Christ is the head of the body, and his body is the Church. This is what Paul tells us in Colossians 1:18, but what does it mean to be the body of Christ? Can a disciple grow and be fruitful as a member of this body outside of a community of believers? The salvation experience occurs at the individual level, but what does the Bible say about growing as a disciple of Jesus in the context of the local and global Church? Does spiritual growth have to happen in a group context, or is it possible to mature in seclusion? These are all relevant questions we need to ask of ourselves in our search for understanding what it means to become a mature disciple of Jesus.
Today, we will try to answer these questions.
THE GLOBAL BODY OF CHRIST
Before this question can be answered, it is important to first identify what the disciple of Jesus belongs to. As mentioned before, each individual follower of Jesus is said to belong to a body, with Jesus himself as the head. At first glance, this passage of scripture could be viewed as a metaphor, but Dietrich Bonhoeffer takes this imagery a step further. In his book, Discipleship, Bonhoeffer offers another vantage point.
In a nutshell, Bonhoeffer explains that Adam was not only the first man to live on earth, but he was also a representation of the entirety of the human race. When he sinned, creation fell and humanity was thus born into a sinful nature. In essence, Adam was the forerunner of fallen mankind. Jesus, however, was also a forerunner, but instead of the father of a fallen people, he is the leader and representative of a redeemed people. Because Jesus died for the sins of the son and daughters of Adam, all who profess faith in him are identified with his death, burial and resurrection and are, at that moment, seen as being one with Jesus or as Paul says, in Christ.
This understanding rightly places Jesus as the head of a redeemed group of people, now seen as his body which is the church-community. Here, our only identity is not in our previous sinful nature, nor is it as a people chained the old testament law, but solely with the rest of Jesus’ ‘new humanity’ as his representative body on earth.
Now that this group has been identified, one must see how it can be viewed as Jesus’ literal body. By logical standards, this seems nearly impossible, but because of the Holy Spirit living inside his people, it is possible to claim this ‘church-community’ as his physical body, because his holy presence is abiding in this earthy body of believers. Bonhoeffer said it best when saying, “Here is his body crucified and risen, here is the humanity he assumed.”
To summarize, then, to be a disciple in its most broad sense, means to be a functioning part of a larger group of people, set apart as Jesus’ physical body on earth, being in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit.
THE LOCAL BODY OF CHRIST
To see how individuals fit into the corporate body of Christ is a necessary first step, but in order to bear a fruitful life as a disciple, one must now be able to discern how this will affect their daily life. Christ is our leader, but that does not necessarily mean that we can grow in perfect faith with the mentality of life being just me and Jesus. God’s sovereignty to call people to himself does not limit our growth to time with him in seclusion. What is important to discover now is how disciples are made and how they can help other disciples mature in the faith.
By nature, mature disciples multiply themselves in other believers. This concept is easily seen in how Jesus lived and interacted with his small, inner-circle of twelve disciples. In today’s culture, it is easy to develop a curriculum that gives head knowledge but lacks one-on-one interaction. Where true disciples are made is at the relational level, where the focus moves from a program to intentional connection. It is impossible to replicate yourself into others without spending time with them.
The first lesson in disciple-making is knowing that a mentee must be close with the mentor in order to learn and glean understanding from all life’s little teachable moments, and must be spent with intentional focus on biblical instruction and the pruning of their spiritual life. This mentor can be a close friend, a teacher or a person of authority within the church, such as a pastor. Within the local church, the pastor is tasked with the flock’s spiritual well-being and maturity and is one of the main relationships God has given to the disciple in order to grow. This relationship-focused model of discipleship is a healthy way to fulfill the command God gave through Paul in Ephesians 4:11-13 to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.“
TRUE COMMUNITY
Comparing the church community to a physical body, Paul writes, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:12-13 ESV). Recently, our church-community witnessed this scripture in action. In life, when our physical body gets injured, other parts of the body immediately attend to the injured area. If a leg gets broken, the eyes look down, the hands reach to embrace and protect, and the torso leans in to inspect and care.
A few years before the writing of this article, a well-known family in our church recently lost their eighteen-year-old daughter and the entire community immediately came around them to comfort and grief with them. A part of Jesus body became injured, and the rest of the body rallied around it. This event beautifully captures the picture Paul gives in 1 Corinthians chapter twelve as was a beautiful depiction of how unified Christ’s body can be when they “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15 ESV).
True community flourishes when people make the decision to live daily life with other mature believers, through all seasons and circumstances. It is an on-going process that allows for deep spiritual formation as the body (as a whole) finds its rhythm to regular fellowship together. Church leaders can be intentional in pouring themselves into others, but daily life with other believers where iron can sharpen iron (Proverbs 27:17 ESV) is also a necessity for the dedicated disciple.
THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT
A true community of believers acts rightly as one body, attending to the needs of the other parts of the body. This is accomplished through the gifts each person is given to serve. As Paul describes in 1 Corinthians and Romans, God gives his body gifts from the Holy Spirit to serve one another: “if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (Romans 12:6-8 ESV).
One would be hard pressed to grow and develop as a disciple without using their gifts for the benefit of someone else in the body or be impacted by having a gift be used for their benefit. Our head “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28 ESV), and the body should follow the head. We grow, not only from the investments of our mentorship but also in service to one another with gifts distributed by the Spirit. As a disciple models this behavior, he can then multiply that same discipline and obedience into others, fulfilling the Great Commission to go and make disciples.
IN A NUTSHELL
If we are to boil it all down, though our salvation experience happens on an individual level, our growth in discipleship is not designed to happen in isolation. By design, all believers exist as a single body and as Jesus’ representation on earth. All are co-dependent on the head of the body; Christ himself. On the level of the local church, scripture makes it clear that the church community is to look to its leadership for guidance and shepherding, while using the gifts of the Spirit to encourage and admonish each other, all toward the goal of intentional, spiritual growth.
Passages such as Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 and Colossians 1:18 make the answers to our questions clear. Discipleship is not something that happens in a vacuum with complete autonomy and individual freedom to do as one pleases. Maturity in the faith comes with the direction of the Spirit and the on-going development from other members of Christ’s body.
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