We are all one in Christ Jesus

I love to go barefoot. It is my life in a nutshell.  Of course, this is when I am at home.  I am not walking all over the world barefoot.  I did that for about a week in a state park when I was thirteen, and ended up with a metal shaving sliver.  Not doing that again.  Plus, I just like to have clean feet.

Enjoying going barefoot can be taken for granted.  You never realize how complicated feet are until you have a foot injury, poor support in your shoes, knee troubles, hip troubles, stubbed toe, ingrown toe nail -- the list can go on and on and on.

When thinking about separate body parts, I am so often reminded of 1 Corinthians 12. It speaks of our spiritual gifts and the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12-21
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many.  If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.  And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?  If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?  But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.  If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body.  And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

No matter who you are, you have a place in the body of Christ if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior.  We should live humble and obedient in the LORD God Almighty, and not concern ourselves on what gifts we have compared to each other.  We should just be obedient and do next things for Him.

1 Corinthians 12:22-25
On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it.

But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

We are all one in Christ Jesus.  We must not think of each other as better or worse than each other.  Each one of us should always be giving great honor to each other.  Let’s not be like the world which only honors their own choice of people depending on what is popular.

Galatians 3:27-28
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Getting back to literal bare feet… so what happens when you playfully kick at a balloon on the living room floor to please your giggling 2 year old, but instead, you end up hitting your big toe on the hard end-table?  You probably end up on the floor in great pain with at least a half week of pain in your walk because a little thing like a toe was stubbed.

Let’s now say “the stubbed big toe” is part of the body of Christ.  Some how “the big toe” is hurting.  The toe is hurting for any number of reasons.  Because the toe is hurting it cannot function correctly, and so the whole body should recognize it is hurting.  The whole body should come to help and comfort the hurting toe.  This is our job in the body of Christ.  The same goes for when the toe no longer hurts.  The whole body should rejoice.  Let us fulfill our part of the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:26-27
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.  Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.