He makes the whole body fit together perfectly…
…As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Ephesians 4:16 NLT
The wonderful truth is that we are not born to live isolated and lonely lives. Just as God is a Trinity, a community of interrelating persons of divinity, so we are created for relationship or, more simply, friendship. We enjoy friendship with God and that finds its fullest expression within the mutuality of our interpersonal relationships. Church is the vehicle which is intended to give the fullest expression to that mutuality.
Just as our hearts yearn for companionship with God, we are designed to live in communion with each other. It’s why none of us is gifted for everything. Work gets done as we pull together and draw upon the rich diversity of gifts dispersed across humanity. While all humanity seeks relationship, it is most clearly achieved within the Church, for here by Christ’s action there is no separation of ethnicity, gender or economics. We are one not because of a single thing we’ve done, but simply because we have been found by God.
This mutuality ensures that the whole body is encouraged, strengthened and released to realise aspects of God’s kingdom on earth. As one who sits closer to the introspective end of the spectrum, I can find it a challenge to engage with people. I am always attracted to my own company, be that a walk or a good book. The world within my head is always moving and demanding my attention. It is a very satisfying space to explore. So, I can easily be persuaded to draw back from God’s hard-won gift of mutuality, yet I am diminished in my God life if I pursue that course. I also rob others of the life that God has awoken and nurtured within me.
QUESTION
How engaged are you with others? Do you choose to pursue mutuality with others and so realise God’s purpose as Church?
PRAYER
Thank you for the richness of mutuality and for the gift of the Church as a rich resource for my life and faith.
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