Mending The Body
of Christ Behind
Prison Walls
LESSON FOUR
 The
Healing of the Heart
One purpose of God's Word
is to heal our hearts. Our thoughts are
not God's thoughts, and our ways are not
His ways. His ways are higher than our ways,
and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts
(Isaiah 55:8,9). This is why Jesus came
in the flesh to show us the thoughts and
ways of our heavenly Father so that we could
be healed by His ministry of love. His thoughts
towards us are ". . . thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you a
future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).
Our heart is the inner
man. That part of us that can only be seen
by the words and actions of the outer man.
Jesus said, "But those things which
proceed out of the mouth come from the heart,
and they defile a man, for out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
These are the things which defile a man..."
(Matthew 15:18-20a). Is there any doubt
where the problem lies?
The heart of the Body of
Christ must be healed before the world can
see that our Father sent Jesus to save them
from their destruction. Jesus prayed to
our Father: "...that they may be
one in US, that the world may believe that
You sent Me... that they may be made perfect
in one, and that the world may know that
You have sent Me, and have loved them as
You have loved Me" (John 17:21,23).
Jesus is crying out for all believers to
be healed, so the reflection of His face
can be seen on His Body by the unbelievers.
Our purpose is to glorify
our heavenly Father as the Body of Christ.
This is impossible to do when our hearts
are filled with prejudice against one another.
It could be that we embrace doctrinal differences,
instead of focusing only on the essentials
of our faith. We will be tempted to agree
with the judgments heard from the mouths
and seen upon the faces of other members
of a congregation trying to bring us into
a bond of iniquity. Often conditions are
placed on members of a congregation before
loving them. The mind of Christ takes a
stand for unconditional love. That is divine
love [Greek: agape], the bond of
perfection (Colossians 3:14).
The members of the Body
of Christ are to be willing to develop a
relationship with the other members, to
function together under the headship of
Christ as a "spiritual joint".
1 The power is in
the joint to unify and edify the Body of
Christ in love. The ligaments or bands hold
the joints in place, even under intense
pressure. The Apostle Paul teaches: "From
whom all the body, nourished and knit together
by joints and ligaments" (Colossians
2:19a). When members of the Body of Christ
experiences schisms where the joint begins
to pop out of place in their relationships,
the bond [ligament] of perfection [divine
love] will hold the joint in place (Colossians
3:14). On the other hand, if the bond of
perfection is missing, the bond of iniquity
will allow disease to enter the Body of
Christ as brothers argue and emphasize the
problem, leading to separation.
The conclusion is that
it is impossible to truly love someone if
we do not know that God loves us. I hear
members say often, "I know God loves
me!" To the contrary, if we have prejudice
in our hearts, we are left with only one
conclusion, that we do not know God's love:
"If someone says, 'I love God,
' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for
he who does not love his brother whom he
has seen, how can he love God whom he has
not seen?" (1 John 4:20).
The response is often,
"I don't hate my brother!" I respond,
"I know, but you are not loving your
brother unconditionally either." By
this time, the conversation is going in
circles, because it is evident that his
conditions for loving is hindering the flow
of God's unconditional love. Clearly, his
fear, prejudice and insecurity must be healed
by experiencing God's love, before he can
be used to demonstrate to the world that
our heavenly Father sent Jesus for their
sins.
The problem is the heart
of the Body of Christ needs mending so that
our light can "...shine before
men, that they [the unbeliever] may see
your good works and glorify your Father
in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). We
are born of God, but we are not overcoming
the world, the flesh and the devil. The
Apostle John exclaims: "For whatever
is born of God [love] overcomes
the world. And this is the victory that
has overcome the world -- our faith"
(1 John 5:4).
The solution is to settle
down and make ourselves subservient to the
Head, being spiritually minded as "spiritual
joints and ligaments", "...holding
fast to the Head... grows with the increase
that is from God [love]" (Colossians
2:19b). We are always growing in love and
in "... the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ"
(2 Peter 3:18). It could be that we need
to examine ourselves as to whether we are
in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).
As we grow in Christ, we
begin to "...seek those things
which are above, where Christ is, sitting
at the right hand of God" (Colossians
3:1,2). We see ourselves sitting with Christ
beside our heavenly Father. We take on a
whole new identity in Christ, putting off
the old man and putting on the new man of
divine love. We let the peace of God rule
our heart, the word of Christ dwelling in
our heart and giving thanks to God (Colossians
3:5-17).
1 The Headship and the Body,
Pastor Bob Hoekstra, Living
in Christ Ministries
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