[458 words]
The story is told of an encounter between a high school principal and a young ninth grader. The principal noticed the young man in the hallway with a very defeated and frustrated look on his face. He asked the young man, “Is everything okay?” The boy replied sternly, “No. I don’t understand all the stuff the math teacher is trying to teach us. I can’t understand all the letters, formulas, and logarithms. It’s impossible.”
The principal, with an encouraging tone, said, “I’m sure we can work hard and do it, can’t we?” The boy quickly said, with a condescending tone, “Well, I guess ‘we’ can say that, because the ‘you’ half of ‘we’ doesn’t have to do the homework and take the tests with the ‘me’ half of ‘we.’”
As members of the body of Christ, we should never feel alone. We shouldn’t feel like we are experiencing the challenges and struggles of living in this world without the sympathy, support, and love of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. The local church is a “we” and not a “me” organization. It is a family and not just an assembly (1 Tim. 3:15, 5:1-2). It is not simply a gathering of people who worship together at prescribed time s, but a brotherhood (1 Pet. 2:17), and an intimate communion (2 Cor. 6:14).
The local body is a place of encouragement (Heb. 10:24-25). It is a place where the weak can find strength (1 Thess. 5:14). It is a place where the fainthearted can find courage (1 Thess. 5:14). It is a place where burdens are carried together (Gal. 6:2). It is a place where suffering is relieved (1 Cor. 12:26). It is a place where common struggles are experienced and understood (1 Pet. 5:9). It is a place where a person can receive needed admonishment and exhortation (Rom. 15:14). It is a place where genuine and sincere love can be enjoyed (1 Pet. 1:22).
Paul, in a very familiar passage, tells the brethren in Corinth that they are individual members of the same body. He illustrates this by a comparison to the human body (1 Cor. 12). In other words, they have all different kinds of parts (foot, ear, eyes, etc.) but just one body. As we read through the New Testament, we can see that God designed and envisioned the local church as a place where believers would enjoy tight-knit intimacy and share their lives together, not just a pew on Sundays and Wednesdays.
“And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).
Joe Williams
Pulaski Street Church of Christ
Lawrenceburg, TN