A really nice table saw may cost between $500 and $2000. I do not know what my grandfather originally paid for his saw, but about 1967 it almost cost him two fingers. He was trying to rip a board when something slipped and he sliced the first two fingers of his left hand – severing them almost completely. [That much is true; the rest is parable.]
For years people had been telling him that they could keep the slightest of connections to the body of Christ and still manage to remain spiritually alive. So, my grandfather decided to test the claim. He asked the doctor to just stem the bleeding, but not to bother reconnecting the fingers to his hand. After all, if members can remain spiritually healthy while barely participating in the life of Christ’s body, why couldn’t two of the members of his physical body remain healthy while disconnected almost completely from his body?
His fingers died, of course. His body suffered for the loss of those fingers, of course. But it was a noble experiment and it proved what everyone should have known, that the health of a member always depends on the close connection of that member to the body.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (1 Corinthians 12:27, ESV).
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned (John 15:4-6, ESV).
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