But while I have loved the Body, how much of the Body has loved me, this one member that God has set in the Body? Indeed, how many have condemned me for my obedience unto God? How many have condemned me for the work that God has wrought in this my tabernacle? How many "think of ((me)) as if ((I)) walked according to the flesh"? (2_Corinthians 10:2d.)
After all, have those my condemners ever witnessed me manifest the "works of the flesh"? No, indeed. I have obeyed God in His using this my tabernacle to call men unto love and Scripture. Yet, for such a calling, I have been shunned, ignored, and rejected. Rather than prove by love and Scripture, there are those who have rebuked me only so as to "tell me off". Where is the love and Scripture in that?
Indeed, I am an uncomely member of the Body. I am as that part of the body which few like to bring to mind, because it is uncomely. Yet, if that uncomely part ceased to function, but rather began to back up, the body would soon perish. Thus is that uncomely part vital to the body. Is it, therefore, not foolish for one to reject that uncomely part which is necessary for the whole body? So why am I, as an uncomely member of the Body of Christ, so rejected?
If they "walk in the Spirit" and I "walk in the Spirit", how can they refuse my "different gift" while being of "the same Spirit"? Indeed, they cannot. After all, the first Fruit of the Spirit is love, and Jesus has commanded that we love AS JESUS loved and loves. And that's a powerful love!
Hence, unto this uncomely member which is necessary to the Body, as made manifest by the Fruit of the Spirit because of walking in the Spirit, is it not against God's working to rebuke and reject the uncomely member?
What? Do some say I babble on, while they would call me Babylon? I have been sorely mistreated because God has used this my tabernacle to reveal some of what the Scriptures REALLY, TRULY, and VERILY say. What? Have I not been so mistreated? Wherefore as a testimony must I therefore provide two examples as to why some have believed themselves to be so "justified" to so sorely mistreat me for my obedience unto the Lord.
© April 4, 1996, The Standard Bearer
P.O. Box 765, O.O.B., ME 04064
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