How Important Is The Body of Mt. Lebanon BC {Insert Your Church's Name Here} To You?

How can someone say, "I love Jesus, but I hate the church?" This is not a biblical statement! If you truly love Jesus, you would read His love letter to you. His love letter tells us the church, or His followers meeting together are his sheep and his bride. You cannot love the groom and hate the bride. You cannot love the shepherd and hate the sheep. You cannot love the father and hate his children. "Oh but I can!" you say. But if you look at the next chapter of 1st Corinthians Paul describes the love he is talking about and it makes that previous statement true.

1. In the body, there is a person (Jesus Christ) that is displayed.
How does the world see Jesus? Like it, lump it, jump over it: Jesus is displayed through the church, the body and those who claim to be his followers. Those of us who are his genuine followers have to step up and do our job to bring Christ glory.

2. In the body, there is a purpose that is demonstrated.
God chose his body to do his will on earth. The body MUST respond to the head, who is Jesus Christ.

3. In the body, there is a power that is animating.
A Christian should not deny Christ the opportunity to work through them. If we rely on Christ, we have an extra oomph to overcome troubles and accomplish great things.

4. In the body, there are parts that are diverse.
Everyone is important to the body, every last one of us. That means YOU! Everyone is different, but valuable. Also a tangent from this point: all parts are important even the 'embarrassing' ones. It reminds me of babies and their families. Babies are the least contributing members of their families, they actually suck resources out of their families without contributing much more than cuteness. However, they are treated with the most esteem and care. This is just like the body in our culture. Our 'unmentionable' parts are treated with special esteem a.k.a. modesty and underwear. :) This is given a very clear parallel to the church in these verses. So, even those that the world would not be proud of the church should treat with special care.

Created over 1 year ago