A PAINFUL REALITY

Imagine Saul’s anguish when Christ confronted him near Damascus with a painful reality. The Lord told Saul, “I am Jesus. And you are persecuting Me” (see Acts 9:4-5). Saul had thought he was simply dealing with individuals, doing God’s work to root out Jewish heretics.

Saul was jolted with the truth: “Jesus has a spiritual body. He is the head and His body — His children here on earth — are connected to the head. It is one body, made up of believers who are flesh of His flesh. And anyone who comes against one of them is actually coming against Him.”  

CAUSING JESUS PAIN

Every “Jesus person” whom Saul had persecuted and imprisoned — everything he had said and done against them — was felt personally by Christ Himself. Saul’s confrontation with this truth changed his life.

As Paul the apostle, he grew to understand how deeply God loved His Church. He came to see that, in the Lord’s eyes, the Church was a costly pearl. It was also a spotless Bride for His Son — one corporate, invisible body made up of blood-purchased children from every tribe and nation on earth.

A SERIOUS TRUTH

I am convinced we do not take this truth as seriously as we should. A full understanding would mean the end of all grudges in the Church . . . the end of all bitterness . . . the end of all prejudice, fleshly competition, pride, gossip and division.

“There should be no schism [division or discord] in the body; but the members should have the same care one for another” (1 Corinthians 12:25).