Brotherly Care.

"THE members should have the same care one for another" (1 Cor. 12. 25).   God's dear children are brought by His wondrous grace into a very near and dear relationship—a relationship altogether unknown to us in our natural condition, and as unknown to the world around.  Children of God! what a high and holy calling, and what blessed privileges pertain to such a position!
"If children, then heirs!"  Thus, the privilege of sonship is linked with the grandest and most glorious possession and prospect.  We read in Romans 12. 5: "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Here is the closest aspect of relationship.  United to Christ by the indwelling Spirit, we are also as closely united one to another.  Alas!, how often we fail to realise this.
Read carefully 1 Corinthians 12 and see how the blessed Spirit has unfolded to us the mystery of the Church as the Body of Christ.  He, the risen and glorified Head, from Whom all grace and gifts proceed—the one great Fountain of love and sympathy.  He, as the Head of the Body, occupies the place of absolute rule; we, the place of absolute dependence and obedience.  Notice briefly these grand truths in reference to the Church as the Body of Christ.
1. Every member necessary to the completion of the whole.
2. Every member infinitely dear to the Head.
3. Every member necessary the one to the other.
4. Every member has its place and function divinely assigned.
5. The more feeble are necessary.
One glorious unity: the gift of the Father; the purchase of the Son: the workmanship of the Spirit!  What, beloved, is the grand practical teaching and outcome of such a truth?
The answer is threefold.  ''There should be no division in the body."  The members should have "the same care one for another."  "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." 
1. No division.
2. Mutual care.
3, Mutual sympathy.
How far is God's beautiful thought and ideal realised and carried out in you, in me?
What kind of care are we manifesting toward the members of the one body?  Love is intensely practical, and as one has quaintly put it, "It is always hunting for something to do."  We may not always be able to give money, but there are so many little services we can do for Christ's members on earth.  Perhaps you can even now count upon your fingers, one, two, three, four, five poor, tried, afflicted, or lonely saints just around you.
Did you ever ask yourself the question, "What little service could I render to lighten the burden, cheer the sorrow, or brighten the pathway of this one and that?"  If you will (alone with God), ask that question, with the simple, humble desire to glorify Him, very soon He will give you the answer, and to the joy of your own heart, will come the sweet assurance, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me" (Matt. 25. 40).  Alfred Page.
"God Given Wealth" John Gray, Ed.
The Believer’s Pathway v40 1919.