GOD’S INVESTMENT

“If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand,
I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?”
I Corinthians 12:15

Value. Even in earthly things the value of something is based on what someone will pay for it, not its intrinsic worth. Something that may be of little value to one is priceless to another. In the Church at Corinth there was dissimulation and controversy because there was much value put on specific expressions while others were minimized. Today we have a similar situation where multitudes of God’s redeemed people sit in ignorance of the wealth and the precious investment that is theirs in Christ Jesus. We all admire a gracious ministration of God in an individual, but the truth of the New Covenant is that Jesus paid the same price for every man. He tasted the same death for everyone that calls upon HIS NAME. The attitude expressed here of “because I am not the hand” is really an expression of unbelief rather than humility. Value is not determined by function but by the price paid. How we need to see things through the eyes of our Redeemer! We hear things such as; “I could never preach like that, pray like that” and that may be true. However it is the “I” that is the problem not the giver. For there to be unity, life and glory in the Body of Christ there is no room for “I”. This is His Body and HE PLACES the members in it as it pleases HIM not us. There is no such thing as someone insignificant in God’s Eternal purposes. What HE has purchased is to become a priceless, unique and powerful expression of HIS LIFE. It is UNBELIEF that says “because I am not the hand, I am not of the body…” It is the recipient of the one talent who hid his portion in the ground that received such a stern judgment from the hand of the Lord.

“Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,
we persuade men…”
II Corinthians 5:11

The FEAR OF THE LORD is the great leveler of men. Paul is stating here that the thing that propelled HIM from one city to the next in HIS declaration of the Gospel was the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord does not paralyze us it enables us to walk, live and be responsible to the investment of the Lord in our lives. It causes us to face our own unbelief and ARISE to walk in HIS PROVISION. It frees us from the fear of man, the fear of inadequacy and the fear of failure. It brings us to the awful recognition that it is to HIM I must give an account; it is a terrible sin to hold the precious things of HIM in faithless inactivity and unbelief. This is the DAY for the people of God to ARISE and LIVE and WALK in the provisions of the SON in OUR FATHER’S HOUSE. All things are HIS, and HE is looking for a healthy return upon the investment that HE has already made.

“And if you call on the Father, who without partiality
judges according to each one’s work,
conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear;
knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things,
like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct…
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish”
I PETER 1:17 – 18

Brian Troxel