It was 2007, or “the Summer of Vicodin” (as I’ve since dubbed it), when I ruptured a disc in my back. The pain was intense, in constant need of management, and unforgiving of any misstep. But I wanted to remain active, even if only in small ways, so one evening Peggy and I set out for a (very) slow walk. About three houses down from ours, a serenading songbird burst forth into solo, and I instinctively looked in the direction of the little soprano. As I jerked my head high up and to the right, a searing pain shot through my ankle, down low and to my left! There I began to realize how intricate the interconnectivity among all the components of the human body.
The same is true of the body of Christ: we are truly joined together, much more so than we realize. This is God’s desire and plan for us. On the evening of His betrayal, Jesus’ implored of the Father that believers “may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me —so that they may be brought to complete unity.”1 And so we have, as Paul explained, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”2 We, who are many, blend into one — intricately interconnected — thus, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”3 This is who we are; it is our collective identity as the Church into which we are called to live, grow, and mature.
Now, putting others first is warm and lofty in an aspirational sense, but in actuality our sin nature bristles at inconvenience and chafes at sacrifice, and it is prone to envy the success of others. So Paul directs our attention “high up and to the right” so to speak: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”4 This is a jolt to our sin nature— “a searing pain down low and to the left” — for “the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.”5 Undaunted in conflict, Paul calls us onward, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.”6 This is what it looks like as, in Christ, “me” gives way to “we.” May we so live.
“Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2 NLT
Father, Your ways are infinitely higher than ours, and You call us to walk in them. Inspire us, the body of Christ, that we would genuinely care for others in our thoughts, words, and deeds. In Christ we pray. Amen.
Tag: Unity series
Categories
A Body in Motion
“In him we live and move and exist.”1 — Paul, to philosophers in the Areopagus
We have been focusing on Christian unity over the past four weeks, for it is God’s desire and design that we be one with Him and with each other, and His Word has much to say about it. In our March 12 post, we saw that, we who were once separated from God, now exist as “a people.” Our March 19 post centered around our Biblical depiction as “living stones . . . built into a spiritual house,”2 as the dwelling place of God. So today let’s consider a third portrait of the united church: “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”3 For though we are a people, we do more than exist as a people, and though we are living stones, each strengthening the whole, we do more than hold together in perpetuity. We act; we go. We move as one body.
To the church in Corinth, Paul wrote, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”4 Note the paradox: the plural “you” forms our collective identity in Christ, in whom each singular “you” is included. Then each of us brings something useful to the whole of us, and each of us has our own “function”5 as we move together in unison. Paul wakens us to the truth of our oneness with each other and exhorts us to act upon it: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”6
You see, I cannot go and shine in your place of business, but you can, for Jesus lives in you. Are you a prayer warrior? The body — indeed, the world — needs your intercession. Perhaps leadership is not our thing, but service is. Praise God, for our gift of service multiplies into gifts for those we serve. And maybe you can reach a populace that for whatever reason cannot hear my heart.
The call is clear: go in your gifting, shine in your station, be who you are — an inextricably integral part of the body of Christ, uniquely gifted for your function and your call. For we exist as a people, we hold together as living stones, and we move as one body with Christ as our head.
Father, thank You for including us in Christ as one body of believers in Him. Be glorified as we in our giftings step into our individual calls today. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 Acts 17:28 NLT
2 1 Peter 2:5 NIV
3 Romans 12:5 ESV
4 1 Corinthians 12:17 ESV
5 Romans 12:4 ESV
6 Romans 12:6-8 ESV
Categories
The Stones
Peggy and I were in awe as we toured Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (translated “holy family”), the concept of Antoni Gaudi. From its towering spires to its intricate reliefs and tree-like pillars — all expressed in a cohesive blend of free-flowing styles — this cathedral visually testifies to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Construction of this elaborate design began in 1882 and is anticipated for completion in 2026, 144 years later and 100 years after Guadi’s death. The Catalon architect reportedly once quipped, “My client is in no hurry.”
Truly magnificent though it is, this edifice is merely an artistic expression of something infinitely more marvelous, namely the true church, a people born of the Spirit through faith in Christ and united in Him. Paul teaches we were once “separated from Christ . . . having no hope and without God in the world,”1 but this is no longer true about us. For the apostle asserts a new and collective identity we live together: “members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”2 Members of God’s household, joined together as a holy temple in which God lives — might we be in a most real sense a “sagrada familia”? Yes, and Paul awakens the church to this reality: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? . . . God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.”3 Pause to grasp this; soak it in, it is our identity as a people.
So we are, in Peter’s words, “living stones . . . being built up as a spiritual house.”4 We are no longer unused building materials piled high, separate, and idle; rather, we are built into something far greater than the sum of our individual parts. Then what happens when we as living stones are blended together as one? We testify as one body — a new creation — to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Such an honor.
Father, “May [You] the God of endurance and encouragement grant [us] to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together [we] may with one voice glorify [You] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”5 In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 Ephesians 2:12 ESV
2 Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV
3 1 Corinthains 3:16-17 NIV (emphasis added)
4 1 Peter 2:5 ESV
5 Romans 15:5-6 ESV
Paul Nordman—Author 