The Body of Christ

One of the tragic losses for someone who claims the Name of Christ but who willfully doesn’t go to church is the loss of community in the Body of Christ. I get it that church life can be messy — it’s been that way since the beginning! 

• Ananias and Sapphire in Acts 5 apparently wanted to be recognized as Barnabas was (Acts 4:36-37) for selling a field and giving the finances to the church. They lied about the amount and swift judgment came upon them. Note, they didn’t die because they didn’t give the whole amount of the sale of the land — they died because they lied saying they had given the full amount when they actually didn’t.

• Acts 6 records the church growing so much, by conversion growth, that Greek-heritage Jews complained that their widows were not being cared for by the Disciples as well as the Hebrew-heritage Jewish widows. Eventually, this challenge became so great, it was addressed and the Disciples focused their attention on prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4) while appointing seven Christ-following men to “wait on tables” and distribute food daily to those in need.

• The Apostle Paul wrote to two women, Euodia and Syntyche, in Philippians 4:2-3 to deal with them figuring their differences out. Interestingly, these two were known to the Philippian church as Paul identifies them as “women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel….” I’ve never met a woman named Euodia or Syntyche as they are seemingly bad examples in the New Testament rather than good. I have met women named Mary (Matthew 1:18), Priscilla (Acts 18:2), and Dorcas (Acts 9:36-ff), just to name a few, who were good examples in the New Testament.

Many more “messy” examples could be listed from the pages of the New Testament that show us regular and highly-esteemed Christ followers (Paul & Barnabas splitting up over John Mark, Acts 15:36-41) experiencing conflict. I am thankful the Bible gives us principles for dealing with conflict (Matthew 18; Ephesians 4:26; etc.) and for those folks who have learned to be peacemakers. I do, however, feel bad for those who have either been “hurt by the church” or have hurt folks in the church when one of the outcomes is a loss of experiencing the community spoken of in the New Testament that Christ-followers can experience. 

I say all this because Lori and I have been on the receiving end of the beauty of the Christian community over these past couple of months in a deeper way than we have ever experienced before. I’ve already written previously of our recently begun journey regarding my cancer diagnosis on December 23, 2024. I want to thank each one of you who has prayed for us because we believe the Lord has answered, in a miraculous way, changing the look of my left arm starting from the day we asked for prayer all the way through a meeting with the oncologist and today! One person prayed, “Lord, would you please confound the doctors….” Indeed the oncologist was confounded when we met on January 23, 2025, so much so, that he said he wanted to wait till February 26, 2025, to see me again and figure out a plan of attack. While not out of the woods completely, as there is a new growth, M U C H healing has taken place.

If you have stuck with me in this column, to this point, please hear me clearly with these final two thoughts:

• First, there really is nothing like the Body of Christ when it is mobilized to action. Whole nations have changed when the Body of Christ is engaged. People’s lives are changed when the Body of Christ rises up! 

• Second, the Lord is able to use any and all circumstances (Romans 8:28) for His Glory whether or not the situation goes the way we, in our humanity, want it to go. I have been reminded in my spirit, many times, that the same God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who was with me last October, was with me December 23rd and is today! His presence is not determined by my circumstance — or yours! 

Whether things are going well right now for you, or things are challenging right now for you, my prayer for you and I, is that we would see the love of God in our lives regardless of our circumstances and that we would lean into Him, trust Him more fully and above all love Him more deeply!

~ Jonathan