Together

Ephesians 4:¹⁶ “He joins and holds together the whole body with its ligaments providing the support needed so each part works to its proper design to form a healthy, growing, and mature body that builds itself up in love.” (The Voice)

We start today’s devotional by looking at three scriptures. 1 Corinthians 3:¹⁶ “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” (emphasis added). Ephesians 2:²¹ “We who believe are carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly growing temple for God.”  (LB, emphasis added). Ephesians 2:²² “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit!” (NIV, emphasis added). In all three scriptures, there is one consistent word, and that word is together. Not only are we individually dwelling places for God’s Spirit, but together we are a dwelling place where God lives by His Spirit.

I am not an architect, but I have friends who are brilliant architects, and we have done projects together. If we are connected to God’s eternal temple, then it means that we can learn from the building. The first lesson from building is You Cannot Build With Just One Part. You do not need to be an architect to know that you cannot build with nails alone. A nail can be a part of a building, but a nail cannot be a building. Cement alone is not a building. You may have prefabricated windows, but the prefabricated windows are not the building. You cannot build with just one part. Similarly, you cannot be a spiritual temple by yourself. We are members together. Huge!

The second lesson from building is All The Parts Have To Fit Together. If you join the roof and the doors alone, at best you will have a caricature of a building. It is going to be very ugly, and extremely vulnerable. All the parts have to fit together in the right places. The third lesson from building is A Part Is Useless Until It Is Connected. No matter how beautiful the prefabricated window is, if it is not put in its place and connected to the whole building, it is pretty much useless. The fourth lesson from building is that A Part Can Be Inside The House And Still Not A Part Of The Building. This is really huge.

You can have extra cement and extra nails for instance, that you store in the building. But the extra nails and cement are not part of the building. And this is the difference between attenders and members. If you are just attending a church and you are not a member of the church. You are in the house, but you are not a part of the building, you are not connected. That is a very precarious place to be. God wants you to be part of the building.

Prayer: Father, help me remain joined together with Your body performing my own special function, in Jesus Name. Amen!