UNIFIED DIVERSITY:
I Corinthians 12:12-18 NKJV
[12] For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. [13] For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. [14] For in fact the body is not one member but many. [15] If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? [16] And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? [17] If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? [18] But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
The beauty of the Church is that even though we are diverse in cultures, nationalities, dispositions in life, and in the areas of our giftings and skills, we operate as one. The love of God has brought us together and binds us together. This is what makes all men realize that we are of Christ (John 17:20-26).
It’s okay to be different in Church as you are out there. Our differences in gifting is what makes us dependent on each other. God didn’t bring us together to make us photocopies of each other. He brought us together, gave us different gifts, skills and abilities so that we can fulfill the various tasks in His Body.
If all the parts of the body are eyes, we will only fulfill the body’s function of seeing, but who will be the ears to hear for the body? At the same time, the ear cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you, as some are prone to doing. Who will perform the task that the hand is meant to perform?
Beloved, Christ has brought us together, gifted us differently, and positioned us differently in His one Body as it pleases Him. Let us embrace each other, encourage each other, pray for one another, bear with each other’s weaknesses and stir up good works in each other for our Body to function in a way that brings glory to God.
Those who are true sons of God desire to excel in their areas of gifting as well as work for the unity and peace of the Body of Christ.