So we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members of another. Romans 12:5
A development team of chemists and technicians worked in a large laboratory to develop new cleaning and polishing products for a large company. All day the chemists and technicians would test and experiment and mix as they went about their work. At the end of the day, they would go home to supper while a small team of workers came in to clean up the equipment, put the laboratory back in order, and take out all the refuse and trash that the chemists and technicians generated. The chemists and technicians resented the fact that the cleaning crew used the same lunchroom and other facilities, leaving less room for them. Complaining to the plant manager one day, one of the chemists declared that the cleaners did not need to use those staff facilities. He told the manager, ‘We do the work, those cleaners are not as essential to the operation as us’. That evening, the wise manager told the cleaners to leave the laboratory alone for that night. The next morning, the chemists and technicians found their lab unusable because of filthy equipment and overflowing trash bins. They decided the cleaning crew was essential after all. It’s the same with those of us in God’s Assembly; there are no unnecessary or unimportant members.
Our text reminds us that we are not only members of the body, but that we are also members of each other. Using the example of a human body, we know that the hand is a member of that body, but it is also a member of each other part of that body. The hand gives purpose and ability to the arm, for example, and the knee gives flexibility to the leg. Each of the five senses provide awareness to the entire body. In the same way, each member of the Assembly provides a use and function to the Assembly, and to each other member of that Assembly. None of us has abilities and exercises identical to any other, so the unique contribution of each member provides for the needs of some of the other members and possibly for the needs of every other member. It is this interoperability and interdependency that make God’s Assembly such an amazing organism, unlike any other in all the world.
Because we as individual members of the Assembly require the contributions of each other member, we need to maintain sweet relations with every other member. The closer we are to each other, the more we can benefit from each other. The further away we are from each other, the less likely we are to benefit from those we keep at a distance. And that would be a loss for ourselves and for others.
What would your Assembly be missing if you were not a part of it? What are other members of your Assembly missing because you are not as close to them as you should be? -Jim MacIntosh