Day 45: Dismemberment?

Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

A woman sued a company for mailing her the leg of her deceased father. She was traumatized when discovering his leg inside a parcel. Imagine God’s anguish when seeing so many Christians disconnected from the local church. After all, the Bible tells Christians, “You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Christians who don’t join a church are like amputated members.

Body parts are meant to be connected. How would you fare if you lost your hand? The answer is obvious. You are handicapped and your hand becomes useless. Once detached from the body, all a hand can do is die. This is true for Christians, too. If you are a believer, your faith is kept vital when you remain connected to your church.

Rick Warren provided an excellent image of church membership: Whenever a child is born, he or she automatically becomes a part of the universal family of human beings. But that child also needs to become a member of a specific family to receive nurture and care and grow up healthy and strong. The same is true spiritually. When you were born again, you automatically became a part of God’s universal family, but you also need to become a member of a local expression of God’s family. (Purpose Driven Life, p. 136)

Don’t just attend your church. God intended you to be so much more than a spectator. God expects you to be a member of a church: “In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:5). Being a Christian involves equal commitment to other believers as you have for Christ. In fact, a good indicator of your commitment to Christ is how committed you are to meeting with other Christians!