The church shows Christ's transforming power to the world.
| posted 1/30/2009
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Have you ever visited a foreign country, only to be faced with the culture shock that comes from being surrounded by a different language and different customs? You suddenly gain an appreciation for what it means to be an outsider, to be a stranger who doesn't fit in.
So much of our world is polarized by racial and political differences. Yet in Christ, all barriers of race and culture have been torn down—a remarkable and transforming fact. Now Jews and Gentiles (2:12, 13), blacks and whites, women and men, rich and poor, educated and uneducated are the same in Christ. It's a miracle! It's a privilege to be part of Christ's body, so don't let your need for independence, a difference of opinion on some nonessential doctrine, or some more important time commitment keep you from offering your time and talents to a local church. God has made you with the need to fellowship with other believers and to use your gifts for their spiritual benefit. (See also Ezekiel 43:1-5; Acts 2:1-13, 41-47; Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 3:10-17.)
Good Words to Remember:
In [Jesus Christ] the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:21, 22
Today's Challenge:
Do you allow differences to divide you from or unify you with others?
Copyright 2001 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian Bible Studies.
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