Dear Daily Message Readers,
READ: Ephesians 4:11-17
Ephesians 4:15 (ESV) Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
You are a part of a Body. You can have no life apart from that Body. The Church is the Body of Christ. Jesus is the Head of the Church. You can lose an arm, a leg, or another limb, but if you take the Head off, the Body dies.
Imagine how foolish it would be if your ear said, I am going to go to this place and be an ear all by myself. I am going to have all the life in the world over there. I dont need the body!
And, yet, how many within the Body of Christ do just that? How many reject the call to be one in a covenant community? In the Old Testament, they would kill you for that. In todays individualistic society, however, Lone Ranger Christians run rampant. How easily we forget that we are individually saved and corporately identified!
Membership in the Body means you make yourself publicly accountable. You can be disjointed from the Body, but you are not accountable to the spiritual leaders God has given you in the local church. When you submit to spiritual leaders in the church, you are submitting to God, and are saying to Him that you want to serve the Body. For you not to be accountable to the Body of Christ is the same in the Old Testament as not being publicly circumcised, which brought grave consequences.
The Bible tells us to one another each other. We are to love one another, edify one another, and serve one another as soundly saved Christiansall within the context of the Body of Christ. How can you do that if you are never working alongside other Christians for the advancement of the Gospel?
Faith Lesson: By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35
In Christ,
Darin Smith
READ: Ephesians 4:11-17
Ephesians 4:15 (ESV) Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
You are a part of a Body. You can have no life apart from that Body. The Church is the Body of Christ. Jesus is the Head of the Church. You can lose an arm, a leg, or another limb, but if you take the Head off, the Body dies.
Imagine how foolish it would be if your ear said, I am going to go to this place and be an ear all by myself. I am going to have all the life in the world over there. I dont need the body!
And, yet, how many within the Body of Christ do just that? How many reject the call to be one in a covenant community? In the Old Testament, they would kill you for that. In todays individualistic society, however, Lone Ranger Christians run rampant. How easily we forget that we are individually saved and corporately identified!
Membership in the Body means you make yourself publicly accountable. You can be disjointed from the Body, but you are not accountable to the spiritual leaders God has given you in the local church. When you submit to spiritual leaders in the church, you are submitting to God, and are saying to Him that you want to serve the Body. For you not to be accountable to the Body of Christ is the same in the Old Testament as not being publicly circumcised, which brought grave consequences.
The Bible tells us to one another each other. We are to love one another, edify one another, and serve one another as soundly saved Christiansall within the context of the Body of Christ. How can you do that if you are never working alongside other Christians for the advancement of the Gospel?
Faith Lesson: By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35
In Christ,
Darin Smith
