If you have your Bibles tonight, please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We’ll begin in verse 12. That’s on page 959 of the pew Bibles in front of you. And while you’re turning there, let me remind you of our Sunday evening series titled, “Indispensable.” We’ve been talking about Bible characters who, while they may be lesser known or even unnamed, they have been essential to God’s working among His people. And tonight, we come to the passage where our series title actually comes from. If you look down at verse 22, you’ll see it there. “The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.”
In order to be a church that takes that concept seriously, we need to reframe how we think about the church. And we need to reframe how we think about the church in terms of this passage, in terms of spiritual gifting. If I were to ask you, “What makes the church beautiful? What makes it beautiful?” we would probably come up with many answers in this room. Probably most of them right to some extent, and those answers would probably work together. But this passage teaches us three aspects of a beautiful church. What does it mean for the church to be beautiful? And we need to pursue that beautiful church. It involves a reframing of three things to begin to pursue a beautiful church. The three things that we need to reframe to understand what this beauty looks like, are the unity of the church, the diversity of the church, and the ministry of the church. Let me pray and we’ll read 1 Cortinthians. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, like Dr. Tramel prayed a minute ago, you must increase and we must decrease. And so, we ask that You would show us who You are, who Your Church is, who You have made us to be in Christ through this passage tonight. And it’s in His name, Jesus Christ, that we pray. Amen.
1 Corinthians chapter 12, starting in verse 12. This is God’s Word:
“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. For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one 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. 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. If all were a single member, where would the body be? 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. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part 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. 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. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.”
Now there is a trend among teenagers now – “and actually some of them hate it but some of them love it and this has caught on – where they use this phrase, “the rizz.” “The rizz.” Maybe you’ve heard it. It’s a shortening of the word “charisma.” They’ll say, “That guy? He has the rizz. That girl over there? She has a lot of rizz.” And what they’re saying when they say that, is that that person has a lot of charm. They have a lot of charisma. They’re easy to talk to. They’re easy to get along with. I was talking to some of my students about this trend and they said there’s a student in their class that has so much rizz that they call him, “The Rizzler ”! And what’s funny about all of that to me is that the word “charisma,” in English, it means “charming.” But it’s actually used twice, the word “charisma” in Greek in this passage, and it’s translated as “spiritual gifts.” “Grace gifts” is what it literally means. To have charisma is to have grace gifts. And that charisma, these grace gifts, these spiritual gifts that God has given the church actually give us a framework for seeing its beauty, for seeing how the church should function.
The Unity of the Church
So first, to pursue the beautiful church, we must understand its unity. It’s unity. Paul begins his metaphor in verse 12 comparing the human body to the body of Christ. He says, “so it is with Christ.” And look right after that to verse 13 with me. What is it that unites the body of Christ? It is the Holy Spirit. He is who applies Jesus Christ’s work on the cross to each member of the body. Baptism by the Spirit. Spirit baptism, which water baptism that we see regularly, the sacrament, represents; it represents that Spirit baptism and that Spirit baptism unites us to Jesus Christ in such a way that His work justifies us, declares us righteous in the holy courtroom of God. It secures for us forgiveness for sins. Regeneration of the heart. Adoption into God’s family. Resurrection to everlasting life. And admittance into the visible church of God. That is the foundation for unity that Paul is talking about here. That’s what he is working with.
In Ephesians 4, which is another spiritual gifts passage, Paul expands on this a little bit saying we have, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” Just think about that for a minute. If these are the things that unite us, what are we not to focus on as measures of unity? How do we measure our unity? How do you usually measure the church’s unity? We have to measure it on spiritual things. It’s easy to get caught up in the external – in worship styles, in socioeconomic status, in shared hobbies among the congregation, whatever it is. But what unites the church is the Spirit of God poured out on its members. And the Holy Spirit gives us gifts. And so, who has the rizz, actually? How has the charisma? It’s everyone who believes! It’s everyone who believes; everyone who puts their faith in Christ.
