Caring for the Body

I guess one thing that’s very obvious from this sermon series in 1 Corinthians, is that sometimes the Body of Christ doesn’t look like the Body of Christ. Doesn’t act like it. And doesn’t even seem to care.

Maybe it’s a little like the way we handle our own bodies… taking them for granted, misusing them, expecting too much - or asking nothing of them, instead pacifying their every whim until they’re soft and flabby. We forget that we need that heart for the duration of life here on earth. And life’s a challenge without a good set of lungs, a strong set of knees, a sharp pair of eyes. In fact, not a whole lot is easily expendable… Oh, well, thumb, a little gangrene won’t kill you… Yes, that looks risky, but what’s a broken rib or two?

Have we ever done that with a brother or sister in Christ? Taken them for granted, feeling no responsibility for their spiritual health and vitality? When we see the light go out of their eyes and the spring out of their step, do we feel any sense of connection, any sense that we have lost something, too? When we see them sin, do we feel somehow tainted, too?

There should be no division in the body, but… its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it (1 Cor. 12:25-26 NIV).

That means that if any part wonders, Am I my brother’s keeper?, the answer is, “Yes.” Christ’s blood flows through all of us. We are connected. So in a Christlike manner, lets live like it.