Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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 Renewal of the Church

1 Corinthians 12: 12-20
V 12-14 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
 

The book of 1 Corinthians starts with Paul describing the ‘gifts of grace’ as gifts that was freely given because of God’s sovereign will to confirm the reality of their conversion experience. The expectations are that the people who received the ‘gifts of grace’ will act in a spiritually mature manner. However when we look at the Church in Corinth, it was not really a model of a ‘spiritually mature’ church but rather an immature, carnal and divided church. It is in this context that Paul had to remind them that just a body has many parts, it works together as part of ONE body.
This passage is a reminder to take a step back and look the present situation of our churches and worshiping communities. Are we a people who recognize that we need to act in a spiritually mature manner? Very often, just like the church in Corinth, we are not acting in a manner that portrays the conversion experience.  Many worshiping communities are still terribly divided. Let us learn that to be in God’s will, there should be no ‘division in the body’, thus a divided church is not in God’s will.

PRAYER
Lord, we pray that the church which is YOUR body stay united in spite of all the worldly forces that tend to create divisions. Help us to act in a spiritually mature manner, reflective of the ‘gifts of grace’ you have bestowed on us.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Unity in the church is so important that the New Testament gives more attention to it than to either heaven or hell. God deeply desires that we experience oneness and harmony with each other. Unity is the soul of fellowship. Destroy it, and you rip the heart out of Christ’s Body. It is the essence, the core, of how God intends for us to experience life together in his church.
Rick Warren: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?


Christian Education Forum, Diocese of NAE of the Mar Thoma Church

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