THERE IS ONE BODY
By Segun Ajayi
“So we, being many, are one body in Christ and every one member of one another” (Romans 12:5)
The passion in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ when He was here on earth was to have a body of believers that will be one. No wonder when He was praying in John 17, He spent sometime praying for the church; He prayed that we will be one as He and His father is one (John 17:11, 17). He desired that the church will be one in Him so that the world may believe the Father has sent Him. He also gave the church His glory so that the body will be one in Him (John 17:23). The Lord Jesus Christ though He has departed from here in the physical, is still working through the lives of men and women revealing His love and grace to them with the intention of making a body of believers that will be one with Him and His Father. This is the same body that Christ is coming to take to heaven with Him.
The body of believers has grown so large now that what started in Jerusalem in a small upper room has transformed into a great number of people in every nation of the world. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has spread through all borders, not hindered by languages and cultures. Praise the Lord. The more the body is growing, the more it looks as if we need to divide further into smaller groups, denominations and entities. The body has become so large and we have the situation as was recorded in 1Cor. 1:12; some said, we belong to Paul, and others say we belong to Apollos, Cephas, A or Z. Few consider that we belong to Christ.
We should again ask ourselves the question, is Christ divided? Was Paul or Apollos or Cephas or A or Z crucified for us? Were we baptised in the name of any of these people we claim we belong to? Were we not all baptised in the name of Jesus Christ and into His body?
Apostle Paul spent quite some time on the issue of this division in the Epistles.
Christ did not come for just a group of people; He came to shed His blood for the whole world. He is the Lord of the whole body of believers. So why do we see each other as separate?
I have been privileged to visit quite a number of gatherings of believers and part of the things that caught my attention is that whenever we meet someone else from another denomination, we always find it difficult to receive each other as brothers and sisters in the same body of Christ. Though we all claim to believe the same Jesus Christ, we find it so difficult to share with each other. However, a group of believers in the Northern part of Nigeria surprised me, they received my family with gladness and enthusiasm that I could not hesitate to tell them that I feel at home in their midst. In fact it was the way I was received by this congregation that fuelled the burden I have carried for months about this article you are now reading. May the Lord reward this people and make that spirit to spread in the body; so that when we see each other we will have fellowship with one another as members of one body.
It ought not to be associations or meetings that should bring us together, it should be the oneness of the faith we share and the body we belong to.
A lot of people have asked us questions about the ministry we operate and the name ‘The Link Ministries’ and they tend to believe that we came together to associate or link brethren together. This is not so. We have a mandate to preach the total gospel and tell everyone that cares to listen about Jesus Christ, who is the one that links us together. He is The Link. We also believe that irrespective of our being many and diverse, we can share the message of the Kingdom and bring out the best in us to prepare the whole body for the imminent return of the coming King, Jesus Christ.
As we earnestly wait for His return, we will like to emphasize on what God’s expectation is regarding the body that Christ came to die for. The Lord will bind this body together in one hope, one love and one spirit in Jesus name.
WHY ARE WE ONE BODY?
1. The Lord Jesus Christ died for all.
“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you, the gospel which I presented unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
For I declare unto you first of all that which I have received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” 1Cor 15:1, 3.
The death of Christ and the blood that He shed was what brought us remission of sins. If He had not died, then we will all still be in our sins, and we cannot claim that we are anything. Though we are in different places, having different cultures, languages and leaders, we are all who we are now are as a result of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ Jesus came for everyone, to set us free from the yoke of bondage to sin so that we can all be free to serve God together in a newness of life.
2. We belong to the same Father
“For we are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ” Gal. 3:26.
“Go unto my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, to my God and your God.” John 20:17.
The whole body of believers has been born unto God as a result of faith in Jesus Christ; we therefore belong to the same Father with Him. Time and space will not permit me to give several references in the scripture where it is clearly written that we all have the same Father. We all belong to same parenthood with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are all part of God’s family and related together by the same blood. We are so to say ‘bloody’ brothers and sisters; why do we need to separate each other? The Lord will work on us. (See Ephesians 4:6)
3. We Are All of the Same Faith
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord,one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4: 4-5)
The faith that brought us salvation is the faith in Jesus Christ: His sacrifice for the remission of sin, the forgiveness of sins and justification of the ungodly by faith. This brought us grace and we are received into God’s family. The faith we are referring to is what was delivered to the early saints and passed to us. The same gospel was preached to the bond and the free, Jews and Gentiles and as many as believe become one in Jesus Christ. Wonderful!
I will say also that two children born of the same parents and believe in the same things are usually different in the way they sometimes do things. However, we are made one as a result of what brought us together, faith in Jesus Christ. When we see a fellow believer in Jesus Christ, we should receive him because we are all joined in the same faith that brought us salvation.
4. We are all baptised into one Body
“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:13
When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and we believe the work of grace He accomplished for us, we are all baptized into one body in Christ. None of us was baptised into our denominations, nor were we baptised in the name of our leaders; except if it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ we believe. We were baptized into the body of Christ in the name of Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ is working through the one body, to demonstrate His gifts and power everywhere, in different pavilions, buildings, locations and through different ministries. The Holy Spirit is also working in us to ensure the body is brought to perfection and perfectly fitted together and compacted. Every member of this body is jointly supplying what is required to edify and cause an increase in the body and kingdom of Christ. (See Ephesians 4:16).
