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1 Corinthians 12:12-31
12 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. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves1 or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts,2 yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
[1] 12:13
[2] 12:20
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you will turn with me to 1st Corinthians chapter 12, we're gonna be continuing our sermon series that we've been going, through for the past few months. If you don't have your Bible, it can be found in the worship guide as well. And as we read this text, I really want us to slow down and I wanna remind you of something that we remind each other a lot here at Redeemer. And that is that what we're about to read is the most important thing we're gonna look at and hear all night long. These are the words that can change us.
Speaker 1:Everything else that we sing and hear is only a reflection on what we're about to read. So I ask you to pay attention closely as we read these words right now. So if you will join me in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we're gonna start in verse 12. It says this. It says, for just as the body is 1 and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are 1 body, so it is with Christ.
Speaker 1:For in one spirit, we were all baptized into 1 body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free. And all were made to drink of 1 spirit. For the body does not consist of 1 member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.
Speaker 1:And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, That would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But 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 be the body?
Speaker 1:As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.
Speaker 1:But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 1:Thanks be to God. Pray with me. Father, we come before you today asking to hear from you. We ask that through your spirit, you will enable us to learn more about you today. We pray that you will use the teaching of your word to challenge us and to comfort us as we seek to better understand who you are and who you've made us to be as the body of Christ.
Speaker 1:We ask that you will root the truth of the gospel deep down inside of us, and that it will change us. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, what we just read, from 1st Corinthians chapter 12 probably sounded kinda familiar to a lot of you. The terminology of the body of Christ, the hands and feet of Christ is pretty common vernacular in the church.
Speaker 1:We talk about it a lot. So I wouldn't be surprised if you've heard this concept talked about in the church, especially if you've been a part of the church for very long. But I think it's pretty common that the things that we use so often in our speech and our language are sometimes the things that we don't think about that often when we say them. So I want to invite us to take a fresh look at this language about the body of Christ. First, to look at it with a new lens and hopefully, we'll walk away with a new perspective as we end today.
Speaker 1:But as we start, I want us to realize what Paul is talking about here. Yes, pretty quickly you're going to see that he talks about the issue of spiritual gifts and he obviously is talking about the church as the body. But what I want us to see primarily is that Paul is addressing the issue of division within the church. He cares deeply about this issue. He's trying to root it out of the Corinthian church.
Speaker 1:And I hope that by the end of our time looking at this text, you'll understand why he cares so passionately about this. And I also want us to realize this as we sit here today is that this is an issue for us just as much as it's an issue for the Corinthians. Because if you've been a part of the church for very long, you've probably seen division. You've probably seen some issue in a church that's caused a great divide between the church. Sometimes, these are really significant moral issues and theological issues and issues that call cause great divide within a church.
Speaker 1:And there's other times that we get divided over really ridiculous things, if we're really honest with ourselves. One really great example of this is when this church building was built, they got incredibly divided over what color bricks were gonna be used to build the church building. Some wanted red brick and some wanted yellow brick and it became such a divisive point within the church that they were known as the reds and the yellows. Seriously. And so, this silly ridiculous issue actually became like an identifying marker for certain people in the church and it caused division.
Speaker 1:Though it was kind of over a silly issue, that was not okay, and Paul would have wanted to address that. So as we walk into this and we look at these examples, I want us to realize that what Paul is talking about us to us is important for us today, just as it was for the Corinthian church. But how do we know that the problem of division was important to Paul? I'd say one of the first ways that we find this out is because of how often he talks about it in the book of 1st Corinthians. We see as he starts chapter 1, that he gives his normal introduction and prayer, and he instantly says this to the church.
Speaker 1:He says, I appeal to you brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no division among you. We saw as we looked at chapter 1 that some were following Paul, and some were following Apollos, and some were following Cephas. And what Paul comes in and says is, it doesn't matter who you follow. We are a united church. Do not be divided over this.
