The Least Among Us

"The best live among us in disguise."
Louis Dudek

.....So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. 
(I Corinthians 12:24 NLT)

God has designed the Body of Christ so that the people we might regard as less honorable to receive extra care and honor.  The parts of the body that appear to be weakest and less important are the most necessary.

The Church is not a social organization with all sorts of clichés and a pecking order mentality.  As a matter of fact it is just the opposite, where the first shall be last and the last first.  The problem is that we value people according to their function, not their intrinsic value.  People are not valuable according to what they can do, but because they are made in the image of God and bought with a price. The price was the death of God’s only Son.  Why must we honor these people among us?  It is because they are the most necessary.  Though sometimes unnoticed or unrecognized, they are most needed to keep the body functioning as designed.  Furthermore, it is the way God promotes unity.  When all members care for each other equally then this fosters harmony in God's family (v. 25).  Affirming all God's people speaks to the fact that there are no big or little people in the Body of Christ, just sinners in need of grace. The land is all level at the foot of the Cross.

Of course, we are not talking about just time spent with the weakest among us.  Jesus spent more time with three of his followers than with his other disciples.  The priority of time given to them did not indicate heightened value.  It was about function, training them as future leaders in the kingdom.  Saying all that, in any church, ministry, or Christian organization, to the extent that we honor the least among us, is the extent that we love Christ.  It is that simple. “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (Matthew 25:40 NLT) Are you honoring the least among you? 

Image used with permission by Google

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
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