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Belonging Together - 1 Corinthians 12
A sermon preached by Jonathan Pryke

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One of the saddest experiences of my Christian life took place many years ago in the life of a church to which I belonged – not this one. A member of the church – a lady aged about 60 – committed suicide.

I’d spent time with her in her home – though I didn’t know her well. Nobody, it turned out, seemed to know her well. She’d been part of the church, coming regularly on Sundays, for some years. She was kind, reserved, and lived quietly and apparently peacefully on her own. Before she died, it never crossed my mind that behind that polite and friendly exterior she was so intensely distressed.

Why did she kill herself? The only conclusion that people could come to at the time was that she felt isolated, lonely, useless, worthless, and unloved. And she felt these things to the point of despair.

Now, she should not have done what she did. We should not take the life that God gave us. And she didn’t talk to anybody about her distress. If you identify with her despair, please don’t make that same mistake. Please talk to someone. There are phone numbers, for instance, on the front of the yellow notice sheet under the headings ‘Prayer Link’ and ‘Pastoral Care’. No doubt part of the problem lay with her own attitudes and thinking. But I also remember feeling at the time that collectively, as a church, we had neglected and overlooked her. In a word, we had not loved her as we should have done.

A cheerful way to start a sermon, I know! But that very sad experience illustrates for me how very important it is that we get our own thinking right. If the church is going to be healthy, we need to have the right attitudes to ourselves; and we need to have the right attitudes towards one another.

We need to know that we belong together. That’s the theme of 40 Days of Community in this coming week. And that’s the lesson of our passage this evening – 1 Corinthians 12.12-26. Please turn that up. You’ll find it on p 1153 in the Bibles in the pews.

Now chapters 12-14 of this letter are all of piece. They belong together, if I might put it that way. They give Paul’s teaching that’s intended to correct the unloving attitudes that lie behind the ignorance of the Corinthian Christians on the subject of spiritual gifts. So this whole section is introduced in 12.1 with these words:

Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.

The way they’re behaving in Corinth shows that they are ignorant. How? Because there is division, arrogance, jealousy and quarrelling in the church.

So at the heart of this section is Paul’s powerful appeal to the church in chapter 13 to ‘follow the way of love’ – to love one another. That’s what these Corinthians are not doing in the way that they should.

Their thinking about spiritual gifts is badly and dangerously distorted and their attitudes to one another in relation to spiritual gifts are symptomatic of their failure to love one another in a Christ-like way.

What are spiritual gifts? A spiritual gift is an ability that a believer is given by God for the service of the church and the cause of the gospel. What was their wrong thinking? In this case it centred around speaking in tongues, which is a language of prayer unintelligible even to the person using it.

Some members of this church in Corinth not only spoke in tongues but also thought that everyone else should do the same. And some of those who didn’t speak in tongues had been intimidated by this loveless attitude. They began to think that they should be speaking in tongues if they were to be considered real Christians. And because they couldn’t, they were doubting their service in the church had any value – indeed they were even doubting whether they were genuine believers at all. And as a result they were hurting badly.

That’s essentially the situation that Paul is addressing here. In chapter 12 he puts them right. And in particular, in 12.12-26 he does that using a wonderfully vivid and instructive metaphor for the life of the church. He describes the church as like a body. What he teaches is a key to a healthy church. If we are going to bring glory to God by fulfilling his purposes for us, we need to be healthy. So these principles need to be in our bloodstream.

My title, then, as you’ll see from the outline on the back of the service sheet, is ‘Belonging Together’. And here are three simple points from what Paul says here about the church as the body of Christ: first, believers belong to one another; secondly, believers differ from one another; and thirdly, believers need one another.


First, BELIEVERS BELONG TO ONE ANOTHER

Paul actually summarises 12-26 in v 27, where he says:

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

This is an image that Paul uses elsewhere too, as you’ll know if you’ve looked at the memory verse for week 3 of 40 Days of Community. That’s Romans 12.5, where Paul makes essentially the same point. So, from Romans 12.4 he says:

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

It’s that final phrase that we’re challenged this week to store away in our brain filing-cabinets for future use:

… in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

That image of the church as the body of Christ is what Paul develops in this passage in 1 Corinthians 12 – first of all in verses 12-13:

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. 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.

