Paul
the apostle told the church members in Corinth, “the
body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one
body, being many, are one body: so also is
Christ”,
and in
chapter twelve and verse thirteen of First Corinthians, Paul shared
with the church members how they are, “baptized
into one body...one Spirit”,
where we read:
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.
The
verse begins, “For
by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we
be Jews or Gentiles, ...”.
Paul began
with the word, “for”
which means “even as, indeed, no doubt, seeing then, verily and
therefore” “by one Spirit”
which refers to “through the sole and united third person of the
triune God who is the Holy Spirit and is coequal and coeternal with
the Father and the Son” “are we
all” which
means “the church members and Paul each, every, the whole and
everyone are” “baptized”
or “dipped repeatedly, immersed and submerged” “into
one body”
which means “into the sole and united living corpse”, “whether”
which means “no matter if” “we be
Jews” or
“the members belong to the Jewish nation as respects to birth,
origin and religion” “or Gentiles”
which means “that which embraces all nations not Jews that made the
language, customs, and learning of the Greeks their own”. Since the
church members were all “baptized
into one body” by
“the Holy Spirit of God”,
they were now as “one body”
no matter whether their “origin or birth” was “Jewish”
or any other nation.
The
verse continues, “... whether
we be
bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
Paul added
the word, “whether” which
means “no matter if” “we be bond”
or “Paul and the church members are slaves, bondmen or of servile
condition” “or free”
which refers to “one who is not a slave, exempt, unrestrained and
not bound by an obligation”; “and
have been all”
or “each, every, the whole and everyone of the church members and
Paul” “made to drink” which
means “caused to imbibe, watered and saturated”
“into one Spirit”
or “into the sole and united third person of the triune God who is
the Holy Spirit and is coequal and coeternal with the Father and the
Son”. Since the church members and Paul were “baptized
into one body” by
the “Spirit of God”,
not only did it not matter whether the church members were “Jews or
Gentiles”, it was inconsequential whether they were “bond
or free”
because they all were “immersed”
into “one body”.
When
we think through these words from Paul, we understand our “origin
or birth” and status in the labor force are irrelevant because
believers in Jesus have been “immersed” into “one body” and
have all have “drank” from the “one Spirit” of
God. When we are united into the “body of Christ” through
the “Holy Spirit” of God, we become as one, and our
distinctions become non-important. Jesus desires a church that is
united as one, and when we understand that all believers who “trust
in, rely upon and cling to Him” have been “baptized”
into the “same” body of Christ, we put aside our
differences and enjoy being united together with Him.
Next
time Paul tells the church members, “the
body is not one member, but many”,
so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow…there is more…
Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.
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