Our Relationships

Do you need your toes? How about your eyes? Can your toes tell your eyes, “I don’t need you”?  We all know the absurdity of that.  Which is exactly the point Paul makes in 1 Cor 12:21. There’s an interdependence on all members of our physical bodies.

Similarly, there is a great need for each member of the body of Christ.  We cannot do without one another. There ought to be an interdependence on each other. It ought to be when one hurts--others hurt, when one rejoices--others rejoice. Do we really feel that need for one another?

Consider the weak needing the strong to make them stronger. To follow their example. To lean on when weak. John Mark needed Barnabas. Barnabas needed Paul. Paul needed Onesiphorus. David needed Jonathan. Naomi needed Ruth. In the Bible, there was a reliance on one another.

Further, no one has talent enough to do everything. In Corinth, one had the gift of tongues, another the gift of prophecy. The person with the gift of tongues could not say to the one who had the gift of prophecy, “I don’t need you.” Both were necessary for the development of the gospel.  So it is with members in a local fellowship. Song leaders by themselves will not work. Elders by themselves have no flock to shepherd. Teachers without willing students, talk to empty walls. The fellowship works when we work with each other. Titus and Timothy needed Paul. The elders at Ephesus needed the flock. Your talents may not be mine and vice versa, but we fill up what others lack to make the whole.

No one person can serve enough. We each have limitations on time and opportunities. But if we put those altogether, there’s an abundance. Think of how much service can be done when we all do it together as opposed to by ourselves. There is no end to the work that can be done. When we invest service into just the hands of a few, we do not utilize our resources as good stewards.

None ought to feel like they have no place among God’s people. There is room for all and a place for all to be of help and an asset. We need one another to fulfill the work God has panned for us to do. Without even the least there will be a deficiency. We will be lacking what that one can bring to all of us. We fulfill one another when we offer ourselves for the benefit of all.
 

Rickie Jenkins