Speaker 1:It's not. There's no place for it in the church. We then, as we kept studying through, we got to chapter 6, and he talks about the issue of lawsuit among Christians. And he says that these lawsuits are to your shame because it's causing division. Brother is suing Brother and there is no room for it.
Speaker 1:And then, if you were here last week, you saw that there's division over the Lord's Supper. The one place that they should be coming to the table united because they are focusing on the body and blood of Christ shed for them, they're being divided. Some are being honored and eating first, and some are being humiliated. And what's the biggest rebuke at this point that Paul brings up against them? He says that they're not discerning the body.
Speaker 1:They're not focusing on each other. They're not caring for each other. And this is the problem that we come up to in chapter 12 as well. And I know that Paul is being repetitive here, and if you or the Corinthians were reading this, you'd probably hear him as a broken record. But I don't think he would have cared, because he cares about the issue of unity within the church as if it's of vital importance.
Speaker 1:He would even go as far as to say, this is of gospel importance. It has an impact on how we understand what Christ did for us. So therefore, when we get to chapter 12, we see the issue of division being addressed again by Paul, and this time, it's in regards to the issue of spiritual gifts. So if you'll look with me at the beginning, if you have your Bible of chapter 12 in verse 1, Paul says, now concerning spiritual gifts. And when we see Paul in 1st Corinthians use the phrase now concerning, we need to know that he is actually responding to a list of questions and concerns that had been raised to him by the Corinthian church.
Speaker 1:So, when he says, now concerning spiritual gifts, he had obviously received questions about how they were to understand spiritual gifts within the church. And what we do know through studies within the text is that the main issue seems to be over speaking in tongues. Some were elevating the gift of speaking in tongue in tongues over other gifts. And the question that Paul there were probably one of 2 questions that Paul received from the Corinthians that he's responding to. The first question that he might be responding to is the question, is it true that the people who speak in tongues are the true spiritual people?
Speaker 1:By that, can we look at speaking in tongues as the sign that that's a true Christ follower, that they've received the spirit? And what they would do is they would look at that and they would elevate those who spoke in tongues over others. That's one question he might be answering in this chapter. The second question would be very similar. It would be, can we not at least say that those who speak in tongues are the superior Christians, that they've got a greater gift than someone else's gift?
Speaker 1:Paul wants to answer this because what he sees is that the issue of speaking in tongues and ultimately the issue of spiritual gifts was causing division within the church. So, Paul, in the first eleven verses of this chapter, quickly addresses spiritual gifts, so that he can then give us the example of the body, which talks about the unity among the church. And I think that as we look at verses 1 through 11 really quickly, Paul's really trying to make 2 points. The first point that he's trying to make is that he wants them to see that there are actually a multitude of gifts that come from the same spirit.
Connor Coskery:If you
Speaker 1:look at verses 8 through 11, you'll see that Paul actually presents a pretty long list of spiritual gifts that he sees within the church. He lists gifts like speaking in wisdom and speaking in knowledge. He lists the gift of faith and then the more common miraculous gifts that you might think of, like healing and miracles and prophecy. He talks about distinguishing between the spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpreting the tongues. And Paul isn't here.
Speaker 1:One thing we need to know is he's not trying to give an exhaustive list of all the spiritual gifts. In fact, he has multiple lists that he talks about throughout scripture and they include different aspects at different times. We also need to know that he's not trying to be exhaustive here. This isn't where we need to turn to get everything we know about spiritual giftedness. Instead, Paul is trying to make one really important point point.
Speaker 1:It's that there are many different ways a person can be gifted by the Spirit and they all come from the same Spirit. It's like he's looking at them and saying, How dare you elevate speaking in tongues above others? Because there are so many different ways I can see in this church alone of ways people are gifted. So, if you'll look with me at verse 4, I think he summarizes this idea best in this verse. Chapter or verse 4 says, now there are a variety of gifts, but the same spirit.
Speaker 1:And there are a variety of service, but the same lord. And there are a variety of activities, but the same God who empowers them all and everyone. Do you hear that word variety over and over and over again? It's because he wants you to hear that there are multiple ways and a variety of ways someone can be gifted by the spirit. But he also does it in this verse in a really beautiful way to bring in the picture of the Trinity.
Speaker 1:Did you hear that? Did you hear him say, there's a variety of gifts, but the same spirit. There's a variety of service, but the same Lord as Christ, and there's a variety of activities, but the same God. And in this, he just wants us to see that just like in the Godhead, in the Trinity that's made up of 3 very distinct persons, the church is also one singular body made up of multiple people with multiple gifts. There's a beautiful picture of it, and that's if we just look at God, who should inspire us in how we view the church.
Speaker 1:So we need to see that today. So that summary of that first point, I think Paul is trying to make in the first eleven verses is that, there's many ways a person can be gifted by the Spirit, but it comes from 1 single Spirit, God. And therefore, to elevate any gift above others is wrong. The second thing that Paul wants us to see in these first eleven verses is he wants us to see that the purpose of the spiritual gifts is for the good of one another. Look with me at verse 7.
Speaker 1:Verse 7 says this. It says, to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Paul realizes that within this multifaceted view of the the spiritual gifts, that there is one singular focus, which is the common good of the church. He's got a reason for saying this. It's because He wants you to see that the spiritual gifts are important because they're used for the edification of the body.
Speaker 1:So just as we can't say that lifting up one gift over another is wrong, we also must realize that the gifts are essential for the body, for building it up and for caring for one another. So he wants us to get to this point where we realize that the spiritual gifts are multifaceted, and therefore, any division over them is wrong. I hope you see that today. And it's almost like Paul gets to this point as he's talked about the vision in the church so many times that he wants to look at them and say, how many times do I have to tell you this exact same thing in different ways? But he doesn't do that.
Speaker 1:That's what I would have done. Instead, he moves on to the image of the body, which is the text that we read today. So, if you will look at me at verses 14 through 20, they say this. They say, for the body does not consist of 1 member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, That would not make it any less a part of the body.
Speaker 1:And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body. That would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose.
Speaker 1:If all were a single member, where would be the body? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. You see, Paul here takes us to this image of a human body so that we can better understand the unity of the church. After all, he's saying, if we if the body didn't have a nose, where would we be? And the implied answer is that we would be incomplete.
Speaker 1:A body would be incomplete without an arm or a leg. He wants you to see that. He wants you to see that a body body is made up of hands and feet, and fingers and toes, and arms and legs, and a mouth and a nose, and all these different body parts that all play an important role, but without one of them, a body is incomplete. Because after all, if the whole body were an eye, where would our sense of hearing be? Paul wants us to see every piece of the body is important, and we need to see this in conjunction with what we just looked at in regards to spiritual gifts.
Speaker 1:Because this is a parallel here. Right? Is that just as if the body is incomplete without part of its members, it also is that the church is incomplete without the gifts. So Paul wants to draw this parallel to continue answering the question that they rose at the beginning of this chapter. He wants us to see the importance of the gifts and he wants us to see that there's no room for division over them.
Speaker 1:And as we get to the end of this section, I want us in this church to step back and ask ourselves, how does this apply to us? And I think that the question that I want you to ask yourself is, do I see myself as valuable in the way that Paul saw every member of the body is valuable? Do you see yourself as vitally important for the church? Do you see yourself as intricately valuable and necessary for this church? I really want you to think about that question this week is how you view yourself within the church.
Speaker 1:Because your answer to this is very important. In fact, I would think that the way that you answer this would impact how you live into the body. Because if you see yourself as unimportant or you just don't care, in my opinion, you're likely the person who isn't living into the body in the way that it needs you to live. Similarly, those who I see living into the church are so often the ones that understand this text. They understand that what little they have to offer is important for this body.
Speaker 1:So I want us to ask that question this week. And if you've heard us, maybe some of you are newer to the church and you've been a part of a membership class, you realize that this is the same language that we use so often to talk about membership at Redeemer. We do that because we don't believe that membership here is this passive activity where you get a membership card and you just come and passively attend on a Sunday. Instead, we want you to dive full force into this body and live using your gifts here for this community. However, we go we take it one step further.
