Have you ever played a team sport and experienced the dependency of one on the other? Have ever been part of a brotherhood or sisterhood that was very tight with one another? What is your experience in the church? Is it like that? Do you think it should be like that?
Many of us have played team sports or been a part of a team in some way or another. It is fun when everyone on the team is pulling for one another and encouraging one another. The game is a joy. We like that atmosphere. We want to be in that environment for the rest of our lives.
I remember being in my first unit as a Marine. Our platoon was tight. Oh, we picked on and teased one another. We might even get into a heated argument or fight. But no one outside the platoon was allowed to pick on someone within our platoon. It didn’t matter how mad we might have been with a platoon member the day before, we stood up for them. It was a brotherhood.
Our churches are to be the same way. Sure, we might disagree on something from time-to-time. We might not like the way someone acts. We might not agree on the color the nursery wall needs to be painted. We might not even agree on a particular viewpoint of Scripture. But we are to stand solidly shoulder-to-shoulder with our brother and sister in Christ.
The Apostle Paul is trying to get this point across to the church in Rome. He used the analogy of body parts, but the meaning is the same. Each of us fits into the body of Christ with gifts and graces. Those gifts and graces are needed for the body to function well. Our feet meet not be pretty, but we aren’t going far without them. We may have dirt under our fingernails, but that simply means we have been working. Every body part is needed. Every member is needed. Every member needs to use their gifts for the body to function as God desires.
I pray we all know we are needed. I pray we set aside differences to support one another. I pray each one of us will use our gifts to help the body of Christ function as it should. Know you are needed. Tell someone they are needed. Be thankful for brothers and sisters in Christ. Use your gifts as God desires.
Romans 12:4-5 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.
Marty Pressey 