What does it mean to you - to be the church?
Find a Scripture pertaining to the church in the Bible and share it and your thoughts concerning the church from that passage. Stick to one passage per post please.
The one I choose is:
1 Corinthians 12:12-28 - 12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 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. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 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? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 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!" 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And in the church God has appointed... NIV
The picture for me is that the church is the Body of Christ and we all have our gifting. The church is not complete without each of us. We might be able to function with only one leg or with no eyes, but we cannot be all that we could be without all of our parts.
The picture that comes to mind is a student in a college class that had no arms/hands. I learned to open his book-bag with his feet and to take notes with them as well. He functioned and did the best he could but could he have done more with both arms/hands?
A church can learn to function without all the "parts" of the Body - but is it the best church it could be - functioning without all its parts?
What part are you?
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