As a business leader, you have a key role to play in God’s work. You also have an identity that’s more significant than the title on your business card or the size of your business. This short excerpt from Who Am I? will remind you of both these truths.
Unique parts assembled and working together in function, harmony and support to fulfill a larger purpose—this is the essence of our identity as members of Christ’s body.
Being a member of Christ’s body is like being in an orchestra that creates beautiful music. The conductor chooses the piece of music and directs the sections (woodwinds, brass, percussion, strings), individual members practice and learn their parts, and the group comes together to rehearse and create. The interplay of musical instruments, themes, sounds and dynamics requires precision, careful listening and wholehearted engagement by each member.
Another comparison, used in Scripture, is that Christ’s body is like the physical body. The human body is created with different parts that work together rhythmically and systematically for health and life. Christ’s body, the Church, follows this same design. God’s people are supernaturally filled with his Spirit and given gifts for the body to be “moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ” (Eph. 4:12–13). Christ’s body functions and works together through Jesus, who “organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body” (Col. 1:18).
“ So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.”
Knowing our true identity as members of Christ’s body requires nothing more or less than being connected in a personal relationship with Jesus, acknowledging and giving him his rightful place as our Lord and leader and living in responsive obedience to him.
How are you nurturing your connection with Jesus, the head of the body?
This, however, requires a willing, disciplined and collaborative commitment among God’s people—to love the Lord and one another as we learn, grow and serve together. Members of Christ’s body are particularly careful to prioritize activities and practices that bring goodness, health and care to the body. This begins in the way we interact and relate at home with our families and flows into our work together as servants of Christ, and ultimately to our work as entrepreneurs and business leaders.
What activities and practices could enhance the way you express goodness, health and care for your family, your church, and your business? For those you serve with?
We are also alert to malfunction and dysfunction in our lives, in our practices and in the church. We “challenge, warn, and urge” (2 Tim. 4:2) “with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2) to promote and bring goodness to Christ’s body. We are urged to be a light on the hill, promoting the work of Christ through our works and our testimony. In what ways are you testifying to your faith through your business operations, and your graciousness with your family and those you work with?
If you desire to live fully as a member of Christ’s body (or, more broadly, live from your identity in Christ), our Who Am I? Devotional will anchor your identity in the deep truths of what God says about you. Order your copy in our online store today! Purchase Here
This post is adapted from an excerpt from “A Member of Christ’s Body”, part of a devotional collection from Who Am I? A Devotional Journey For You To Soar In Your Identity In Christ (Dr. Sharon Simmonds). Copyright ©2016 Arrow Leadership. Published by Castle Quay Books. The excerpt was originally published by Dr. Sharon Simmonds on 31/1/2017.
