Cheat Sheet #02

As you read this section, keep in mind that the New Testament is not merely a history book, it's meant to change us to become more and more like Jesus. When we read any passages in the New Testament, our goal should be to discern what God wants us to believe and do so that we can be obedient to Him.

The New Testament never says that the Bible is God's completed revelation to us, or that it contains everything we need in order to know Him and serve Him, or that God rarely speaks to anyone today other than through the Bible. These views, held by many Protestants and Baptists and other denominations, are based on several misunderstandings (see my article called All Gifts of the Spirit Are Available Today). The Bible is God's completed written revelation to us (until after the Second Coming as my article above explains), but in the passages shown in my article called How to Discern God's Guidance we're clearly told to continually listen to the Lord through the Holy Spirit within us.

Jesus is the Head and each Christian is a part of His physical body on earth. Just as your head constantly tells different parts of your body what to do, where to go, and what to say, our Head (Jesus) constantly tells different parts of His physical body what to do, where to go, and what to say. Each part of Christ's physical body (each Christian) needs to be listening to and obeying our Head because if we're not listening to Him then we're not fully obeying Him (think about it for a moment), and we'll be disciplined (perhaps severely) both in this life and in heaven (see my articles called Cheat Sheet #11, Cheat Sheet #12, and Cheat Sheet #13).

To learn how to discern what He is telling you throughout the day, every day, see my article called How to Discern God's Guidance.

Relevant passages:

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5)

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. Now if the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" (1 Corinthians 12:12-21)

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way. (1 Corinthians 12:27-31)

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:22-23)

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:23-24)

And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. (Colossians 1:18)

Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24)

The above passages show that Jesus is the Head of the body, so He communicates with all Christians, directing the activities of His physical body on earth (see my article called How to Discern God's Guidance). Are you listening to Him and obeying Him?