This is Part 4 of our 15-part series walking through Session 1 of “The Assassins Among Us.” Check out the blog for previous posts.
ELEMENT 3: THE DUTIES OF THE PEOPLE – KNOW YOUR ROLE
Numbers 1:3 establishes who would fight:
“From twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them, company by company.”
Numbers 1:47-50 sets apart the Levites for different service:
“But the Levites were not listed along with them by their ancestral tribe. For the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Only the tribe of Levi you shall not list, and you shall not take a census of them among the people of Israel. But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it and shall camp around the tabernacle.'”
God assigned specific roles:
The Levites: Set apart for service to the Tabernacle The Warriors: Numbered for battle
Key principle: Not everyone has the same role, but everyone has a role in the body of Jesus Christ.
ONE BODY, ONE SPIRIT
But here’s the deeper reality: We are all members of one body, animated by one Spirit—the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and amongst us.
Romans 12:3-5 establishes this foundation:
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function, so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another.”
Notice what Paul says: Each member belongs to one another. You’re not an independent operator. You’re not a lone wolf Christian. You are part of one body with many members, and your role matters to the whole.
Scripture consistently teaches this. In 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4; each member of the body of Christ has a distinct role and function, appointed by God through spiritual gifts for the common good. The metaphor is powerful: just as a human body has many parts, each with its own function, the church is made up of many members who are all necessary and interconnected.
GOD ARRANGED THE MEMBERS
1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 18-20 drives this home:
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many… But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”
The critical truth: It is one Spirit—the Holy Spirit—who baptized us into this one body. It is one Spirit who animates all the members. The same Spirit dwelling in you dwells in every other believer. We are not just organizationally connected—we are spiritually unified by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
This changes how you view your role. The question isn’t “Am I as important as someone else?” The question is “Am I fulfilling the specific calling God has given me in this one body animated by His one Spirit?”
YOU CANNOT FIGHT ALONE
You cannot fight someone else’s battle. You must fight your own, by His prescription and power. But you also cannot fight alone—you need the other members functioning in their roles for the body to be effective in warfare.
The warning for the battles ahead: A body with members out of position, refusing their roles, or thinking too highly of themselves cannot function in battle. When the eye tries to be the hand, when the foot refuses to walk because it’s not the head, when members operate independently rather than in coordination with the one Spirit—the body is dysfunctional and vulnerable.
WHEN EACH PART WORKS PROPERLY
Ephesians 4:15-16 shows us what proper function looks like:
“Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow in building itself up in love.”
Every joint. Every part. Working properly. Connected to the Head, which is Christ. Held together by the Spirit. This is what God is preparing through these thirteen elements—a body ready for battle.
THE PERSONAL QUESTION
Do you know your role in the body of Jesus Christ? Are you fulfilling it with sober judgment, not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought? Are you operating in coordination with the one Spirit who animates all the members?
Or are you either inflated with pride about your role, or paralyzed because you think your role doesn’t matter?
In the battles ahead, every member matters. God numbered the warriors. God assigned the Levites. Everyone had a specific function. The same is true in the body of Jesus Christ today.
APPLICATION
- Have you identified your calling within the body? Are you walking in the power of the Holy Spirit and operating in His gifts?
- Are you thinking of yourself with “sober judgment” – neither too highly nor too lowly?
- Are you operating as an independent Christian or as a connected member of the body?
- Do you recognize that the same Holy Spirit in you is in every other believer?
- Are you submitted to Jesus Christ as the Head, or trying to function autonomously?
Be lead by the Spirit to your role. Fulfill it through His Power. Stay connected to the other members. Submit to the one Spirit who coordinates all our movements.
Because when the body functions as God designed it—each member in position, animated by one Spirit, submitted to Jesus Christ the Head—we are unstoppable in the battles ahead.
TOMORROW: Element 4: Separation of the Unclean
We’ll discover what needs to be removed before you can move forward into battle.
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