Bible Stories for the Young
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In the last story, we told you how Paul was telling the Ephesians that God made all those who are His ONE people. Jesus is not driving along the roads of life in an ice cream truck serving people their favorite flavor of religion. “Step right up, and pick your favorite flavor.” No way! His Master Plan involves us becoming a people of singularity, oneness, togetherness.
But Paul goes on to tell them that oneness doesn’t mean everyone looks or acts the same. Christ gave everyone different gifts, even though we are all part of the same Family with His shared DNA.
When someone comes into God’s Family, Jesus gives them a part of Himself, which means everyone has a special assignment in the household.
Everyone has a special job, just like each part of your body has a special job. An ear hears. An eye sees. A fingernail scratches the itch-ies. Every part of the body is very important. So there’s no place for someone to think, “I don’t need this person. I can just do it myself,” and no place for jealousy, “I wish I had the job they have.”
No, Daddy knows what He’s doing, and God’s Family is ONE. Your knee doesn’t dislike your elbow. And your ear doesn’t wish it was a nose instead. This is True for Jesus’ body too. We all share His DNA, and every part of the body is important and special.
And a few of the gifts Jesus gives are specifically for helping His Family have the tools they need to become ONE Perfect People together.
These gifts are architect or builders; seers; Good News tellers; shepherds and teachers. These are for training up the Body of Christ until we all reach this Oneness and grow up to be the complete representation of Jesus.
What does “being one” mean? It’s when people are so like-minded and like-hearted that when you’ve met one of them, it’s like you’ve already met the others, too.
But that doesn’t mean life is always easy peasy. Do you ever have little squabbles or arguments with your brothers and sisters? That’s not okay, is it? Do you ever need an adult’s help to solve the more complicated problems in your family? Sure, you do.
Well, did you know that your relationship with brothers and sisters in your family is a shadow of the relationships in God’s Big Family?
So sometimes, when people see things differently in God’s Family, they may need some help seeing how to settle the disagreement. Some of Paul’s letters have been helping God’s Family with this, have ’t they?
Like when the Corinthians were squabbling and starting to divide up into little groups, Paul scolded them and told them that they were ONE body, one person, made up of many parts.
And like when some of the Galatians were getting confused about whether they needed to obey the old deal of rules, Paul stepped in and settled it by telling them that was NOT TRUE.
And at the end of Paul’s letter to the Philippians... Paul mentioned that two of the ladies in Philippi were having a little squabble. And he encouraged them to resolve it.
And in a letter to a man named Philemon, Paul invites him to dive deeper into a living loyalty and into seeing his slave as a brother.
So why did Paul do all that? Shouldn’t Paul just mind his own business? Uh... NO!
God WANTS His people to be One in heart. So we never, never, never let something stand between us and someone in God’s Family. If someone has been washed in the blood of God’s Son, then it is not okay to allow ongoing squabbles. It is not okay to “agree to disagree,” and continue fussing or not liking or ignoring each other. You have to find a way to mend the relationship.
But when you have a lot of people in a Family, building good, strong, healthy relationships may seem complicated, at times... but Un-surprise! Un-surprise! These special gifts from Him help sort out the problems!
And Paul had one of these gifts. Paul didn’t handle it because he had a title or education or because he decided he was going to be the boss man. No. He handled it because Jesus gave him the gift to be able to see how to help, and he wanted to help because of love.
Throughout time, God has always used gifted men and women to help His Family. When a joint in the body pops out of place (Have you ever had that happen? It hurts doesn’t it?), Paul says that there are 4 or 5 gifts that God specifically gave for the purpose of popping those joints back into place. The gifts Paul mentioned were:
An architect or builder helps make sure the foundation and structure of the House is on solid ground.
A seer “smells the breeze” and can know by its stinky smell or a sweet smell how something can affect that community of believers, or a family, or a person in how much they are becoming like Jesus, or not.
A good news teller spreads the message of the King and His Kingdom—letting all men and women know that submission to the King and the harmony in His Kingdom is the only place to find peace.
A shepherd or teacher feeds God’s sheep and protects them from wolves by bringing understanding and perspective about God’s Ways and Mind.
All that sounds awesome (and necessary), doesn’t it? For sure. And these gifts are from Jesus Himself. They are not based on education, diplomas or titles or any mere human’s decision. It’s not, “Hey, I’ll be the seer, and you be the good news teller, because you’re good at talking to people.” Or, “I want to serve God so I will go to school and learn how to be a leader or speaker or problem solver in God’s Family.”
No. Jesus is the one who builds together His People that the gates of hell can’t win against. Through these gifts, these divine assignments, Jesus Himself brings His Family together as One.
So you can see, in God’s Family, there’s no room for fussing, fighting, quarreling, or quibbling. AND it’s also NOT okay to divide up into little groups or to avoid people because of differences, or complain about people behind their backs — because in God’s Family, we work things out together. Every time. No barriers, no walls, no opinions and judgments, and NO agreeing to disagree on things that matter to God. Got it?
If you’ve got a problem with someone — mend it. If you can’t seem to mend it, then look around for one of these gifts to help. But we don’t let anything stand between us and God’s Family. Okay?
And as Paul said, “As we use these gifts to grow up to be more like Jesus, then we won’t be like babies anymore who are tossed around and confused by tricky people or their teaching. Instead, we will grow up to become the mature body of Christ, who is the Head. As each one of us does our part, the whole body joined and held together by every little muscle and ligament, will grow strong with love.