent Musburger, “You’re looking LIVE!”  We’re members of Jesus’ body once we place our trust in Him.  

We’re body parts.  Jesus’ body parts.

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