Meaning
"a limb of the body," is used (a) literally, Mat 1:5-30, Rom 6:13 (twice), Rom 6:19 (twice); Rom 7:5, Rom 7:23 (twice); Rom 12:4 (twice); 1Co 12:12 (twice), 1Co 12:14, 1Co 1:12-20, 1Co 12:22, 1Co 1:12-26 (twice); Jam 1:3-6, Jam 4:1; in Col 3:5, "mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;" since our bodies and their "members" belong to the earth, and are the instruments of sin, they are referred to as such (cp. Mat 1:5-30, Rom 7:5, Rom 7:23, mentioned above); the putting to death is not physical, but ethical; as the physical "members" have distinct individualities, so those evils, of which the physical "members" are agents, are by analogy regarded as examples of the way in which the "members" work if not put to death; this is not precisely the same as "the old man," Rom 7:9, i.e., the old nature, though there is a connection; (b) metaphorically, "of believers as members of Christ," 1Co 6:15 (1st part); of one another, Rom 12:5 (as with the natural illustration, so with the spiritual analogy, there is not only vital unity, and harmony in operation, but diversity, all being essential to effectivity; the unity is not due to external organization but to common and vital union in Christ); there is stress in Rom 12:5 upon "many" and "in Christ" and "members;" 1Co 12:27 (of the "members" of a local church as a body); Eph 4:25 (of the "members" of the whole Church as the mystical body of Christ); in 1Co 6:15 (2nd part), of one who practices fornication.
