Unity Seed – Embrace Diversity: Just as One Body

Key Verse

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (NIV)

Short Reflection

For as the body is one, though the human body have many members, and though it is composed of a great variety of parts, yet it is one entire system, every part and member being necessary to the integrity or completeness of the whole.

How can one part of the body get hurt without the rest of the body feeling it? In Tagalog, we would say, “Ang sakit ng kalingkingan ay ramdam ng buong katawan” (the pain of the little finger felt by the whole body), meaning it is a good sign when we are able to feel the pain of the other parts of our body. What is bad is when we don’t feel it at all, when we remain indifferent about it. When the followers of Christ behave this way, it could only mean that the body is sick, that some parts are probably numb.

As believers of Christ, we became one body (church) because of our faith. We became one because we were baptized with the same Spirit and we became one because we were one in mind, which is to serve Jesus Christ.

Every follower of Christ is immersed in and filled with God’s Spirit and we are all connected to each other. This allows us to become one body made up of diverse parts. These parts/differences include nationality and race, gender, physical and intellectual ability, as well as social status, but the gospel is powerful enough to unite us as one church.

Brethren, no matter our differences, let us all remember that we need every one – we need someone or somebody who will journey with us as we walk with the Lord. God bless us all!

Lord, let this reader and I be “All for One”, and may we, in the midst of our differences bred by our diversity, behave as one body, the body of Jesus.

This is the second in the “Embrace Diversity” series of blog posts and is written by Jervie Magat from our Filipino partner, the Center for Community Transformation, and the Co-Director of Global Youth Empowerment at PEER Servants.