Remember in high school when you took Chemistry? There was the classroom where you took notes and researched your textbook. Then there was the lab where all your book knowledge was to be put into practice.
All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12:2. You are not the Body of Christ on your own. You need others to express that. Together, not separated, we are His family. A church family moves you out of self-centered isolation. The local church is the classroom AND the lab for learning how to get along in God's family and practicing unselfish, sympathetic love.
In a spiritual community called the church, you learn to care about others and share the experiences of others: The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:26, "If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part of our body is honored, all the other parts share its honor." Only in regular contact with ordinary, imperfect believers can we learn real fellowship and experience the New Testament truth of being connected and dependent on each other. Biblical fellowship is being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ. God expects us to give our lives for each other. Many Christ followers who know John 3:16 are unaware of 1 John 3:16: "Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."
This is the kind of sacrificial love God expects you to show other believers—a willingness to love them in the same way Jesus loves you.
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