Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

In the beginning of this series I pointed to King David’s big sin. I was saying that doing kingdom business provides a hedge of protection around us. While David failed to perform his duties it was not that failure that was his sin, nor was it the cause.

Let us once again assume that you have discovered who you are in Christ and you know your calling. What can we discover about King David’s behavior that will help us not repeat his mistakes? I am not saying that keeping your nose to the grindstone will keep you from sinning. Far from it. Being obedient to God’s commands does that. Sometimes the Lord says rest.

Let us return to King David’s sin and see if we can identify where he went wrong.

2 Samuel 11:2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

Stop focusing on the woman. That is not David’s problem. David was restless. He got up from his bed because something was troubling him. I do that. I get up when I am restless and cannot sleep. That is how I can recognize it in David. What should we do when we are restless, when things are not right within us? I went back and looked to see if I could discover what was disturbing David and I found nothing except assumptions. The passages do not tell us.

We have to look to the behavior to see where things went wrong. David walked upon the rooftop alone. It is in the alone time that David discovered opportunity to go wrong. So the first opportunity to avoid sin was in keeping his stress to himself. This is where accountability partners come into play. They will help talk out the problem and get to the root source of the stress.

Do not suffer stress alone.

1 Corinthians 12:18-20 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body.

First allow me to point to something obvious, the most readily identifiable parts of the body of Christ are those closest to the head. The eye, the ear, the mouth are seen to be close to the head which is Jesus Christ. We all want to be seen as being close to Christ. A personal relationship is the foundational principle of Christianity. These are the easiest roles within the body to understand how they fit within the functioning of the body.

If I were to tell you that your name is Opponens Pollicis, would you consider yourself an important part of the body of Christ? It is not a famous name. You cannot tell of your function within the body by name. What if I were to tell you that without you the thumb would become useless? That would be a tragedy. The truth is that there are many more support functions in the body of Christ than the commonly named and easily identified.

We do an injustice to the whole body to identify the eye, ear and mouth as having more value than the rest just because they are easily understood. But how does that help you understand where God has set you within the body as indicated by verse 12:18 above? Let me use the human body again as the example. No single muscle within the body performs its function alone. It is a part of a system which operates in conjunction with other body parts.

Your role in the body is discovered in fellowship.

1 Corinthians 12:22-23 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.