ONE BODY - MANY PARTS

One Body, Many Parts

All of you, who have been around me at all over the past 5 ½ weeks, know that on the last day of Vacation Bible School, I broke my pinky toe on my left foot. Over these weeks I have realized that 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 is so very true. It is in this passage that Paul compares the Body of Christ to our earthly bodies. Because of my broken toe, other parts of my body have been challenged. When I first broke it, I had no idea what kind of problems that little piece of my body was going to cause. “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot (or little toe in my case) should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body. (1 Cor. 12:14-15).” When I broke my toe, I could not simply say to myself that I did not need my toe. On the contrary, my toe reminded me every time I used it that it was still there whether I wanted to believe it or not. Other muscles in my foot started to hurt. My other leg began to hurt. Overall, my toe made my entire body suffer.
You may be asking, “So what does your toe have to do with me?” Later on in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul points out the reasoning and I think it applies to the church today just as much as it did to the church at Corinth. Many times as we work in the church and serve the Lord, we begin saying to ourselves, “maybe we are not as necessary as someone else or some other position.” Paul points that there is no part of the Body of Christ that is any less important as another. Paul would say that changing diapers in the nursery is just as important as teaching a Sunday school class. Without our nursery workers ministering to our children, the ministry that happens in Sunday school would become even more difficult and maybe even impossible.
We can even break down this analogy all the way to where we serve. Here in worship ministry, we all serve on an equal playing field. We all are vital and each of us depends on the other to do their part. I often hear it said, “Oh, it’s ok that I am not in choir today; they don’t necessarily need me.” That is nowhere near the truth! When you are gone it makes more of a difference than you can even imagine. There are others in your section that are depending on your talent and encouragement to go forward with the task God has given them. For example, this Sunday, when you choose to sit in the worship center rather than be in the choir loft or the orchestra, you are not fulfilling your role in this ministry that God has called you to, and you are handicapping the others serving. Make it a goal for this fall to join the worship ministry body and do your part. The body of First Baptist Canton will be ministered to by your offering.

Looking for you this week,
Aaron Hodges