Being the Body of Christ-Shockingly Hard
Being the body of Christ is much harder than we guess at first look. Why can’t we just get along?
The Apostle Paul gave us the basic course when he said we are a body with different parts, and the hand should not say it does not need the foot and such.
Many times people are different, and we still have trouble with them. To this I recommend Please Understand Me II. It is published by a major atheist publishing company. I am not one who thinks all wisdom comes from Christians though it all does come from God whether the atheists want to admit or not. That author unlocked the MBTI personality test and gave it teeth beyond any other test I have encountered. I am a Christian ESTJ by the way. Many times We do need to work harder to understand people. They all have a story when we draw it out
To love someone is to care enough to understand them as someone different than ourselves and of equal value before God. Some personality types are more rare and means we have less experience with them. Thus, we are prone to misunderstand and judge them wrongly.
Being the Body of Christ – Oh My
Another issue relates to who we are as deeply loved sinners.
We all tend to see ourselves as having good reasons. and others as only having excuses. To put it another way, we think we have reasons for our mistakes but others have something intrinsically wrong with them for theirs.
It is universal and a sign of how deeply the human race needs to be saved from our sin.
This makes it hard for us to be a body with other Christians. We must be aware of how we do this and face it down.
Now the darker issue.
Jesus told us to beware the wolves who come in among the sheep. Giving more grace to a wolf especially in the church is foolish. The wolves have never actually surrendered to God but work very hard in the church to give the facade of holiness. When you confront them, you walk away confused. That is a sign, See the link for more on this problem.
Yes, being a body in unity locally and universally is no picnic. The Apostle Paul knew all and asked for prayer for two women church workers to get along. Nothing has changed, but we can think and pray more on this issue to find a way out. God certainly wants us to leave the wolves and unite with the sheep.