Who is the Body?

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.      I Corinthians 12:12-14  NIV


     I grew up in a church where the people truly believed that those who practiced the teachings of our denomination were the only people going to Heaven.  That made sense to me because we were teaching the truth, right?


    As an adult who has more experience with scripture, that attitude frightens me, a little, because it reminds me of the Pharisees who thought they had the  express lane to Heaven and everyone else was out of luck.


    The fact is that just as individuals are given different gifts to exercise in the body of Christ, so are different churches.  One church focuses on God the Father, another on Jesus the Son and others on the Holy Spirit.  Some churches praise God with contemporary music, some with traditional hymns and some only sing Gaither tunes.


     We are all different parts of the body.  We all proclaim Jesus as Lord.  It is time we worked together as the body of Christ and ministered to those who are open to the way God will use us.  Never limit God.  He is the Father of us all.