June 8 I Wednesday

2 Chronicles 30-31

John 18:1-18

“But God has put the body together, giving greater honour 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.”    —1 Corinthians 12:24-25

There are some people that say, “I want to be a Christian, but I do not want to be a part of the Church” or they may say, “Christ, I love; the Church, I don’t.” All of this is nonsense because the Church is the body of Christ. If we love Christ, we love His Church; Christ loves His Church and gave Himself up for it. We have to believe in the Church. Why? Because Jesus Christ believes in the Church, and none of us alone will ever function in isolation. For we are not individualistically saved, individualistically sanctified and do not individualistically serve—as Christians, we come as individuals to be incorporated into the body. 

       As the body of Christ, we are not just our gifts and our skills, there is also gender and generation—all kinds of differences that God has ordained in His body. To young people, Paul encourages, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). Unfortunately, there are some people in the church who get the idea that unless someone has been a Christian for 20 years, they cannot say or do anything, because they have to earn their stripes first, but this is not true. Young people have much to offer.

       To the older men and women, Paul exhorts, “Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled” (Titus 2:2-6). Older men and women are to come alongside younger men and women, teaching them the ways of God. 

       There are many different roles and different functions in the body of Christ, and ultimately, God made us the way He has made us—to be parts of a whole. The most exciting thing about being a Christian is not getting a ticket that gets us washed up on the shores of heaven one day. But right now, united with Christ, He is going to work through our hands, our feet, our mind, our lips and our heart. If Jesus Christ is going to bless somebody, how does He do it? Through His body—through the Church.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, thank You that You have a purpose for my role and function in Your body—in Your Church. Help me to embrace all that You have created me to be and love and serve where You have placed me.