Introduction
The most famous metaphor for church is ‘the Body of Christ’. The
church as the body of Christ is familiar picture in the NT. Paul used this
phrase in his Epistles like Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians and Colossians. The
concept of church as the body of Christ is the message of all time and
therefore, author is trying to deal with the brief Definition of the church and
its understandings and Body of Christ with its meanings, nature and
understandings of the Pauline epistles and various viewpoints and issues.
- Definition of the church
The Greek word used for Church is ‘ekklesia’, and Paul used ekklesia in his epistles. The term
ekklesia is derived from the Old Testament, where the people of Israel were the ‘qahal Yahweh’ (e.g. Num.16:3, 20:4; Deut.23: 1, 8:8) or ‘qahal Israel Israel
- Understandings about the Church
There is a traditional understanding of the Church which
can be understood in two different aspects that is visible church and invisible
church.
2.1.
Visibility of the church
The visible church can be said as the physical or seen
institution or the organization. The visible is the church which consists of
all who are enrolled as church members. It is not difficult to determine who
they are, for their names appear on the registers of churches. There can be
born again church members but at the same time can be nominal Christians. With
little effort an accurate count of them can be made. The membership of the
visible church coincides with that of the invisible church. (Kuiper, 26)
2.2.
Invisibility of the church
The invisible church is the church which is a spiritual
church which cannot be seen by our naked eyes. This church consists exclusively
of those who by grace of the Holy Spirit have been born again or it consists of
solely of regenerated persons. Together the members of the invisible church
constitute the Body of Christ. (Kuiper, 27-28)
- Body of Christ
3.1. Meaning of Body of
Christ
Paul has given something more
than the sum of the believers in one place. He is speaking of an ‘Organic Unity’, in which Christians not
only belong to the Christ and to one another within their body, they also bide
in Christ and find life in Christ. (Watson, 96) The Greek word used for the
Body of Christ is ‘to soma tou christou’.
The equivalent expression includes ‘the body of the Lord’, ‘his body of flesh’,
and ‘his glorious body’. (Hawthorne
3.2. Nature of Body of
Christ
The body of Christ concept is plainly not used
allegorically in I Corinthians 12, for instance, different parts of the body do
not represent different individuals or sections of the Corinthian church. The Phrase
‘body of Christ’ is used realistically, ontologically and metaphorically or
symbolically or analogically. Most of the scholars like Schweitzer have a
realistic understanding by consider the concept as the corporeal union with the
risen Christ. J.A.T. Robinson, for whom the church is identified as literally
the resurrected body of Christ, these understanding ignores Paul’s careful
distinction between Christ’s resurrection and the believer’s resurrection in
future. Therefore, the protestant interpretation of the Body concept is
Metaphysical not literally and biologically or mystically. (Hawthorne
3.3. Understandings in the
Pauline Epistles
Two stages can be
distinguished in Paul’s use of the body conception reference to the church. It
is used as the simile in I Corinthians and Romans (Church like a body of
Christ) and as a metaphor in Colossians and Ephesians (Church as the body which
Christ as the Head).
3.3.1. Romans and
Corinthians
In Romans 12:3 believers are admonished that everyone is
to know his own place in the church as a whole, and this is elucidated with the
figure of the body in which have many members and in which does not have the
same function. In moving little more further the body mentioned in I Cor. 12:14
is to the same effect. There too is the question of one body and the function
is different. The true nature of the body is expounded in its unity and
diversity in the Corinthians and the Romans with continuous indirect
application to the church. In these books it is beyond the mutual understanding
of the unity and diversity of the church that is elucidated and commanded under
the figure human body; throw necessary light on the mutual cooperation within a
specific community. Paul, by saying church as the body of Christ he meant the
‘belonging to Christ’. (Ridderbos,
369-370)
In Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12, it is said that body
has many members but all the members do not have same functioning, so also
believers are one body in Christ but individually member one of another. Paul
is saying here that church is not the body of Christ in its existence as
community but precisely from Christ and from the bond that joins the church to
him. In other words Paul in the epistle of Romans and Corinthians is trying to
say that,
·
The designation of the church
as the body of Christ does not intend in the first place to qualify its mutual
unity and diversity, but to denote its unity in and with Christ.
·
This unity of the church with
Christ thus qualifies has its real ground neither in the spiritual indwelling
of Christ in church, nor in the thought that the Spirit constitutes the
communion between Christ and the church, but in the church belonging to Christ
in the redemptive-historical sense, in the inclusion of ‘the many in the one’.
·
In virtue of this common
belonging to and inclusion of the many in Christ, individual believers are
qualified as members of Christ and the church as his body. Church is related to the communion with the
blood and body of Christ exercised in the Lord’s Supper. Therefore, the concept Church
·
This communion and the unity of
Christ is represented by the
sacraments like Baptism and the
Lord’s supper and so church as the Body
pf Christ can be revealed only in virtue of the gift of the Holy Spirit given
by him to his body. (Ridderbos, 375-376)
3.3.2. Ephesians and
Colossians
In Ephesians and Colossians there is an advance in Paul’s thought,
involving the setting forth of the relationship which the church, as the body
of Christ, bears to Christ as head of the body (Eph. 5:22-33). The church as
the body of Christ occupies a highly significant role in the purposes of God. This
brought out particularly in Ephesians 1:23 where it is asserted that Christ’s
rule over all things are for, or on behalf of, church, at Ephesians 3:10 where
it is stated that through the church the wisdom of God is made known even to
the cosmic powers. The headship of the Christ over the church is presented in
terms of an organic relationship in which he exercise control over His people
as the head of the body exercises the control over its various parts. The
living relationship between the members is kept in view, while the dependence
of the members on Christ for life and power, as well as his supremacy, is
reiterated. The element of the body’s growth is made plain in Colossians 2:19
and even more so in Ephesians. Its upbuilding is mentioned in the context of
unity in diversity; such a growth derives from Christ and leads to Christ as
members are rightly related to him as the head and to one another (Eph. 4:1-16).