Speaker 1:We have a membership covenant, don't we? For those of you who joined, you recited a membership covenant. And in that, we ask you to look at your own personal gifts and abilities and figure out how you can serve this church and use them for the common good of the body. It's important, and this is where we get this idea. We're not making these things up.
Speaker 1:We see that Paul wants you, he wants me to be actively engaged in the church. So I ask you this week to think about this and think about your engagement and ask myself, am I using my gifts for this community? Am I living into my role, and am I understanding that I have a vitally important function to hold? If you aren't, that's okay, but I encourage you to live into that today, mainly because we need you. The body needs you.
Speaker 1:And so I think we need to see that from what Paul has just said in verses 14 through 20. I also think that there's probably a few of you here today who are kind of looking at me and saying, yeah, right. I'm not that important. When I look at myself, I don't know what value I would bring to the church. I don't know what function I would play.
Speaker 1:It seems like the church universal and redeemer seems to be getting along just fine without me. And if that's you, I want you to look at the text, and I want you to look with me at verse 18 because that's not true. Verse 18 says this. It says, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. You see, he chose to make you the way he made you.
Speaker 1:He has a plan for each person in the church. And if you're sitting in the pew today, wondering about your own value, wondering about your role, I encourage you to hear that God chose to make you the way he did, and he has a plan for you. And not only does he have a plan for you, the church is incomplete without you. And I don't know if you need to hear that today, but I just wanted you to know that we need you here at Redeemer, and you're a vitally important member of the body. And so we've come to the end of these this little section right here, 14 through 20.
Speaker 1:And I think Paul has made two points. He said that the church is made up of a variety of people with different giftings and abilities. And the second thing he just said is that every single one of those people is vitally important. You are vitally important. So now look with me at verses 21 through 26.
Speaker 1:And in these verses, I believe Paul is shifting his focus because what we just saw is this idea of what is my role? What is my role within the church? And I think that Paul moves on to say, what are how are we to view others in the church? Because this text has something to speak to that today too. Look with me at verse 21.
Speaker 1:It says this. It says, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you. We have no reason to say to someone or to think about someone that they are any lesser valuable than you are. You can't say that we have no need of you. That's not a way to look at it.
Speaker 1:And you also can't look at yourself as more valuable than another. You see, Paul uses some of the same concepts that he's brought up in the earlier chapters of this book to help us see that he's flipping conventional wisdom on its head. And the weaker is actually the most indispensable part. Look at verse 22. It says the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are actually indispensable.
Speaker 1:And he goes on in verse 24 to say, God has composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body. You see, Paul wants us to realize that we are all mutual members of the same body, and we are to look at every single person with honor and importance. So just like I asked you a question a minute ago, I said, do you believe that you are vital to the body? I want to ask you another question, and that is, do you view every other member of the church as vital to the body? Do you think that every single person sitting in the pews today are vitally important to this church?
Speaker 1:Now I asked that because I think that if we're honest with ourselves, we might answer that with a no sometimes. The way we look at people and the way we think about people and the way we engage with people in the church, sometimes it says, no, I don't find you as valuable as others. That's not okay. Paul says there's no room for this. He says there's no room for the the way of the world that infiltrates the church to help us judge the value of another human being.
Speaker 1:And sometimes we do that. Right? We spend so much of our lives outside in the world gauging people's value, trying to size people up and looking to see, are they worth more or less than I am? And so often, that's rooted honestly in our own pride because we wanna know how we should view ourselves. We wanna know, are we valuable?
Speaker 1:And the answer to that is so often related to how valuable you find other people. So we see here that the problem of pride and the problem of judging others was an issue for Corinthians, but we also know that that's a problem for us today. So I encourage you to spend some time this week asking yourself, do I believe that every member of the church is vitally important? And I think the answer to that will actually help you see if whether or not you really believe what Paul is teaching us today. Because Paul wants us to see that every member is important, And it's only when we believe that, truly believe that, that we can get to Paul's final point about the body in this text.
