The church a body - vital principles
Text 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 Time 23/03/14 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church
We looked last week at the opening 11 verses of 1 Corinthians 12. We
made five main points.
1. Understand that pagans do not
have the Spirit but Christians do
2. Realise that the one God gives
his people different roles
3. Recognise that these different
gifts are all for the common good
4. Think of the variety of gifts
given but all by the one Spirit – some nine are listed here. Most
of them are no longer in use.
5. Never forget that all these
gifts are given by one and the same Spirit as he determines
Now the rest of the chapter
(verses 12-31) covers similar ground, repeating and expanding on the
points already made. What I have done is to isolate eight principles.
If we can see and live according to the principle Paul gives us here
then
1.
The unity principle
The main illustration that Paul
uses throughout this section is that of the body. This is not
difficult to visualise as we all have one and are seeing our bodies
every day. In verse 12 Paul says The body is a unit, though
it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they
form one body. So it is with Christ. How
many bodies do you have? Just the one. How many parts does that body
have? Many. There are arms, legs, torso, hands, feet, fingers, toes,
etc. The body is a unit made up of many parts. So it is
with Christ says Paul. There is
one universal church and in each locale there is just one body of
Christ, though it is made up of many parts.
Paul argues for our essential unity
in verse 12 For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one
body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given
the one Spirit to drink. $
He uses two pictures then –
baptism and drinking. All of us here this morning, we were all
baptised immersed by
one Spirit into one body. Yes,
we may be Jewish or Gentile, religious or pagan in background, rich
or poor, black or white but it is the same Spirit who has baptised us
all or to put it another way, we have all drunk the same water of
life, the same Spirit of God and so we are essentially one.
We
do not deny our clear differences. We do not pretend that they do not
exist but let us remember that we are essentially one. We are united.
Let us never forget the fact. What we do cannot be simply for
ourselves or in light only of our own needs. Rather, we need to think
of others and keep the principle of unity high in our thinking.
2.
The belonging principle
So
says Paul (14) Now the body is not made up of one part but
of many. He then gives two
obvious examples of how this works out.
15 If the foot should say, for
example Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the
body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. No,
the foot may wish it was a hand but it is not and though it may
protest, it is still part of the body.
16 And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I do
not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part
of the body. “I'm fed up of
listening, listening all the time” says the ear “all I hear is
moaning and complaining. I'm fed up of it. I want to see the world. I
want to be an eye. And if I can't. I'm off.” It will make no
difference, however. It is still part of the body.
Do
you ever wish you were someone else? I wish I was a deacon not an
elder. I wish was an elder not a deacon. I wish I had teaching gifts
rather than helping gifts. I wish I had helping gifts rather than
helping gifts. So easily we can start thinking – I'm not great at
witnessing so I'm not really part of the church, I can't preach so
I'm not part of the church, I can't teach Sunday School so I'm not
..., etc. But the belonging principle says that we all belong though
we have different roles.
3.
The diversity principle
Having been a little surreal Paul carries it on - 17 If the
whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the
whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? Say
all the parts of the body want to be an eye or an ear. Okay granted.
If a body was one great eye it would be very good at seeing but no
good at hearing! If it was one big ear it would hear very well but,
again, it wouldn't see anything.
And
so if we are all preachers or all helpers or all administrators –
how can that work?
Say
we decide the only gift any of us has is cleaning the church. So we
all come and clean it on Saturday and we get the place spick and span
for today and the place looks better than ever. And so we arrive and
sit there. We need someone to start the hymns off. Will you do it?
No, I clean the church I can't play the piano or start us off
unaccompanied.
Or
say we all decide the only thing we can do is give out tracts and so
we all go up to Golders Green and give out tracts. Gilders Green
doesn't know what's hit it. We give out 200 tracts and a number of
people promise to come. But then who will preach? Perhaps someone
tries to say something but they cannot preach ….
What
a nightmare.
But that is not how it is
thankfully in fact (says
Paul in verses 18-20) God has arranged the parts in the
body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were
all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many
parts, but one body.
I
don't think that this is a guarantee that we shall never want for a
preacher or a giver out of tracts or pianist or someone to clean the
church but it does mean that we should expect diversity. One will
have this gift and one another. We will not all have the same gifts.
4.
The interdependency principle
And so Paul says in verse 21 The eye cannot say to the
hand, I don't need you! And the head cannot say to the feet, I don't
need you! Again it is slightly
surreal. The eye says to the hand I don't need you but how is it
going to get those lovely grapes it has seen into the mouth without
hands? The head says to the feet I don't need you but how will this
brilliant idea you talk about of going to see the Mona Lisa in Paris
or whatever it is if your feet don't take you?
