Weekly Update | September 15th, 2020

This is the second part of my two-part article describing our fellowship of suffering and rejoicing. In Chapter 12 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, he talks about spiritual gifts and how we should use them for the building up of the body of Christ (:7). Paul also describes how the Holy Spirit, the bestower of these gifts, unites the Church, who function like a human body. Each believer is a part of the body and has something unique and important to offer the other believers in the church body. This teaching applies to each local church, but I think it also applies to the Universal Church (all born-again believers everywhere on the planet).

Later in the chapter, Paul writes something important that I think we should remember. He writes, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it,” (1 Corinthians 12:26). This text teaches us two important things that are especially important during this season of ministry. This week, I discuss rejoicing. We are a fellowship of rejoicers!

Our culture does not embrace the idea of communal rejoicing. We’ve accepted the lie that when someone else has something about which to rejoice, that we have something to mourn. For instance, when someone else gets a promotion at work, we should mourn because we didn’t get the promotion. When someone else buys a new car, we should be jealous because we don’t have that car. When someone else is recognized by others for something, we disregard and disparage their honor. That kind of attitude should not be present in the hearts and minds of believers.

Consider again Paul’s comparison of the church to the human body. When one part of the body is honored and cared for, the rest of the body rejoices. Have you ever taken a towel soaked in cold water and laid it over your head after spending a couple of hours out in the hot Key West sun? It makes your whole body feel cooler. Likewise, when someone in our church body is honored (has something great happen in their life), we should rejoice with them because we are a church body and things that affect individual members impact all of us.

Let’s praise the Lord for those promotions, new marriages, births, and steps of faith. When one of us receives a blessing from God, we all receive a blessing from God! Church, we have much for which to be grateful. We have much for which to be joyful. Let’s be movement-makers and culture-changers. Why don’t we start by rejoicing?

In His Service,