Purity and Singularity of the Whole:
The body whole may be viewed as a glass of water, complete and contained. Do you drink it or throw it out? If there are no contaminants, the water is one thing. If that one thing is only water, drink it. If someone should put a drop of ink in the water, it is no longer just one thing. Throw it out. Purity, or singularity, is precious. Purity holds a special place in our estimation of value and worth. If we filter out the drop of ink from the pure water, the water may be salvaged. Even if we could only save half of the water, we could incorporate that half and not be forced to discard the whole. Many lives have been spared by the amputation of a damaged or corrupt part. Diabetics are often faced with the prospect of amputation. In other words, cast off the bad part and save the rest.
This has a spiritual application. Cast off the part that corrupts the whole. Down through the ages, people have been told to repent because a part of their nature and behavior is corrupting all the rest. If you, as a member of a society, spread disease to others, society at large might ask you to change your behavior. Should that plea fall on deaf ears, society might rise up and destroy you. Cancers are destroyed, tumors are removed. The thought behind such actions is to save what can be saved. Such actions presume that the corruption has gone too far. Enough is enough. The concept of save what you can is clearly seen in Matthew 18:9 “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” See also Mark 9:47 “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.”
I want to bring up the language of these two verses. There is 'life' and its opposite and there is 'the kingdom of God' and its opposite. Both opposites are the same. Comparatively, life and the kingdom of God are the same. Life may not be found exclusively in the body as the body dies. Therefore, life must be seen as an entity that continues past the termination of flesh. Life is spiritual. All of us possess spiritual life before our bodies perish. In our attempt to save what may be saved, we cast out spiritual corruption. It is not the physical eye that is offensive, it is the mind's eye that offends and corrupts when it turns from what is evidently right to accept what is clearly wrong.
In our life experience, we are aware that the whole consists of both right and wrong, both good and bad. In society, there are good and bad people. The good have subscribed to the body whole. They treasure what is right and reject what is wrong. They are sheep that listen to the Shepherd's voice. The bad people have been asked to change their behavior, but that plea has fallen on deaf ears. Therefore, what awaits the bad people, as a corrupt and unwanted part of the body whole, is the moment when the body whole rises up to destroy them. The following Bible verses lay out this truth plainly and should be compared to the verses about the offensive eye. Matthew 24:40 “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” Matthew 24:41 “Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
Those two verses were written in the context of war. Those two verses do not describe a 'rapture.' People are not taken up into the air. The 'taken' in those two verses are people who are killed during war. The descriptions of double efforts in the fields and women gathered in essential labors are reminiscent of wartime occupations. We find in Luke 17:34 what may be a reference to prisoners in a concentration camp. “I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.”
There is another verse that may be compared to the verses about the offensive eye that must be taken out. Matthew 25:29 “For unto every one that hath shall be given, he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath.” Matthew 25:29 is a verse that obliquely references that time when society will rise up to amputate from its body those members that corrupt. I would give the warning, “people, listen!” But, the people that I would warn already refuse to hear.
The body whole has its language, and the adherents speak the message. That message is continuity, completion, purity, singularity. Despite having deaf ears, the other lot, the corruptive members, also have a message, and they speak it loudly. That message is “MY WILL! MY CHOICE!” Clearly, there is a winner and a loser in the battle of the messengers. It is plainly laid out in Matthew 5:19 “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
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