Central Truth

For the Body of Christ to function as God intended, there must be unity among the members that overcomes insignificant differences of opinion or preference.

Reflections

God has made each of us unique with our own set of likes and dislikes. When it comes to ice cream, my family thinks I am boring because my favorite flavor is vanilla. But even when we come to church, we make judgments based on what we like and do not like. We all have our opinions about the music, the sermon or the décor.  

However, we must be careful that we do not allow our personal preferences to bring about division within the church, the Body of Christ.  When we begin to allow our likes and dislikes to influence how we treat each other, then we find ourselves on the road the Corinthians were traveling in our passage.

As Christians we must ever keep in mind that we are called to be like our Lord who humbled himself and took on the role of a servant.  One of the ways that we are to serve the Body of Christ, at times, is to forgo our preferences or opinions to preserve unity in the Body of Christ.    

Discussion Questions

1. If differences arise between members of the Body of Christ what would be an appropriate way(s) of working through the differences to preserve unity?
2. What are some ways to safeguard against allowing individual preference to bring division in a church body?
3. In what ways, can we as members of the body of Christ “walk a mile in another person’s shoes” that might allow us to see a situation or circumstance from that person’s perspective?