Katz, Body of Christ

The Body of ChristArt KatzThe Body of Christ is an eternal masterpiece, and I do not think that we have sufficiently appreciated that. We do not show the respect and esteem that the Body deserves. We seem rather to look at each other inadequately. This must have something to do, in part, with our inability to discern the Body, where there is a kind of matter-of-fact, lackadaisical attitude of disrespect. We do not esteem Christ in His people nor do we esteem the variety of God’s people with all of their inherent differences. We are selective and are more responsive and partial to those who are like ourselves and do not see the fullness of Christ in His Body.It requires a revelation, and here again, we stand in danger of taking something very holy and making it a commonplace. Just because we can glibly speak the phrase, ‘The Body of Christ,’ it does not mean that we have it. For me, the revelation of the Body came out of the struggle with my own wife in trying to reconcile the Jew and the Gentile, male and female. There are multitudes of differences represented right there, but the glory of God is most revealed in the taking of two antithetical bodies and making of them ‘one new man.’ In the antagonism, the friction and the issues of reconciliation, I began to glimpse something of the genius of what the Body is as an organism, that we might be one as the Son and the Father are one in all of the diversity and differences.There is even a colossal friction between the different callings within the Body of Christ, for example, the teacher and the prophet. A teacher is ‘line upon line and precept upon precept.’ He is very fastidious about the Word, but a prophet operates in a different way. He has another mentality. He will employ the Word, but sometimes he will go beyond it or seize on something else like a ketchup label. It offends the teacher’s soul while the prophetic soul is offended by the teacher’s limited vision. God Himself has established the differences, knowing that there is going to be an inherent antagonism.

2. If God will not do anything outside His Body, in any nation, in the concluding of His Last Days’ purposes, then we need to have a greater respect and esteem for the phenomenon of the Body of Christ. In how many institutional places is that phraseology used? I am not just talking about mainline churches , but even charismatic, independent and evangelical churches. In other words, any church that functions with an institutional mentality and mindset, and that calls itself the Body of Christ. On account of the sloppiness of that language and our lack of discerning the Body, we even talk now about unity in the Body of Christ as meaning some kind of ecumenical coming together of Catholics and Protestants, or this denomination and that denomination coming to some agreement. I do not have a word to describe that distortion. It is certainly an abomination, but it stems from the error of using the language of the Body of Christ indiscriminately. The Body is an organism. It is sacred; it is holy, and its life flows out from the Head to which it is joined. The authentic Body of Christ, unobtrusive and undistinguished in the world, has always been and will always be such an object of hatred by things institutional.

A teacher is ‘line upon line and precept upon precept.’ He is very fastidious about the Word, but a prophet operates in a different way. He has another mentality. He will employ the Word, but sometimes he will go beyond it or seize on something else like a ketchup label. It offends the teacher’s soul while the prophetic soul is offended by the teacher’s limited vision. God Himself has established the differences, knowing that there is going to be an inherent antagonism. Lars quoting Art Katz.I think I would question the 'inherent antagonism' position. This is the old modernist accusation of the old testament that the priesthood and the prophets were in continual conflict and tension. It only happens when the 'the eye' says to the hand 'I have no need of thee'.My own preaching is very much along the 'teaching' line but my most blessed times in conference have been alongside a brother with a marked prophetic gift. I love and respect him and would trust him with my life; he feels the same about me. He says "I enjoy working with you because you tell people why I believe the things that I say". My reply is always the same, I say " I like working with you because you will tell them what to do with it".I think teaching and prophecy are no more 'inherently antagonistic' than the the two blades of a pair of scissors. The blades have to move in different directions to fulfil their function, but that is not 'inherent antagonism'.just my thoughts.

Perhaps Mr. Katz has it a bit too sharp on this one – he expresses himself a bit pointedly on many issues.Growing and ever growing, we will eventually find ourselves in companies where the different aspects of God’s kind provision for the edification of the saints works the way you describe. What a delightful position!But all too often we find this tension between teachers and the prophetic office.Lars

3. There is even a colossal friction between the different callings within the Body of Christ, for example, the teacher and the prophet. A teacher is ‘line upon line and precept upon precept.’ He is very fastidious about the Word, but a prophet operates in a different way. He has another mentality. He will employ the Word, but sometimes he will go beyond it or seize on something else like a ketchup label. It offends the teacher’s soul while the prophetic soul is offended by the teacher’s limited vision. God Himself has established the differences, knowing that there is going to be an inherent antagonism.If God will not do anything outside His Body, in any nation, in the concluding of His Last Days’ purposes, then we need to have a greater respect and esteem for the phenomenon of the Body of Christ. In how many institutional places is that phraseology used? I am not just talking about mainline churches , but even charismatic, independent and evangelical churches. In other words, any church that functions with an institutional mentality and mindset, and that calls itself the Body of Christ. On account of the sloppiness of that language and our lack of discerning the Body, we even talk now about unity in the Body of Christ as meaning some kind of ecumenical coming together of Catholics and Protestants, or this denomination and that denomination coming to some agreement. I do not have a word to describe that distortion. It is certainly an abomination, but it stems from the error of using the language of the Body of Christ indiscriminately. The Body is an organism. It is sacred; it is holy, and its life flows out from the Head to which it is joined. The authentic Body of Christ, unobtrusive and undistinguished in the world, has always been and will always be such an object of hatred by things institutional.

