Pursue Unity in Christ

June 29, 2014 Background Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:10 – 17; 3:1 – 17 Lesson Passage: 1 Corinthians 1:10 – 17; 3:4 – 9 A Christian should desire the opportunity to experience fellowship with others who profess the same faith. But what is fellowship? When we speak of Christian fellowship, we speak of time being set aside where members of the Christian faith can gather to spend time with each other. The time could be used for socializing, group study, group prayer, group worship, missions, or some area of ministry. The idea being that we connect with others of the same religious faith as a response to humanity’s social makeup and need for interaction and cooperation. On the spiritual side, the fellowship helps us to grow individually and collective in the faith. This sounds great; however, there are some pitfalls we should be aware of while moving towards this social congruence. In this life, all we have to work with are “real” people. Each of us comes with baggage and ongoing issues of some type. These are things you cannot make go away by dressing up and parading around on Sunday. In fact, some of us find our way to a local church seeking help to deal with our baggage and issues. The good news is that the local church is the proper place to turn while seeking such help. We come as individuals but we come as individual members of the same spiritual body. The body is one and therefore the members must somehow work together in order for the one spiritual body to function in this physical world. When all of the individual members do not collaborate as one, some functions of the body will be greatly inhibited. We understand this with physical bodies but do we truly understand this with a spiritual body? When a stroke or some other form of paralysis attacks a physical body, some functions are limited at best. The local body is constantly in need of spiritual rehabilitation. The individual parts don’t always work well together. There is a role for each Christian in the body of Christ. Many contribute to the overall working of the body by providing physical resources needed by the body. These physical resources are varied and needed for proper functioning of the body. Others contribute to the working of the body by employing spiritual gifts needed by the body. These too are just as varied and needed for the body to be wholesome. Physical and spiritual resources are needed in the church for the parts of the body to function in unison. In the physical body, all parts are kept in unison by a properly functioning head. In the spiritual body, we never have to worry about the head functioning properly because the head of the spiritual body is Christ. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Therefore, he will always function properly to promote unity within the body through the Spirit. Outside of the body, we negotiate with each other to promote a form of unity that is often fleeting. But within the body, the Spirit of Christ works with each member to promote lasting unity throughout. As Christians in the local church, let us pursue unity in Christ. Robert C. Hudson June 21, 2014