Main Thought
As Christians, we are to imitate the actions and attitudes of Jesus Christ. Jesus wasn’t motivated by personal benefit when He died on the Cross for our sin. He did it to glorify God the Father - and He did it for the common good. He did it for the benefit of everyone who follows Him; for every member of the “Body of Christ.” The Holy Spirit is moving and active today, which is also for the common good. Are we primarily motivated by personal good, or by the common good of the Body of Christ? God gives us spiritual gifts for the common good. If we aren’t involved, then the Body is incomplete. There are people who need the spiritual gifts that God gave us. Love moves us to serve with excellent effort and an excellent spirit. Then, when we are active as members of God’s Body, we are best-positioned to experience love too.
Main Passages
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
- 1 Corinthians 12:7
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
- 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- 1 Corinthians 13:1-7
Discussion Questions
Who’s someone in the Body of Christ whose spiritual gifts have blessed you? How so?
Is there anything stopping you from wholeheartedly loving the Body of Christ in attitude and/or action?
Do you feel that God is calling you to do something for the common good of the Church in this season of your life?