Pastor Alex Adegboye
No man is an island; we are independent of one another. No one is a nonentity nor non-consequential.
Consider the body because it is an organic entity. If you don’t relate with your physical body regularly you will die, so it is with the spiritual body (the church).
1Corinthians 11:26 – 31: “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged”.
Discern the Lord’s body which is the body of Christ. This bible passage emphasizes the discernment of the body of Christ before taking the communion or else you may die. The bible enjoins we consider one another in the body of Christ else we might go sick spiritually. Even husbands and wives should consider their spouse as God’s sons and daughters. There’s a blessing in treating members of the body of Christ well.
God has determined as a principle of operation to use only men to bless men, that is, using humans to bless human, Psalms 17:14. Men are the hand of God with which He blesses men. God always uses people in the church to bless other brethren in the church. There was an incidence of a lady in this church who met her husband through a member in the church. Though she had a delay before meeting the man none-the-less she met him on the day she returned to England. She got this blessing by respecting and obeying the suggestion of a member of the church to have a stopover somewhere in Lagos to see someone she has never met before in life who ended up becoming her husband. They are both married now with an eleven year old child.
Our destiny has been joined together in the body through Christ. Whatever is our social, economic or official status, we’ve got to consider one another. Hebrew 10:24 – 27 “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries”.
WHAT TO CONSIDER
1. You consider to provoke people to love: Love is not about you alone, is about loving one another. Love provokes love. This is the fundamental principle of the kingdom of God. Everybody needs to be loved. You love by finding the things that touch people’s heart.
1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death”.
We owe each other love, Romans 13:8 “Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law”.
1Jn 4:11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another”.
1Th 4:9 “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another”. Through these scriptures God is teaching us to love.
Gal 6:10 “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith”.
2. Provoke to love and to good works: you do this by doing something good in the church. Tit 3:8 “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.
Titus 2:11 – 14 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works”.
Tabitha was prayed back to life because of the good works she did, Acts 9:39
3. Consider not forsaking the assembly of one another in the: Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching”. Not coming to church regularly is a serious sign of backsliding. Psalms 122:1 “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD”. David enjoyed going to church to worship the Lord.
i. Coming to church is a duty – Luke 4:16
ii. Coming to church because is a place of service to others – Hebrew 10:25, Mark 10:45
iii. Coming to church because is a place of power: agreement generates power. When we all pray together is more powerful than praying individually, Matthew 18:18-20 “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”.
iv. Come to church because it is a place of consecration and intercession; a place where people are prepared for the future and for heaven, 1 Peter 1:16
v. Come to church because is a place of instruction – Hebrews 10:25 “… so much more as you see the day approaching”.
Food For Thought
Somebody somewhere in the church carries what someone else in the church needs.
