One Body, Many Parts
Today in our modern world we can easily get caught up living a life based on comparisons. What I mean by this is we often fall into the trap of judging our abilities and even our worth as a person by what other people achieve. Our world is all about who is the best. Who is the best runner, the best writer, the best swimmer, who has the latest fashion or owns the faster computer. Who got the top mark in the test. We get into this self destructive mindset that convinces us that we must be at the top, which is all good and well until you realise that there will always be someone just that little bit better in some way.
You see, the problem with our world’s competitive philosophy is that when somebody betters us, this automatically means we must be not as good of a person as they are. And even if we achieve what we want it is never enough as there is always another goal beyond our initial need. We must be just that little bit better, or that little bit stronger, or that little bit thinner or that little bit faster. We are never satisfied! What we must come to understand is that just because we may not be as good as somebody else at something, that does not mean we are not a worthy person. Scripture tells us that each one of us possess God given gifts. We each have our purpose, our role we are designed to carry out in this world. In 1 Corinthians 12 verses 12 to 27, Paul talks about this idea.
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.”
In this passage Paul says for the Body of Christ to function as one cohesive unit with a common goal, there has to be diversity. Take note, he does not say there must be disagreement or contradiction, only diversity. Paul begins with saying that when we are a Christian we have one common goal: Jesus Christ.
“ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body...”
We are one in Christ. We might use an analogy of a boat: every one of the faithful within God’s Church is onboard the “boat” to heaven. Yet, if everybody on the boat was the captain, nothing would get done. Likewise if everybody rowed then who would there be to steer? After all we need people to steer the boat towards the right destination. For the vessel to properly function everybody has to do their part that they are best suited for.
“ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”
This is the issue with our world where everybody has to be the best. We look at the Captain of the ship and say, they are a good man. They are taking the ship where it needs to go. But for someone who is humbly sitting down below rowing the boat, those who actually make it move, we look at them and say: “see them, they aren’t standing on deck commanding like the captain is, they mustn’t be as good people as he is. They mustn't be as successful or as powerful or intelligent.” Yet, without the rowers, the boat would not get anywhere. It is kind of like the well known quote by Einstein:
“Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
Or as Paul tells us, don’t judge a hand by comparing it to an eye! Don’t judge the rowers by comparing them to the captain. It is irrelevant. We each have our role to play in life and no matter how big or small that role might be that doesn’t effect the importance of that role. For a Christian there is no need to compare ourselves to others. We don’t have to say, “How come they could get an A on a test and they didn’t even study, but I studied and only got a C”. We need to focus on who God tells us to be, not who the world wants us to be. We belong to God. And for us to play our part in the world and to be truly satisfied, we need to pursue the special gifting God has given to each one of us. We need to be one body, made of many parts.