To the church in Corinth, Paul wrote, "You are the Body of Christ, and individually members of it" ( 1 Cor.12:27 ). Paul's letter to the Ephesian Christians is centred around the great truth of believers being one Body in Christ. Christ is the Head of the church, and the church is His Body ( Eph. 1:22 , 23 ). Each believer is a member of this Body. We read in Ephesians 4:1-2 "Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, showing tolerance for one another in love." God looks for humility, gentleness and patience. Ephesians 4:2 (LB) says "Make allowances for each other's faults because of your love". No-one in any church is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. So in the church we will have to bear with one another's mistakes. We have to make allowances for each other's mistakes because we love one another. "If you make a mistake I will cover it up. If you leave something undone, I will do it". That's how the Body of Christ is to function. We read in Ephesians 4:3 "Be diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace". Unity is a great theme in many of Paul's letters. And this is the burden the Lord has for His church too. In the Body of Christ, each member is first of all inwardly connected to the Head and then inwardly and inseparably connected to the other members. These members must grow in oneness until their unity is like the unity of the Father and the Son ( Jn.17:21-23 ).

In Ephesians 4:16, Paul speaks of "the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causing the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love". The joints here speak of fellowship. Consider how many joints you have in just one arm. There is a joint at the shoulder, another at the elbow, one at the wrist, and then three in each finger - at least 17. It's the joints that make your arm work freely. If you had a strong upper arm and a strong lower arm, but if your elbow was stiff, what could you do with that arm? Nothing. It is not just strength that makes your arm useful. It is also functioning joints. Consider now the application of this to the Body of Christ. Here is a good brother, a strong upper arm. And here is another good brother, a strong lower arm. But they cannot fellowship together with each other. That is the tragedy in the Body of Christ today. In the human body, this is called arthritis and it is very painful. A lot of local churches have arthritis. When our joints function properly, there is no noise. But when a body has arthritis, it creaks and every movement produces an unhealthy noise. What is called "fellowship" among some believers is exactly like that. It creaks. But when the joints function well, there is no noise at all. Our fellowship with each other must be like that. If it is not like that with you, then you need to take some medicine for arthritis: Die to your "self-life". Then you will be healed and your fellowship with others will be glorious. That is the will of God in the Body of Christ.

In the Old Testament, it was impossible for God's people, the Jews, to become one body. That became possible only after Jesus ascended up to heaven and poured out the Holy Spirit to indwell man. Now, two can become one. In the Old Testament, Israel was a congregation. The nation grew in size, but it was still a congregation. In the New Testament, however, the church is to be a body, not a congregation. If two do not become one, then all that you have there is a congregation. The important thing in Christ's body is not size but unity. And by this standard it becomes difficult to find a 'church' that is not a congregation. Everywhere one finds congregations that are increasing in size - but not in unity. Strife and jealousy and competition are found even at the leadership level. God desires to have an expression of Christ's body in different places all over the world.

In the body of Christ, each person is valued, even if he is not gifted. He is valued because he is a member of the body. In fact, it says that God gives greater honour to the member who lacks gift so that there may be unity in the body ( 1 Cor. 12:24,25 ). In the church, we have to follow God's example and honour even those who have no gift at all, if they are God fearing and humble. In Babylon, the gifted preacher, the gifted singer and the converted astronaut are honoured. But in the church (God's tent), we honour those who fear the Lord ( see Psa. 15:1,4 ). There is a world of difference between Babylon and Jerusalem. Today God calls us to come out of Babylon and build Jerusalem ( Rev. 18:4 ).

If only we could see the Body of Christ, there would be absolutely no room for jealousy. In the human body, the foot has no problem being just a foot. It never desires to be anything other than a foot and it never dreams of becoming a hand. It is quite content to be a foot. It knows that God has made no mistake in making it a foot. It rejoices in being a foot; it rejoices equally in seeing what the hand can accomplish, even though it realizes that it can never accomplish anything similar. So will it be with all who have "seen" the Body of Christ. When you are envious of another, when you cannot rejoice wholeheartedly at seeing another member being greatly used of God, it is obvious that you have not understood this truth at all. Any member who lives in close communion with the Head will rejoice and be glad when another member of the Body is honoured ( 1 Cor. 12:26 ) .

In 1 Sam. 18:1-8, we read of Jonathan entering into a covenant with David. This is a beautiful picture of what the covenant relationship should be like in the body of Christ. It says there that Jonathan's soul was knit to the soul of David. This is our calling in the body of Christ too - to be joined together as ONE, such that there is no gap between us (no gap of misunderstanding, jealousy, suspicion, etc) whereby the enemy can come through and bring a division. It is impossible to enter into such a covenant without dying to self persistently.

There is a God-ordained variety in the Body of Christ. God uses our different temperaments and gifts to present a balanced picture of Christ to the world. You have a distinct and unique ministry in Christ's Body that no-one else can fulfill. And that ministry will never be a balanced one. It will be imbalanced. You'll have to find your balance by working in fellowship with others who have different ministries in the Body. That's the way God keeps us humble - by making us dependent on others. Praise the Lord!

Jesus did not come to give only 10% of His income to the Father. He came to establish a new covenant and to build a new-covenant church. And so He gave 100% to His Father. And now He says to us, "Follow Me." . We must be willing to build the Body of Christ, whatever the cost to us - whether that cost be our money, our honour, our convenience, our physical energy, our reputation, our job, or anything else. There should be no limit to what we are willing to sacrifice for the Lord's sake. We are not to seek our own convenience or our own comfort in anything. Everything we do must be related to building the Body of Christ. Even our earthly occupation must only be a means of earning our living so that we don't become a burden to others in the church for our financial support.