The Body

Have you ever had a paper cut? It seems that when I get a paper cut it is all I can think about all day. The smallest thing effects my entire body and even effects how I function during the day. Who would have thought this little tiny paper cut can just throw your whole day off? I mean, now you’ve got this huge Band-aid on your finger (or if you’re me you’ve un-successfully attempted to superglue your finger together) and if you are making lemonade – man that’s a problem!

Why is a little cut such a big issue? The reason is that every part of our body was designed to function in unison with the rest of our body. When one part of our body is hurt or missing, it can really mess things up. The same is with the body of Christ. God created each one of us to be special and unique. We were each designed to function within the body of Christ for our own special purpose.

So many times I hear people say, “I don’t have enough schooling”, or “I’m not good enough….,” or “I don’t have any special gifting.” None of that matters to God. God qualifies those whom He calls. Listen to what the Bible says about the body:

I Corinthians 12:12-26

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 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 stop being 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 placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

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. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Many times the church (because we are all human beings) tend to exalt and think highly of those in leadership or those who seem to “play a big part”, when in fact the body cannot function without some of those little tiny parts that we so many times treat as less honorable. Just because we can’t see a part of our body or it seems much smaller than other parts, does not make it un-necessary. Every part of that body plays a role and the rest of the body could not function without it. Well, it may function but it won’t be pretty! God did not create any part of the body that is insignificant. And that includes YOU.

If you’ve been that person that is enjoying soaking it all up on the front row of the church, but you haven’t gotten out and used your gift the way God intended; (because we all have a gift: 1 Peter 4:10) then it’s time to get off the front row and become part of the body. The body of Christ needs what you have, but more importantly YOU need to function with the rest of the body too. If you are an arm, go be an arm. If you are a head, go be a head. If you are an eyeball, go be an eyeball. If you are pinky finger, go be a pinky finger. Use the gift God has blessed you with. I promise that you will get way more out of it than you ever could have imagined!

– Pastor Sharon Anderson