We need the others
- Jacob Ninan
No man is an island. God has arranged it in such a way that we are all dependent on one another, not only for our life on earth but also for our spiritual life. But we may find it easier to recognise and accept our dependence on God than on people. Since God provides us much of His help through people, we tend to miss them when we neglect the process of receiving help from one another.
As believers and disciples of Christ, our sufficiency is of Him (2Co.3:5). When it says that we are complete in Christ (Col.2:10) it is not meant to be an abstract theological statement. It means that whatever we lack, in wisdom, understanding, ability, etc., we can draw it from Him. But when Christ wants to give us some help that we need, He does it many times through one of the other members of His Body. If we lack the proper humility of heart and recognition of our need of these others, we end up missing this help altogether.
Since, as members of the Body of Christ we are all different from one another in terms of our function in the Body as well as our natural temperament, abilities, etc., this help may come to us in a form that is not straightaway fitting with our own ways. This poses an additional difficulty, that we may reject it even after we receive it.
For example one person may express something in a crude or blunt manner that is unpalatable for our ego. His or her viewpoint may be entirely new to us and we may reject it just because of that. The things that grip and move the other person, or the way he or she works with them, may be different from ours because our functions in the Body (ministries) are different and we may find it difficult to relate to them. Perhaps out of ten things that a person tells us only one may be of direct relevance to us, but we may get put off by looking at the other nine. Etc.
We need to realise how small we are in the whole Body of Christ, even though each of us is individually precious in the eyes of the Lord. We need to also see how He has placed us all together, each part supplying something to the others for all of us to grow (Ep.4:16). Then we will be open towards the others and also thankful for each one of them.