Read: Romans 12:4-8
Have you ever given any consideration to how many different people it takes to make even a Sunday morning worship service happen at our church? Sure without the Pastor, or the worship leader, or the choir, it could not happen. But what if you came on a cold day and there was no heat on, or a hot day and no air conditioning? What about the lights being on, or what if the Pastor spoke and the sound system didn’t work, and you could not hear him? What if there was no food for the Wednesday night dinner, no bulletin to hand out, or your Sunday School teacher just didn’t show up, or was not prepared to teach? It is said “that it takes a village to raise a child” and likewise it take an awful lot of hardworking folks to make the Church go well.
In the scripture text for today from Romans Paul was writing to Christians who were members of the local churches in Rome. He described their relationship to each other in terms of the members of a body. The idea is that each believer is a living part of Christ’s body and each one has a spiritual function to perform. Each believer has a spiritual gift to be used for the other members of the Body. In short, we belong to each other, we minister to each other, and we need each other.
Paul is making the point here, that different members of the body have many different gifts. All of these gifts have their place. Each should use whatever gift he has to the fullest. Clearly he found the use of human body a very useful illustration. It takes many members to make up the body, but they do not all have the same function. Our physical body is certainly a unit, with all the members contributing to the good of the whole, and there is a wide variety of function that goes into making up the one body. I guess we need to ask ourselves today do we know our function and are we making it work successfully in the body.
Pray
Father, I realize that live in community. A community of believers in You, help me know my place and function in the community. Help me be a viable part and asset to the Church utilizing all the gift that You have given me to better the community of believers and the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen