The Terminology “One Body”

The Apostle Paul uses the two words “one body” eleven times in his epistles.  Theologians, teachers, and others have perverted the meaning of the expression, “one body,” through the years, reading into it something not there.  They over complicate it to see one of their presuppositions and twist it like a gumby doll.

The word “one” does not always mean “numeric one.”  Very often, especially in the New Testament and in Paul’s writings, it means “unified one.”  Let me give you an example of numeric one, such as a single or singular person, place, or thing, and then a unified one.  One can express unity.  The people were one, means they were completely together.  I am not a Phillies fan, but if I said the Philadelphia Phillies were one team, I am not saying that there is a single Phillies ball club.  I’m saying that the team has unity.  That’s how Paul uses the term.  It’s obvious he uses it that way.

Usage of “One”

In the English, the word “one” is used 1,967 times in the Bible.  In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says:

Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

That is a usage of numeric one.  He is saying, not a single jot or tittle will pass from the law.  That incidentally is the first usage of “one” in the entire New Testament.  Luke writes in Acts 19:34:

But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

This does not mean that this crowd of people had a single voice.  They had several voices, but unified voices, so one voice.  The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 15:6:

That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To the church at Rome to whom Paul wrote, he says, “ye,” referring to its plural members, excluding himself.  He says that these many, plural people have “one mind” and “one mouth.”  Do you think that only one, single mind and one, single mouth existed in Rome?  No.  Of course not.  Yet, you don’t have people saying that there is a universal, invisible mystical mind or a universal, invisible mystical mouth.  Maybe they do in a mind science cult, but this does not exist in the actual, real world.

Usage of “One Body”

Colossians 3:15

Now let’s consider the terminology “one body,” which expresses the unity of each church in its context.  I want us to consider Colossians 3:15 first, because it eliminates the concept that “one body” is one universal, invisible body.  Paul writes:

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

The Apostle Paul does use the pronoun “we” sometimes and includes himself, but one should not assume that he is saying that he is in the same one body as his audience. When he uses “ye” here, he excludes himself.  He says, “your hearts,” “ye are called,” and “be ye thankful.”  He could have phrased all this with “we” in it, but he didn’t.  Instead, he says, “ye are called in one body.”  If this was singular “one body,” referring to a big universal church to which all believers were members, he should not exclude himself, and yet he does.  Why?  He is addressing the church at Colossae.  The “one body” was their church.

The context of this statement in Colossians 3:15 goes back a long ways to say that the church there is neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor free, etc.  In other words, they are now no longer separate tribes, but all one there.  Paul says, “be merciful, kind, longsuffering, etc. (v. 12), forbear, forgive, don’t quarrel (v. 13), put on charity, which is a bond (v. 14), so that peace rules in your hearts (v. 15).  All these factors lead to unity — in other words, “one body.”  Paul instructs them in having a unified body, a church with unity, which God and he both want.

1 Corinthians 12:12

The context of 1 Corinthians 12 is that the church at Corinth has many members and, therefore, many varied offices and gifts.  The one Holy Spirit (which is numeric one with an allusion to unity, the one Holy Spirit causes oneness) actually creates this diversity in the church by dividing up or assigning varied spiritual gifts to the members.  With this kind of variation, how is there harmony, oneness?  Well, first there is one Spirit.  He can bring oneness, since He isn’t going to contradict Himself.

As an analogy, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:12:

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

“The body is one.”  Here he speaks of the actual human body in a generic sense.  “The body” is the human body.  Question:  Is the singular “the body” here particular or generic or is it an invented usage of the singular, “mystical”?  It isn’t particular, because Paul is not speaking of a a particular person’s body.  It is generic because every body has members or body parts.  Each body on earth has always been one, a defining or true aspect of what it means to be a body.  It isn’t a body any more when a finger is over here, an ear is in another zip code, and each toe finds itself in a different county.

The Human Body as a Metaphor

I want to emphasize again.  Please pay attention here.  “The body” is the human body.  Human body.  Think anatomy and physiology.  The “ankle bone is connected to the leg bone, the leg bone is connected to the knee bone.”  The skeleton does not do the skeleton dance if the ankle bone is not in fact connected to the leg bone.  All those joints must connect for the body to work in unity.  (Take a deep breath.)

What Paul writes actually contradicts the idea of a universal body.  Part of a body being a body is proximity.  It is all together in one location.  “The body” is not a particular human body, but speaks of any and every human body in a generic fashion.  Not only is the human body one, but the human body has many members or body parts.  “Members” means “body parts.”  Paul uses the human body to illustrate the unity and diversity of a church.  Even though the body has many members, it is still one, that is, it is still unified.  Every member works together.  They must because it is one body.  This is not teaching a universal church.

Not Singular One, But Unified One

For being such a prominent doctrine among evangelicals, Paul doesn’t ever mention a universal church.  If it existed, he could have easily clarified it.  What universal church proponents do is take these “one body” passages and the like, which are unity passages, and they read into them a universal church.  This messes up the interpretation or meaning of the entire passage by forcing this non-existent concept into the passage.  People will very often do almost whatever it takes to get their doctrine into the Bible, that isn’t there on its own.

When Paul implies, “Christ is one body,” there is a sense of “numeric one,” but it still communicating “unified one” as the primary usage here.  Body parts still unify, still operate as one, function together, because of the oneness, the unity of the body.  The church at Corinth divided over its gifts.  Get this.  The church at Corinth divided over its gifts.  It’s like a body dividing over its various body parts.  That doesn’t happen with a body even though it has various body parts.  It still works together.  That is what Paul is saying!!

Paul is saying nothing about a universal, mystical body of believers.  He is talking about the unity of the church at Corinth and in a generic fashion, the unity of every church.  Even though each church has many members, it is one body.  That is the reality of a body.  Each body is one.

People Will Still Argue

I really do assume that people will still argue over this, because their universal body concept is so precious to them for whatever reason.  They want to keep that Platonic “all believers” concept intact.  It has no practical ramification at all and doesn’t fit what Paul is teaching, but they still call it the prime meaning of these unity texts.  While there is no biblical unity (like that of a human body) between all professing believers, they still begrudgingly use it.  Meanwhile, they ruin what’s in the text itself to help out a church.  Churches lose an important unity text to preserve a false doctrine.

Why do people need to keep this false concept of a universal body?  I believe there are a lot of reasons.  It isn’t grammar or syntax or the plain meaning of the text.  No, it is something outside of the Bible.  The chief reason, I believe, and this is an opinion, but with a large sample size, is that people can live freely without constraint to an actual church.  They become a free-floating entity beholden to no one and without authority.  It is a good vehicle to take for rebellion.  It means not submitting to anything but a mystical Christ, who they shape into the Jesus they want Him to be.

I’m going to stop here, because I believe you get the message.  This is what each of Paul’s “one body” texts are about.  They are about the unity of individual churches.  They all happen the same way, just like the unity of a human body in the body metaphor that Paul uses.