For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Romans 12:4-5 (NIV)

She rose from the chair to answer the doorbell and ended up on the floor. Her leg collapsed over her numb, sleeping foot. Her knee twisted and saved her hip, but my friend nursed her knee injury for weeks. The foot didn’t do its job, so she couldn’t reach the door and, worse, her knee suffered.

The body of Christ falters unless each of us fulfills our God-given role.

The Apostle Paul compares the community of believers to a body in which each part serves a purpose equally valuable to the body’s function. The body of Christ is only at its best when each of us makes our unique and essential contribution.

Paul tells the Corinthians:

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 of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be….
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. 1 Cor 12:16-18,21-23

God calls us to treat the janitor the same way we treat the CEO.

Paul doesn’t sugarcoat his correction to the Romans:

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. Romans 12:3-6

In our world of economic classes, races, political parties, even neighborhoods, God’s design is radical. He assigns an equally valuable purpose for each of us in the well-functioning body.

Do you feel valued? God says you are! That’s the Good News of the Gospel.

None of us can become numb or fall asleep. Wake up!

You have an important role to play in God’s Kingdom today. What purpose is God calling you to?

Read how I felt unqualified among my fellow travelers in Israel but how God created each of us as part of His masterpiece.  

#SeedsofScripture #bodyofchrist #workingtogether #yourpurpose #treatthejanitorwiththesamerespectasyouwouldgivetheceo