Christ was never decapitated, he was crucified. His head was never separated from His body so can we justify loving His body less than His head?
God wants to draw the body together in a totally new way in the coming year, we need to be in love with each other in a passionate and profound way.
We cannot say “I love Jesus” and hate ANY part of His body.
Some say the opposite of love is indifference not hate, I think that’s pretty relevant. It seems logical to me because when you’re in love with someone then it’s very difficult to take offence at them, judge them or hear judgements about them without reacting. You are simply in a state of awe every time you see them because you think they are amazing. I’m pretty certain that God sees us in this way too, through Christ’s blood. If you ask any church if they are in love with Christ, most likely the answer will most likely be, “yes of course”. If you ask that same assembly if they are in love with you or each other, chances are you’ll get some embarrassed looks and a few laughs
My point is that you can’t fall in love with the head and not the body, surely our covenant is as much with the body as it is with the head, we are at first wooed by the head before coming into communion with the body…like any marriage, but we aren’t then more in love with just the head… you don’t make love to a woman or man’s head to get the fruit of the body… you have communion with the body and you get kids, which are the fruit of love right?
So if the physical body is the analogy used by God of the spiritual body, we can’t bear spiritual children by staring into Christ’s eyes, as beautiful as that may be, we have to engage intimately with the body on some level, whatever that looks like. That having been said, encountering Christ personally and locking eyes with Him also produces fruit, because we are His body, I’m not sure how this all works but there is something about community and intimacy which produces fruit.
The upshot of all this seems to be that only this kind of love within the body will attract the world to the church. The bible says that “they” (the world) will know God is with you (the church) because of the love/unity between you. But relationship also bring healing, freedom, real unity and the intense presence of God that we all want and are seeking.
The overflow of this goes out of the body into the world, but unity and love is not in the body how will it overflow? I believe God is literally in love with His creation and wants us to be also, because it reflects who He is and the very way He Loves.
1 John 3:14-15 states “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him”.
We love, we live. We don’t, we die.