"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another..." Hebrews 10:25.
Notice that the Christian life is designed to be a "one another" experience. We each have an individual relationship with the Lord, but this is not the sum total of everything. There is also a "together" aspect to the Christian life.
"For through him we both have access to the Father through one Spirit" Ephesians 2:18.
"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" 1 Thessalonians 5:11.
Each of us has a basic choice to make in our dealings with others in the Body of Christ: to tear down or to build up. Building up is, in practice, a five-step process:
We are encouraged to build other Christians up. Ephesians reveals what it is we are building:
"And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit...From him the whole body...grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work" Ephesians 2:22; Ephesians 4:16.
"...Freely you have received, freely give" Matthew 10:8.
God gives freely to each one of us in order that we give just as freely to one another. Paul said: "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you..." (1 Corinthians 11:23). There are two things that we receive which we can pass on to others:
This sharing with other Christians of what we have received is called "Body ministry."
"What shall we say then, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church" 1 Corinthians 14:26.
God desires for His Body to learn what it means to minister to one another, both during and outside of meeting times. For this reason, He has distributed gifts - not just to church leadership, but to every believer (Ephesians 4:7; 1 Corinthians 12:7-11).
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" Colossians 3:16 (see also Ephesians 5:19).
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" Ephesians 4:2-3 (see also Colossians 3:15).
Body ministry has only one purpose - to build up one another up toward the Lord (1 Corinthians 14:26). The guidelines given for prophecy apply to all forms of believer-to-believer sharing. What we say should be "for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort" (1 Corinthians 14:3). Directive words are not within the jurisdiction of Body ministry.
"...But God has combined the members of the body and...its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it" 1 Corinthians 12:24-26.
Body ministry works on the basis of mutual identification - knowing what the other is going through. This principle is shown in Romans 12:15:
"Rejoice with them that do rejoice; weep with them that weep" (KJV).
So many times, we do the opposite. When we see someone weeping, we "rejoice" with them - we encourage them to look to God and to experience the joy of the Lord. Rather, we must learn to feel with the other person, before we can truly minister comfort and encouragement to their heart.
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ...for each one should carry his own load" Galatians 6:2,5.
These two verses appear to contradict themselves, but the Greek word used for "burden" in each case is different. The first word translated "burden" is baros, which literally means "a weight, that which is heavy." The second word, however, is phortion, which was a military term referring to a soldier's pack. In other words, we should all individually carry what is our everyday load or responsibility, but where it becomes too heavy for us, we all join in and share the burden.
During Body ministry, the anointing of the Spirit can be expressed in any of these (and other) forms. It is the same anointing (1 John 2:27), but expressed in different ways. This anointing is controllable (1 Corinthians 14:32-33), and can be expressed in a form - prophecy, prayer, tongues, sharing or song - that best fits the time and situation.
God desires for us to be filled with His Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), and that the overflow of this infilling will spill over in the form of encouragement and comfort to the lives of others within the Body and out in the world (read 2 Corinthians 1:3-6).
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Unless otherwise stated, all scriptures quoted in these studies are from the New International Version of the Bible, © New York International Bible Society, used by permission. Other versions referred to are: KJV (King James Version), NKJB (New King James Bible), TLB (The Living Bible), Amp (The Amplified Bible) and The Message. All versions used by permission.
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