June 23

“All the saints salute you.” 2 Corinthians 13:13

It is futile to seek to produce individual saints. Praise the Lord that individual sinners are saved, but this is that they may become members of Christ’s Body. God is never satisfied with single, separate Christians. The divine goal is one Man, and not a host of small men. The cross and resurrection point us forward to the Body.

This must be put into practice. Just as reading a book about London is no substitution for visiting the city, and just as having a cookbook full of recipes is valueless until we go into the kitchen, so it is not enough that we believe what we are taught about the Body of Christ. It is essential that we learn and practice our holiness together with other believers.

We have to renounce purely individual goals and learn to move with others and wait for others. Often we shall find this means not only adding to us what is of Christ by the Spirit, but also subtracting painfully whatever in us needs to be put away by the cross. But painful or not, let us practice our membership of the Body.