June 7 I Tuesday

2 Chronicles 28-29

John 17

“And so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”   —1 Corinthians 12:14

As Christians, we are the body of Christ, but as a physical body is made up of different parts, we are all different in the body of Christ. We can run into problems when some parts of the body think that other parts of the body are more privileged and more important, and deduce themselves as less significant and less important. In fact, there may well be some people in the Church of Jesus Christ who say, “You know, I don’t have the kind of gifts that other people notice, so therefore, I am not important. I am not significant. The body does not need me.” 

       Concerning this, Paul writes, “Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body.’” Now, why would the foot say that? Compare a hand to a foot, a hand has a much better time than the foot. The hand is out in the fresh air all the time, while the foot is covered in a sock and stuck in a shoe. There is no wonder that the foot would think it is not important. Paul continues, “And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body.’” We can imagine the ear having this sort of inferiority sense about itself compared to the eye. People usually make compliments about the colour of our eyes, but never about the colour of our ears. Paul then reasons, “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?” Finally, Paul drives home the point, “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be” (1 Corinthians 12:15-18).

       As Christians, we need to understand that we are all different. Nobody is more important or more significant than somebody else, nor is anybody less significant or less important than someone else. The whole body is able to function only as each part does their work. God arranged the parts of the body, not as we would like them to be, but as He wanted them to be. 

       Altogether, this means when God gives us a gift or a strength, He has also not given us other gifts or strengths. We need to thank God for our weaknesses as fully as we thank God for our strengths. Why? Because our weaknesses make us dependent on other people and that is the way it needs to be—a mutual interdependence on one another as the body of Christ.

Prayer: Dear God, thank You for creating me uniquely, with gifts and strengths as well as with weaknesses. May I serve alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ in a manner that glorifies You.