You don’t wash your hands

You have never washed your hands. They wash each other while you watch. I saw a meme that said that and it clarified a spiritual truth for me. Yeah, I’m simple like that, but let me explain.
Those filled with Spirit of God are part of one body. Someone said, “All I need is me and Jesus, and we are a majority.” However, it will never be you and Jesus alone. Being connected to Jesus makes you part of family of God—you belong to other people just as your liver belongs to the same body as your heart (assuming you haven’t donated them already).
If we only have a stadium religion, the members of the body of Christ will atrophy or go dormant. Think of this list: prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, sharing, leading, and showing mercy (Romans 12:6-8). Which one of those body parts are you? A “stadium” church (like a football game where only a few play and many watch) might only use two out of that list.

Finding your place in the Body

What is your function in the body? Try to answer without referring to anything that has to do with the building where your church meets. Organs of your body serve one another. The spleen makes the rest of the body healthier. The lungs give the body oxygen. The blood gets the oxygen and energy to all the various cells. How do you make your brothers and sisters better? How do you serve and bring life to them?
Do you hear from God and share this with some of them? Do you feed and clothe some of them? Do you give them housing? Do you help them with needed tasks in their daily lives? Do you pray draining, exhausting prayers for them? Do you train some of them how to share the gospel with others? Do you teach some how to hear the Master’s voice and share it clearly with others? Do you train others how build a team of disciples and birth a new church? Do you develop some believers in how to watch for the spiritual wellbeing of new believers? Do you train others in how to teach the things of God in an effective way?
Many of those roles came from Ephesians 4:11-16. I read recently that the original word translated as “equipping” (Eph. 4:12 NKJV) was a word used of a doctor setting a bone or equipping it into right alignment with the rest of the body. Too many believers are out of joint. They have a purpose in the body but have never had anyone help get them aligned with the rest of the strengths and functions of the other believers.

No more “all star” religion

Many have looked at passages mentioning roles like apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd-teacher, and thought these were the all-star lineup of the church. Jesus has given these members to His body to equip or set in place other members so they can help each other. Typically, we expect those in the apostle role to start new churches and lead well. We expect prophets to tell us what God says. We expect evangelists to win the lost. And shepherd-teachers are supposed to give Bible lessons, visit the sick, manage the daycare, and speak well at funerals. However, these are the personal trainers and coaches, not the players.
Those in the roles mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 are to equip the saints to do the work of ministry. I will not say my understanding of this passage is perfect, but here’s some general thoughts I have about these roles. The apostle is to teach others how to lead and/or start a new work; everyone needs to learn leadership. The prophet sets other believers in right alignment with the body by teaching us how to hear the true voice of God and how to share that word correctly with those who need to hear it. The evangelist, a word once used for the herald or crier of national news, teaches us how to proclaim the exciting news of Jesus to those who haven’t heard about this change of government on earth. The shepherd-teacher trains us how to look after new believers and not leave them to the wolves, how to instruct them gently, and how to watch out for them in prayer so the wolves do not eat them.
But there are many other roles in the body of Christ. You probably cannot name all the organs in your body right now. There are as many functions in Christ’s body. Typically, if I ask someone what their role in the church is, I’ll hear words like usher, piano player, Sunday School class teacher, and so on. I won’t disparage the level of sacrifice and commitment any of those tasks take. However, we tend to think of our place in the body in terms of what we do in the building. What if we learned to answer the question from the list in I Corinthians 12:7-11 or 12:27-28?

When hands wash hands

Let’s picture church without a building for a moment. The first believers did not have a special building. They met where they lived. What would the Kingdom be like if we brought it back to where we lived rather than a remote location we lock up the rest of the week? I’m not messing with how you “have church” but more wanting to talk about how we “be the body.”
My body does not need my heart to function only on Sundays for 1.5 hours. I need my liver working on Monday as much as on Wednesday night. What if we could be the body 24/7? Do you think that would get church out of the stadium and bring it home to the backyard? I’m not talking about endless preaching, prayer, and special songs. I’m talking about the biblical roles of caring for each other, speaking hope and encouragement, and working healing in bodies, minds, and emotions.
You see, Jesus’s hands (members) wash each other while He watches. Speaking a God-given word of warning to a brother or sister can save him or her from self-made destruction. Encouraging someone whose faith has grown weary as the Lord leads, praying for a brother or sister in danger—these are where the Lord’s hands wash His hands. And He watches and smiles. His body works as His members serve the needs of one another in love.
Imagine your church as a local team that comes together not to watch but where someone gives a word of wisdom to you from the Lord, you speak a message in an unknown tongue and another gives the interpretation of it, someone has a song that uplifts the body and leads us to see Jesus better, another shares something the Lord just opened her eyes to, another teaches for a time, and everyone prays for each other. Is your local church a I Corinthians 14:26 kind of congregation? What can you do to improve on this?

A self-cleansing body

Sometimes, instead of the hands washing the hands, the right and left of the church start hitting one another. There should not be any division in the body but each member should care for the others the same as they do for themselves. Yet, fouls do happen.
I’m sure some very confident person would say, “I don’t need anyone to wash me—Jesus is the one who forgives sins, I go straight to Him.” But what if cleansing one another was also part of the plan? Jesus taught us to pray “forgive US of OUR sins” not just “forgive ME of MY sins.”
Jesus said that if one organ injures another, they need to make things right between themselves (Matthew 18:15). They have to work self-healing. If the one hand refuses to wash the other hand, other members are to be involved to bring cleansing (Matthew 18:16). Eventually, the whole body will get involved if the problem is not solved. Sometimes an organ has to be removed if it has gone mutant or cancerous, attacking other members of the body (Matthew 18:17).

Please share times you have seen the body of Christ functioning best. What have you learned on this topic and what are you hoping to see as we grow up in Jesus with every joint in place?