Paul, here, was likely dealing with the Corinthian church swelling up with pride because some had gifts that were perceived as more spiritual, maybe the gift of tongues, and so he rightly emphasizes that every Christian has the Spirit who unites us to Christ and to each other. This unity is one that’s offered to all in the call of the Gospel. Right? We see that in verse 13 – “Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, all were made to drink one Spirit, to partake of one Spirit.” How do you become united to Christ and His work? How do you become united to the body? It’s by faith in Jesus Christ, in His power to save.
It’s like pastor Willson mentioned this morning – steal my thunder a little bit! God’s people are often represented by a tree in Scripture. Trees are this beautiful functioning whole that consist of a bunch of different working parts. And Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a tree. We see the blessed man in Psalm 1 who is “like a tree, planted by streams of water that bears its fruit in its season.” Do you remember why the blessed man in Psalm 1 is growing? It’s because “his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law, he meditates day and night.” He’s connected to the Word. He has faith. You see, the reason he grows is because he is connected to that which brings life. “I am the vine. You are the branches,” Jesus says. “Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. “Nothing. Jesus is the life. He’s the lifeblood of the church. We are united to Him by Spirit baptism. And that union unites us to each other just like two branches on a tree are connected through the common trunk. And how deep is that union? It’s so deep that Jesus said to Paul on the Damascus Road not, “Why are you persecuting My church?” not, “Why are you persecuting My people?” but “Why are you persecuting Me?” when Paul was persecuting the church.
This unity is both a spiritual reality and something that has to be maintained. You can say, “Well, we are already united to Christ, so I can kind of do as I please. I’m already united. I’ve already got there.” And my response would be, “We are already united to Christ, so do as Christ pleases. He is the head, the head of the body, so following His will is required for a properly functioning body.” My son, Shepherd, turns one year old this week, and he is still figuring out how to get his legs and arms to respond to what he wants them to do! But the beautiful church, the one Paul sees here, is one of unity where each member responds to the will of Jesus Christ, the head. Just like any marriage that isn’t unified is ugly, just like any sports team that isn’t unified can’t play ball, so pursue the beautiful church as it is conceived of in Scripture as one of unity.
The Diversity of the Church
Now this theme runs throughout the rest of the chapter, only it’s very much accompanied and even before this in the preceding verses that we didn’t read, accompanied by the theme of diversity. We are united to Christ by faith, but we have been given gifts according to God’s “varied grace,” as Paul says elsewhere. We want to see both themes in tandem as we examine the rest of the chapter. So secondly, to pursue the beautiful church, we must understand its diversity and the nature of its diversity. In these next two sections, Paul is really applying this idea of unity and diversity, of what the church looks like, the two different groups, or maybe two different possible perversions of what spiritual gifts do and look like. And what is the diversity that Paul is referring to here? He’s referring to a diversity of gifts; that our gifts are different, they are varied. Some people have some gifts and some people have those gifts in greater measure. And other people have other gifts. D. A. Carson says this. “There are no one member churches, nor are there any every-member gifts. There aren’t gifts that are given to every single member because the church works together as a functioning body.”
Look at verse 14 with me again. “For the body does not consist of one 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. 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.” What’s going on here? If you read that carefully, Paul is speaking to a certain temptation that can come with spiritual gifts, isn’t he? Paul is addressing the group that may be tempted to say, “My gifts aren’t as good as theirs. My gifts aren’t as much help to the church. I’m not doing as much. Maybe I don’t belong at this church and I need to go to a different one. Maybe I’m not much of a help to what’s going on at First Pres.” But Paul’s response is that the hand can say that, but it is still intimately connected with the rest of the body. Each member of the body still has its own function. No one who truly has faith is giftless, has no charisma.
And the obvious application from verses 15 and 16 is that of contentment. Are you content with the gifts God has given you? It would destroy the idea of a functioning organism, a unity in diversity, it would destroy the idea if the whole church had the same function. It’s good that we don’t. The body is not just an eye. It’s not just an ear. It’s not just a big toe. It’s all of us united in Christ, functioning as God intended. And look at verse 18 also with me. He says, “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose.” Each one of them as He chose. If we are not content with our grace gifts, with our rizz, if you will allow me to use that term, we are questioning God’s wisdom. We are questioning how He has arranged the parts. It’s He who has arranged the body in this way. Do we trust His sovereignty? Do we trust His working?
