???It's Called, THE BODY

If your doctor found that you have a tapeworm living in you, wouldn’t you make arrangements to get it out?  If you just found out that you had a tumor, wouldn’t you rush to have it removed?  If a lab test reveals cancer, would you not demand an immediate attack plan to cut it out or destroy it? 

I don’t know very many people who would tolerate and allow any of those things to thrive in their bodies.  Most people want them gone NOW.  You will change your behavior, change your diet, and you may even relocate in order to get the best help you can afford to rid yourself of the harmful foreign tissues, even at the risk of removing or severely damaging other parts of your own body.  

And what about harmful activities?  Would you tolerate a chain smoker filling your home with second-hand smoke?  Most people wouldn’t.  In fact, you are probably favorable to several laws that prohibit others from exercising their personal freedoms to consume whatever they choose in order to prevent your own indirect exposure.  And some of you are so obsessively mindful of the purity of your own bodies that you won’t even tolerate things like processed foods, chemicals, salt, McDonalds French fries, artificial sweeteners, tap water. or even handshakes. 

So I have to ask you – If you would not introduce harmful substances into or allow them to remain in your own body, would you deliberately pollute or do harm to someone else’s body?

Of course, you wouldn’t; that would be a personal crime tantamount to assault or murder. And, if you wouldn’t do it to someone else's body, then why would you actively and purposefully introduce or tolerate harmful elements in the Body of Christ?

The Church is not a club or an organization of human origin.  It is not our prerogative to feed it spiritual junk food or artificially build it up with steroids. It is a living organism.  It belongs to Jesus and all of its growth is from Him. It is the Body of Christ and He is the Head. (Colossians 2:19) 

The Body of Christ is comprised of its members.  (1 Corinthians 12:27,  Romans 12:4-5,  1 Corinthians 12:12)  Just because something is in the body (like cancer) doesn’t mean it is a part of the body.

The members are placed in the body by the Spirit.  (1 Corinthians 12:13)

The legitimate parts of the body (its members) are ONLY those who have been redeemed.  (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)  Everything and everyone else is not part of the Body and is potentially harmful or deadly.

The functions or purposes of all body parts are assigned by God.    (Ephesians 4:11-13)

His body is for His pleasure and His glory.  It is not ours to use or abuse for our own pleasure, amusement, or any human purposes in contradiction to His purposes or designs.  Ephesians 1:22,  Colossians 1:18,  Ephesians 5:23)

The Church is the Body of Christ.  He feeds it, cleans it, disciples it, exercises it, and protects it.  Ephesians 5:29-30

DO NOT INTRODUCE OR TOLERATE FOREIGN ELEMENTS TO HARM THE BODY.