“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

(1 Corinthians 12:26)

This is how it works, when you are a close family, right? When you care about each other and look out for one another, if someone is sick or hurting you too are affected. The opposite is also true – when good things happen to one of us, we join with them in celebrating and sharing in their happiness.  

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is painting a picture of what life looks like together as a Christian family. He uses the image of a human body that has many parts but are all joined together in one body. Everyone is needed, everyone plays a special part in keeping the body functioning healthily; so, when one suffers, we all suffer, and when one of us is honored, we all rejoice together. 

The bottom line is that we need each other to function well and stay healthy as the body of Christ, his church. It is easy to think that we are not needed because there are others to jump in to help. The truth is, you are needed! We each bring the uniqueness of ourselves to contribute in making a wonderfully diverse, caring, and supportive family. As is true with our bodies, if too many of our body parts stop functioning, we will die. 

One of the ways we suffer alongside each other and also honor each other is through our prayers on Sunday morning in worship. We pray for those who are in need, who are sick or suffering, who are facing surgery or recovering from surgery. We pray for the families of our church and school, for our country, for our churches. We are actually loving each other by praying for one another. We are trusting our Father in Heaven to hear us and answer us as his dear children. We also rejoice in giving God praise for his blessings upon us through each other. This is why we give thanks and pray for each member of our church weekly throughout the year. 

We are truly blessed to have each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and to share life together as a church family. Let’s not take this for granted. May our Lord continue to use us in each other’s lives in the hard times and through the good times. Let us suffer together and rejoice together because we are family, the family of God in Christ. For this, I am thankful and am exceedingly glad. 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

 – Pastor Darrin Sheek