Functioning Together

Have you ever just looked at the town or city that you live in and feel really small? Like, you realize how many people might be around you at that moment, and it is almost a surreal number. Then, have you ever thought about the different roles (or jobs) people have and how that also makes you feel really small. There are so many different jobs around us, and they are all important, and dare I say, necessary for survival.
 
Imagine this, you move to a small country town that only has one grocery store that everyone buys their food from. Well, if you have a decent amount of people coming in and out of that store, you need a decent amount of people to serve them in that store. But the store would not have any products if farmers did not plant their crops or if package houses did not exist, or farmers did not milk their cows. And these farmers would not have their seeds or animals if someone else didn’t harvest seeds or breed animals. Everyone depends on everyone. That’s just the way in which a town functions.
 
Maybe it’s just me, but that’s something I think about. Often.
 
The same thing goes for a group of believers.
 
“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, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” - Romans 12:4-5
 
Each member of the church, which is comprised of everyone who is a born-again believer, makes up this “one body” that Paul wrote about in Romans 12. There are many spiritual gifts that people may possess, everyone has a different gifts. Some people can be more service oriented, some more teacher oriented, or some more prayer oriented. There are many different types of gifts that God gives us, and each one of us need to work together in unity to make sure the “one body” can function properly. Without teachers of the Word, there would be no salvations because no one would understand what it was that God has done for them. Without servants there would be people who are hungry and clothless. Without prayer warriors, life would be more of a struggle because we would lose a necessary connection with Christ.
 
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” - Romans 12:16
 
Just like a town relies on everyone else in the town, so does the Body of Christ depend on all of its members. We have to be willing to work with those that we don’t necessarily like all for the Kingdom of God. We push away our pride and our comfort to be willing to do what it is that Christ calls for us to do, and we rely on the “one body” to help us along the way. And it is not always the situation in where the “one body” helps us, but we also have to be willing to step in and be that help someone needs within the Body of Christ.
 
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another,” - 1 John 4:11
 
The human body does not run because of only one organ or ligament. We cannot live with just a heart and no blood veins. God knows every cell that makes up your body and He created them to all work together in perfect unity. The hands move when the brain sends a signal for it to move. The heart pumps blood throughout your body without you purposely making your body do it. You also can breathe without having to think about it. That is the same way that a town functions or the Body of Christ functions. We all work together, but we have different tasks and roles to making one solid “body”.
 
So how are you going to help serve with the Body of Christ today?


Written by: Jesse Burnett

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