Day #2 - Who is the Body?Last night, Chris talked about how we label people because the Devil has labeled us and has placed us under these labels as a way to guilt or shame us. The problem is that sometimes we are pretty good at keeping those labels in place. If we have a label, we sometimes try to live up to that label by the shoes we wear, the clothes that we buy, or the way that we talk or act. If we have applied a label to a certain person then we generally tend to keep that label on that person because we always have and they haven't really changed from that label.
The problem is that this creates division between the people. Especially when we place labels on people in the Church. What you must understand is that when I say Church and not church, I am referring to simply the "people who believe in Jesus Christ and call Him Lord." This is not restricted to just the people at NMC.
Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 and take some notes.
Read it again.
How about one more time.
What words pop out at you? What ideas make you go, "Huh."
In this passage, Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and he is giving some guidance to the leadership on how to go about doing "church" and how to organize the people of the church. Paul refers to the people as the parts of the body. Isn't that an amazing picture?!
Paul, in the passage, also identifies two, distinctly different groups of people, that he believes exist in the church. And he shows that obvious separation by talking about them in separate paragraphs. It seems Paul breaks them up according to verses 14-20 and 21-26.
Who is Paul talking about in verses 14-20? How would you describe the people that Paul is representing in this section? What label would you put on this group of people? What would cause an eye to say that they are not part of the body because they aren't a foot? What would cause the foot to say they are not part of the body because they aren't part of the head?
Check the next section. 21-26. Describe the people that Paul is talking about in the first part of this section. What label do you put on these people? How are they similar to the first group? How are they different? What do you think causes them to think about the other parts of the body the way that they do? Give me some reasons why you think Paul would not want division in the Body of Christ? What does it mean to honor the weaker links?
This is such a powerful part of Scripture! Paul is reminding the Corinthians and all of us to realize that we need each other! Without the other parts of the body, even the weak parts, we cannot function properly. If I don't have you working with me, then one part fails. And Paul points out that if one part fails, we all fail. If one part suffers, we all suffer.
Doesn't this change how we live our lives and the way that we treat people? How would we change our lives if we new that when that person that our group was making fun of last night was suffering and because of that, I am suffering also? What does this mean for your life? How does this change your life, today?
So how are you helping to mold the body together? How are you trying to build up the people around you that are part of the body?
What part of the body are you being?
4 comments:
Once again, it all makes sense.
~Dylon Price
it makes some sense but i dont really think its life changing
Derek-
I think that perhaps it is meant as more of an encouragement and a challenge to think about how we see the people around us differently. Maybe it doesn't change your life specifically; However, it probably challenges how you see people around you.
I know that I am challenged to think about this differently, if I am honest with myself.
i dont understand it too much but i know this is to a little challengeing so i hope it will make a little more sence next time
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