There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in 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 you all. Ephesians 4:4-6 There is just one body of Christ. There’s not a multitude of bodies. Jesus is the head. On our human body, you can see some of its parts, but some of them you can’t. Some parts of our body are vitally important and some are not. We can survive without some parts. I have had a kidney, my thyroid, and half of one lung removed. I am still able to function even though those members of my human body are now missing. Yet, God didn’t make my body this way in the beginning. It is important to see the unity of the whole body of Christ.
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? 1 Corinthians 12:14-17
In the body of Christ, we give honor even to those parts that seem unimportant. Our toe doesn’t do what our finger does. Our ear doesn’t do what our foot does. We don’t deliberately hurt our own fleshly body. We don’t take a hammer and smash our thumb on purpose. We also don’t want to deliberately hurt one another in the body of Christ.
But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. 1 Corinthians 12:18 God sets the members in the body. None of us can do it. If we try, it will not work. There’s no way we can personally graft someone into the body of Christ. If God sees something in our life that doesn’t please him, he will prune it with a scripture, in our devotions, or a message that we hear at church. It is God’s job to prune, not ours. God will give a message to the pastor and God will show us what to prune from our own heart. He wants us to grow like him and have his attributes.
For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 1 Corinthians 12:24-25 We need to care and pray for one another. Not one is more important than another.
Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. John 10:25-30 If we want to stay in the body, we must love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. If we want to do our own thing and go our own way, God will not keep us from doing that but we will be taken out. If we are not following Christ, we will never be kept. To be a part, there has to be a heart change. We have to want to stay a part of the body and want to stay saved. |
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