We Belong to Each Other

By Doug Knepp

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:4-5

Since I work at the university’s REC center, I have an opportunity to teach students and faculty about exercise and working out. After reading Romans 12:4-5, I was reminded about how I set up weight training programs for people. I divide the upper body into two different categories- pushes and pulls. Basically when you strength train you are either pushing the resistance away from your body(Push), or you are doing some kind of pull or rowing movement (Pull). The basic idea of this type of training is to work the entire torso front and back. Some people (guys especially) are only interested in working the front of their bodies (i.e. chest and biceps) because that is what they see in the mirror. This approach is problematic because your body’s musculature was designed to work together. You need to be sure to train the body in a way that you do not become overly strong in one dimension and remain weak in the other. This is not an optimal way to gain strength, and may eventually lead to injury, because the part of the body that is needed to stabilize and support the other half is too weak.

Likewise, in the “Body of Christ” – the church, we all need to work together in whatever areas we serve to further strengthen our body. We should not allow one segment of ourselves to become flabby by not engaging in the work of the ministry. If we allow others or a few people to do everything, soon some parts of our body will become weak. Our Body of Christ will not be operating as well as it should, and some of us may even start to fall apart or get hurt by trying to do too much!

When we don’t use our muscles they begin a process called “atrophy”, a fancy word for losing your strength. If we don’t exercise our spiritual muscles, they will also begin to atrophy. Pray that God helps us to use our strength and train our bodies to function together as one body – the church. Wherever we are able to serve, let us do it to the best of our God given abilities. Don’t just let the muscles you can see in the mirror do all the work.

Read Romans 12:1-21.