Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Years ago, I was walking around the side of my bed and bam! I stubbed my toe. For the next week, maybe even the next ten days, I was doing nothing but nursing my toe. I wasn't thinking about the rest of my body. I was icing my toe, taking care of my toe. All of my attention was on my toe. It was purple. It was in bad, bad shape.
As you think about that, the reason my toe was hurting was because I injured it. The rest of my body was fine. As you think about this passage in our Verse of the Day, it's a tremendous passage which talks about the body of Christ and how we're all related to one another.
It says right here in Romans chapter 12 and verse 5, “So it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.”
Selfless Service
Right now the NBA finals are happening or the NBA playoffs. Hockey is being played, baseball is being played, and everybody has to be on the team. You can look at the good teams and you can look at the bad teams and invariably the good basketball teams, the good hockey teams, the good teams have this quality and that is they're not selfish. They're selfless.
I remember when I was in seminary I asked one of my professors a question. I said, professor, tell me at least one key quality that will help us as we go into ministry as we go serve people. I just want to do a good job. What should we do? He looked at me and he looked at the class and he said, do anything that's selfless.
Three Key Principles
As we look at this passage, there's three incredibly important principles that we can look at.
First of all, it's unity. We are one body in Christ. You're part of the body of Christ. I am part of the body of Christ. If you hurt, I'm to be compassionate and be sensitive to you because I'm related to you in the sense that I'm part of the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's unity. I love what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, do nothing from selfish ambition, but in humility consider others as more important than yourself. One of the reasons why there's disunity it’s because we're proud. And the Bible says God opposes the proud.
Secondly, there's diversity. We all have this unique role. There's many parts of one body, so there's diversity. We're all not rubber ducks. We're not all the same little rubber duck quacking along. We're actually diverse. There's different people. This is again, another place where selfishness comes in again, because we want to do what others do instead of just being content with how God has made us.
God has made you unique. Psalm 139 says, you're fearfully and wonderfully made, and you and I will never reach our potential that God has for us if we're always trying to copycat everybody else. Learn from others. Be mentored by other people, but be the diverse person that God's called you to be.
Thirdly, I love this word- it's not the word independence, but it's interdependence. Paul says, and we all belong to each other. There's this interdependence. Paul already said in Romans chapter 12 and verses 1 and 2, he wants you to give your body, your mind, and your will. I call it God wants your BMW, your body, your mind, and your will. Paul makes this case. Give God your body, give Him your mind, give Him your will.
Now he wants you to use your spiritual gifts in this passage. Before that he says, don't think of yourself too highly. Don't think of yourself too lowly, but have sober judgment. He then gives this beautiful Verse of the Day in Romans chapter 12 and verse 5, which is, have unity, allow there to be diversity, and then have interdependence.
Let's run from being selfish and let's be selfless so that we can build the body of Jesus Christ.
