Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
You are an embodied soul. That means there's more to you than just a soul. There's more to you than just a body. You're not all body. You're not all soul. You are an embodied soul. You have a body—you have exactly the body that God knit together, the body that God gave you, the body that God created. Then He has enlivened and animated that body with your soul, and that's who you are.
The Church: A Picture of Unity
What we're being told in this verse is that the church is the same way. The human body is a picture of it. It is a metaphor for the body of Christ, which is the church. Jesus is the head and we are the body. Even though I go to one church and you're part of another church, it's not like I'm a part of one body and you are a part of another body. No, we are all a part of one body—the body of Christ. I'm a member of that body, and so are you.
There's not a different Holy Spirit in me than the Holy Spirit that is in you. No, the same Holy Spirit is in each of us. That's what makes us all members of the body of Christ.
Why This Unity Matters
Why is that important to know and understand? Why is Paul bringing that up? The reason Paul brings this up is because we so easily lose perspective and we forget the unity that we have as Christians. You see, the unity that we have—it isn't a unity that we have to work at. It's not a unity that is based on commonalities between us. It is a unity that just is. So, we should live accordingly. We should live as if we are united, because we are united.
I don't know you, but because you are a Christian—you are someone who has heard the gospel and believed the gospel and placed your faith in Christ—we are family. I don't have more of the Holy Spirit than you. You don't have more of the Holy Spirit than me. I don't have an upgraded version of the Holy Spirit and neither do you. The same Holy Spirit is in each of us.
Think about the implications. That means that you're never alone. You may feel like it, but you're not. That also means that you belong. You may feel like you don't, but you do. It means that you have the most important things in the world—you have the most important things in common with other believers.
Experience It in Community
Listen, it's one thing to just talk about that—to talk about that unity, to talk about not being alone, to talk about belonging, to talk about sharing the Holy Spirit and being members of the one body of Christ. You probably know a lot of that, but it is quite another to experience that in the church. I encourage you, that's where this happens. That's where you experience this. That's where it takes place—when you unite yourself to a local church where you can know others and others can know you as you are members of the one body of Christ.
Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4: For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
