I. The Church is the body in which Christ dwells as the soul, lighting up the body with His Divine presence, the organisation of this tabernacle being the sanctified tabernacle of flesh and blood in which Christ shall dwell, from whose lips He shall speak, whose hands He shall employ, and whose feet shall bear the manhood and the influences of His life through the world around: the organisation that He shall make use of to extend the interests of His kingdom, and from which the majesty and glory of His dominion shall be extended through the neighbourhood around. Christ dwells in the Church, the Fountain of its life, the centre of its power "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."
II. If this be so, the Church as the body should reflect and manifest the expression of the Divine soul within. It should ever be prepared to respond to the Divine will. My action does not spring from the body, but from the mind and will within. It is from that action originates, that to which action is subordinate, and of which it is the manifestation. And so it should be with the Church as the body of Christ, ever responding to the will of the Divine Spirit within, and offering all its powers to the service, adoration, and worship of the Divine power, to which it may well be contributory, and to whose glory it shall ever be subordinate. If the Church is the body of Christ, it is to do His bidding, to accomplish His purpose, to live to His glory.
III. The Church is the body of Christ, then: (1) There is her Divine safety; (2) her Divine blessedness; (3) her Divine honour and glory; (4) the activity by which she ought to be distinguished.
J. P. Chown, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 264.
The Christian Idea of Man.
I. What is the nature, the meaning of our human life? The words of the text seem to give the answer which we need. We look upon our nature, borne heavenward by splendid aspirations, crushed down by a miserable load of failures, conscious of a Divine kinsmanship, conscious of personal transgressions, and it tells us: "Ye are the body of Christ, Son of God and Son of man." We look upon our lives, fragmentary, imperfect, involved, with capacities which enjoyment cannot satisfy, with attainments which are only a shadow of our desires, and it tells us: "Ye are severally members thereof." But Divine connection is the revelation of our being, the interpretation of our partial service given to us first in the fiat of creation, given to us afresh out of the darkness and the glory of the Cross; fellowship with God, fellowship with man in God, through Christ. We feel that we are a result and a beginning; we acknowledge the power of the race, and we treasure the gift of personality. We, too, share in a larger life; but that we may do so according to the will of God we use the individuality of our own life. We are a body "the body of Christ, and severally members thereof."
II. As Christians, we believe that the contrasts which are represented by the thoughts of the solidarity of mankind and the individuality of each single man are harmonised in the Incarnation. As Christians, we believe that social responsibility and personal responsibility belong equally to each citizen of the Divine commonwealth and correspond with the fulness of His manifold life. While we ponder the elements of our creed we realise little by little the promise which it seals of some revelation which interprets to us our nature, and our nature furnishes us also with a new rule and a new motive for action. The Christian idea of man brings us the sense of brotherhood, which is the measure of our efforts, the sense of brotherhood with the Son of man, which is their support.
Bishop Westcott, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxii., p. 177.
References: 1 Corinthians 12:27. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 388. 1 Corinthians 12:28. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiii., No. 777. 1 Corinthians 12:31. Homilist,3rd series, vol. x., p. 330; Christian World Pulpit,vol. v., p. 351; R. Tuck, Ibid.,vol. xix., p. 248; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,p. 373; G. Salmon, Sermons in Trinity College, Dublin,p. 55; F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians,p. 73; R. W. Church, The Gifts of Civilisation,p. 5.