When working on projects, having a group of knowledgeable people around you is a wonderful thing. To be able to communicate with people of the same skill or trade helps one have options and growth. One can bounce ideas for different things off of these peers to get different opinions. He or she can use their unique perspectives and trained eyes to identify flaws in the work that should be fixed. These people also can offer encouragement and can praise what is done well.
A more concrete example of this is a student in the sphere of a drawing class. The student has a whole classroom of other students around him that are all trying to achieve the same type of skills that he is and are going through the same training that he is. When the teacher assigns a project, then, the student could jump right into it on his own. However, he could also take advantage of the roomful of fellow artists and ask them what they think of his composition before he begins. As he works, he can have them critique his work, telling him their opinions of what is looking great or not so great, so that he can better train his own eyes and can grow in understanding of the craft. With the help of his peers he can create a better drawing and learn what to do and not to do to produce better work in the future.
In like manner the gift of our peers is beneficial in our spiritual body. In fact, it is more than beneficial, it is vital. We are instructed in 1 Corinthians 12, “And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body…That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another (vs 21,22a, 25).” We may all not have the same skill set, be going into the same career, or have even have the same interests. However, we are of like mind in a far greater way. We all share the same faith, share the same hope, and have our sights set on the same eternal goal. We as believing members in the church are all part of the same body, and we cannot thrive without one another. We are able to help and correct each other when there is trouble or error (Galatians 6:1,2; Matthew 18:14-20), comfort one another and share the burden of each other’s pain, and encourage one another in the walk of faith (1 Thessalonians 5:11). We can ask for advice in matters, or give someone a listening ear. As we read in Ecclesiastes 4:9,10, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” Because we have been so blessed with one another, we are able to build each other up, loving one another, and working together as the beautiful body of Christ, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). We don’t walk this walk alone. How great such a knowledge this is!
ADV
Young Calvinists 