Any body worth its salt is one united whole. In fact if your body is in bits, you know that there’s something pretty seriously wrong. And its not going to function well. The body is a unit.

And if you’re a believer, you belong to the body. That’s not a matter of choice. That’s a matter of definition. That’s who you are. We don’t have a choice of who’ll be our brothers or sisters. What we have a choice about is how we’ll treat our brothers and sisters.

So please don’t go missing from your body. Don’t be like a finger that goes AWOL and wanders off on its own away from its body. It’s an absurd idea and it’s an absurd thing to do. One of the most powerful things we can do consistently for our own spiritual health and for the health of the church is simply to be with one another regularly and consistently.

Be there. Be there when the members of the church all meet together on Sundays – as you are this evening. This is where you belong. If you’re not in a small group, do something about that. Make that your task for this week. And if you are, be there when your small group meets to give and get encouragement, and to pray for one another. The members of your small group should be looking out for you – and we all need that. Following Christ faithfully is tough. We need all the help we can get. Be there when the ministry team you’re involved with gets to work. Don’t go missing from the body.

And we need to treat one another as brothers and sisters – because that’s what we are in the body of Christ. Perhaps I should qualify that because I don’t know how you do treat your brothers and sisters, if you have any. We need to treat one another as brothers and sisters should treat one another. We all have the same Heavenly Father. And we all have the same Lord and Saviour and brother – Jesus. Look around you. This is your family. These are your brothers and sisters. I’m sorry about that, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Blame God. You’re stuck with us. And what’s more, we’re stuck with you.

So don’t tolerate loneliness. Don’t get lonely yourself. Don’t allow yourself to sink into isolation. Get involved. And don’t allow others to get lonely. What fellow believer do you know, if you stop to think about it, who’s in danger of getting isolated or going missing? Get in touch with them.

And how is the Body of Christ created? By the Spirit of God. When we believe we are drenched with the Holy Spirit and incorporated into Christ. We become united with him. We become a part of his body, along with all our fellow believers. Verse 13 again:

We were all baptised by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free …

Whatever your religious, ethnic, social or economic background, if you’re trusting Christ, then that’s because the Spirit of God has grafted you into the body of Christ. You belong.

So the body of Christ is worldwide. All believers everywhere are part of it. And that’s not just theoretical. That’s a practical reality. I’ve experienced it myself. I’ve been warmly welcomed into the homes of believers in Africa and Asia and America. Wherever we go in the world there’s a group of believers among whom we belong. There’s an extraordinary bond that cuts across all distinctions of race, language or culture. We never go abroad just as tourists or workers. We go visiting spiritual relatives. So don’t go anywhere, if at all possible, without looking up the family. The Holy Spirit unites us as members of one body.

The body of Christ is worldwide. But it’s also local. Paul’s focus here in these verses is on the local gathering of believers. We, here at JPC, are the body of Christ. We are a unit. We are one – because of Jesus. His Spirit has formed us from the dust of the earth into one body.

Don’t destroy this unity – experience it, enhance it, enjoy it! Believers belong to one another. Don’t go missing. Treat each other as brother and sister. And don’t tolerate loneliness.


Secondly, BELIEVERS DIFFER FROM ONE ANOTHER

Having emphasised the unity of the body of Christ, Paul now stresses the diversity within it. Verse 14:

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

And verses 19-20:

If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

And the point about these many parts of the body – hand, foot, eye, ear and so on – is that they’re all different. Some of them are obvious. Some are not. Some are large. Some are small. Some of them are internal, some are external. Some we’d rather keep hidden, others we don’t mind anyone seeing. They’re all different. They do different things. They have different uses. They serve different purposes.

The church is made up of many parts. Again - just look around you. We’re very different.

So don’t require or expect uniformity. That’s not the way God made us.

And realise that there’s no place for feeling inferior on account of your difference from someone else who you think is so much more significant than you. Verses 15-16:

If the foot should say, ‘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. 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.

