I Corinthians 12: 12-27
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
All the members of the church make up one body, with Christ as the head. The one Spirit in all of us makes us one body.
My physical body is alive with a spirit of life in it. Your body is also alive with a spirit of life in it, but not the same as my spirit of life, because you have a different body than I have.
God's Spirit is in all of us, one Spirit, making us all one body, spiritually.
For the body is not one member, but many.
Just as your physical body is made up of many different body-parts, so is Christ's spiritual, mystical body.
If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
Hands are very handy, and someone who is not handy may think that they don't have a place because they aren't handy. But feet are needed, too, to go somewhere.
And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
An ear cannot see, so it may think it's useless. But we also need to hear the beautiful music.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
We all need different sensibilities, and when we look at one another and envy the ability someone else has, then we are ignoring our own ability, robbing the body of the sense God gave us. So our local body ends up blind or deaf.
But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
God has decided which people would be in which congregation, using our own desires and personalities to round out the characters of our churches. We need to follow His leading in joining the local church which suits us.
If they were all one member, where would the body be?
If everybody were the same in a congregation, it would not be a healthy body.
But now they are many members, but one body.
So we are to have many different people in each local church, to round out the good spiritual health of the body, and to do all the things God means for the church to accomplish for His Kingdom.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you;" or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
So one member of a church should never say to another, "You don't fit in here," because maybe that particular congregation needs that one there.
I think that our different congregations have different "personalities" because we are too particular about the kind of people we want to associate with in our churches. This is not right. God places the members into the body, and we are not to override His choices.
On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable,
whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,
so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
All our differences can be irritating to one another, but if we allow those irritations to become divisions, then we are outside God's will for us.
We are to love one another with a sacrificial love. We don't necessarily have to like one another. But when we see one another with the acceptance and compassion of Christ's Love for us, and act accordingly, then we will find ourselves coming to like them, too. Our feelings will always eventually catch up to our wills, when we decide to do what is right, even when it's uncomfortable.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
If you stub your toe, you are miserable until it heals. And when you get new glasses, you revel in all the clarity you can see now. One toe or one sense of sight affects our whole disposition.
The body of Christ is no different. When we are behaving ourselves, seeing the way God sees, and understanding with His mind, this will cause our spiritual health as His body to be vibrant, and we will do His will in fulfilling His plan.
Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.
We need to remember this, and keep it in mind in all of our interactions with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
O my Father, thank You for Your wisdom and compassion in putting us into the congregations where we are needed to provide the hands and feet and eyes and ears and hearts and spleens and all the other body parts each local church needs to be spiritually healthy, to accomplish everything You have planned for each one to fulfill.
Father, our cities are too populated to have only one local church, but we have so many congregations that some are at an extreme without realizing that they are blind or deaf or without the ability to do something that You have determined is necessary. They are spiritually inept or ill in some way or other. Father, show the leadership of these churches what needs to be healed, so that they will seek Your ministrations as their Great Physician.
Father, may all Your children seek Your face and Your ways, daily, and even moment-to-moment. We desperately need You for healing in so many ways.
Father, strengthen each of us individually, and our congregations corporately, so that we will be prepared to face all that You have told us is to precede the coming of our Lord and King; which I believe will be very soon, sooner than we expect.
Help us all to be looking for Your coming, and working toward the Day when every person alive will have heard Your Good News and made an informed decision whether to accept or reject Your gracious offer.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim the Lordship and Kingship of Jesus the Son, to the glory of God the Father.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
