Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 1; 1 Corinthians 12; Ezekiel 10; Psalm 49
1 Corinthians 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
The body of Christ is made up of many members. There are many people who are believers yet they are not a part of a local church. How can you be a member of the body and be apart from the body? Just imagine if one day when you woke up and decided to get out of bed your leg decided to stay there. Your body would not function properly and your leg would not be a part of the body. The body of Christ is made up of many different people who all come together and worship together as a church.
With this thought in mind we can see that God does not intend for us all to be the same. We are different and that is part of God’s glorious plan! Look at your body for a moment. You have eyes, ears, arms, teeth, legs, toes, etc. The body of Christ has all kinds of people with different manifestations of the Spirit of God working in their lives. These different parts are put together by God.
1 Corinthians 12:18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
The church is made up of the members that God has placed there because it pleases him. Now think of your church. Do you fellowship with the people you go to church with? Do you gather together with them regularly knowing that God has placed you in their midst because it pleases him? Are you there because you know that God has placed you there? Do you see your church as a body that functions with you as a part and that you need all the other parts as much as they need you?
1 Corinthians 12:25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
A schism is a division. God does not want a division in the body. He wants for us to care one for another. He does not want rival factions seeking to gain their way but he wants a body that is healthy and is led by the head – Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:18 And he[Jesus] is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
With Christ as the head all the members will be receiving the same leadership and we will be one! What a blessing to be a part of a local body of Christ. Thank God for your church! They need you and you need them!
In Christ,
Rody
