Suffering for the Body

We live in a very individualistic society and time. Everyone wants to define for themselves what is good or evil; what is praiseworthy or abhorrent. We climb on the latest scandal (and, Lord have mercy, there are many many lamentable things happening in the world today!). We beat up on the latest villain - too often of our own personal reasons. Somehow we've lost the more complete understanding of the Body of Christ, the community of believers, the communion of saints. God loves the whole church. His desire is for us to flourish as his community of the redeemed. Paul suffered greatly for the name of Jesus and for the sake of the Body of Christ - of which we are a part.