Do You Feel Connected to Christ’s Spirit?
Good Morning Friends,
We as members of our local churches and we as members of the Church Universal need to rejoice and encourage other believers that the Body of Christ takes form when we exist to serve others. The experience does not revolve around individual diversity, and yet acknowledges that we are all still vital pieces of the picture. We are nudged to acknowledge that God is in charge and has designed changes in all of our lives to bring us closer to Him…that out of personal transformation comes unity that makes it possible to grow in fellowship. So today we explore how unity of the puzzle is formed in love…the love of family. Do You Feel Connected to Christ’s Spirit?
Scripture: For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (NRSV)
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, ‘When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.’ (When it says, ‘He ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:1-16 (NRSV)
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,
Philippians 2:5–7 (NRSV)
Message: In today’s scripture Paul uses the analogy of the body to describe the Church that I believe should be interpreted through the eyes of a family that has matured in the faith. He makes the amazing claim that we, the called out Assembly of God, are the Body of Christ, and so too part of a Holy Family. Just as each of our individual body parts has each of us in common, so too, the “Church” has Christ and a spiritual family with brothers and sisters. Without that focus…that Spirit… we are just severed body parts…we are a broken family. Paul makes more than 30 references to the body of Christ and I think he uses this because though imperfect, our physical bodies do have diverse parts that are joined together into a recognizable identity. The body has the unique ability that, when functioning in unity, can both touch and cry in compassion for another. Indeed the human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body. So if one part hurts, the whole body hurts. If one part loves, the whole body loves. So it is with the body and family of Christ when we serve His purposes. A family like the church reaches out and cares its members. A family like the church is designed to be unified in adversity. A family like the church is be unified to facilitate the spiritual transformation of its members. And here we hopefully learn the hardest lesson we have in life… discovering how to love… learning to be loved… learning that God and love cannot be separated. Friends, the measure of our life is how we mature in a love that links Jesus and God in a unity that brings us to our knees at the foot of the cross. Here the gentle chords of love eternal bind our hearts and hurts with His amazing healing. In this place of pain and pure love, of life and death, we hear the loving and ironic words whispered in our ear… I love you and have taken up residence in your home as my temple and here with hope and with patience and with kindness… help you to learn to share the easy burden… the personal, proven, perfecting and preserving, perpetual love and conscience of Jesus.
Pray that all the tongues, feet, uplifted hands and the eyes and ears of the body work in harmony. Pray that we realize that God did not make us identical at the first birth, nor did He make us identical in our second birth. Pray that we face the paradox of being so dramatically different and still maintain our unity. Pray that we have the same goal. Pray that we care for one another. Pray that we encourage the body. Pray that we would live worthy of our calling… to one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God who is over all, through all in and in all. Pray on the journey that we learn to be humble, gentle and patient in fellowship, and through the seasons of life learn new ways of service and love in our family and church. Pray we are willing to risk enough to change and be transformed so we might be one.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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