True Christian Community (1 Corinthians 12:26)

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
– 1 Corinthians 12:26

Oh, this is such a good verse. The ending of a whole chapter filled with this imagery of Christians being members of the Body of Christ. And every member matters. And they’re so interconnected that what one member is going through, another member experiences. I’ve experienced back pain in my life when my lower back is hurting, it affects all my muscles. And I mean, it brings me to the ground. And some of you have experienced that in your body, where one member suffers and the whole body suffers. That’s the imagery here. And similarly, when you’re feeling good, then the whole body’s feeling good.

1 Corinthians 12:26 is a call to genuine Christian fellowship.

So, picture the Body of Christ that you know, maybe your local church. And I just want to encourage you with this today. Who is someone that’s a member of the Body of Christ in your local church, who is suffering? And how can you step into that suffering with them in prayer and encourage them? Let them know today that you are alongside them and that in their suffering, they’re not alone, that you’re hurting.

Obviously, probably not at the same level or depth that they’re hurting, but that you’re with them. That you’re grieved and burdened over what is heavy in their lives, on their hearts. So suffer with them. Or picture someone today who is doing really well, who’s being honored, who’s thriving in a particular way. Rejoice with them. Go out of your way today to rejoice with them, to let them know that because they’re happy, you’re happy.

The whole picture here is to identify with one another closely, like this.

1 Corinthians 12:26 challenges us to pursue each other in love.

So God, we pray, help us to be the Body You’ve designed us to be. Help us to be members of one another like this. We pray that today You would help us and do the work that’s needed in our hearts, that we might suffer with those who are suffering. With someone, specifically someone who’s suffering, and God, that we might rejoice with someone who’s rejoicing.

God, help us just to put this simple picture, powerful image into practice in our lives today in the Body of Christ. And God, we pray for people who don’t have this kind of community, who don’t have this spiritual bond that is deeper than anything. This Word can bring together people around Your love, Lord Jesus, Your Holy Spirit that makes us members of the Body of Christ, God, help us to love others who are suffering or who are rejoicing, to lead them to life that’s found in You, and as a part of Your Body.

God, we pray this over places around the world and people groups where there are no churches or hardly any churches at all.

A Prayer for the Kandu People

God, we pray specifically today for the Kandu people of Nepal and India, Northeastern India, for two and a half million people, where there are so few followers of Jesus, and in many villages, no churches, no expressions of the body of Christ. God, we pray that that would change. We pray for the planting of the Church among the Kandu people of Nepal, that they might experience the beauty You have designed for the Body of Christ, even as we pray that You would help us to experience that beauty in our lives, in our churches. We pray this all according to Your Word in 1 Corinthians 12:26, which we love. Thank You, God, for this picture of the Church and for the privilege of being a part of Your Body, Lord Jesus. Amen.