51 years ago, a man by the name of Arthur Lampitt of Granite City, Missouri, crashed his 1963 Thunderbird into a truck. The accident broke Arthur’s hip, which turned the doctor’s attention away from his arm that was impaled by the 7-inch turn signal lever from his car. The man experienced little pain in his arm, and the lever went unnoticed. About 10 years ago he set off a metal detector at a courthouse, and an X-ray showed the object in his arm. Doctors told the man to let it be since it wasn’t causing discomfort.

While moving concrete blocks several weeks ago, Arthur experienced pain and swelling in his arm. He decided to finally remove the foreign object from his body. He found that, even after the accident 51 years previous, part of his treasured Thunderbird remained with him.

As Christians, we are a part of a spiritual body with Christ as it’s head (cf. Ephesians 1:22-23). “He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12). This edification allows us to have a defense against “the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” (Ephesians 4:15).

There will be some who will seek to bring in doctrine that is foreign to Christ, and for that reason does not belong. The church has the grave responsibility of contending for the faith, and doing away with such men (cf. Jude 3-4). Left unnoticed, and unattended to, this false doctrine will fester, and spread. Of false doctrine, and those who teach it, the apostle Paul says, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9). We must not tolerate false doctrine, or those who teach it, lest it spread and cause harm to the body.

Arthur Lampitt made the mistake of ignoring the foreign object in his arm. Had he extracted it at first notice he would have avoided further problems. The same can be said concerning the Lord’s body, and false doctrine. Jesus has been clear about what things edify the church, and what things tear it down. We must have the presence of mind to encourage the former, and repudiate the latter.