Antibodies
Imagine that you had a body that could heal itself. How would that work?
Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest. My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. - James 5:13-20
James tells us that we have work to do to keep the body whole.
He is not talking about our individual bodies, but the entire Body of Christ, which has separate parts, just as our body does.
If we fall and hurt our arm, we don't leave it unattended. Our bodies send help to the sight of the scrape or damage and collectively, the healing efforts begin.
So, too, should we respond to the hurt and suffering of each other. We are all members of one body, and so it is our job to work on healing.
We may not realize that we have the power and the tools to do this.
The tools are prayer and the power is our faith.
When we act on our faith and invoke God's help through prayer, we can be inspired to do amazing things out of our love for God and one another.
But the choice is all ours.
Unlike the body which automatically responds to injury, we have to be motivated to do so.
Jesus came to remind us of our love for one another in the hope that would be motive enough.
Unfortunately, it isn't.
More to come...