Functioning in the Body of Christ
by T. Austin-Sparks
Reading: John 21:18-22; Acts 9:6; Rom. 12:4-11; Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19.
You may have wondered what the passages read were pointing to, bearing upon. In the first place, you will recognise that they indicate that there is a distinctiveness of function in the Body of Christ.
Distinctiveness of Function
That seems to me to be at least implied and indicated, if not laid down, in the rebuke or correction which the Lord administered to Peter. There could be no flippancy about things. Perhaps it would be wrong to charge Peter with flippancy, but after what had just been said to him, that threefold challenge, "Lovest thou Me?", until it got in and it says that Peter was grieved, and then immediately after that, the Lord indicating the nature of the death by which he would glorify God, you would think that there would be no more breath left in the man. He ought to be in a state of collapse, but the fact is, in the presence of all that, he immediately turns round, sees another man in whom he is interested, and exhibits curiosity as to what his end might be and how he would fulfil his course. So the Lord has mildly, but quite definitely, to administer a correction, if not a rebuke: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me". A more perfect translation is, "If I will that he tarry while I am coming, what is that to thee? Be thou all the time following me". By that means the Lord said to Peter in effect, "Each man represents something himself quite distinctly in the purpose of God and each man has got to make sure that he is fulfilling that distinctive function!" The Lord brought Peter back from his more or less general interest in things to the particular thing which was his concern. It was almost as though the Lord said, "Look here, Peter, you mind your own business, that is what you have to do!" He brought him right back there.
And that can lead on to these other passages. Paul on the way to Damascus is told to go into the city and it shall be told him what he shall do, what he must do. I may come to that as we go on, but we are led on to these passages in Ephesians and Colossians where, among other things, there is this point very clearly and strongly indicated: it is each several part working in due measure; it is the due measure of each several part, the joints and the bands by which the Body makes increase.
Now what I am putting my finger upon specifically is this distinctiveness of function in the Body of Christ - a most important thing if there is to be growth in Christ unto that fulness which we have seen, which the Lord has sought to bring into view so continually, that fulness of Christ which is the end toward which He is working; the measure of the fulness of Christ. How is it reached, how is it attained, how are we coming to that full end of God's purpose? Well, among other things, it is along this line, in this way: each several part working in due measure. While there is a right kind of consideration for, and interest in, and concern for all other members, that must not interfere with this. This is your business, this is your personal matter, this is something you have got to take up as a personal thing. Distinctiveness of function... that, in this Body of Christ as in the human body, there are the numerous, almost countless, functioning organs. And the whole body, for its increase, for its strength, for its health, for the fulfilment of its purpose, the attainment of its end, depends upon every one of those countless organs functioning fully, doing its own work, seeing to its own business. The Lord has very strongly set that as a governing principle in attainment, and there are some very, very strong lessons in the Word of God about that.
In the Old Testament an outstanding and very well-known illustration of this very thing is the case of Achan, when all Israel (that is what is said there) all Israel were held up, brought to a standstill, their progress arrested, their attaining of the Divine end checked, by one man. One little organism and the whole body is affected, and the New Testament statement about that in the spiritual realm is "whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it" (1 Cor. 12:26). We cannot understand that, we cannot see it, we cannot apprehend it. It is not manifest always, but there is the Divine judgment, the Divine knowledge about it, and there is the fact stated. The Holy Spirit is stating facts.
Now to bring this right home to us. We are so many, and there are as many functions as there are people, as many distinctive and definite functions in the Body of Christ, and if there is going to be real increase of the whole, if there is going to be a movement towards the greater fulness of Christ by the whole, each one has got to look to it that he or she functions according to their distinctive calling and appointment, and functions to the full measure therein. First of all, we state the fact. Are you alive to the fact? Do you accept the fact? You, as an individual, are a functioning part, or called to be a functioning part, of the Body of Christ, and the whole Body depends upon you for its fulness; upon you working in due measure. Do not try and reason it out, to understand it and see how it does. Do not forget that the Lord does not always explain how, when He lays down facts. Nicodemus is full of "how's". How this and that? The Lord does not seek at all to deal with his "how's". He states a fact or facts and says, in effect, "This is a matter which is not open to discussion, to reasoning, to argument. This is something which exists as a fact. You have got to take it first of all as a fact; you come into the understanding of it later." Well now, there we begin - the fact of distinctiveness of function in every part of the Body of Christ.
