On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we stop to recognize the simple yet fundamental teaching of the Bible related to race and each other.
As followers of Christ, we must see and appreciate every color, every nationality, every ethnicity, every race. We are not blind to color; we see and appreciate it.
We celebrate that all people are made in the image of God.
For those who are also part of the body of Christ, our connection is even stronger!
In the Body of Christ, There Are No Divisions
Paul uses the analogy of the human body to describe the body of Christ. He explains that in the body of Christ, we are one body with many members, just as the human body is one body with many members.
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
24b But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no divisions in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. (1 Corinthians 12:24-27)
Did you catch what he wrote? We are in and part of one body together where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, nor any other kind of distinction. We are all one in Christ.
Two Implications for Your Day and Week
First, as members of the same unified body, we need each other. We cannot – we must not – look at another person and see anything different than unity in Christ. Many members – one body.
Second, do something. As members together of the body of Christ, we all need each other. Choose to serve someone else in the body today or this week. Care. Suffer alongside. Rejoice with. The whole body benefits for it.