The Lord is working in His church with diverse gifts and signs to confirm His word. The signs and diverse demonstrations of God’s gift in our midst ought to bring us together and work with each other rather than separating us. May the Lord build us up together in Jesus Name.
WHAT WE SHOULD ROOT OUT
Root out all:
1. Envy and Rivalry
Let us remove all envy. We sometimes envy each other and the gifts of God upon our lives. As the scripture indicated, envy is a work of the flesh. We should be men and women that will mortify the deeds of the flesh. Where envy is, there will be evil speaking, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour and rivalry. Where such exist we cannot work together and we will hinder the free flow of the move of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
2. Remove the Pride of Life
Whenever we allow the pride of life, it shows that we do not have the love God fully at work in us (see 1John 2:5). We begin to compare ourselves with the people and standards of the world. We tend to glory in position and fight each other to get to the top and vaunt ourselves.
The devil brings men and women down easily with pride just like he fell as a result of pride. Leaders watch out! It is so easy to fall when you are at the pinnacle of your ‘man-made’ edifice. At that height everyone around you is seen as not important or as important as you are and hence you do not want to relate with them. Let the love of Christ begin to work in your heart again, to relate with others in the body of Christ; they are all your brethren and we are all going to the same heaven. You must realize that without Christ you cannot be anything and without His body you cannot function to please God.
3. Remove any barrier of doctrines that cannot be substantiated from the word of God.
Beloved, let us now love one another with a fervent heart. The love of God will make you to see Christ in your brother and sister and be able to relate well with each other as members of one body.
Let our song be:
“Let there be love shared among us
Let there be love in our hearts
Let this same love sweep this nation
Cause us oh Lord to arise,
Give us a fresh understanding of brotherly love that is real.
Let there be love shared amongst us,
Let there be love”.
Let us be kind to one another, tender-hearted and forgiving each other.
However, as members of one body, we are sometimes afraid and we are not too sure of who the other person is. Apostle John in 2 John 9-10 admonishes us that anyone that abides in the doctrine of Christ is your brother and sister and such a one should be received and related with as a part of the body of Christ.
We should be able to sing at our gatherings once again:
“I don’t care which church you belong to,
But as long as in Jesus you stand,
By grace through faith you have been saved,
You are my brother, so give me your hand”.
Back to the Top
By Segun Ajayi
“So we, being many, are one body in Christ and every one member of one another” (Romans 12:5)
The passion in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ when He was here on earth was to have a body of believers that will be one. No wonder when He was praying in John 17, He spent sometime praying for the church; He prayed that we will be one as He and His father is one (John 17:11, 17). He desired that the church will be one in Him so that the world may believe the Father has sent Him. He also gave the church His glory so that the body will be one in Him (John 17:23). The Lord Jesus Christ though He has departed from here in the physical, is still working through the lives of men and women revealing His love and grace to them with the intention of making a body of believers that will be one with Him and His Father. This is the same body that Christ is coming to take to heaven with Him.
The body of believers has grown so large now that what started in Jerusalem in a small upper room has transformed into a great number of people in every nation of the world. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has spread through all borders, not hindered by languages and cultures. Praise the Lord. The more the body is growing, the more it looks as if we need to divide further into smaller groups, denominations and entities. The body has become so large and we have the situation as was recorded in 1Cor. 1:12; some said, we belong to Paul, and others say we belong to Apollos, Cephas, A or Z. Few consider that we belong to Christ.
We should again ask ourselves the question, is Christ divided? Was Paul or Apollos or Cephas or A or Z crucified for us? Were we baptised in the name of any of these people we claim we belong to? Were we not all baptised in the name of Jesus Christ and into His body?
Apostle Paul spent quite some time on the issue of this division in the Epistles.
Christ did not come for just a group of people; He came to shed His blood for the whole world. He is the Lord of the whole body of believers. So why do we see each other as separate?
I have been privileged to visit quite a number of gatherings of believers and part of the things that caught my attention is that whenever we meet someone else from another denomination, we always find it difficult to receive each other as brothers and sisters in the same body of Christ. Though we all claim to believe the same Jesus Christ, we find it so difficult to share with each other. However, a group of believers in the Northern part of Nigeria surprised me, they received my family with gladness and enthusiasm that I could not hesitate to tell them that I feel at home in their midst. In fact it was the way I was received by this congregation that fuelled the burden I have carried for months about this article you are now reading. May the Lord reward this people and make that spirit to spread in the body; so that when we see each other we will have fellowship with one another as members of one body.
It ought not to be associations or meetings that should bring us together, it should be the oneness of the faith we share and the body we belong to.
