Finding Your Place in the Church
November 26th, 2018 | 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
We may think that the hardest part of finding our place of ministry in the church is discovering our spiritual gifts, but it may be just as difficult to accept the particular gift you have been given. It can also be hard to accept the gifts that God has given to others.
In our reading today, Paul compares the church to a human body. A body is made up of many parts that work together. Likewise, the church is not made up of one member but of many, with each one making its own contribution to the health of the whole. Despite this, we do not always appreciate the way God has arranged the various members of the body of Christ.
For some, the problem is inferiority. When we compare the gifts that God has given to us with those He has given to others, we conclude that we don’t have much to offer the church. But this would be like the foot saying that it is not a part of the body because it is not the hand, or the ear saying the same because it is not the eye (vv. 15–16).
Put this way, the foolishness of our reasoning is all too apparent. Unfortunately, many of us do not even believe that we are the foot or the ear. We think we are, maybe, a hair—or
something even less significant. Yet even if this were true, Paul makes it clear that even in this case we would have great value.
Others in the church have a superiority complex. They have an inflated sense of their own value and look down on other members of the congregation. Both inferiority and superiority mentalities are destructive.
APPLY THE WORD
The cure for inferiority and superiority mentalities is to understand God’s perspective. Each of us has been uniquely designed by God, and we are interdependent. God’s desire is that we recognize and appreciate this. Read John 13:34–35 and Jesus’ command to love each other, and commit to see others and yourself the way God does.
PRAYER | HORN OF AFRICA
Please pray for sister A, fighting for custody of her 11-year-old son. The boy lived with her ex-husband, but he was exposed to immorality, alcohol and drugs. He begged to live with his mom, and now the two of them are in hiding. The husband is threatening both of them if she does not return him.
Today in the Word’s Devotion is a production of Moody Global Ministries
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