1 Corinthians 12:12-14

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.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, NIV

This verse, and the passage in which it resides, is a reminder of the diversity present within the body of Christ. This diversity is essential to the Church because without diversity, we lack the various expressions in which Christ intended the Gospel to be shared and demonstrated in the world. When Jesus came, He did not intend for the Gospel to be something detached from culture or free from its influence. Rather, He intended it to be something that is relevant to any and all cultures and can be translated from one context to another. This is why we have Scripture translated into numerous languages today.

With that, we must come to recognize the various things that each believer and each church brings to the body of Christ. We must also recognize the sense of belonging each individual believer has within the body of Christ. I think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote is especially relevant within the body of Christ as well:

I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent, we are interdependent.

What this quote highlights to me is that each individual believer within the body of Christ has a unique role to fill that only they can fill. We are all dependent upon one another to do what God has made only us to do. When someone is missing or worse excluded from the fellowship, it is not just that person who is lacking but everyone else. 

May we learn to step further into our calling as believers to be all that God made us to be and may our congregations find further unity across differences so that we might see the fullness of Christ put on display for all the world to see.