A lot of people have asked us questions about the ministry we operate and the name ‘The Link Ministries’ and they tend to believe that we came together to associate or link brethren together. This is not so. We have a mandate to preach the total gospel and tell everyone that cares to listen about Jesus Christ, who is the one that links us together. He is The Link. We also believe that irrespective of our being many and diverse, we can share the message of the Kingdom and bring out the best in us to prepare the whole body for the imminent return of the coming King, Jesus Christ.
As we earnestly wait for His return, we will like to emphasize on what God’s expectation is regarding the body that Christ came to die for. The Lord will bind this body together in one hope, one love and one spirit in Jesus name.
WHY ARE WE ONE BODY?
1. The Lord Jesus Christ died for all.
“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you, the gospel which I presented unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
For I declare unto you first of all that which I have received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” 1Cor 15:1, 3.
The death of Christ and the blood that He shed was what brought us remission of sins. If He had not died, then we will all still be in our sins, and we cannot claim that we are anything. Though we are in different places, having different cultures, languages and leaders, we are all who we are now are as a result of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ Jesus came for everyone, to set us free from the yoke of bondage to sin so that we can all be free to serve God together in a newness of life.
2. We belong to the same Father
“For we are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ” Gal. 3:26.
“Go unto my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, to my God and your God.” John 20:17.
The whole body of believers has been born unto God as a result of faith in Jesus Christ; we therefore belong to the same Father with Him. Time and space will not permit me to give several references in the scripture where it is clearly written that we all have the same Father. We all belong to same parenthood with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are all part of God’s family and related together by the same blood. We are so to say ‘bloody’ brothers and sisters; why do we need to separate each other? The Lord will work on us. (See Ephesians 4:6)
3. We Are All of the Same Faith
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord,one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4: 4-5)
The faith that brought us salvation is the faith in Jesus Christ: His sacrifice for the remission of sin, the forgiveness of sins and justification of the ungodly by faith. This brought us grace and we are received into God’s family. The faith we are referring to is what was delivered to the early saints and passed to us. The same gospel was preached to the bond and the free, Jews and Gentiles and as many as believe become one in Jesus Christ. Wonderful!
I will say also that two children born of the same parents and believe in the same things are usually different in the way they sometimes do things. However, we are made one as a result of what brought us together, faith in Jesus Christ. When we see a fellow believer in Jesus Christ, we should receive him because we are all joined in the same faith that brought us salvation.
4. We are all baptised into one Body
“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:13
When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and we believe the work of grace He accomplished for us, we are all baptized into one body in Christ. None of us was baptised into our denominations, nor were we baptised in the name of our leaders; except if it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ we believe. We were baptized into the body of Christ in the name of Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ is working through the one body, to demonstrate His gifts and power everywhere, in different pavilions, buildings, locations and through different ministries. The Holy Spirit is also working in us to ensure the body is brought to perfection and perfectly fitted together and compacted. Every member of this body is jointly supplying what is required to edify and cause an increase in the body and kingdom of Christ. (See Ephesians 4:16).
The Lord is working in His church with diverse gifts and signs to confirm His word. The signs and diverse demonstrations of God’s gift in our midst ought to bring us together and work with each other rather than separating us. May the Lord build us up together in Jesus Name.
WHAT WE SHOULD ROOT OUT
Root out all:
1. Envy and Rivalry
Let us remove all envy. We sometimes envy each other and the gifts of God upon our lives. As the scripture indicated, envy is a work of the flesh. We should be men and women that will mortify the deeds of the flesh. Where envy is, there will be evil speaking, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour and rivalry. Where such exist we cannot work together and we will hinder the free flow of the move of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
2. Remove the Pride of Life
Whenever we allow the pride of life, it shows that we do not have the love God fully at work in us (see 1John 2:5). We begin to compare ourselves with the people and standards of the world. We tend to glory in position and fight each other to get to the top and vaunt ourselves.
The devil brings men and women down easily with pride just like he fell as a result of pride. Leaders watch out! It is so easy to fall when you are at the pinnacle of your ‘man-made’ edifice. At that height everyone around you is seen as not important or as important as you are and hence you do not want to relate with them. Let the love of Christ begin to work in your heart again, to relate with others in the body of Christ; they are all your brethren and we are all going to the same heaven. You must realize that without Christ you cannot be anything and without His body you cannot function to please God.
3. Remove any barrier of doctrines that cannot be substantiated from the word of God.
Beloved, let us now love one another with a fervent heart. The love of God will make you to see Christ in your brother and sister and be able to relate well with each other as members of one body.
Let our song be:
“Let there be love shared among us
Let there be love in our hearts
Let this same love sweep this nation
Cause us oh Lord to arise,
Give us a fresh understanding of brotherly love that is real.
Let there be love shared amongst us,
Let there be love”.
Let us be kind to one another, tender-hearted and forgiving each other.
However, as members of one body, we are sometimes afraid and we are not too sure of who the other person is. Apostle John in 2 John 9-10 admonishes us that anyone that abides in the doctrine of Christ is your brother and sister and such a one should be received and related with as a part of the body of Christ.
We should be able to sing at our gatherings once again:
“I don’t care which church you belong to,
But as long as in Jesus you stand,
By grace through faith you have been saved,
You are my brother, so give me your hand”.
Back to the Top