Camp Calls Students to Take Part in Body of Christ
February 15, 2010
Oklahoma Baptist University students were met with a pop quiz during a chapel service Feb. 15. Promising the quiz would be the easiest of the semester, Dr. Brian Camp, professor of family science, asked students to fill in the blank of various questions. Each question's answer was "body," leading into Camp's message about the body of Christ.
Camp's address was part of Focus Week 2010. This year's Focus Week theme, "The Body of Christ," aligns with the year-long chapel theme, "Costly Illumination: Counting Everything Loss in Light of the Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ," based on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, "The Cost of Discipleship." Focus Week centers on Chapter 29 in the book which discusses the meaning of the body of Christ.
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OBU's annual Focus Week is dedicated to helping members of the OBU community strengthen relationships with one another and with God.
Camp argued it is important to study the body of Christ because Christians do not always fully comprehend exactly what it is. He described levels of understanding which signify various interpretations of the body of Christ. Camp suggested basic-level understandings are surface explanations of Christ's body, while advanced-level understandings fully grasp the meaning of taking an active part in the body of Christ.
"There is one universal body (of Christ)," said Camp. "It's never a building, it's never a business, it's never an organization in its entirety. It is a live body. And guess what? You were chosen to be a part of it."
When discussing the influence of the body of Christ, Camp pointed to multiple Scriptures in the Book of Ephesians which reveal the authority granted to Christ's body of believers.
"Where is Jesus right now?" Camp asked. "If you said in heaven, you're right. … So what did he do with his authority? He gave it to the body. We are the body. … If you start understanding the body of Christ, that we are one body, then you start understanding you also have the authority of God himself who gave it to Christ, who gave it to us. It's a great concept."
Camp emphasized that the purpose of the body of Christ is to bring glory to God. Practicing this purpose, Camp said, involves our relationships with those around us in addition to our relationship with God. He said we can love and glorify God through our love for others.
"I challenge you as OBU students to be remarkably different because you understand … you are one body," said Camp. "You must love each other in special ways, in unique ways."