Worship Matters, The Collective Identity of the Church, Part 2

In my last post, The Collective Identity of the Church, Part 1, I introduced to you the idea that the members of the Christian Church must understand ourselves not as individuals, but each as part of the collective reality of the Church. I emphasized that we must surrender our need for individual identity and validation and adopt instead the collective identity of the church. 

Today I want to connect the claims I made in that post with Biblical evidence of the Church's identity as the particular and set-apart people of God, making connections between the New Testament Church and the Old Testament people of Israel and exploring the imagery of the Church as a Body. I want to help you see the collective nature of our identity, and the importance of living into that collective identity.

1 Peter 2:4-10—The Church and OT Israel

In his first epistle, the Apostle Peter provides a solid foundation for the Church’s understanding of its identity as a collective entity. The recipients of the letter were believers who had been scattered throughout the region of Asia Minor and subjected to various trials and tribulations, and were questioning the Gospel and their inclusion in the Church. Peter wrote in order to establish and affirm these believers' self-understanding as the people of God, with this being the dominant theme of 1 Peter 2:4-10. The believers needed to remember who they were. The imagery used in this text, particularly in verses nine and ten, points back to the collective identity of the Jewish people as the chosen nation of Israel and ties the identity of the Church to the identity of Israel in significant ways.

Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” The connection to Exodus 19:5-6 is obvious, even with only a quick glance at the Old Testament text: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…” Any in Peter’s audience who were Jewish in their spiritual and national heritage would have heard those descriptors—chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, and special possession—and would have immediately made the association with the Mosaic covenant, with God’s setting apart of the Israelite nation for a particular and holy purpose. Peter’s use of this imagery asserts that “the Christian Church has now inherited the peculiar character and privileges of Israel.”(1)  Namely, they would have understood that the Church as a collective whole was the holy, set-apart people of God. 

Paul's teaching in Galatians chapters three and four reinforces Peter's claim that the Church is the continuation of the people of Israel. In these chapters, Paul describes the Law (i.e., the Mosaic Law) as the “guardian” over the children of Israel, given to provide instruction and training until the time was right for Israel to receive the inheritance as fully adopted sons (and daughters). This adoption was accomplished through the redemption of Christ, and Paul addresses the believers in Galatia as those who have received the inheritance.

In this text, Paul uses imagery of childhood and immaturity. Galatians 4:3 says, “…when we were underage…” or “when we were children,” communicating the idea of an underage person who can’t make decisions for himself or herself because they lack the maturity and the authority to do so. This “minor”—i.e., Israel—was still in need of the supervision and care of the guardian. However, by the redemptive work of Christ, this underage heir was brought into fullness of maturity and with that maturity came the full inheritance of sonship.  This “heir” is now known as the Church.  The essential identity of the people has not changed; it has only grown into its mature realization through the power of Christ.

The Body of Christ

The next piece that needs to be connected is the imagery Paul uses multiple times to depict the New Testament Church, which is that of a body. It is common among Christians to refer to the Church universal as "the body of Christ," and it is not unusual even for an individual congregation to refer to itself as the "local body." It is an image that we are so accustomed to using, though, that I fear we've become blind to what it actually represents.

Paul briefly utilizes the image of a body in reference to the church in his letters to the Romans, Ephesians, and Colossians, but it is in his first letter to the Corinthians that he provides the most detailed application. First Corinthians 12:12-14 reads, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” The image continues through the end of chapter twelve, discussing the role and value of the distinct aspects of the body, but also reminding the readers that even with those distinctions, the body functions as a whole. 

As a body, the Church as a whole is meant to function as if it is itself an individual, not as a collection of individuals. Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls this the “collective person,”(2)  and describes how this type of community has an identity distinct from the identities of the individuals who form it. The identity of the “collective person” of the Church is two-fold: First, it was and has always been the reality revealed by God.  God created the Church as a communal (a.k.a. collective) reality from the beginning. Second, the Church is specifically identified as the “Body of Christ.” This insinuates much more than membership in a group of people for whom faith in Christ is a common denominator. Bonhoeffer takes the image a step further, claiming that the identity of the “collective person” of the Church is that of Christ himself. “Bonhoeffer asserted that from the sinful individuals who comprise this assembly God forges a new creation that constitutes the collective person, Jesus Christ…Christ existing in the form of church-community.”(3) The identity of the Church, as a “collective person,” is Christ himself revealed in the here and now. 

Paul uses this collective image of the body to represent the Church in order to move believers’ understanding of their own identity away from one of individual autonomy and toward the reality that they are now part of this wonderful and singular identity. Each individual has value and place within the collective body, but that value is intricately connected to their inclusion in the body. Individual identity is secondary to corporate identity.  Paul exhorts believers to recognize that every element of the body is necessary and desired so that no one part is excluded or cut off by another. Wrapped in this message is an exhortation for today’s Church to understand themselves in light of the whole body and to stop acting in ways that inadvertently amputate themselves from it. 

Why It Matters

Maybe you're wondering why this conversation even matters. Why is it so important that Christ followers understand themselves in light of the entire Body rather than as one of the individuals who comprises that body? What's the big deal?

The significance of this conversation lies in the fact that an improper understanding of identity shifts our understanding of the Gospel itself, moving it drastically off-center. An individualistic view of self narrows our view of God's salvation, puts constraints and limitations on His goodness and mercy, and replaces Jesus with "self" as the main character in God's story. 

These repercussions of individualism should be sobering enough on their own, but they produce additional consequences that are just as grievous. When God's people view themselves only as individuals and neglect the collective nature of our identity, we become our own roadblock to fulfilling the purpose and calling of the Church. We become entangled in ourselves and our own affairs, and fail to live out the Good News of Christ in and for the world. We cannot "act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God" if we are primarily focused on ourselves and the way Christ benefits us.

What we believe—about ourselves, about God, and about the Church—matters. 

In my next post, I will explore these implications of individualism more thoroughly and share with you why I am so passionate about shifting our perspective toward a collective mindset.

Until next time, grace and peace to you and yours.

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1. E.G. Selwyn. The First Epistle of St Peter, (New York: Macmillan & Co, 1955), 278.

2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church, ed. Clifford J. Green, trans. Reinhard Krauss and Nancy Lukens (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1998), 103-105. 

3. Craig L. Nessan, “What If the Church Really is the Body of Christ?,” Dialog: A Journal of Theology 51, no. 1 (2012): 45.