Have you ever watched a line of ants? They seem to soldier on, each carrying a load and working independently. Yet they all work together for the good of their colony. They can carry immense loads when working together and have an ability to solve complex problems, even though they are tiny. Proverbs direct us to observe ants. "Go to the ant … consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest" (Pro 6:6-8).
Ants work individually, yet they also work collectively, just as the Christian body should function. "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Eph 4:4-6). While we work for Christ individually, we should also work collectively, just as the ant. We don’t work for honor, glories or riches on this earth, but to give Christ all glory. We strive to reflect His love for our fellow man, being a witness to an increasingly evil world.
Like the ant, we each have a job to do. However, we work collectively as the body of Christ. "He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to be a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ" (Eph 4:11-15).
Too many times we get “hung up” on the name over the door of a church. But Christ’s love was for all. We were meant to be like that colony of ants; continuously working for the good of all Christians. Christ died for the world. We should show His love to the world united within that love. Love can change the world.