By Pastor Samuel Saibu, Co-Founder/ Senior Pastor of TCOLG
Ephesians 4:4
There is one body and one Spirit. Even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Have you ever paused to ponder how all the believers or followers of Jesus Christ could fit into His body? if we are the body of Christ. Is that true or is this just being said figuratively? No, because Jesus will never say what he doesn’t mean. The church in the biblical sense is not a physical building. The church is actually composed of all those who believe in Jesus Christ and gather together to worship Him in those physical structures. Now in regards to Christians being His body, this means each and every one of us who believe in Jesus Christ constitute a tinny mini fragment of Jesus whole body. None of us is complete or independent of the other fragmented parts of the body of Jesus.
This is why love, unity and forgiveness is the central message to the Church. I cannot do
without you and you cannot do without me. We all need each other. We can try all we want to convince ourselves of our own self-sufficiency, but it’s a lie. The truth is that even from creation, the tread of our inner strength had been inter-locked and woven together for the greater strength of us all. When we stick together, we will be unstoppable, undefeatable and we will all flourish in togetherness. Individuality, callousness and division will exact undue strain on us all. It will lead to mistrust, unnecessary tension, tiredness, stress, anger, frustration, depression and lack of Joy. These in turn will begin to have adverse effects on our natural immune system. This will weaken our body's ability to fight, resist and defend our body from infections and diseases.
Just as we feel elated when we have a lot of people showing us love, affection and support. Our body systems are also negatively affected when we are isolated, lonely and left
without any support, love and affection from others. God has never intended for us to be alone. We are love oriented creatures. We thrive in loving environments. We were created for one another, to live together and love one another. We are to appreciate each other’s cultural differences, cherish our ethnic diversity and utilize our various uniqueness to foster and enrich the quality of all our existences. If we can understand this, life will take on a new and fresh perspective for us all. Romans 12: 5 says, “So, we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one member one of another.” Although, the body of Christ was pierced and broken, it healed. We also, must allow our pierced relationships, our wounded hearts, and disappointments to heal, for the sake of whose body we are part of. That is the only way to maintain the sanctity of the unity of the body of Christ.
Prayer
Everlasting father, please touch us all today. Lord please repair all our broken hearts, relationships and knit all our hearts together in love. Make it easy to forgive those that need our forgiveness, and also help us to accept forgiveness from others. Lord help us to relate to one another with love and genuine respect, so that the sanctity of the unity of the body of Christ will be preserved in Jesus name. Amen
Pastor Samuel Saibu,
Co-Founder/ Senior Pastor of TCOLG