Members in One Body
Members in One Body
The Apostle says: “As God has apportioned to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. But we have different gifts” (Rom 12:3–6).
We are all members in one body, which is the Church. Each one of us has been given by the Lord a specific position and a specific responsibility to carry out. If each of us performs his work, the work of the entire Church is set right, but…
Sometimes it happens that a person admires his own position and criticizes others because they are not like him. Or a person becomes displeased with his position and murmurs, asking that it be changed!
Both matters are wrong, and both are against the divine economy…
For the one who admires his work and wants everyone to work like him—otherwise he criticizes them and belittles their work—forgets that the one body has many members with diverse functions, and that each one of them is necessary for the existence of the body.
For example, a servant in church education believes in the importance of teaching in the Church, in the importance of teaching children, and in the importance of spiritual work… but he does not stop there. Rather, he criticizes the work of the members of the church council because they carry out administrative and financial work and projects, and he approves only of spiritual work…! In this, he also belittles the liturgical work of the deacons, the work of social service, and the work of Coptic associations, forgetting the Apostle’s saying: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’… If they were all one member, where would the body be?” (1 Cor 12:19–21).
This servant—unfortunately—considers the others to be non-spiritual…!
With this mistaken view, he falls into pride and self-exaltation, as well as into judging others and failing to understand the divine economy.
Is everyone who does not work like you deficient and mistaken?!
Is everyone who does not follow your method unspiritual?!
The Church needs this and that, and society needs both.
If a person loves monasticism and virginity, does he want all spiritual people to be monks and virgins, otherwise he criticizes them, grieves over them, and looks at them as though they were deficient?! How does this pride agree with our being “many members” of one body with diverse works?!
Or a person with a certain temperament wants everyone to be like him, otherwise he criticizes them!
A person with burning zeal and a fiery temperament like Elijah—does he want all people to be like him, otherwise they are subject to his blame?! Thus this “fiery” person criticizes every meek, calm, peaceful person, considering his meekness a form of softness of character!!
No, this is not the teaching of Scripture. God did not create people with one temperament, nor did He make paradise of one kind of fruit, but of “every kind of fruit” (Eccl 2:5).
The Kingdom of God needs the zealous as it needs the meek. It needs the building hand as it needs the thinking mind. It needs David’s sling and sword as it needs David’s psalms, songs, and music… God uses all.
According to how God has apportioned to each one a measure of faith…
On the Mount of Transfiguration, the Lord gave us an example of His embracing all:
Around the Lord Jesus, Moses and Elijah shone, and their nature was manifested with Him. Elijah was a virgin, and Moses married more than one woman, and both were around Christ. Elijah was fiery in temperament, while Moses “was very meek, more than all men who were on the face of the earth” (Num 12:3).
Elijah represented the life of solitude on the mountain, and Moses was the leader who guided hundreds of thousands of people… Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume the fifty, and Moses interceded for sinners.
Both were transfigured in light, despite the difference in their temperaments.
The Lord used Moses as He used Elijah. The temperament of neither was changed; rather, He sanctified it and used it for His Kingdom.
You may be a foot, striving in visiting people. Another may be a hand that gives help or performs work. A third may be a thinking mind, a fourth a soaring spirit, and a fifth merely a heart that gives affection and love. All are necessary for the Kingdom of God. All are members in one body—not only in cooperating in work for the Kingdom, but also in working for one another.
If this is so, rejoice in the work the Lord has willed for you, and do not murmur, asking to have another’s work.
What matters is not the type of work you do, but the degree of your mastery of it and your faithfulness in it. It is also not important that you admire a certain work you do, but rather God’s commissioning of you.
Do not say: If I were in such-and-such a position, I would do this and that… Rather, perfect what is in your hands, and do not covet the responsibility of others. Do not desire to be a head, for a collection of heads cannot be a sound, complete body; the rest of the members are necessary.
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think soberly, as God has apportioned to each one a measure of faith.
God could have created the world of one type and one level, but He did not, because goodness lies in diversity.
In the world there are levels of age, diversity of gender—man and woman—diversity of form, intelligence, and gifts, and likewise diversity of responsibilities, as God has apportioned to each one.
Every person in the world may please God in a particular way:
One pleases Him with a life of contemplation, another with a life of service. One God gave a heart full of love, and another God gave tremendous energy for work. This one contributes to the Kingdom with his affection, and that one with his effort. Both are necessary for the Kingdom of God, and God is pleased with this as He is pleased with that.
They do not differ, but diversify, and each complements the other.
We are two members in one body. I am an eye and you are an ear… You see through me and I hear through you. I am your eye and you are my ear. We are not strangers to one another, nor different from one another, but as the Apostle said: “members of one another” (Rom 12:5).
From here arises the bond of love among the members of the one body.
No member can dispense with another. All work in interconnection, cooperation, and integration. If one member suffers, the rest of the members suffer with it. They are united by the bond of the one body. Thus are all the believers in the Church.
Each one works according to the role God has assigned to him and according to the capacities God has granted him. He does not change his role, but perfects his role. On the last day, God will judge each person according to his heart, his good intention, the measure of his determination, will, sincerity, and effort.
Thus we are saved from criticizing others, judging them, and attempting to change their positions.
The woman who poured the ointment on Christ’s feet was criticized by the disciples, who said, “Why this waste?!” because they wanted her to act according to their own reasoning and feelings, and instead of this act to give the price to the poor!!
But the Lord Jesus said to the disciples: “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me” (Matt 26:10). The Lord judged her according to her own feelings and understanding, according to the measure of faith God had given her.
Our fault here is that we want to cancel the personalities of others and make them think with our minds and feel as we feel, otherwise we criticize them harshly!!
There are indeed fixed standards for good and evil, to distinguish what should and should not be done. We are not speaking about these. Rather, we mean two actions that may both be good and fully acceptable before God, yet a person’s zeal for one leads him to criticize the other—such as in the subject of marriage and virginity, or the subject of the life of prayer and the life of contemplation.
Let church servants not say: Why do monks sit lazily in monasteries? Let them come down and serve, for we need their service! Nor let monks say: Why do these servants lose themselves in a whirlwind of busyness? Let them leave everything to live a life of stillness!
How beautiful it is to let each one walk according to the measure of faith God has given him, according to his own nature and the components of his personality, as long as he does not deviate from the path of goodness and God’s commandments.
Here we mean goodness in its absolute sense, not in our personal concept. This advice is directed to spiritual guides and fathers of confession:
It is not good for them to make their children in confession copies of themselves, coloring them with their own inclinations. Rather, they guide the confessor to goodness while considering his nature and personality.
If a father of confession loves silence and a person who is social by nature confesses to him, is it permissible for him to lead him to silence and imprison his social personality, preventing him from acting according to his nature in doing good?!
We err when we confine goodness to one narrow circle… for the circles of goodness are many and countless before those with broad hearts.
The narrow mind is one that criticizes and rebukes much, because it sees goodness only within a narrow circle that its understanding does not exceed. The broad mind, however, seeks to understand others’ viewpoints and discover their intentions. Here it meets others, opens to them, and they open to it. They may differ with him in the means, yet fully agree with him in principle and goal.
We are members of one another, completing one another.
The father’s firmness is necessary, and the mother’s tenderness is necessary; they complement each other. The mother does not criticize the father for his firmness, nor does he criticize her for her kindness. Through the cooperation of her loving heart with his guiding will, the upbringing of the children is completed.
If we know this, we will live in peace with one another.
And God in His heaven uses, for the building of His Kingdom, all this variety that exists in the universe, after sanctifying and blessing it.
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