(Read 1 Corinthians 12:20-27)
When it comes to the biggest challenge the whole world is
currently facing, that should be its own unity. Each nation, indeed, has its own
conflict with its neighboring countries. One good example is the North and
South Korea where decades of conflicts are continuously suffered by two
nations. For whatever reason, it is a
very long story. Well, it seems to be an ordinary day in our present times.
Conflicts are arising everywhere! Arab nation vs. Jews nation, Administration
Party vs. Opposition Party, Employee vs. Employer, Church vs. Church, Friend
vs. Friend, Parents vs. Children, Husband vs. Wife, and even Self vs. Self.
We are not going to discuss how to achieve unity for the
whole world as we cannot reach them all. Rather, we will simply start to whom
we can stretch forth our arms to achieve it. The bible tells us and given us
many instances of how unity is achieved and what it causes to our relationships
with all the people around us. We will start with the basic unit of a
community, the family. Indeed, we will start with people who started a family
--- the Husband and the Wife.
The moment they get married, it's a contract of union
between the two loving couple, vested with the authority to be ordained as
husband and wife. If you are living together and not married, then you are not a
legal husband and wife, rather you are called partners. In contrary with legal
and moral matters, I will leave it to you as this is customary. Union of a husband and wife has lots of complications as the rule of
laws of each nation. We want to simply refer to "the couple" as the
legal husband (male) and wife (female) only for the sake of this blog.
When lady accepted the love of a man, from being
boy/girl-friend relationship, to fiancee relationship, to husband-wife
relationship, the union of two hearts are also being developed closer and
closer until they become one. That is where their unity comes the moment the
lady and the man finally say "Yes, I do" to each other in front of
their wedding ceremony. At least, for the very first time the whole people
around them witnessed their agreement to live together for the rest of their
lives. Isn't it romantic?
Your union will bear the journey to strengthen, improve,
develop and maintain your unity as family couple will immediately follow after
you sign your marriage contract. There is no turning back. It is either you
make it or you break it. There will be challenges to keep your union, those
don't exempt the present marriage law where divorce is allowed, the vices
available just right after the neighborhood, the work and career ambitions,
your individual characters and many more. These are challenges to your marriage
alone, how about your journey along within your marriage?
In 1 Cor 12:20-27, Paul encourage each member of the
church to be united with others. And that each member have important part to
play and contribute. In verses 20-21, So now there are many members, but one
body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I do not need you," nor in
turn can the head say to the foot, "I do not need you." Like a body,
every organ function according to what they are designed or called for. The
eyes are meant to see, the ears are for hearing, the nose to smell and to
breath, and many more. Each is responsible for every task that has assigned to
it. Maybe some are visible and always recognize, some are working unknowingly
from public but it doesn't mean that it has no importance at all. In the same
way in a family, each member play a very important role. At the very start of
marriage, the husband and wife shares these responsibilities between themselves
and when they started to have kids, it is being delegated to them as well.
Weaknesses and strengths, both exists in each member of
the family. For a couple, as the theory has proven that opposite attracts,
each individual has the differences and uniqueness. But that is the very reason
why we are compatible to one another despite of oppositions of our characters,
our attitudes, our capabilities, and our failures. We compliment with each
other, looking for what we cannot do or bear, filling up the emptiness in our
lives. This is where the contrast results to a beautiful love story, after all
these differences joined together and played. It is like notes in the music
sheet, though are being played in different tunes, they produce a wonderful
song. A song that is great which touches our emotions, our lives, and our
spirit. This is simply because the unity of each notes despite of the
differences in tunes gives the rhythm, melody, and music.
Arrogance vs. Acceptance. In marriage, it is very common
that each is proud of what they have contributed to it and what they still can
give. Sometimes, each of us have forgotten that they are talking to themselves alone
as if our spouses are not our own body. We overemphasize ourselves in the family
forgetting that we are part of it. We often keep on reminding our spouses that
we are the head of the family, we are achieving heights in our career, we are
smarter and having better decision making, and the list goes on. Mostly we
don't just overemphasize it, moreover, we compare it to our less dominant
spouses. You are not the head of this family, you are not doing great in your
worthless job, you are always having failures in your decisions, you are just a
mess and I DON'T NEED YOU! We are continuously telling these proudly things to
win something else with our spouses and left nothing but degrading arrogance in
their ear. Where is the Love between spouses' lips? Where is the
acceptance that both has agreed from the first day of our marriage.
In verse 22 says "on the contrary, those members
that seem to be weaker are essential." God has accepted us despite of continuous
sinful acts of men, and so as to the couples, that we should keep on accepting
each other's faults, indifferences, failures, and weaknesses. We all fall short
to the glory of God and not worthy of His mercy, indeed. But God loves the church, therefore, He offered Jesus to redeem it. God wants every family to
accept one another in unity. He is not asking us to be uniformed, he just want
us to simply be united. Acceptance is the initial step. Accept that one is the
head of the family, the other is the light of the family; the one gives the
financial support, the other gives hands-on care and emotional support to the
family; the one give great ideas in decision-making, the other one contributes
to the decision for consideration; and so on and on. Acceptance is simply the
key to avoid any conflicts to arise in the family, therefore start to destroy
any arrogance to live continuously within your family.
Individually vs. Family. As individual, we always wanted
to compete with our peers or with the others. We hunger for superiority over
the others even inside the family's house. Husband or Wife longs to be
respected simply because they are superior. Corrections is often prohibited
resulting to self destruction rather than reconstruction of what faults we knew.
Because we are human and like the other creatures of the world, we need to
survive. But God is calling for the unity to value each other no matter what we
are capable of. God requires us, indeed, to share of our greater capacity to the
lesser able member of a family. Example in general are: a husband's physical strength
can lend a hand to the wife in doing strenuous
works requiring physical strength, a wife cooks a good meal for the family to
enjoy to feed the hungers, kids (though they do not know) soothes the parents
tiring day when they see their sweet hugs
and kisses, and many more. Our bigger self, therefore, must fill-up the scarcities of the others in
the same case.
As the passage in verses 23-24 says "and those
members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our
unpresentable members are clothed with dignity, but our presentable members do
not need this..." The right-handed man painter, though he mostly uses his
right hand to create his masterpiece as it holds the paintbrush, there is
always a left hand that holds the palette where he mixes his paint colours. The
left hand job could be tiring, steady, still as it often moved which may suffer
from stiff and unrecognized by the body itself. The right hand does the actual masterpiece
like mixing of colours, applying the colours to the canvass, etc. But in the
end, the praises and honours are received by master's hands regardless which side of the hands (either from
left or right hand) did it as it comes from the same person. This what Paul exemplifies as
verses 24-25 continue "... Instead, God has blended together the body,
giving greater honor to the lesser member, so that there may be no division in
the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another."
The family is known to what the family member has
contributed to one another. If the elder son graduated on his university study
with flying colours, the parents are praised as well for nurturing the child
growth and their influences to their child probably. If the husbands were promoted,
the whole family are very glad and rejoicing though they are not the one
promoted. Because whatever part of the body feel, the whole body will feel the
same. In verse 26 tells us that "If one member suffers, everyone suffers
with it. If a member is honoured, all rejoice with it." Therefore, desire
to give honour to each other and to the whole family rather than to give them
sufferings. Be united as the Lord has commanded us, for that also gives honour
to Him, our Saviour, who redeem us to be part of His Body (the church) as He is
the Head of the church (the body).
God bless everyone!!!
