The Body.

 (Excerpt Ro. 11 E.J. Waggoner) 1800's)

The Body and Its Members. 

"There is one body" (Eph. 4:4), and that is the church, of which Christ is the head  (Eph. 1:22, 23; Col. 1:18). "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Eph. 5:30. There are many members in the body, "so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."

As in the human body, so in the body of Christ, "all members have not the same office;" yet they are so joined together, and so mutually dependent, that none can boast over the others. "The eye can not say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you." 1 Cor. 12:21. So it is in the true church of Christ; there are no divisions and no boastings, and no member seeks to occupy the place or perform the work of another. No member thinks himself independent of the others, and all have an equal care for one another.

Various Gifts. 

All members have not the same office, and all have not the same gifts. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. . . . And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. . . . For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of Spirits; to another divers kind of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." 1 Cor. 12:4-11.

"The Proportion of Faith." 

"Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith." As we have seen, there is but "one faith" (Eph.  4:5), and that is "the faith of Jesus." Although there are various gifts, there is but one power behind them all.  "All these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit." Therefore, to prophesy or to exercise any other of the gifts "according to the proportion" or measure of faith, is to do it "as of the ability which God giveth." 1 Peter 4:11.  "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."