Don’t listen to the voice in your head that says, ‘I’m useless. I have nothing to contribute. I’m not needed here.’ It’s a lie. Don’t identify one spiritual gift that you haven’t got and make that the mark of your own worth. To take one example, don’t think ‘I’m no good at leading Bible studies, so I’m no good.’ Not true.

Be content to be who God made you to be. We must never be content with our sin. That’s fatal complacency. I’m talking about how God made you, and what he’s got planned for you. Don’t envy who God made someone else to be. And don’t do yourself down because of who God made you to be.

Instead, appreciate the difference. The fact that we’re so different is vital for the proper functioning – even the very existence – of the body. The notion of a body made up of only one organ is obviously ridiculous. So, verse 17:

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would be sense of smell be?

We must never value one kind of person above all others and think that everybody should be like that. Nonsense.

We have very different spiritual gifts. Paul’s already given a list of different gifts in verses 8-10. He does the same again later on in verses 28-29.

Those are examples – there are plenty more spiritual gifts. If you’re willing to take time for a careful analysis of the range of spiritual gifts and you’d like some help in seeing how God wants to use you in his service, then here are two things you can do. First, get stuck in to ministry somewhere – find something you can help with. Second, look out for CLASS 3 that David teaches. It’s on just this subject. For those who’ve been through CLASS 1 and 2 already, you can sign up for the CLASS 3 that’s on Sunday 20 November.

Something I find increasingly wonderful to see is the way we all fit together so perfectly for God’s purposes. And, of course, that’s no accident. Verse 18:

But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

God is the one who has put us together. If you’re a believer, and a member of this church, then that’s because God decided he wanted you here! And why has God made you and gifted you the way that he has? Because God knows where you fit in the body of Christ and what you need to be like to do what he wants you to do.

And that leads to the third point. This is blindingly obvious once we’ve seen that the church is the body of Christ. And yet we miss it over and over again. It’s this.


Thirdly, BELIEVERS NEED ONE ANOTHER

Paul’s particular application here is in relation to the problems arising in the church at Corinth because of those bad attitudes about speaking in tongues. That was the gift that was being exalted above all the others as a badge of high-level spirituality. But the lessons he draws out from his body analogy are relevant to every church – and they’re relevant to us.

So, just as there’s no room for feeling inferior in comparison to others who seem to us to be more important, so also there’s no place for a superiority complex either. 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!’

Don’t look down on those who can’t do what you can do because God’s gifted you to do it. There are things you can’t do that render you useless without the support of others. Don’t forget it.

People who might seem less important are in fact crucial to the life of the church. Verses 22-24:

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.

Those who apparently are the most obviously gifted may be far more dispensable than others you might think the church wouldn’t miss. Maybe you think you don’t matter much. Maybe you think you haven’t really got a contribution to make. Well, you’d be wrong. On the other hand, maybe you secretly despise far too many of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Well, it’s wonderfully true that when we devalue certain people, God makes up the deficit. End of verse 24 and beginning of 25:

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…

If the ministry that you do goes unnoticed – if you get no thanks for it – if as far as you can tell you’re unobserved and unappreciated – then try not to worry. God sees. And God will honour you for it.

So don’t get either an inferiority or a superiority complex. Instead, we need to take our eyes off ourselves, and look to the needs of the others we belong to. We need to help the hurting. We need to care for one another.

Every member of the body, whatever their role and function, should be cared for equally. God has combined the members of the body so that (verse 25)…

… 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.

If you hit your thumb with a hammer, the whole of you hurts. If your tooth stops aching, the whole of you feels better. The well-being of every member of this fellowship matters to all of us.

Ask yourself: Who do I know who’s going through a hard time at the moment? What practical steps can I take to show simple kindness towards them? How can I care? Every one of us can make a difference. And when we make a difference in the life of one, we make a difference to the life of the whole body.

And who knows – you might even be used by the Holy Spirit to lift a brother or a sister out of near despair. And you might help them to see that they belong, that God made them just as they are to fulfil his good purposes for their life, and that they’re needed in the body of Christ.

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