Now, you are the body of Christ and, individually, members of it.
– 1 Corinthians 12:27
I’m guessing many of you have heard this verse before or certainly this imagery from the New Testament of the church as the body of Christ. But I want you to let this soak in. Almost as if this is the first time you’re hearing this.
1 Corinthians 12:27 Describes Believers As Members of One Body
God describes the church as the body of Jesus with all these different parts or members in the verses right before 1 Corinthians 12:27. We see the body described in terms of an eye and a foot and a hand. And all of these different members are necessary. The Bible says the eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you. Or the head to the feet, I don’t need you. Every part of the body is extremely important. And so I want to encourage you, in a fresh way today, with this reality in your life.
If you’re a follower of Jesus, if you put your trust in Jesus, His Holy Spirit dwells in you. When you came to Christ, you became a part of the body of Christ. And you are a needed part of the body. This is why you need to be a member of a local body of Christ in a local church. Yes, there’s a sense in which this is true just of the universal church for every follower of Jesus in the world.
We are part of the church, not just in the world today, but in history. Those who’ve gone before us and who are now in heaven. At the same time, how are you going to play out your part in the body of Christ if you are disconnected from the church on heart? Specifically a church where you are caring for other members. Where you are building up other members… Where you’re using 1 Corinthians 12, the first part of this chapter… The spiritual gifts that God has given you for the building up of the body?
1 Corinthians 12:27 Encourages Us to Play Our Part in the Local Church
I just want to encourage you. You’re a member of the body of Christ. So play your integral necessary part in that body by being connected to a local church. And not just a part of it, but meaningfully connected to it, working to build up others. You are indispensable according to God’s Word in 1 Corinthians 12. Many times I talk with followers of Jesus who don’t think they have a lot to offer in the body of Christ. But that’s not what 1 Corinthians 12 says. That’s not what God says. That’s a lie from the adversary that you are believing.
God, help us to play the part that you’ve designed us to play in the body of Christ. We praise you for designing us in such a way that we are a part of the body of Jesus. Oh, what a privilege, what an honor, and what a responsibility that you have given to us by your grace. God, we want to build up the body of Christ. Help us not to be deceived into living individualistic Christian lives that are all about us and what works for us and our preferences.
This Verse Helps Us Guard Against the Individualistic Christian Life
I just think about the trends and the statistics that I see of followers of Jesus. They are increasingly disconnected from the church. Many just involved in a church at a cursory level, even just attending every once in a while or being a part of church in ways that are convenient for us and fit our busy lifestyles that are focused on so many other things in this world.
God, help us to faithfully be members of your body, building up others according to their needs in Christ, using the spiritual gifts that you have given us for the sake of the body, not wasting those spiritual gifts. Lord, we pray for the strengthening of your church, of local churches that we are a part of, through us. God, help us to lean on other parts of the body as we should. To not in pride think we can do this on our own when you’ve not designed us to follow you on our own, to be isolated from other followers of you.
God, we pray that you would bless our relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ in a local church. We pray that through our faithfulness as members of the body of Jesus that you would receive more and more glory, through not just our lives individually, but through our churches. God, as we pray for unreached people in the world on this podcast, we pray, yes, for individual followers of Jesus to be found among every people group in the world, but not just for individual followers of Jesus.
Prayer for the Ucayali-Yurua Asheninka People
Lord, we pray for the planting of churches, for the body of Christ to spread in more and more churches all around the world. God, we pray this for the Ucayali-Yurua Asheninka people of Brazil, this small remote people group in Brazil in remote regions. Lord, we pray for a church to be started among the Ucayali-Yurua Asheninka people of Brazil. God, you know this people group. You love this people group. We pray for the body of Christ to spread, that this people group and every people group in the world, for the glory of Christ. May it be so, we pray, according to 1 Corinthians 12:27 as members of your body. Lord Jesus, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
