Body Parts

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Cor. 12:27 NIV)

Apostle Paul projected a clear picture of the body of Christ – the church in 1 Corinthian 12. He began his analogous description in verse 12 and concluded it in verse 27. These sixteen verses speak of unity and diversity which many Christians forget to observe in the church setting, thereby affecting significantly the spiritual health of the church.

For the sake of discussion and clarity, let me ask a question using the body parts analogy. Are cancer cells parts of the body?

I made some researches and came across some important facts about cancer. Technically speaking and based on the point of view of medical anatomy, cancer cells are indeed parts of the body. They grow hand in hand with normal cells since birth of a human being. However, there is a marked difference between the two kinds of cells – normal cells follow the natural way that cells should grow while cancer cells become uncontrollable. Cancer cells are cells that have achieved a sort of immortality. Unlike normal cells that stop growing at a certain point, cancer cells continue to divide out of control. And unlike normal cells that remain in the region where they began, cancer cells have the ability to both invade nearby tissues and spread to distant regions of the body.

Spiritually speaking, are those believers who caused divisions and troubles in the local church parts of that local body of Christ?  The answer is yes and no if we based it on timeline. Yes, because they were once parts of that local body, and no, because they have moved out of that local church body similar to metastasized cancer cells. Are they saved? Only God knows.

A reminder by Apostle Paul in Titus 3:10-11 to all genuine believers who hold firmly their stand in the local body of Christ: 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. 11 You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.” (NIV).

***** <mbl>*****

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