For just as each of us has one body with many members,
and these members do not all have the same function, so
in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all
the others. - Romans 12:4-5
To put this verse in context with the surrounding passages,
Paul says "offer
your bodies as a living sacrifice" and "do not think of
yourself more highly than you ought" as part of his passages
before saying we are to be a member of the body with our function and be a
"member
belonging to all the others."
He follows this by describing how each of us are to use our spiritual gifts
whatever it is, to sincerely love, to be devoted to one another in love, and to
honor one another above ourself.
In today's devotional by Tony Dungy, he discusses who the
MVPs have been in all the Super Bowls and how there has never been an offensive
lineman to get the MVP. Yet, he points
out how futile the effort of any team would be without a stellar offensive
line.
In my own coaching, defense started with defensive
tackles. If I can't plug the middle, I
can't force a team to run around the ends.
I had to be able to make a team's plays more predictable. No one usually notices those tackles, stuck
in the middle of the line and very often under a huge pile of lineman on every
play. But they were crucial to the start
of the defensive personnel alignment and game plan.
It seems so easy for people in Christian service to get
burnt out. They work and work and work
and no one seems to notice or care, or at least they fall into this frame of
thinking at times. And soon, if left to
this line of thinking, they slowly back away from service until they aren't
serving at all. Everyone needs
encouragement, but even if we're a lineman and we block and block and get hit
every play and someone else gets all the glory and never thanks us, we need to
stay steady. We must offer our bodies
and not think to highly of ourself and belong to the others as Paul wrote in
Romans 12. Although I write that, I do
so knowing how easy it is to feel and fall into that trap. And when we see the "professional"
Christians doing what appears to us to be lackluster jobs, it unfortunately
fuels that fire and fall.
There comes a time in your Christian service when you meet
that line of thinking head on. At that
time you have to decide and know why you are serving at all. Is it for the glory? Jesus warns about that. Is it for the compliments of man? Jesus warns about that. Is it to make your status better in the eyes
of God? Jesus warns about that (it's
also incorrect doctrine). OR, is it
because you recognize that the area of service is your gift and you are just
contributing to the benefit of the others, even if some criticize you? Is it because you feel a tug to do it and you
don't think you could not do it even though it takes a lot of your time and
effort? You need to know in your heart.
It is also worth
mentioning that not every local body of believers is the right body for you to
be a part. Sure, overall, every true
believer is a member of the same body, I get that. But, to use a football analogy, if you're a
smash mouth run-up-the-middle type of guy and you're in a spread pass every
play offense, you're not gonna be able to use your gifts as well in that
offense. It's important to be in a local
body that your gifts fit together with the other parts well and you know
confidently that you are a valuable and needed part.