“For just as the body is one but has many parts, and all the parts of the body, although there are many, are one body, so also Messiah: for we also were all immersed by one Spirit into one body, whether Jewish or Greeks or slaves or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink. Now also the body is not one part but many.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-14 ONM)
I’m often hearing now of those who are saying they are Christians but don’t go to church. I’ve been told by some God is everywhere and they can worship Him at home and it’s not about being in a church building. They are saying that the church is full of hypocrites or they have been wounded in the church. I have others telling me that they too are hearing this from friends and co-workers. This week I want to convey to those through the Word of God who are part of this group and believe that you are of the body of Christ, you are not, you are spiritual amputees. This is not addressed to those that are bed-ridden or have other legitimate reasons for not being able to attend the house of God. This is for those who are like the child in the move “Home Alone,” you have become separated from your spiritual family. I pray that you surrender to the Lord and allow the Spirit of God to open your heart and mind to receive the Living Word and for the word to have free course “Finally brethren pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you” (2 Thessalonians 3:1). The same Word will heal your brokenness and hurt to surgically connect you back to the body of Christ to whichever part of which you belong. “Therefore, you must immediately put on as chosen and beloved saints of God hearts inner thoughts of compassion, generosity, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other if any would have a complaint against someone: just as the Lord forgave you, so also you must forgive” (Colossians 3:12-13 ONM).
I believe one of the things that will help bring clarity would be to correct the translation of the Greek word “Ekklesia,” which means a group of people who have gathered for a purpose. This word was translated into church, which was never used in the Greek New Testament. The actual translation of Hebrew scriptures would be congregation or community. With the translation of the word church being used, some people have a tendency of associating the church building structure with the spiritual body of Christ. The Bible lets us know that there is one body connected to the head, which is Christ Jesus, Who is exalted as the Head of His body, the community “God placed all things under Messiah’s feet and appointed Him as head over all things for His community which is His body the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23 Messianic Jewish Family Bible). Jesus has a healthy whole body, which has no missing body parts or prosthetics to hold it together to make it function. What is happing to the harvest you might be gathering for the Kingdom of God? We are a “kingdom of priest,” (1 Peter 2:5) so are you ministering to those souls from your one-man island? Are there disembodied limbs running around; legs lying dormant because of no feet to carry them; feet sliding in shuffles because of no legs to make strides for them; hands running around on fingers like “Thing” the hand on the 1964 show, The Addams Family, because of no arm to carry them?
We come together as one body to worship the Lord and to also show our love for each other. This is one of the ways we show our love for God when we love our brother and sister “And this command (charge, order, injunction) we have from Him: that he who loves God shall love his brother (believer) also” (1 John 4:21AMPC). We are also charged to be especially good to our spiritual family (Galatians 6:10). You won’t be able to show love or be a blessing to the family if you never show up for the reunion at the house of the Lord. Our spiritual connectivity to the body draws us together because we are fitly joined, no lose ends “But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16).
“And do not neglect our own meetings, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more so as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25 Messianic Jewish Family Bible). The Day has approached, so let us not continue showing disdain for our brothers and sisters, but most of all for the Lord, by forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. When we come to His house together as one to worship Him, we honor Him and His body. Make up your mind today that you want to be in the house of the Lord and be a part of the body of Christ and that your heart no longer has a desire to be a spiritual amputee.
