2009 © Elder Scott Ray S.B.G.
www.av-1611.com
E-Mail: elder@av-1611.com
1 Corinthians 12:27
"Now ye are the body of
Christ, and members
in particular."
Members = distinct part of a whole, or a
body.
Particular = of, relating to,
or being a single
person or thing.
Partial. Being one unit or element among
others.
This is to the entire membership of the
Body of Christ. This study is brief so as not to exhaust
anyone. In the
realm
of
denominationalism,
traditions
of men, and
religion, there is
identity
theft
going on every day. I do
not see the
authorities
getting involved
in this crime,
for it is not a
crime you go to jail
for, nor
is it subject
to
the laws of the
heathen. Why?
It
is
spiritual
identity
theft.
People are
mainly never
told that they
are a
Saint,
if
they have
not believed in
vain. They
never hear
that
they are forgiven of
all
of their
sins. They
live
a
life of
bondage to the
beggerly
elements of religion
itself.
However,
we as
grace
believers must
also
take
care so as
not to
lose
our
identity in
the Body of
Christ. Bare in
mind the two definitions
below. They help.
Acts
17:24 God that made the
world and all
things therein, seeing
that he is
Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth
not in
temples made with
hands;
Now looking at verse 24,
we see that our Apostle Paul is telling the Athenians that
God made the whole
world
and also
everything that is in
the
earth. Paul tells them
that
due to the fact that
God is
Lord over the heaven
and the earth, He does not
need
the temples or buildings of
man.
Acts 17:25 Neither is
worshipped with men's
hands, as
though he
needed any
thing, seeing
he giveth
to
all life,
and
breath, and
all
things;
In verse
25
Paul continues from the concept
that God does not need
temples or
buildings of man, and
lets
the
Athenians
know that God is not
worshipped with
the hands of
man. With the
word
"neither",
Paul
shows
that
God does not need
the
physical things that religion
offers. Paul
goes on to show
some important
things
that
we the
Body of Christ
need
to be mindful
of. (1) God does
not need
anything, He is God.
(2) It is God who
is
the
giver of
all
life everywhere, not man. (3)
Because God is the giver of all life, He also is
the giver
of breath
to all who
walk about in flesh. (4) Lastly, Paul
even says "and
all things".
Everything that exists,
or man
has
made,
exists because God is
the giver, and
He allows it to
exist. No providential
agruments here.
Just
stating
scriptural facts,
and it came from our Apostle
Paul.
Acts 17:28 For in him we
live, and move, and
have our being;
as
certain also of
your own poets
have
said, For
weare also his
offspring.
Here in verse
28 Paul is telling the Athenians that in correlation to
verse 25, because of God who is Lord over
Heaven and
Earth, we have the
things
mentioned in 25, and that
in God
Himself "we live".
Paul is saying
all
of
this to
lost people, by the way. All life is in God. So here
we
have four points of what we have of God. We
really
need
to know this and
remember
it.
(1) In God we all are
alive. This is saved and lost.
Life is a gift
of
God. Why
destroy it, seeing it all comes from
God? (2) We all
have movement,
or mobility because
of God. I
wonder how
many people are thankful to be able to walk or
run.
How about just raising an
arm, or simply to
wiggle your
fingers or toes?
(3) We all have or existence because
of God. No we do
not!
Really? These verses
here teach
that we have all these things and
they are
because of God. In
the thoughts of having our being,
and that
He is the
giver of all things, we should not walk as
other
Gentiles of the
flesh, but giving of
thanks
to God in all things everyday. He
took the
time to make everything,
and let us exist, but we never have time
to
simply say
thank you from the heart. And people
wonder why
America is in
the financial state it is in
now.
It does not take a Bible
theologan
to tell you what Paul is
saying
here. I
know someone will try to
rebuke
me
on this
one,
but remember, P
aul said
all of this,
not someone
else.
Okay, there are those among us, as
Grace
Believers, who are
excellent
teachers. Men whom I respect and
hold in
high regard.
Thus, no names
ever
given as to who they
are.
I do not play the name games. No need
to bash or bring one down just
because of a view or a belief. We all have different thoughts about the
Bible,
and when we are wrong, does God reach down from Heaven and slap us in
the back of the head? No He does
not. So we should not act that way,
especially in the dispensation of the grace of God.
The verses there in
Acts 17 prove that we are not just "the
Body", but also we
are individuals.Romans 12:5 So we, being many, are one body
in Christ, and every
one members one
of another.
Many see Romans 12:5 and then they say that God does not
take
care of us as individual members. And yet
Paul
was telling
the Athenians, who
were lost,
that God gave them
their
lives, and
their breath,
and also
everything they
had.
Also
Paul
told them that because of
God they lived, and moved
around, or
had mobility,
and had
their
existence. So, therefore, to say God does not care for you and
me, as members of the Body of
Christ, I can not accept
that. If he did not
care, then why
die to take all of
our sins away
from us?
1 Corinthians 12:27 Now ye are the body of
Christ, and members in
particular.
Here Paul says that we are "members in
particular", which has
meaning when you just
take a look at the
word
"particular".
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of
Christ;
that every one may
receive the
things done
in his body,
according
to
that he
hath done,
whether it be good or
bad.
Paul shows us here that we each shall be judged at the Judgement
Seat of Christ. That we may each recieve
the rewards
according to the good
or bad
that
was done in our
individual
bodies. Hhhummm! Am I a
trouble
maker
or what?
Okay,
just tuck it
away in the back of
your mind, and
when you hear
certain
lessons taught about prayer and
about the Body of
Christ, just think
on these things. Just
asthe
denominationalists take
away
your
identity of
being a Saint,
do
not loose your identity as being a Member
in
Particular.