Many, but one. Romans 12:4-5 I noticed in my journey through Romans, the believers in Rome would have been made conscious of something that had not been understood before. All believers in Christ no matter where they are or of what background or culture they may be, are members of the Body of Christ. Believers are a part of “one body.” This is not merely companionship, but a partnership that includes financial, practical and spiritual responsibility to each other. We need and compliment one another in the body of Christ.
This great multitude of believers from the day of Pentecost until the Rapture of the Church, compose one corporate body. This is not like a body, but it is the Body of Christ in its character. Every saved person is part of this Body like the members of our physical bodies are part of a unity that makes our body. Body parts scattered around would not be a body. They have to be unified - joined together - and each part is guided and controlled by the head. Each one in the Body of Christ has a work to do and a role to fulfill under the direction of the Head, who is Christ.
In this plea for cooperation, the unity of the Body is in contrast with one who has estimated himself way above what he ought to. Each member has a different work, and yet each is a member of all other members. We are "members of one another." The Church which is the Body of Christ is illustrated by the marriage of a man and a woman. Christ and the Church form a unified entity, the same as a husband and wife form a marriage. Each believer is a member of Christ and of one another, so when as a unified group of individual parts, they make up the Body of Christ - the Church.
The local fellowship of believers is not called "the Body of Christ" but is composed of those who are in the Body. The local assembly is called "the house of God," so when we read those words as they relate to the people of God, it has the fellowship of the saints in a local area as the focus of the teaching. Each one in the "house of God" is already in the "Body of Christ" when they have been "baptized by one Spirit into one Body."
The members in the Body have been placed there by the Holy Spirit. When one comes into the fellowship of an assembly, it is supposed that person is a believer. In the "house of God" there is failure and departure. In the "Body of Christ" there is genuine life and each member of that Body is there permanently. The fellowship of believers may be broken; therefore, we are not called "members" in the house of God. Some are vessels of honor and others of dishonor in the "house of God," the assembly of believers.
Perhaps the saints in the assembly at Rome were able to see their link with both Jews and Gentiles all over the world and would be able to understand what their own gathered company was a part of. A small assembly may feel themselves of little value until they can understand that each one is part of a great corporate body. The local gatherings are to strengthen and nurture those faithful believers. Romans 12:5 “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one, members one of another.” Members, yet one. I am not a free-lance. That is not what God intended when he made the body. In its infancy there wasn’t a lot to see. A group of people waiting, praying and wondering what would happen next. But they were there with brothers and sisters who had heard the same word, “Tarry…until ye be endued with power from on high.” They did what their Lord had said. They weren’t leaving. They didn’t try to sneak away without others seeing; they were waiting just like a child waiting to be born.
The parts were there ready to function openly, but until the Holy Spirit came who would make the body function right, they waited and prayed. 120 is not a small number to settle into the quietness of waiting. Did they get on each other’s nerves during those ten days or did they even then, begin to work in harmony and unison like a body? However, the days passed, they were all there with one accord when the Holy Spirit came and manifested Himself. The suddenness of it must’ve startled them but they were ready, the body though small, was together. Each one of them saw the fire, each one experienced the fire, each one of them was filled with the Holy Spirit, each one of them began to speak appropriately as the Spirit gave them utterance. The many were one – one body. And that body worked harmoniously and in power.
We are not able to function as a body alone. The body is much larger now but it is still one body. The number of members in the body has expanded, multiplied thousands of times, but we are still members one of another. I cannot be nor do what God intends unless I am where He has placed me, doing what He has gifted me, linked closely with the other members so that the body works right. The minister waits on his ministry; the teacher on his teaching; the exhorter on his exhortation; the giver keeping it simple; the ruler watching carefully; the caregiver with a happy face. When all work together in the body, it works right because that is the way it is when we are “in Christ.”
Among us and then all around them, the word was out. “God showed up in fire” on the day of Pentecost, and when He lit the fire in the body it came alive. It is still is alive and well: not perfect but well. True unity is always spiritually based so that when there is one accord, one mind and one heart, there is power that changes lives.