Often, when we talk about the body of Christ, we think of the passage from 1 Corinthians 12, the one that celebrates the diverse gifts of the members of the body of Christ. It’s a great passage because it highlights our need for difference and shows that we aren’t supposed to have all the same gifts.

That’s a great place to start.

But what does it mean to act as part of the body of Christ? This quote, traditionally ascribed to the 16th-century mystic Teresa of Avila, explains:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world...

To be a member of the body of Christ is to be a representative for Christ — to live and work in the world as Christ would, to be “the fullness of Christ.”

By Caitlin Harper from D365