(ii) THE BODY
D.J.Hutson
Our beloved brother has read that verse which has the emphatic pronoun: "he is the head of the body, the assembly", and I believe this verse in Corinthians, in a sense, corresponds with it; it may be said, is complementary to it. There is again the emphatic pronoun: "Now ye are Christ's body, and members in particular". I am sure that what our beloved brother has said is essential, the links that we have with the headship of Christ and all that would flow from it as we go on in experience, growing in our knowledge of Himself ; as one could say: "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet 3: 18), but growing in our knowledge of Him as Head. We know that there is a distinction between the way in which the figure of the body is used in this chapter and in Ephesians and Colossians, but, as has been said, Ephesian truth is lying just below the sur face; and I believe this would be a case where it, as it were, emerges, that "ye are Christ's body, and members in particular".
I just felt to emphasise, in relation to what has come before us, that each one of us is essential to it if it is to be worked out in practical result. There is the glorious truth of the headship of Christ, our glorious, living Head in heaven and the body here in its most extended view; but then these things, as we have in Corinthians, are worked out in our local assemblies, there was the assembly of God which was in Corinth and Paul is addressing the members of it; "Now ye are Christ's body", but he adds "and members in particular"; that is, each one of us has a place in relation to it. As the truth comes before us - and surely what has been before us tonight is something which we would all desire to be in; what we have had in our hymn would stimulate us, and again referring to our brother's prayer, the love of One who has loved the assembly and delivered Himself up for it - it would call for an answer in love from the assembly; but that is to be found as composed of persons and finding its expression in the localities in which each one of us is placed; as it says, "members in particular". Dear brother, you have your place in it, however young or however old; and dear sister, the same too, you have your place in it. Each one has his or her own place, each drawing from the Head. Our brother referred to our individual experiences; and as we go along thus, each one of us, particularly in our own place, we grow in the knowledge of the Head and draw from Him, drawing wisdom from Him who is made unto us wisdom, as this epistle tells us (see chap 1: 30), for every step of the way. So as we are moving in this way, each one of us, in particular in the place where we have been set according to divine pleasure, there would be sensitiveness with us in our bonds together in the body, as drawing from the Head, so that there might be that experience of which we would desire to have more, that we might know what to do in any thing which may come before us in the assembly; and greater still, may we say, as we are together in relation to assembly service, that we might be sensitive in the way in which He would lead us for the glory of God.
I just felt to read this verse, beloved, in view of the connection with what we have had before in the emphatic pronoun: "he is the head of the body", He before us in all His glory and attractiveness, that place which is His alone; but then "ye are Christ's body, and members in particular". So each one of us would be seeking Him as to our place in it and filling out our part all the time in our relations with Himself, so that as together there might be even now the reality of that working in sensitiveness for His own heart's pleasure and for the glory of God. In the Name of the Lord Jesus.