Speaker 1:Look with me again at verse 24. He says, but God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. In this text, it's as if we begin to view others as vital members of the body that there will be no room for pride or for arrogance.
Speaker 1:Instead, we will care mutually for each other, and the good of others will become the highest good we can find. I hope that's what you have found in the church. I hope that you have a family of brothers and sisters sitting next to you who will go through the joys and sorrows of life alongside you. I hope that for you. I hope that for you primarily because I look at the church in the past few years, and I've experienced that.
Speaker 1:For those of you who know me and my family, we've walked through a lot of high highs, but we've also walked through some really low lows. And I look at people in the pews here as the people who cried with me, the people who laughed with me, the people who rejoiced with me. And I want that for each of you. And if that's not what you look at the church for, I challenge you that it's there, and there's riches there, and there's a promise there. And it starts with mutual care for each other.
Speaker 1:I want that for you. And if you desire that, I do have an encouragement for the first step, and that's do that for others. Start loving on others and caring for others and walking through joys and sorrows because at that point, you will also have those mutual friends, brothers and sisters, that you will walk through life alongside. I think Paul knows that we need to mutually care for each other if we're going to get there. Look at me.
Speaker 1:Look with me now at verse 27 because I believe that this short little phrase is actually Paul's summary of ex of everything we've just talked about. Paul says this. He says, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. In many ways, this is a summary of if you look back again, back to 12 through 13, he says this in greater detail there. He says, for just as the body is 1 and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are 1 body, so it is with Christ.
Speaker 1:For in one spirit, we were all baptized into 1 body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of 1 spirit. So I think this short little statement Paul said, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it, can summarize 2 points that he wants us to see today. 1st, he wants us to see that because of Christ's work on the cross, that we have been made into a body, a unified body under the headship of Christ, but a body, a body of Christ living as He's ascended, living in this world to carry out His kingdom until He returns. But he doesn't stop there. He says we're a body made up of individuals, Individuals with unique gifting, with gift unique wiring, that all are important for the church.
Speaker 1:Paul wants us to see that there is no room for division because he understands the unity in the body that comes through Christ on the cross. There's no place for it. In fact, we need the individual gifting and wiring of each person. And this is why Paul cares so deeply about the problem of division. So now, as we get near the end of this, I wanna look at one more passage that Paul wrote, but actually from the book of Ephesians in chapter 2.
Speaker 1:In this passage, I think Paul summarizes a lot of what we've talked about. He brings a beautiful image of what Christ did to accomplish it. So look with me at Ephesians 2 verses 13 through 16. It says this. It says, but now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Speaker 1:For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both 1 and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility. By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the 2, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. In that passage, Paul says that we, you and me, we were far off, but we were brought near by the blood of Christ. It's through the cross that Jesus reconciled us to God and He also reconciled us to each other. We are a body because Christ laid down His body for us, And therefore, there's no longer Jew or Greek.
Speaker 1:There's no longer slave or free. There's no longer important people or unimportant people. All room for division has been overcome at the cross. Do you see now why Paul is so passionate about the problem of division? It's because there's no room for it at the cross.
Speaker 1:It's because he truly believes, he truly believes that in the gospel, Christ has overcome any reason for division. There's no room for it. The dividing walls have come down, and we've been made into a body because of what He accomplished for us. So, when we look at the image of the body of Christ, this language that we said at the beginning is so common to us today. I want us to remember that Christ, our savior, laid down His life on the cross to reconcile us to God and to each other.
Speaker 1:So now, the challenge is that we live into that. Pray with me. Christ Jesus, we are a people because you made us a people. Thank you for laying your life down on the cross for our redemption. Thank you for making us into a body.
Speaker 1:We're infinitely grateful that you have declared that we are all important in your work. Please help us to view ourselves and others in light of this gospel. We pray that Redeemer, redeemer community church would be known for its unity and its care for each other as we seek to live as your body on earth until you return. In Jesus name, amen.