The church as the body of Christ is described in Christ fullness. In one sense
it is complete, for it is already a body just as there is already a Lord (Eph.
4:4-6). On the other hand it grows and will be completed on the final day. The
body thus partakes of the tensions regularly seen in the NT between the
‘already’ and ‘not yet’ between what it is and what it will be. The body of
Christ is a present reality and yet it is an eschatological, that is, future,
entity. (Hawthorne
- Various viewpoints and Issues
The qualification of the church as the body of Christ is
a denotation of the special, close relationship and communion that exist
between the Christ and His church. Some have been of the opinion that church as
the body of Christ is of the relationship of believers to one another. When
Paul in his letters mentions about the church as the body of Christ took the
figure from the Greek world, as the communal in the state and the society was
spoken of under the figure of the body (Watson, 96). However, most of the
scholars in the opinion that Paul’s meaning is by the concept ‘Body of Christ’
but it qualifies not only the fellowship of believers, but primarily the nature
of the fellowship between the church and Christ himself. There are two senses
given to the Body of Christ that is the metaphysical-collective sense and the
real personal sense. (Richards, 81-82)
4.1.
Metaphysical sense
The qualification of the body of Christ is a figurative
representation of the vital communion of the church with Christ. There are two
different interpretations of the figurative view of body. They are as follows.
In the first interpretation, it is characteristic of the
protestant traditional conception that body of Christ is here exclusively
understood of the pneumatic mode of existence of the church on the ground of
its communion with the exalted Christ. It is the spirit who constitutes this
communion. The church is the body of Christ as the fellowship in which he
dwells by his spirit and which he by his spirit enlivens and fills. In this
context the body of Christ is accordingly often spoken of as the invisible
church and mystical union between Christ and the church. (Ridderbos, 363)
In the second interpretation Roman Catholic tradition is
considered. In Roman Catholic tradition, Church as the body of Christ is not
thought pneumatically but as the fruit of the union of the church with the
divine- human nature of the Christ. According to the Roman Catholic
understanding, church receives in the Eucharist a share of as the Body of the
Lord. The church indeed united with the body of God is understood in the
literal sense for e.g. in the Eucharist. (Ridderbos, 364)
Therefore, we cannot say that these two interpretations
are fundamentally different interpretation of the terminology of the ‘Body’.
For both interpretation are significantly collective as a designation of the
organic whole of the believers in their union with Christ but the difference
lies in the manner in which the nature of the union is understood.
4.2.
Real Personal Sense
In real personal sense are something which is developed
in the 1967 and again there are many interpretations, and they are as follows.
Some of the church as the body of Christ is the
expression of the Body of Christ on the analogy of anthropology understood in a
dichotomistic sense. The church is the Body of Christ because Christ constitutes
it by his Spirit and enlivens it by his indwelling. This is a representation of
the relationship of Body and soul. And this opinion is entirely foreign to the
Paul. There is also an another interpretation that Church as the body of Christ
that as church takes the Eucharist the Christian community feeds on this body
and blood (that is on the basis when Jesus says, “this is my body…..my blood,” he
said thereby transmit himself that is his actual self, his life and
personality), becomes the very life and personality of the risen Lord. In a way
to substantiate the point’s theologians are in view that Saul met the body of
the Christ (i.e. the whole Christian community) on the road of Damascus
Evaluation
The unity of the church was the problem of the first century
churches like Corinth , Rome ,
Ephesus and Colossi and by the concept Church
Conclusion
Watson States that church as the body of
Christ is to be in subjection to the Head, experience unity with the Head, Work
in glad service for the Head, and Take Direction from The Head. (Watson, 98)
Therefore, author wants to conclude church as the body of Christ made the
audience of the Paul easy to understand and the issue on which Paul discusses
about the concept of the Body of Christ is very much relevant issue even in the
21st century church. So, the description of Watson about the body of
Christ should be made practice in the church.
Reference List
Schreiner, Thomas
R., 2005, ‘Paul- Apostle of God’s Glory
in Christ’, Secunderabad: OM books.
Stedman, C. Ray,
1972, ‘Body Life’, USA
MacArthur, John
Jr., 1973, ‘The Church’, Michigan
Richards, Lawrence O., 1972, ‘A
new Face for the church’, Michigan
Ridderbos, Herman,
1975, ‘Paul- An outline of His theology’,
Michigan
Kuiper, R. B.,
1967, ‘The Glorious Body of Christ’ London
Hawthorne, Gerald
F., Ralph P. Martin. Daniel G. Reid, 1993, ‘Dictionary
of Paul and His Letters’, England
Watson, David,
1978, ‘I believe in the Church’, Michigan
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