Diversity of Function in Distinctiveness
But then, following that, there is the diversity of function in distinctiveness. There are many members and every member represents something quite definite. All the members have not the same office; and the next thing that you and I have to face quite definitely, is this: that we have got to come into our particular function, as to what it is - we have got to know it. That sounds difficult, but again it is a fact. A very great deal of spiritual loss to ourselves and to the Lord's people, to the Body of Christ, results from people not knowing what their particular job is, not being in their job a hundred percent; that is, they are trying to do half a dozen things or two things, two things which are to a large degree mutually exclusive. There is an overlapping in their function, or they are not at all sure of what their function is. Perhaps they are revolting against their function and wanting someone else's. The teacher envies the evangelist and tries to be an evangelist, or the evangelist looks on the teacher and would like to be a teacher. I only use those by way of illustrating what I mean. It is like that if not as defined in our thought as that - there is dividedness within, uncertainty within, overlapping within, perhaps revolt within, and it creates the unrest of uncertainty, and there is loss to that life, loss to the Lord, and loss to the Body.
Our two steps then, are, first of all, that there is the fact that every member is to function distinctly and definitely. Secondly, that we are to come by the Spirit into the realisation and recognition of what our place or function is. And covering both of those things, of course, is the due measure of each several part. This is the way of growth, our growth, our increase, and the increase of the Body of which we are a part.
Function Made Known in the Church
Well now, that creates a lot of difficulties, and you are not seeing your way through, but we are only going a step at a time. How is this to be? How can we come to this place? How can we know? How can we function in this way with a knowledge of what our function is? The Lord has given a very full answer to that, quite a strong, positive answer. It is a very big answer. The answer is the church, the Body. "Go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do" (Acts 9:6). "The Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them" (Acts 13:2). It is in relatedness, not in separateness, independence, isolation or detachment; I am not speaking merely about physical detachment. You can be at all the meetings and with the Lord's people all the time and be as detached as though never there at all. You can be mentally detached, a spectator, a passenger, a critic, an observer, a watcher, still be standing back to see how things are going, whether your ideas are going to be borne out, whether your fears are going to be confirmed, whether your judgments are going to be proved right.
Dear friends, let us say at once, anything in that nature will defeat God's end in you and defeat God's end in the Body of Christ where you are concerned. The answer to the question, "How am I to know, and knowing, how am I to be in the way of functioning?" is the church. You take the idea of the body very practically and very literally, and you see how utterly impossible it would be for a body to be in health, in strength and in growth, in maturity and in function, if in the body some member stood back from the rest with some reservations and questionings and fears. Anything like that would throw the whole body out, and the physician or the surgeon would have to say, "Somehow we have got to get that organ into line, into adjustment, so that as a part of the whole it works in perfect sympathy, in perfect harmony, is really a living part of the whole in a practical way."
Well, it is like that, that is the Lord's way: it is relatedness and devoutness to relatedness. That is the answer. There has to be a complete deliverance from the obsession with what is merely personal as such - my ministry, my place, my vindication - that is a false way of applying this principle of individual responsibility. The individual responsibility is a related and corporate thing, it is not a personal thing. It is an individual thing in a related way, not a personal thing in an unrelated way, not a detached thing. Oh, how the Lord's interests in individual lives and in His people as companies (and therefore in the whole Body of Christ), how His interests have been retarded and brought under arrest because the members of the Body have not really just been merged into the Body and got everything as in the Body. They have stood around and tried to draw out to themselves, use for themselves; the very opportunities presented by a company of the Lord's people have been appropriated personally for self-expression and self-realisation. They have not just been merged into and in a personal way (I am using that word 'personal' now in this wrong sense of personal) lost their identity in the whole, simply become swallowed up in the whole. They have not got there and therefore there has been loss.
