Daily Devotions
The Body of Christ
Title: The Body of Christ
Reading for May 4: 1 Chronicles 17-19
Weekly reading for April 29-May 5: Acts 1-5
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach...
Acts 1:1
Something that has impressed me in my studies lately is the idea that we are the body of Christ. Jesus' physical body is no longer on this earth, but in a sense we, as Jesus' body, are a physical representation of our Lord in this world. We, as the Lord's people, are "his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (Eph 1:23). We are called to grow, as Christ's body, into the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:12-13).
This is how we can make sense of Acts 1:1. How was the gospel of Luke only the beginning of all that Jesus began to do and teach? Jesus ascends back to heaven just nine verses into the book! He didn't "do" or "teach" much in the book of Acts, did he?
Actually, Jesus did. Only it was not Jesus personally doing or teaching. He was doing it through his body, the church.
Father, give us a special awareness today of the fact that we are the body of Christ! Help us to do what Jesus would do and to teach what Jesus would teach if he were alive in our bodies today.
