The Body of Christ has Many Parts
You are a valuable Member of the Body of Christ
Have you ever heard a child complain, sit down dejectedly and tell you she is not good enough? That Suzie has a pink backpack and Taylor can do fun dance moves, but she is not good enough because she only has a blue backpack (the same one three other kids have) and she can’t do the same moves Taylor can.
She says she is not good enough because she is not the same.
Is this true?
You would probably tell her how valuable and unique she is and point out things that are unique to her that Suzie and Taylor do not have.
The Body has Many Members
I have a question for you: Do you think you are not as good because you drive a certain type of car rather than the type others are driving or because someone else can do something (sing, be more sociable, have an amazing memory, etc.) that you can’t do or that you do differently?
You are special and unique just the way you are.
Did you know that this topic is actually covered in the Bible? We find it both in 1 Corinthians 12: 4-5; 12-21 and in Ephesians 4: 10-16.
If we were all the same, what would the world be like? I imagine it would be ordinary, boring, and we would have a lot fewer inventions.
Look at a bicycle for instance. It has a handlebar, pedals, a seat, wheels, a gear chain, a frame, and all the smaller parts that hold the bike together-the welds, screws, and gears.
Do you hear the front wheel complain to the back wheel that it is less important than the back wheel? Or do the pedals say they are not important because they are not the handlebar?
I know the analogy may sound silly, but that is probably how we sound when we say we are not as important because we cannot do ______________ like so-and-so. Or that we are not as valuable.
You are unique and were made in the image and likeness of God.
God created you to be you, not to be someone else.
He did not create you to be like anyone else. Even identical twins are different from each other (just ask the parents of any twins-or, ask the twins themselves!).
The Body of Christ has Many Parts
1 Corinthians 12: 4-5; 12-21
Let’s read what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12:
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord.
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Now the body is not a single part, but many.
If a foot should say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
Or if an ear should say, “Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.”
We are all necessary parts of the Body of Christ.
Ephesians 4: 10-16
In Ephesians chapter 4, St. Paul also talks about this again. Let’s read what he wrote:
The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming.
Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body’s growth and builds itself up in love.
Just as we are each different, we each have a unique place in the Body of Christ.
We can’t have a Church with only lectors, or ushers, or young children squirming in the pews. God’s Church is for all of us, and we are all unique and different.
We all have a place in the Body of Christ. We each have a unique role no one else can fill. You are unique. You are loved by God-just as you are. He does not want you to be anyone else than who He created you to be from the moment you were conceived.
More resources for you as a part of the Body of Christ
You may like these posts. They dive even more into how unique we each are.
Discerning and using your gifts and talents
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