Unity And Diversity In The Body

For we are members of his body.
Ephesians 5:30

Every cell in the human body is alike in some ways to every other. But different cells perform different functions in the body—an analogy C. S. Lewis draws on and applies to your role in the body of Christ.

WALK WITH C. S. LEWIS
“The society into which the Christian is called is not a collective but a body. It is in fact that body of which the family unit is an image on the natural level.

“If anyone came to it with the misconception that the church was a massing together of persons as if they were pennies or chips, he would be corrected at the threshold by the discovery that the Head of this body is utterly unlike its inferior members—they share no divinity with him except by analogy.

“We are summoned at the outset to combine as creatures with our Creator, as mortals with immortal, as redeemed sinners with sinless Redeemer.

“His presence, the interaction between him and us, must always be the overwhelmingly dominant factor in the life we are to lead within the body; and any conception of Christian fellowship which does not mean primarily fellowship with him is out of order.”*

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
You are a cell in the body of Christ—like millions of other Christians.

But are you a

nerve cell (to feel)?

blood cell (to nourish)?

brain cell (to direct)?

muscle cell (to strengthen)?

bone cell (to support)?

Cells are alike, yet each is different. And each is crucial to the effective functioning of the body. The nucleus of all these cells is Christ himself. Without the nucleus, the cell dies. Unity is found only in Christ; diversity of function is vital in his body.

*from transposition and other addresses; used by permission of william collins sons and co., ltd.