The Church as a Healing Community (1 Corinthians 12)
By Dr. Brandon Steenbock
I was up way too late. When I shut down the computer, the room was plunged into darkness. I used my mental map of the room to navigate to the hall and up to my room. Except I was off by a couple inches.
When my little toe connected with the wooden foot of the couch, I heard a crunch and felt a stabbing pain. The next day a doctor confirmed – I fractured it. Do you know how much that little part of the body can hurt? I do.
But the healing was almost worse. The doctor taped it to the toe next to it, stuffed some gauze in my shoe, and told me to be careful. For the next four weeks, I walked with a limp. And my back and neck and head hurt constantly. The imbalance from a fractured small toe threw off my alignment, causing my whole body to suffer.
This is exactly what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 12:26 when he says, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” He’s using the analogy of the body, but really he’s talking about the Church. When a fellow believer is suffering, whether we realize it or not, we all suffer. God designed his Church to work together, to be intimately linked to one another. To share each other’s burdens. As Paul says in Galatians 6:2, “Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you fulfill the law of Christ.”
If you don’t know your brother or sister in Christ is suffering, it still impacts you. But you can’t do anything to bring healing until you know. How will you know? We need to make the Church the safe place for confession, for honesty about our struggling, for sharing our hurts.
How do we do that? First by suspending our judgements. The Church isn’t a museum of righteous people, it’s a hospital for sin-sick souls. So when a sinner walks through the doors – and that’s all of us – we need to welcome with open arms.
Second, when you hear of someone’s struggle, don’t gasp in shame or sigh in disappointment. Nod in encouragement. Reaffirm God’s grace. Be honest about your own sins and struggles so that everyone will know that this is a place for laying burdens down.
When one part hurts, the whole body hurts. When one part heals, the whole body rejoices. Let’s commit to making the Church a place of healing and rejoicing.
Prayer: Lord, let your Church be a refuge for the hurting and a place of healing and rejoicing. Make us willing and welcoming people who stand with those in need and carry each other’s burdens. Amen.
Thank you for reading our special devotional series for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The rest of this devotional series can be found here.