Read 1 Corinthians 12:27-31.
Do you look forward to Sonday at church? Do you wake up Sonday morning with a huge sense of expectancy and excitement because church is on today? Do you feel needed at church and a vital part of it? Unfortunately, many believers give church a low priority
Paul dispels this way of thinking in verse 27. All of us together are the body of Christ. We, the congregation, are the hands and feet and ears and eyes of Jesus Himself. Notice what is then said. Each individual one of you is a part of it. No matter how small or insignificant you feel or think you are, you are a part of the body of Jesus Christ. Even if others don’t make you feel welcome or valuable, to Christ you are invaluable. To Christ you are worth dying for and worth being filled with the Spirit. To Christ, you are a significant part of the church, His body. Whether or not anyone else recognises it, you are precious to Jesus and He has put you in the body of Christ, the church, for a specific reason.
Even more so, as verse 28 shows (echoing v11) it’s God who distributes the gifts and appoints people to various roles in the church. You do not have your position or role in the church because of the schemes and wiles of mankind or because someone got a better position before you. You are where you are because God appointed you to that position. He wants you to serve and to function in that position. Each one of us is exactly where God by his grace and mercy wants us to be. God hasn’t made any mistakes in placing you and I in the church. Shouldn’t this alone make us wake up each Sonday morning with a sense of expectation and purpose? Shouldn’t we be chaffing at the bit to get to church to do the work that God has called us to be doing? Even though Church exists continuously throughout the week, even when the service isn’t running, the church finds its fullest and most meaningful expression when it’s gathered together for “worship”.
Paul then goes onto list several of the gifts in the church, followed by a series of questions. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? and so on. The believers at Corinth were vying for the greater, more ecstatic gifts and were using these to boast and brag and to elevate themselves above each other. The gifts they had been given became a marker of their super spirituality. We may not see such blatant bragging and boasting in today’s church but how many people secretly and quietly long to have a greater, more ecstatic gift? Rather than praising God for all He’s done for us, how many of us long to be like someone else? How many of us have false views of spirituality thinking that having a certain gift would make us more spiritual?
Be encouraged. it’s not the gift that makes you spiritual. It’s your spirituality in Christ that makes the gift useful and purposeful.
Tomorrow morning as you wake up remember that you are a vital part of the body of Christ and Jesus has given you a spiritual gift for the sake of edifying and building up the body of Christ. You can spring out of bed with a sense of expectation, with great anticipation. You can be assured that Jesus wants you in His church and loves it when you are there at church serving Him and others.
Prayer:
Use the day’s reading notes and Bible passage to pray meaningfully:
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
· Pray that each and every believer would feel welcomed and loved tomorrow in your church and that they would be ready and willing to use their spiritual gifts for the common good.
· Pray that non Christians at your service tomorrow would be challenged by the Spirit and brought to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
1. Do you love church ? Why or why not?
2. What would make church better for you? How can you change to make church better?
3. Samira confides in you that she hates church. She tells you that it’s boring and pointless. What would be a godly response?
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