May 22

Many Members But One Body

body_of_christ

Discrimination is a natural tendency among the morally depraved. The attitude of laying claim to superiority over others is a common feature in the world. Sometimes, the Church allows such vice to creep into it unnoticed.

 

This was the tendency Apostle Paul was rebuking in the Corinthian Church.

“Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

 

He explained that “for as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body …whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12 verses 12,13). Paul decried the attitude of some members of the body who assume a superior posture in their dealings with others.

 

He could not see any reason for pride and arrogance as he noted that “those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness” ((1 Corinthians 12 verse 23).

 

Every Christian is, as it were, a subset of the whole set. There is need for all the subsets to function in harmonious relationship, to avoid working at cross-purposes with the demands of unity and charity clearly emphasized by the Lord.

 

The gifts of God in us are not for vain-glory and showmanship. They are to complement other gifts in other believers to edify the Church. Our virtues and personal characteristics must be tailored to make the body strong and functional and our prime mandate (evangelism) realizable.

 

The enduring lesson for all is the need to avoid the damnable spirit of strife and discrimination. God has put us in the Body as He wished.

 

None needs to feel inferior or superior to the other. We are to complement one another for the edification of the whole body of Christ.

 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Share, care, bear and forbear for the good of all.

 

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