Body Language

Ephesians 4:15-16 “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

Ephesians 4:25-32 “Therefore, ridding yourselves of falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are parts of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. The one who steals must no longer steal; but rather he must labor, producing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but if there is any good word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

What is body language? Body language is a range of nonverbal signals that you can use to communicate your feelings and intentions. These include your posture, facial expressions, and hand gestures. Simply put, the way in which one’s body moves, communicates one’s feelings & intentions before a single word has been spoken.

Since we first began to classify the various forms of communication, it has been understood that what we DO can be just as- if not more powerful- than what we SAY. In fact, when someone says something, but their body language says somethning else, we tend to “listen” to the body, because it is more difficult to deceive with your actions than it is to deceive with your words.

The Bible is quite descriptive regarding specific body functions. One of the most poignant examples is in Proverbs 6:16-18:

“There are six things that the Lord hates, Seven that are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,”

Here, specific actions are atributed to body parts, as though they had a will of their own. Because, as it relates to the Body of Christ and the “body” of those who have not yet been grafted into the body, our “parts” do have a will of their own.

So, I don’t believe it’s any accident that the Bible so often speaks of the church as the “body” of Christ and of Christ as the “head” of the body. The only problem with pushing the metaphor too far is that, in the case of the church, the body cannot destroy the brain by its disobedience—though it can certainly cause itself to asphyxiate or become disabled. You see, the Presence of God in the Holy Spirit provides the “oxygen” or “breath of life” for the church as the “body” and Christ doesn’t need us to get that “oxygen” because Christ participates in that “breath of life” through the miracle of the Trinity. So, we can’t stop the flow of Spirit/oxygen/breath to the head. We can just fill up the rest of the body with the carbon-dioxide of Sin. Our spiritual dietary habits and lack of spiritual exercise can make us sluggish and unresponsive to the head, but we don’t endanger the head—just ourselves.

The Body of Christ has had a communication problem. With our words, we typically covey the core tenents of the Gospel- love, hope, reconcilliation with God through Christ- but our actions fall short of this. Paul’s words tot he Ephesians provide us with some steps to correcting this incongruence in our word/body communication.

Stick to the “truth diet”- you’ve heard me reference Eph 4:15 before” “Speak the truth in love.” You cannot be truthful without being loving, nor loving without be truthful. You can certainly try; but I would argue that in doing so eith your truth will be false, or your love will- or both. Paul’s admonition to the church in Ephasus was to iunderstand that each part of the body is meant to perform a specific function, and that each part is dependent on the others. And the healthiness of the whole body is dependent on our adherence to the truth. Not our opinions; not our preferences; but the truth as revealed in the Word of God, and in the Person of Jesus Christ. Psalms 119:160 “The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments is everlasting.”

We must work on the Body before the Body gets to work! Eph 4:16 says, “the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” It’s time for us to turn inwardly- look to your brothers & sisters; speak to them, pray with them, fellowship & rebuild your connections, the way a body builder rebuilds muscles. If we’re going to run this race together, we need to get back into shape. My left leg can’t be too much stronger than my right- I need to find a way to build it up and support it. I won’t run far carrying too much weight (the weight of sin, even too many good things can weigh us down). We need to "rid ourselves of every obstacle (wieght) and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith” Heb 12:1-2 . We need to “workout” our issues by speaking the truth to each other as Paul says in Eph 4:25. And wehn conflicts arise- and they will- “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” Deal with it- don’t let it fester and “give the devil an opportunity” (Eph 4:26-27).

The world won’t receive the message from the “Head” if the Body language says somethnig else. This is the whole point of this simple message: we must ork so that our deeds match our words. This is why James says in James 2:18 “But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.””

I want to include my message today with an important admonition: we must seek the Lord to understand our place, our function in his body. I once heard a story from a Baptist pastor named Ron Dunn. It was something that my daughter Gabrielle said to me that helped me make the connection of that story to this message.

Dunn’s parable suggested that once upon a time there was a body where the eyes convinced all of the other parts of the body that the gift of SIGHT was the only important gift. They admitted that there were other gifts, but they ranked all of them below SIGHT and wanted all of those in leadership positions within the church to have SIGHT. What’s more, they couldn’t admit that SIGHT was only the right gift for those whom God had called to be eyes. They insisted that if all of the other body parts and organs were really, really spiritual enough and beseeched God enough, they could have the gift of SIGHT, too. They scheduled prayer meetings for the other organs and body parts to pray through for SIGHT. They scheduled training courses on “Learning to See.”

Now in that same body, there were some toes which had low self-esteem. They didn’t understand that God had given them the gift of BALANCE. They didn’t understand that even though they were often hidden and were never given any praise, God had called them to the vital ministry of BALANCE. They felt guilty that their gift couldn’t do more. They felt like they weren’t spiritual enough. So, they prayed and prayed, begging God to give them the gift of SIGHT. And since this is only a story where body parts act like people, I can say that God eventually gave in. Even though God knew the toes didn’t need this gift, God gave them the gift of SIGHT. And do you know what they saw? They saw the inside of a sock.

It is important that we remember that just as God has created each part of the body to perform a specific and unique function, so has he called each and everyone of us to perform a specific and unique function in his body as well. When we fail to understand this, we will not see our full potential as His Body, and we deprive the body of something that it needs. Your function in the body maybe the answer To the earnest prayer of another part of the body. It’s time that we communicate, and act as one. It’s time for a body language to conform to the spoken message of the gospel.