Appreciate the Variety in the Body of Christ

Appreciate the Variety in the Body of Christ

Zac Poonen |?

God uses our different temperaments and gifts to present a balanced picture of Christ to the world. By ourselves, each of us can at best present only a distorted and unbalanced image of Christ. Any single person's ministry, by itself, could produce unbalanced Christians. How thankful we have to be that there are others in the Body with differing emphases and temperaments. For example, if two brethren are ministering the Word to the same group of believers, and one's emphasis is, “Don't be too sure that you are filled with the Holy Spirit, for you may be deceiving yourself”, and the other brother's emphasis is, “Be sure you are filled with the Holy Spirit”, on the surface they may appear to be contradicting each other. But both emphases are needed -so their ministries could be mutually complementary.

“Even our disagreements with one another can be used of God to deepen our fellowship and lead us on to spiritual maturity."

In the Body of Christ, we can have Calvinists and Armenians working together, each bringing their distinctive emphases - for both viewpoints are in the Bible. As Charles Simeon once said, “The truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme, but in both extremes.” So, we need people presenting both extremes.

Then again, there is room for 'outgoing' personalities as well as for shyer ones. Different temperaments can be mutually complementary. Some people may be over-cautious; never taking a step forward without much deliberation, weighing all the 'pros and cons', and wondering for a long time whether to move or not. Others are more carefree and tend to rush ahead enthusiastically, without thinking deeply about the consequences. Because both these (and other) kinds of personalities are found in the Body of Christ, there is a balance. If the Body consisted only of hesitant, deep-thinking personalities, progress might be too slow. Conversely, if the Body consisted only of impetuous enthusiasts, there might be too many unfinished projects.

Each temperament has its strengths and weaknesses. A variety of people with a variety of temperaments, working together as Christians, can present a more complete and more accurate picture of Christ to the world. So, we should not be wasting our time trying to make everyone in the Body like ourselves. We should allow each one to be himself. What we do need to concentrate on is, how our strengths could support another's weaknesses. His strengths could in turn support our weaknesses.

By working together, Peter and John (men of different temperaments) brought more glory to God than they could ever have done independently. Paul and Timothy- strikingly different in their temperamental make-up - could yet labour together in the gospel and form a powerful team.

There are brilliant intellectuals as well as those with mediocre minds in the Church. Naturally, their presentations of the truth of God will vary. But neither category can despise or criticize the other, for both are equally needed in the Body, to present the gospel to a world consisting of intellectuals and non-intellectuals, philosophers and housewives, students and farmers, etc. God needed a genius and a scholar like Paul for His work as well as an unlearned fisherman like Peter. They had different styles of preaching the same good news, but each had a distinctive part to play, and neither could have done the work that God did through the other, just as ably.

Conversion does not alter a man's intellectual capacities. Neither does it compel him to change his social status. The gospel does not eradicate the heterogeneous nature of society here on this earth, although social distinctions do become irrelevant in Christ. God had need for a wealthy man like Philemon as well as for Onesimus who was a servant in Philemon's house. Their social levels and standards of living remained unchanged, but they each had a distinct contribution to make to the Body of Christ, that the other could never make; and so, they could labour together in the gospel.

God never intended the Body of Christ to be full of people who were exactly alike in every way - like motor cars turned out of a factory. No. The very ministry of the Body is dependent upon the variety of its members. There would have been stagnation and spiritual death if all were alike.

Even our disagreements with one another can be used of God to deepen our fellowship and lead us on to spiritual maturity.?Proverbs 27:17?(TLB)?says, “A friendly discussion is as stimulating as the sparks that fly when iron strikes iron”.?There are going to be sparks, but in this way both pieces of iron are sharpened. Sometimes God places two people with different temperaments together in His work, and as they labour together, the sparks may fly between them, but this may be God's way of?"sharpening"?them. If one person is like iron and the other like clay, there will be no sparks and no sharpening either. Instead there will be the imprint of the iron on the clay - one strong-willed person's opinion forced on the weak-willed person. God's intention however is not that one person should press his views on another, but rather that both should learn from each other. We can disagree, but we can still be united, and still love one another - nay, we can love one another more deeply now than before.

?

Recommended Sermon:?Fellowship In the Body of Christ (click here)

Events:?Upcoming Live Streaming Events (click here)

Share it with your friends