You Are The Body

 

When I write dear “church”, I’m not writing to a building or to a certain group of leaders. I’m writing to individual followers of Jesus who collectively make up the body of Christ, the church. Paul puts it this way, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27). 

 

While there are many things to appreciate about a free market economy, it can skew our view of the church. If we’re not mindful, it’s easy to think of church like a grocery store. In the same way we shop at the grocery to meet our physical needs, we shop for a church to meet our spiritual needs. It may sound harsh, but the church does not exist to meet our needs. Rather, the church exists to meet the needs of the world. The wonderful thing is however, that God meets our needs in the body of Christ (the church) as we lock arms together in mutual love for God’s purposes in the world. Did you miss yesterday’s message? You can watch the entire Sunday worship service on our YouTube channel, or listen to the sermon here.

 

A great way to begin discovering your place in the body of Christ is by taking a spiritual gifts inventory. Try this one from the United Methodist Church. 

Who Gets to Belong?

Some members of the New Testament church at Corinth felt like they didn’t belong because of their differences. Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 12:12-20 that the church is “One body with many parts.” Just because we’re different, Paul asserts, doesn’t mean we don’t belong.

I talk to a lot of people who feel like they don’t “belong” these days. Because of their differences on politics, race, or culture they feel like they no longer fit in at their workplace, school, or even in their own family. Sadly, the church is not immune to this trend. We have a lot of differences pulling us apart.

And this is precisely what the Devil wants!

The Evil One’s scheme is to cripple the Body of Christ with division. His ploy is to separate, isolate, and divide. He knows that when the Body of Christ isn’t working together in all its parts, it is benign and ineffective. In contrast, the Holy Spirit of the resurrected Christ calls us out of our “partial and piecemeal lives… into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything.” (The Message, 1 Cor 12:13). The Devil divides, but the Holy Spirit mends. The Devil tears us apart, but the Holy Spirit puts us together.

If you missed yesterday’s message, you can listen to it here.