I remember hearing a pastor preach on one of the different gifts’ passages, I think from Ephesians 4, where it says that we are the beneficiaries of “God’s varied grace.” God gives different amounts of grace to different people and that manifests itself in the usefulness of our gifts. And the pastor asked this; I remember it very vividly. He said, “Is that fair? Is that fair that God does that?” And I remember it like it was yesterday. He said, “Yeah, it’s fair because it’s literally grace. These are grace gifts. We don’t deserve them, none of us.” And that’s what Paul is emphasizing to the Corinthian church. These are grace gifts to be used without jealousy for the common good of the church as he says earlier in the chapter.
You know it’s common for our culture or even history shows us this, that people call for everyone to be the same. We want everyone to be the same because being different could make someone feel bad. But that isn’t how God designed creation, is it? Not at all. He designed creation to reflect Him – united yet varied. He is one God in three persons and those three persons are “the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” But we see at various places in Scripture of how the diversity works out, don’t we? In the economy of salvation – let’s look at how we are saved. God the Father chooses who will be saved. The Son descends and accomplishes salvation by His life, His perfect life, His death and resurrection. And the Holy Spirit applies that salvation to us, to God’s people, in real time. He brings those in who the Father has chosen and by faith, by confidence in God’s power, we receive it.
And if you think about it, we can see this concept everywhere, especially in things that we consider to be beautiful. What do you consider to be beautiful? Think about someone playing the piano. If they are playing one note over and over and over again, it’s unified, isn’t it? There’s a unity there. But it’s not beautiful. What is it lacking? It’s lacking a variety. It’s lacking a variety. But you can also think of a toddler playing the piano, bashing all the notes. There’s a variety there, there’s a diversity – you’ve got to give him that – but there’s no unity. It’s only when this concept of unity and diversity come together that we see something beautiful, that we see the church as God has made it to be. The same is true for a good painting – all the pieces coming together with one beautiful picture. The same is true for creation. Think about what a good garden looks like. We’re supposed to have dominion over the earth and a good garden is organizing the different pieces together in one beautiful whole so that it becomes beautiful. And so, we pursue the beautiful church by understanding that it is both united in Christ by His Spirit, but it’s diverse in the Spirit’s gifting.
And we see this concept further still in the next section. Just as some might be tempted to say, “I can’t do what they’re doing. Those people’s gifts are better,” others might be tempted to say, “They aren’t doing what I’m doing. We don’t need them in the congregation,” as was likely happening in the Corinthian church with those who could speak in tongues. But look at verse 21 with me. “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.” The more highly gifted, or seemingly more highly gifted, are dependent on the lesser. In fact, it says those who might seem weaker or indispensable to the body for its proper functioning. And notice that he said, “those that seem to be weaker.”
At our high school large group in Sunday nights we’ve started to put a quote of the week on our sheet. And if I was choosing a quote of the week for this week, it would be this one. This is from Charles Hodge – “The gift of prayer is more important than the gift of eloquence. Those who in the closet, however obscure, wrestle with God, often do more for His glory and the advancement of His kingdom than those who fill the largest space in the public eye. What would the tongue do without the lungs, which are neither seen nor heard?” You see, the person pleading with God in the closet for the kingdom, for God’s will to be done, for His kingdom to come, for their daily bread, that person is acting on their faith and they aren’t getting any recognition for it, are they? There’s no recognition for that. But the church is being built by their prayers! It’s coming to its culmination by their prayers!
