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We are saved one by one—individually, but we are added to the body of Christ. We need each other in our fight against spiritual foes. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” This partnership is important to our remaining faithful. We need each other. The gifts which other Christians have can stimulate my zeal, encourage my hope, and inspire my love. I need these Christians, and there are those who need me. I have the challenge to help them.
The church might be thought of as a spiritual hospital in which the Great Physician is chief of staff. Some of the patients can walk. Others can use their hands. Some can see well. Others are blind but can hear well. Under the guidance of the Great Physician we are able to supplement each other’s disabilities and thus succeed in a fruitful Christian life.
“A body is not one single organ, but many. Suppose the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, it does belong to the body none the less. Suppose the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, it does still belong to the body. If the body were all eye, how could it hear? If the body were all ear, how could it smell? But in fact, God appointed each limb and organ to its own place in the body, as he chose. If the whole were one single organ, then there would not be a body at all; in fact, however, there are many different organs, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you;’ nor the head to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’ Quite the contrary: those organs of the body which seem to be more frail than others are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we regard as less honorable are treated with special honor.” (1 Cor. 12: 14-23 N.E.B.)
When we are tempted to go off by ourselves and to feel independent of other Christians, let us remember this teaching of the Scriptures. Let us use each other in constructive ways. Let us not be ashamed to call on others for help nor afraid to become involved in giving help to others. We need each other.
M. Norvel Young
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