4. And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-12). It is little wonder that the institutional church, by whatever name it is called, does not respond hospitably to apostles and prophets. One can go through a process of credentialization through the attending of institutional schools and seminaries and ‘call’ oneself evangelist, pastor or teacher and get fitted into the institutional framework, but that does not mean that God recognizes your service ‘for Him.’ The true Body of Christ will recognize and receive what is organically fitted for itself and will reject the thing that is organically alien. The opposite is equally true: the institutional thing cannot receive the organic thing. The purposes of God that pertain to His coming, His coming Kingdom and His eternal glory will only be performed through His Body, and yet the Body is such a painful thing to obtain.Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, (or every novelty that arises in the charismatic world) by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (Eph. 4:13-16).

5. Verse 15 begins with the phrase, ‘speaking the truth in love’. In the Body, it is an absolute necessity, but it can be avoided in any fellowship that is not the Body, but an institutional caricature. You can go to those meetings a lifetime long and never once be required to speak the truth in love; but once you come into the Body, then it is a daily necessity. The process of being edified and built up is by what we ourselves provide in the working of every part, causing growth for the building up of itself. To build up means the actual formation and the coming into being. The supply comes from the Head to whom we are joined, but how does it find its working? There is no problem from the Head, but as liberal as the Head is in wanting to impart life to the Body, this life can be stopped up, coagulated and blocked.We are more tightfisted with each other than we think. We measure out in spoonfuls our time, our attention, our interests, our gifts and our finances. What the Lord is looking for and that fills the house with the fragrance of Christ is a lavish outpouring upon the Body, because we esteem the Head to which it is joined, as being one Divine organism. I am always asking people, ”To what expression of the Body are you joined?” This is not, ”What church do you attend?” The church you attend may be the place of your ministry and service as a mission field. We may sit in a church, but if it is not the expression of a Body, then we are losing the flow of life from the Head to which the Body is joined. We cannot, therefore, build ourselves up by that love and life and by what ”every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part.”

6. It is a prescription that is totally opposed to passivity. In the institutional situation we sit inactive in the pews, saying our ”amens” or ”hallelujahs.” In the Body, however, that is altogether unacceptable. ”When you assemble,” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:26, ”each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” That is how the life of the Body is expressed to the Body. Each one has, but we have not been encouraged to that. We have been encouraged to passivity and to looking up to men who are trained and will conduct the service. We are very willing to pay the cost of it that we might be absolved from the spiritual responsibility of having to share a hymn, a psalm, a tongue, an interpretation, a prophecy, a revelation or a teaching. The Body is therefore emaciated and inadequately fed, and is not growing. We are limp, we are disjointed and we are anemic. There can be no excuse for ourselves that justifies our inactivity. When we come together, we should have prepared ourselves already in the place of prayer, fully expecting that God is going to quicken and bring something through us. The Body is left weakened if this life-giving provision does not come.When Paul came back a year later to those places where he had established churches, he had only to appoint elders. It was not some capricious choice. He recognized the one whom God had already promoted. He saw the maturity that was already evidenced by certain men. He saw those who had risen quickly to assume responsibility so as to oversee and shepherd others, and he laid hands on them and prayed for them and by that established them as elders. The expression of the Body in those localities grew and matured because each one had a psalm, a teaching, etc.

The unity of the Body7. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! (Psalm 133:1).Unity is not cheap. It is not something that we can ordain, enforce or establish politically. Once it is obtained and maintained, we need to jealousy guard it. The word ‘dwell’ indicates something more than a transient moment. It is a consistent thing that requires remarkable investment to obtain. It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edges of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, coming down upon the mountains of Zion; for there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forever (verses 2-3).This anointing is not the statement of our individual virtuosity or singular callings, but what we enjoy because of our relationship together that comes down on the head of Aaron and his beard. We are so individualistically-minded, especially about our own calling, gift and ministry that we think that the anointing is relative to that. I am utterly assured that the anointing of God, which is the life of God and the power of God, is the issue of our relatedness to the Body that dwells together in unity. It was true at the first and it will be true again at the last. Great grace was upon them all. The grace was the presence of God’s Spirit because there was an ‘allness.’ They were a people tempered together. This is more than being alongside each other. There was a oneness that was more than congeniality. It is suffering each other in our failures, infirmities, weaknesses and humiliations. It is an environment that is loving and allows for failure and error and does not condemn. It sees the weakness and the demerit of the brother and speaks to Christ about him in prayer. God reserves His anointing to be the expression of a people who dwell together in unity. He has commanded His blessing in that place and no other.

8. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all (Acts 4:33). They would not have had enough power to inflate a balloon let alone to penetrate the same Jewish community that had so recently crucified Christ if they were not dwelling together in unity. This unity will not come to us except we break through the stifling structures that have been historically ours, predicated upon Sunday service and mid-week Bible studies. There has got to be a breaking through into the dimension of the life of God both together and daily. Nothing else will achieve that dwelling together in unity. To come to this unity is not some ecumenical design that is going to be established on a platform by the sleight of men, but by those who are willing for the price of it in the necessary suffering that will precede it. This is not an option or an alternative, but the definitive desire of God from the first and for all generations.END