Serving Together as the Body of Christ
1 Corinthians 12
by Rev Jackie Stoneman
Have you ever had the experience of working with other people and it worked really well?
You were appreciated and valued, and you did the same for others. You couldn’t have achieved what you did on your own. You needed others and they needed you.
That’s part of God’s vision for the Church. A place where we really belong because Jesus died so that we could belong now to Him and His people. However, it is more than that. The opening verses of 1 Corinthians 12 reminds us that God has gifted us all differently through His Holy Spirit. He has different parts for us to play in the life of His Church, yet we are all serving Him. God is at work in us and through us.
When you think about what God has done it is truly amazing. I find it totally awe inspiring that God would want us in relationship with Him when we have all turned away from Him in one form or another. Yet God’s plan was fulfilled to rescue us and adopt us as His Children through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And if that is not enough now we have the privilege of belonging to the Body of Christ – His Church and to play our part in fulfilling God’s purposes in the world together! It really is amazing!
One of the challenges is to really take on board what Paul reminds the Corinthians and us about in relation to one another. We may all be different, and have different parts to play, but we are all one in Christ. We need to work that out in our relationships with one another.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 Paul demonstrates how vital each member of the body is and therefore how vital each member of the Church is. We are not to devalue people who are different, or we see them as unimportant.
The reality for us as we live as the Body of Christ in this broken world, forgiven yet still struggling with sin, is that we can behave in ways that do not honour God. We can also be the recipient of other people’s bad behaviour and it hurts. We can end up dismissing other people and never trying to see a different perspective. Our hurt can be so deep that we totally withdraw from trying to relate or serve in any way.
As we approach Easter and remember again the incredible love God has for each person and the lengths that He has gone to make it possible for us to belong, lets re-examine our attitude to others and ask the Lord to show us how He sees people. Perhaps we need to let go of judgements that we might be holding about others and ask the Lord to help us see people in a different light.
If we have been hurt let’s remember that our Lord does understand the pain of rejection. May I encourage you to find a couple of safe people to share your pain with and consider some small steps to reconnect with God’s people in fellowship and service.
What would it look like for all of us to know that we really belong, to recognise God at work in our lives and to work together to serve our Lord?