Being One Body

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

BEING ONE BODY

1 Cor 10:14-17

14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

NIV

We have come to the place where we have to conclude that we are one. It is interesting, however, that our time and culture are totally different than the time and culture of the Corinthians. We have so many more creature comforts and things to distract us and even become an idol than they did. All the forms of media we have has exposed us to so much. We can sit and watch for hours, and become engrossed in many areas of entertainment. Of course, we do not have all the temples to false gods that existed in Corinth. But there are many things today that we may have turned into a form of a temple to some false idols. Each of us might have created our own form of false idols that we worship in some sense. Again, we could list success, power, money, and material possessions, which stem from the world we were raised in. But then we have other things like hobbies, sports, movies, books, and all the electronic devices that can capture our attention. The world would have us think certain sports or movie stars are role models for our youth and we could be caught up in that same concept. But because we partake in the body and blood of Jesus, we who have all these different interests, and different personalities have become one people. When we take communion in church, we all sit in our own little worlds, thinking what the bread and wine, or in many churches, the grape juice, mean to us, or at least we should be thinking about what those elements mean to us. The bread speaks volumes regarding the broken body of Jesus as he sacrificed his body taking all our sins upon himself, thus making it possible that God declared us holy and blameless in his sight. We cannot just think of the words of Jesus that are recited each time the bread is held up, remembering his last supper with his disciples. We must think of what that bread does for us, for Jesus is the bread of life. Without that bread, which is His body, we would all be dead in our sins. Then the wine, which is the Blood that Jesus shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Again, without that blood, which is represented in the juice, and if we were to be real about reproducing that last supper, both would be unleavened bread and wine. Nevertheless, whatever we use, the fact is this should be a far-reaching spiritual experience as we join with each other in taking part in these elements of communion. Just the word communion speaks so loudly that we need to know its significance. It implies that we are united as one in our thoughts and feelings in our spiritual experience. This is why Paul says they are one because we all partake in Christ.