When describing someone we know very well to a friend or acquaintance, we generally list any number of characteristics that define or set that person apart. Our goal is to paint a word picture of who that person is, and is not, and we use their defining characteristics to do so.

Paul the Apostle took this approach when speaking of and to the Church—the body of Christ. His writings overflow with characteristics that define and describe the miracle God has given birth. His use of the personal pronoun “you” in his letters to the churches is almost always plural—that is, of and directed to the collective, corporate, community that is God’s family and dwelling on the earth. And while what he said was to particular portions of God’s people in the past, we know that how he spoke of the body of Christ has immediate and broad application to God’s entire family today because we are all one in Christ and in one another; then, now and forever.

What you'll find at the links below is just this: from each of Paul’s letters to the churches, a listing of the characteristics he used to describe the body of Christ—and by extension the personal identity for all who are part of that body.

If you find yourself reading a Who We Are and saying to yourself, “That’s not me! That’s not who I am,” may I humbly suggest, if you are indeed Christ’s, that Paul would disagree?