Over the past few weeks I’ve really enjoyed looking at our relationships. Relationships are something I’ve learned to be very passionate about because without them, we’ll fall apart. We’ve talked about Healthy Relationships, Unhealthy Relationships, an d now we’ll look at our relationships within the Lord’s Church!
Our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ are, undoubtedly, some the most important relationships we’ll ever have. From Genesis to Revelation we see that God created us to be in a relationship with other people, but more importantly in a relationship with Him. Maybe we could draw the conclusion that to have a successful relationship with God, one must have a good relationship with other Christians, and vice-versa.
Paul talks about just how interdependent upon each other that the church really in is 1 Corinthians 1 Corinthians 12:12-21: The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (13) For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body– whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (14) Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. (15) If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. (16) And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. (17) If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? (18) But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. (19) If they were all one part, where would the body be? (20) As it is, there are many parts, but one body. (21) The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”
I put that lengthy passage in here to show you just how important your relationships in the church are. We cannot do this without each other. We all have different gifts and abilities, but we all have weaknesses too! That is why the church is a body of one made up of many parts! We are to, “ Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). Not a single one of us is replaceable, in fact, the text about says that God puts each person, each part of the body “just as He wanted them to be.” Not a one of us is out-of-place in the church—so our relationships should reflect that!
Read Acts chapter 2 and see how “together” the first century church was. The first century church practically lived together! Now I know that brothers and sister will annoy you, hurt you, make you mad, etc., but you must not let those things keep you from Jesus. You must deal with your quarrels and get them out into the light to solve them, rather than stewing over them and turning them into bitterness. We need to strive for that kind of unity and make “every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). A house (or body) divided against itself cannot stand! That’s why, now more than ever, we need each other.
Church, we can’t get to heaven without one another. We are here to encourage, share, and build up each other as long as it is called “today” (Heb. 3:13, my paraphrase). We need to stop hurting and start loving one another! Now is as good a time as any to evaluate how good (or bad) your relationships with your brothers and sister are. It will be a blessing to you! Just something to think about
Scott C Johnson 