And
so it is great if someone can give out tracts or invite people to
church but it is also a help if someone can clean the church before
we meet. To have someone at the door to open up and welcome everyone
is a great help too as is having someone organising the coffee
afterwards. We don't need flowers I guess though it can be such a
help and certainly someone making sire the heating on or off is
important. Without a pianist and a preacher it is difficult to see
how we are going to get anywhere. It helps to have someone on the PA
too and someone to do the collection. And if we try and do all this
and no-one prays it will be pretty useless and if we only manage to
do Sunday things and never speak to each other or help each other
outside that then it is going to be pretty useless too.
No
the more you think about it the more you see how we all depend on
each other. And in the church of Christ that is exactly as it should
be.
5.
The weakness principle
In verses 22-24a Paul uses a very
bold picture I think and it answers a question that I think often
goes through people's minds when they hear this sort of thing. He
says to the idea of getting rid of certain body parts as not needed
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be
weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less
honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are
unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable
parts need no special treatment. He
probably has in mind our private parts here. They are, says Paul,
weaker, less honourable and unpresentable. Paul lied in a much more
modest age than our own but we know how tender and vulnerable are
certain parts of our body and we rightly do not want them to be seen.
These parts we know have their important role to play and so we cover
them up and take special care of them.
Now
in a similar way we know that some in the body of Christ are very
weak and appear to be able to contribute very little. They can't
preach or be deacons. They can't easily do beach missions or
children's work. They can't take the collection or make the coffee or
clean the church. They can't visit others. They may not even be able
to come on Sundays. And yet they can give and they can pray and they
can say something encouraging when we visit them and so far from
thinking they are useless or not part of the body we recognise that
they are an essential part of the body too.
Let's never forget the weakness principle. It is a very superficial
understanding of things that thinks such people are unimportant or
that they count for nothing.
6.
The sympathy principle
Paul
goes on to develop this in verses 24b-26 But God has
combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to the
parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the
body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If
one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is
honoured, every part rejoices with it.
We
are so familiar with this and it is so obvious that we hardly notice
it. You hit your thumb with a hammer. Your mouth doesn' t say glad it
was only my thumb and not the rest of me. No, your mouth says “ow!”,
your other hand holds the thumb or puts the tap on to douse it with
cold water. Your whole body is very eager to do what ever it can t
help. Someone tells you bad news. It is your ears that hear this bad
news but your whole body reacts. Your eyes may fill with tears and
your hands may wipe those tears away. Similarly with good news, your
whole body is excited. Your arm may do an air punch, your feet may
lift you off the ground, your arms may wrap round someone near you.
If a gold medal is put round your neck at the Olympics, your head
willing bows to let the neck have its medal, your hand holds it up
for people to see, etc.
If
one of us asks someone to come to church and they come then we are
all glad, if one of us gets a positive answer to prayer we all
rejoice, only one may preach but we are all glad if it helps a
believer or if an unbeliever is converted. And when anyone of us
suffers or is disappointed we all sympathise in that too. Their loss
is our loss, their failure is our failure, their trouble is our
trouble. That sympathy principle should be prominent in all our
church life.
7.
The variety principle
So says Paul to the Corinthians (27)
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
He then again lists some of the
gifts of the Spirit. There are eight items this time and although
some of the gifts mentioned before are mentioned again some are not
and others are introduced. He has mentioned already prophets
.. workers of miracles … those having gifts of healing … and
those speaking in different kinds of tongues. He
introduces apostles … teachers … those able to help
others and those with
gifts of administration.
One
of his aims here is to put gifts in some sort of order. He begins
with apostles and prophets teachers. Miracle workers and healers come
after these. Those speaking in different kinds of tongues a
gift highly prized by most of the Corinthians he deliberately puts
last behind those able to help others
(deacons and such like) and those with gifts of
administration (those able to
lead the church).
Using the list he asks (29, 30)
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work
miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do
all interpret? (another gift
mentioned early in the chapter). He misses out helpers and
administrators as being gifts less likely for people to covet.
As we suggested last week prophets
... workers of miracles … those having gifts of healing … and
those speaking messages from God
in different kinds of tongues are
gifts only known in the New Testament era and not something we should
expect today. This would be true of Apostles too – though the need
for church planters or missionaries continues. There are still
teachers … those able to help others and
those with gifts of administration today.
These
verses remind us what a variety of gifts the Spirit has given to his
church. The lists are not exhaustive and no doubt other gifts could
be mentioned such as those in Romans 12 which include serving,
encouraging, contributing to the needs of others and showing
mercy.
We do not all have the
same gifts but what gifts we have must be used in different ways to
serve others.
8. The ambition principle
Finally,
Paul says (31) But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And
now I will show you the most excellent way which
leads into Chapter 13. There is more to say on this subject,
certainly but it is right to eagerly desire the greater
gifts. What are these gifts?
First, missionaries, church planters, those who can teach, then those
able to help in different ways or with gifts of leadership. Elsewhere
Paul says it is good to desire to be an elder. We are not all elders
and deacons but it is right to aspire to such tasks. 8
principles then: unity, belonging, diversity, interdependence,
weakness, sympathy, variety, ambition. Keep the m in mind.
