Part of Christ’s Body – Susan Barnes
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” 1 Corinthians 12:12 NIV
God’s way for us to gain good self-esteem, is to place us in his body. We belong to him. We know it’s not what we do that determines our worth and value, but rather it’s who we are.
Paul explains that a body is not just a foot, or an ear, or an eye. The body has many parts each with a role to play. Everyone has a part to play in God’s Kingdom. Even if it seems small and unimportant, it’s still valuable. It doesn’t matter if we’re teaching at a university or cleaning toilets, we’re all important to God. Paul writes, “In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well” (Romans 12:6).
We notice In Jesus’ parable of the talents that not everyone was given the same amount, “He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last” (Matthew 25:15). When we are giving gifts to our children or grandchildren, we’re usually quite careful to give them gifts of equal value. We don’t want them to think that one child is more valuable than another based on the value of the gift they are given. But God doesn’t work that way. God has many, many children and they are all valuable to him. God likes variety and diversity so he makes us all different and gifts us differently. Our self-esteem doesn’t come from our gifting but from knowing we are part of his body.
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