Walking With Christ

1 Corinthians 12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.(ESV)

The members are all of one body. This always makes me think of the Mary Shelley novel, Frankenstein. The “body” of Christ is made up of many members, and each member can be of completely different origin. Yet, when combined through the blood of Christ, we become one body, one living being. On a macro level, when a brother hurts, I hurt, and when a sister grieves, I grieve. The left and right hands serve the same master and should not despise one another. Each member has a different purpose but all work to support the work being done by the master.

Take a more micro approach and look at each individual member. Each member is not a singular entity that is entirely self-contained. Genetically, we share related DNA from several generations of ancestry. Mentally, each of us is a composite of the vast wealth of experiences we have gained over the years. Each experience has helped to shape the ‘creature’ we have become. If we see our reflection and see a monster, as the creature from the novel did, then the enemy has done his work well to convince us that we are not worthy of being loved. Of course, we do need to be a bit careful to avoid some sources, like the creature in Young Frankenstein getting a brain from “Abby something”.

I often pause and reflect on the people who have most influenced who I am today. Some good. Some not. I have to carefully dig through those influences, not to determine which ones to keep, but how to interpret them through the lens of faith. Knowing what I do, looking back, I examine each experience again and try to understand the pain and brokenness of those who harmed me. Recognizing that hurt people hurt people (suggest reading the book of that name) and forgiving them for spreading their pain lets me release the pain so that I don’t continue to spread it like the virus that it is. On the other hand, seeing the love, mercy, and grace that I have been shown, often by complete strangers with nothing to gain, at those times when I needed it the most and deserved it the least, helps me to love unconditionally, show mercy when possible, and truly live under the grace that I was freely given and so badly want to share with others.

We are called to both “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) and “love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). This also means you can’t love your neighbor if you hate yourself, nor can you love yourself if you hate your neighbor. We are one body. The body is the holy temple of God who resides in us. This works on both the micro and macro levels, individually and as a group, because the temple was created by God, for God. He designed it. He chose it. For us to say we hate or despise any part of the temple is to disagree with a God that doesn’t make mistakes. That part of the temple might not be clean yet, but the dirt we see can’t be cleaned by anything short of the blood of the lamb and the Holy Spirit is coming around with the cleaning supplies.