By Eziuche Okemiri

God uses groups of people to change society through their corporate witness for Christ. For instance, Jesus appointed twelve apostles, eleven of whom he handed down the immediate responsibility of evangelizing the whole world (Matt. 28: 18-19). At another time during his earthly ministry, Jesus appointed 72 disciples and sent them out in pairs to preach the gospel of the kingdom (Luke 10: 1-23). Then came the church, the body of Christ, through whom God wants to display to the world His matchless wisdom and power. By referring to the church as the body of Christ, the Bible emphasizes cooperation between the various parts that make up the whole unit. To underscore the importance and strength of the group, the Bible admonishes believers not to give up regular fellowship (Heb. 10:25). However, God sees us as individuals. He has saved and gifted us as individuals to work in concert with others for mutual strengthening and for world evangelization. He revolutionizes circumstances and societies, not usually through the crowd, but through individuals who totally identify with God’s vision and purpose for a given time and place. Just as many world revolutions have sprung from the depth and vision of a single individual minds, so also many spiritual revolutions have fertilized and sprouted from the consciousness and commitment of individual believers who have assumed the reality of the mind and purpose of Christ.

God calls people as individuals and assigns different purposes to different people. Similarly, he empowers and drives each believer to affect the church and the larger society positively and uniquely. This thought calls to mind the words of Daniel March in

the old hymn: “Let none hear you idly saying, There is nothing I can do.” Every believer can do something, but some appear ignorant of what they should do. Others don’t know they’ve been designed to perform a task. Still others neglect their assignment, maybe because they don’t think it’s important enough. Many others prefer another assignment, especially the kind their friends have.

Regardless of our reasons for inertia, God expects each person to accomplish things for the glory of God; no one is exempt. However, God expects different returns from different believers according to the nature and amount of His investment in each person. From all, He expects faithfulness and accountability. “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). God has appointed each of us as a custodian of whatever he has equipped us with. We have the onerous task of sharing the blessing, no matter how little or insignificant they may appear. What’s important is not the size or quantity of our output, when compared to those of our peers, but the quality of our work based on how faithfully we have invested God’s resources. And God’s resources have an incomparable potential to yield returns. For instance, when we share God’s word with others, we can rest assured that the word will accomplish God’s purpose. See Isaiah 55:11. For the word of God is living, sharp, and powerful; the Holy Spirit uses it to transform people’s lives. For all its power, though, the message of salvation cannot accomplish much unless believers give it out to nonbelievers, or if we fail to ingest and apply the word to our own lives.

The servants in Jesus’ story received different amounts with which to do business until their master returned. See Matthew 25: 14 - 30. Logically, the master did not expect the same amount of returns from each of them. Upon his return, the master demanded to know how much each person had earned in proportion to his initial investment in him. Each investing servant received a reward in the form of a higher responsibility, but the unfaithful servant, who refused to invest for fear, received punishment because he failed to invest the talent he had received from his master.

Much as we like to see ourselves as independent, we are not independent of God. He has given us everything we own, wealth, health, and intelligence. He has give them to us not for us to horde them but for us to use them to serve Him. And by and by, he will require each of us to account for every resource he had supplied us. True, as believers, we have escaped the condemnation that will banish people to hell, but a certain judgment awaits each of us. At the judgment seat of Christ, God will weigh the quality of each person’s work, and he will reward or divest each person according to that believer’s faithfulness.

God calls us into groups for the purposes of synergy, knowing that as a group we can accomplish much more than we can as isolated individuals. But he holds each person responsible for his or her part. The overall success of the group depends on the commitments of the individual members of the group. One missing or weak link affects the whole team adversely; one unfaithful servant can cause the failure of the team. Yet though the team fails to accomplish it’s purpose, God blesses the faithful among them but calls to judgment the unfaithful. In God’s business, every employee possesses a skill, a specialty, and a job description. People are weak or unavailable , not because God has deprived them, but because they have chosen to stay on the sideline. Fortunately, God knows how to isolate each person’s level of involvement and reward each investor accordingly.

We may advance reasons for our less than adequate commitment to the master’s business; we may plead our incapability to perform, or we may blame our circumstances. But our excuses don’t fez God. He knows what great resource he has invested in even the most unlikely Christian. He has designed us to thrive for him even in the worst human situation and despite our inglorious backgrounds. The power to function effectively for Christ, comes, not from us, but from God, who is above all limitations. Therefore, in the words of Daniel March, once again,

While the lost of earth are dying                                  And the Master calls for you
Let none hear you idly saying
"There is nothing I can do."

If you cannot speak like angels
If you cannot preach like Paul
You can tell the love of Jesus
You can say He died for all