Members of a Body

We are members comprising the body of Messiah, correct? A body is made of cells. Each cell has a particular use, a particular function related to the tissue that it forms. Liver cells, for example, perform a function of removing toxins from the body. In addition, every cell has a function of reproducing itself, called mitosis, to enable the tissue to grow and remain healthy.

The commandments in the Torah are our function as members of the body. The great commission (the instruction to raise up many disciples) is our cellular mitosis, our replication.

Now let's say we modify a cell in the body, stripping from it its tissue-related function, and direct its full productive capacity into mitosis, to copying itself over and over. But instead of making copies of productive, useful cells, these copies are nothing but empty shells that have no goal but further replication. This condition is known as cancer.

And so we carry out the commandments because it is our purpose to do so, and because they make us healthy as well as the other people in our families and societies.

If we remove that function and focus entirely on making nominal followers, then we are simply doing more harm than good.