Christians not Cannibals

Galatians 5:14-15, “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will destroy each other.”

    The Church is a body, not a buffet. Often though, I find myself treating it as such. There is in me, a deep-seated tendency to pick and choose the believers I like and ignore those that I do not.  At a buffet that is fine, but the body of Christ is not here to serve me and cater to my whims. I am part of the body of Christ, I am not a cannibal.

  Believers have a hard job. As those Christ has called, we are called to love. We are called to work and to serve those around us without expecting anything in return. We are not called to squabble or to bicker. Nor are we called to expect believers around us to align their lives to our own tastes. Part of being a body means that each part has to be different from one another. Just as there are no two identical hairs on the human body, so no two people in the body of Christ are the same. Each brings a unique set of characteristics and talents to the table. Whether or not we as people can see it, the traits of the different members of the body of Christ work together to glorify God.

  And that is point anyways. The Church is not here for the pleasure of man. It is here for the glory of God, for the encouragement of His children, and for the advancement of the gospel. When I as a believer decide which aspects of Christ’s church I do and do not like, I put myself above God. I put my desire for happiness above His command to love Him with all my heart and to love my neighbor as myself. I am here to build the Church of Christ up, not devour it as I see fit.