Your church needs you - Part 2
15th January 2010
Last week we looked at a passage from Hebrews Chapter 10, focussing on the need to continue to meet with other Christians, because we can help and encourage them, and they can help and encourage us. As may of us have experienced, Christians can also be hurt and discouraged in church, and can drift away from church. This is so very sad, and my sympathy goes out to people in that situation. But we DO need each other.
A powerful Biblical picture of the church is the body of Christ. Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven, and so his actual body is seated at the right hand of the Father, but the church is Christ's body on Earth. Paul writes:
1 Corinthians 12v12-13
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.
So it is with Christ.
For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all
given the one Spirit to drink.
So we are all ONE, whether we like it or not. Because we are one body, we need each other.
And God has organised us into local churches, and each of us is a vital part of our local church:
1 Corinthians 12v14-20
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason
cease to be part of the body.
And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that
reason cease to be part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where
would the sense of smell be?
But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
We can make a mistake in reading this. Paul talks about eyes and ears and hands, and so we may think about this passage in terms of having special abilities, such as gifts of "seeing" (discerning spirits, or wisdom, perhaps) or "hearing" (prophesy, perhaps) or "doing" (maybe some area of practical service). And it is true that God gives us all special gifts, if we will receive them. As Paul said a few verses earlier:
1 Corinthians 12v7
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
And Paul then lists some spiritual gifts, such as word of wisdom and prophesy. But our gifts are not the point of verses 14-20, which we just read. For a start, many of us have more than one gift. The correct way to understand Paul's analogy of the body is not to say that we are merely the special ability that God has given us. The point is this:
You yourself are a part of the body, not because of some gift God has given you, but because of who you are
You are not merely a container for some spiritual gift (or gifts). Spiritual gifts are wonderful. But you are more wonderful than your gifts. You are not a vital part of the body because you can prophesy, or speak in tongues, or sort out the church finances, or lead Sunday School. You are a vital part of the body of Christ because you're YOU. And your church needs you. Even if you don't feel needed, or valuable, you are.
Paul says in verse 27:
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
If you are a Christian, this includes you.