Answer: The church is Christ's body, (verse
24).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
1 Corinthians 12:12-27: "The body
is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its
parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For
we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews
or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit
to drink.
"Now the body is not made up of one part but of
many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand,
I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason
cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say,
"Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,'
it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If
the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If
the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell
be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every
one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all
one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many
parts, but one body.
"The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need
you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't
need you!' On the contrary, those parts of the body
that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we
think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts
that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our
presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined
the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts
that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body,
but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is
honored, every part rejoices with it.
"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is
a part of it."
Ephesians 5:23: "For the husband is
the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body,
of which He is the Savior."
Ephesians 5:25-30: "Husbands, love
your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for
her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water
through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant
church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and
blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their
wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves
himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he
feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--for we
are members of His body."
See again Colossians 1:18 and Colossians
1:24.
