September 8, 2023

Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:14-31

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 1:1-4, 15-35, 1 Corinthians 12:14-31

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (1 Corinthians 12:27)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God puts the Church together as He chooses. There is a command here not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Romans 12:3), as if the Body of Christ would not survive without us. But there is a promise as well: God chose each one of us in Jesus Christ to be members of Christ’s Body. God has chosen you for salvation. 

Whenever we think we are indispensable to the Lord’s work, we actually make idols of ourselves. The only indispensable one is Jesus Himself. But graciously, He has chosen you and, in that sense, He has made us an integral member of Christ’s Body. We are not free to think of any other member of the Body as dispensable, because God has chosen each of them as well. 

Because God chooses sinners, and only sinners, to be purified by Christ’s blood as holy members of His Body, we will not have perfect (or, even, very good!) love for others, and they will not have perfect love for us. But since we are all, by God’s mercy, in this together, we are forced to practice love and forgiveness for one another. Just as you do not choose the family into which you are physically born, you do not choose the Church. 

We do often choose our local congregations, but here is an argument for being joined to the Body of Christ in the faithful congregation most local to us. We will have to learn to love the people there, with all their faults, and they will have to learn to love us, with all of ours. But wherever we are, we should remain (unless there is persistent false teaching), because God arranges the members of the Body, and all things, as He chooses (1 Corinthians 12:18). 

This is, finally, a comfort to us. Everything does not depend on us. God has put each of His Christians in their individual vocations, with particular people, to exercise our love for those whom God has put before us. And He has put us before them. We are not responsible for every person in the world, to serve everyone, or bear witness to everyone. He has put other people in those places. Our vocations are limited in how many relationships we have, but they are unlimited in love, since we will never run out of good works to do. When we are burdened, exhausted, and weary from all those good works; when we have not fulfilled them as we should; then we remember that it is the Body of Christ, and He forgives, sustains, and nourishes us by the Body and the Blood in the Sacrament. Thanks be to God for His continual provision for His Church! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord, help us walk Your servant way  Wherever love may lead  And, bending low, forgetting self,  Each serve the other’s need (LSB 857:5).

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.