Gospel.com Blog

Do you find it easy or hard to care for those who are hurting in the Church?

One of the more intriguing and challenging aspects of Christianity to me is the command to sacrificially care for one another. Jesus taught us that humble service was man’s greatest calling, and that to be considered “first” we must do our best to be “last.”

This devotional from Today in the Word reminds us that in the body of Christ we must look for those who are hurting and meet their needs, especially when it comes to helping the weakest of our members:

As the church of God, we must compassionately identify with those among us who hurt. Moreover, when members of our body are honored, we celebrate together. This isn’t mere sympathy or polite applause. With the kind of a radical unity in the body of Christ that Paul has been urging, we actually feel for one another. As followers of Jesus, we become like Him and take on each other’s pain and celebration in an incarnational way. In Christ, our stories and our lives really matter to others.

We can see what Paul is doing as he answers the questions the Corinthians have posed to him on the subject of spiritual gifts. He’s using his answer as an occasion to retrace some of his themes of the letter. We must remember that the fundamental problem the Corinthian church faced was its disunity. The disunity has expressed itself in multiple ways: believers had taken one another to court, the community had divided over the issue of whether one can eat meat sacrificed to idols, factions developed between sexual immorality and sexual asceticism, and the Lord’s Supper had become another occasion of the rich shaming the poor. Spiritual gifts were another arena where the Corinthians had despised one another.

Paul teaches that every member of the body is indispensable. We cannot do without what might seem to be the weakest of our members. As infinitely complex and beautiful as the human body, the diversity of the church is there by God’s creative design.

Read the entire devotional at todayintheword.com.

Have you witnessed an example of one member of the body of Christ caring for another recently? What are some practical steps you can take to care for those who are hurting?

The worlds of college and professional sports are not always marked by gracious and sporting behavior. But sometimes an act of genuine class takes place, elevating the participants above the all-consuming rush for victory. In one such instance, described at the Our Daily Bread devotional, a Christian school in southern California did something beautiful:

When the Los Angeles Times covered a 2008 conference championship soccer match between two Christian schools, Azusa Pacific University and Westmont College, it was about far more than winning the game. Three days earlier, a wildfire had swept through the Westmont campus, destroying several academic buildings, faculty homes, and student rooms. Unable to host the game, the rules required Westmont to forfeit. Instead, Azusa invited their opponents to play at their campus where they welcomed Westmont fans with free admission and lunch.

Rather than taking the default victory handed to them, Azusa extended a gracious invitation to their opponent. It cost them their victory—Westmont went on to win the game—but Azusa’s behavior ensured that everyone emerged from the game with something to be proud about.

What other acts of Christlike grace have you seen, either on the sports field or in your everyday life?