Care for One Another

copyright 2008 ellajphillips

Care for one another. 1 Corinthians 12:14-27

How many of you made New Year’s Resolutions this year? If so, are you still keeping them, or have they long since been forgotten? Well, now that we’re almost ¼ of the way through the New Year, most of us are probably struggling to keep our resolutions if we haven’t totally forgotten about them already.

The most important thing we can do, our highest resolution, is to personally surrender our lives to God. Once we do that, we must then build and strengthen our faith in fellowship with one another. In Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians, Paul makes over 30 references to the church by using the analogy of a human body. He points out that we are all linked together like pieces of a puzzle. Here are a few key points about fitting together in the body of Christ from 1 Corinthians.

1. Each piece is a part of the united whole, but they are not all the same. We see this in verse 14, “Even so, the body is not made up of one part but of many.”

2. All pieces are indispensable and equal in value. In verses 15, Paul addresses those who may feel inferior. “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.”A foot may feel less important than a hand and an ear may feel mediocre compared to an eye. But, Paul is establishing the truth that everyone is valuable and necessary.

3. Each piece is divinely designed, not humanly developed. Verse18, “But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”

4. Each piece is distinctly designed for a reason. Paul now speaks to those who are filled with pride in verse 21, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!”

5. Each piece is interconnected, not independent. Your puzzle piece is designed to lock together with those around you in order to form the picture that was designed by the Creator. Notice again that it is God who not only arranges in verse 18, but that God’s desire is for each member to be connected with others, “But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it.”

God has placed you as a strategic piece in His kingdom work. You are an important part of the success and effectiveness of the church. Everyone else is depending on you to be here and to carry out your function. Have you ever worked on a puzzle for hours only to discover that one of the pieces is missing? It’s not a good feeling, is it? Let’s all decide to surrender to the Savior and to commit to caring for one another.