The Appendix

The appendix is a puzzling thing. It seemingly serves no function in human body. All other body parts, no matter how small or insignificant, seem to have a purpose. But not the appendix. Doctors are just now in the past couple of years beginning to venture some theories on it, but the fact remains that you can remove the appendix from the body and the body doesn't even miss it.

Paul said that we are all members of the body of Christ. We are all to serve a purpose in the body. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, helpers, administrators, givers and encouragers. We are to exhort one another, pray for one another, rejoice and mourn with one another, care for one another and suffer with one another.

1Corinthians 12:12-27 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

As part of the body, we should all ask ourselves this question: What is my purpose in the body? For the body to be strong and function the way that God intends, we must all do our part. We can't all be pastors or evangelists or teachers ... but we can all help, we can all serve, we can all give.

If you were removed from the body, would the body miss you?