We have spoken of "_the parable_ of the Body." But is the word "parable" adequate? "What if earth be but the shadow of heaven?" What if our physical frame, the soul's house and vehicle, be only the feebler counterpart of that great Organism in which the exalted Christ unites and animates His saints? That union is no mere aggregation, no mere alliance of so many men under the presidency of an invisible Leader. It is a thing of life. Each to the living Head, and so each to all His members, we are joined in that wonderful connexion with a tenacity, and with a relation, genuine, strong, and close as the eternal life can make it. The living, breathing man, multifold yet one, is but the reflection, as it were, of "Christ Mystical," the true Body with its heavenly Head.
[Sidenote: Ver. 4.] =For just as in one body we have many limbs, but all the limbs have not the same function,= [Sidenote: Ver. 5.] =so we, the many, are one body in Christ,= in our personal union with Him, =but in detail (τὸ δὲ καθεῖς), limbs of one another,= coherent and related not as neighbours merely but as complementary parts in the whole. [Sidenote: Ver. 6.] =But having endowments (χαρίσματα)--according to the grace that was given to us--differing, be it prophecy,= inspired utterance, a power from above, yet mysteriously conditioned (1 Cor. xiv. 32) by the judgment and will of the utterer, =let it follow the proportion of the= man's =faith,= let it be true to his entire dependence on the revealed Christ, not left at the mercy of his mere emotions, or as it were played upon by alien unseen powers; [Sidenote: Ver. 7.] =be it active service (διακονία),= let the man be =in his service,= wholly given to it, not turning aside to covet his brother's more mystic gift; =be it the teacher,= let him likewise be =in his teaching,= whole-hearted in his allotted work, free from ambitious outlooks from it; [Sidenote: Ver. 8.] =be it the exhorter,= let him be =in his exhortation; the distributer= of his means, for God, =with open-handedness; the superintendent,= of Church, or of home, =with earnestness; the pitier,= (large and unofficial designation!) =with gladness,= doubling his gifts and works of mercy by the hallowed brightness of a heart set free from the aims of self, and therefore wholly at the service of the needing.
This paragraph of eight verses lies here before us, full all along of that deep characteristic of Gospel life, surrender for service. The call is to a profoundly passive inward attitude, with an express view to a richly active outward usefulness. Possessed, and knowing it, of the compassions of God, the man is asked to give himself over to Eternal Love for purposes of unworldly and unambitious employment in the path chosen for him, whatever it may be. In this respect above all others he is to be "_not conformed to this world_"--that is, he is to make not himself but his Lord his pleasure and ambition. "_By the renewal of his mind_" he is to view the Will of God from a point inaccessible to the unregenerate, to the unjustified, to the man not emancipated in Christ from the tyranny of sin. He is to see in it his inexhaustible interest, his line of quest and hope, his ultimate and satisfying aim; because of the practical identity of the Will and the infinitely good and blessed Bearer of it. And this more than surrender of his faculties, this happy and reposeful consecration of them, is to shew its reality in one way above all others first; in a humble estimate of self as compared with brother Christians, and a watchful willingness to do--not another's work, but the duty that lies next.
This relative aspect of the life of self-surrender is the burthen of this great paragraph of duty. In the following passage we shall find precepts more in detail; but here we have what is to govern all along the whole stream of the obedient life. The man rich in Christ is reverently to remember others, and God's will in them, and for them. He is to avoid the subtle temptation to intrude beyond the Master's allotted work _for him_. He is to be slow to think, "I am richly qualified, and could do this thing, and that, and the other, better than the man who does it now." His chastened spiritual instinct will rather go to criticize himself, to watch for the least deficiency in his own doing of the task which at least to-day is his. He will "give himself wholly to this," be it more or less attractive to him in itself. For he works as one who has not to contrive a life as full of success and influence as he can imagine, but to accept a life assigned by the Lord who has first given to him Himself.