ESOCS Devotional 26 September
TEXT: 1 Corinthians 12:1-15 KJV
MEMORY VERSE: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” 1Corinthians 12:12 KJV
There is a popular saying that “There is Unity in Diversity.” This means that unity comes from the various talents, skills, abilities, and resources that God has endowed each person within society or nation, so that the society or nation may be one indivisible entity. The same is true of the body of Christ – the Church, with people having various talents for unity and progress. Jesus ended His prayer to His father in John 17: 22, on the same note: “that they may be one even as we are one.”
Instead of building up and unifying the Corinthian church, the issue of spiritual gifts was splitting them. Spiritual gifts became the symbols of spiritual power, causing rivalries among them. But Paul related these gifts in the body of Christ and how they should work, to the human body which has many parts for specific function, as needed by the body, yet they are one body – the head, the hand, the leg, the ear, the eye, etc. Each needs the other to function effectively; e.g., without the eye, where will the legs be going? The ear hears the drum of danger. The leg takes the body to places; etc. (1 Cor. 12:14-21).
What happened in the Corinthian church is seen in many of our churches today. Spiritual and material gifts are tearing them apart because some of those blessed with these gifts use them improperly and without love. Pride dictates how, when, and where, they use these gifts, and for whom they use them. But Paul admonished that God is completely involved in the giving, using, and empowering of these diverse gifts, which have their best effects when they build up the body of Christ( 1 Cor.12:6-11).
Read yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here
The lesson from our text above is that the Church is like a Team, which: (1) Possesses a variety of gifts but pursue the same goal. (2) Everyone in the team has contribution to make, which benefits the team. (3) God is the source of each gift. (4) God chooses who has what gifts, so we must not compete or compare. (5) Team members (the Church) are to function like the organs and muscles in a body. (6) No Team member is less important than another is; all are important. (7) We should not compete with each other, but complement each other, that the body of Christ may be one indivisible body, as Christ and His father are.
Spiritual gifts are for the common good of all (1 Cor.12:7), to build up the body of Christ through perfection of the saints, work of the ministry, edification of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12), and for service to humanity (1 Pet. 4:10-11).
CHALLENGES
- Are you using your gift – spiritual and financial, to promote or divide the body of Christ?
PRAYER POINT
- Ask God to resolve divinely, all quarrels in His church induced by wrong use of spiritual gifts.
FURTHER READING: 1 Corinthians 12:16-31; 1 Corinthians 13; Ephesians 4:1-13; John 17:20-26
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ESOCS Devotional 25 September