And look at how Paul continues in the rest of that paragraph. Verse 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, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” Actually the point of God giving this diversity of gifts is so that there may be unity, is so that there may be unity. That seems counterintuitive, but that’s what it says. The eye becomes as concerned for the wellbeing of the foot as its own wellbeing. When you understand this, you become as concerned for the other members of the body as for yourself. What does Jesus say? “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He assumes that you love yourself, but love your neighbor with that kind of love. If I can use something the teenagers say – “Bring that same energy.” Love your neighbor with that kind of love. When one part of the body suffers, all of the body suffers. When one part rejoices or is honored, the whole rejoices.
My wife and I, probably about three weeks ago, were watching the movie, Cheaper By the Dozen. And I won’t give you the whole plot, but it’s a movie where this big family has twelve kids. And there’s one of the members of the family that is sort of mistreated. They call him, “FedEx” because they say, “He’s not really part of the family. He was dropped off by the FedEx guy!” And what’s funny about that to me is that, we were watching this movie, and I looked over at my wife, Laura Katherine, and she was like whimpering for FedEx. “Oh no, they’re being mean to him!” but isn’t that actually what we should be doing for the body? Isn’t that the sympathy we should feel for the body? When someone is hurting the body of Christ, we should feel the hurt with them. When someone’s family member is lost. Laura Katherine and I, when her father went on to glory just about two years ago now, we saw and we felt the body of Christ hurt with us. Hurt with us, encouraging us in truth and love. We should aspire to a standard of sympathy when the other members of our spiritual body are hurting, we hurt too because we are that same body. Are we not?
So pursue the beautiful church, the church as revealed in this passage. And to do that, we have to understand that concept of unity and diversity that creates this beauty. You may be tempted to withdraw from the church. You may be tempted to prize your own gifts. But rooted in those is a lack of contentment or a swelling with pride. There is a beauty in this united people of God, this diverse people of God with different grace gifts, undeserved. Let’s pursue that for God’s glory.
The Ministry of the Church – From Love
And lastly – and I’ll be quick on this one – to pursue the beautiful church we must understand its ministry. It’s ministry. And maybe a better way to say that, if we can take the next chapter with this chapter, is understand the motivation for the ministry. Look at the last few verses there, starting in 27. “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 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. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” The fact is that every Biblical church is a manifestation of Christ’s body. You are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Theologians say that local congregations each are the body of Christ, each containing all the parts. And because we are Christ’s body, it is not simply our job to care for the other members. It’s something we just do, we do naturally. As you grow in grace, as we grow together in grace, it becomes more and more natural to us because we have been given a new nature haven’t we? A spiritual nature.
And look at the list in verses 28 and 29. When we look at the various lists of spiritual gifts in Scripture, we can clearly see that they are not exhaustive. They don’t tell us every spiritual gift. They’re very different. They include some of the same stuff. But there are samplings of gifts received from the Holy Spirit. But even in this list, we see things that were a part of the apostolic church. Like the office of apostle or even speaking in tongues. Many commentators say he listed tongues last because it didn’t build up the church like the others. They overvalued it in that church. You can see that pretty clearly in chapter 14. In verse 29, he asks all these rhetorical questions to bring his point home. You need in the church some of all the gifts. They are valuable for ministry and for the church’s growth.
Let me give you an example of one that I found helpful to me lately and really for all five years that I have been here. I have regularly had a few people in the church that text me and other members of the youth staff encouragement about what we are doing; about what we are doing in ministry. And in January we had a parenting conference where Dr. Henson and I did a breakout seminar and he talked about the development of the teenage brain and I talked about how I actually have seen that play out in the church and in youth ministry and when students go to college. And shortly after that – maybe two days or three days – I got a letter at my house. And I was standing there reading this letter in my house with tears just flowing down my face because of how encouraging it was in response to that teaching. I did not know how much I needed that. I think often we don’t know how much we need the ministry of the body. We neglect it. How simple is it to encourage? We neglect that side too, don’t we? We neglect actually using our spiritual gifts.
What is being held back from the body of Christ by our spiritual laziness? When Cory Brock was here for the Missions Conference he said that one of the main problems in our cultural moment is apathy. Everyone is apathetic. That attitude has even seeped into the church, hasn’t it? Maybe you’re here tonight and you just really don’t care about this whole spiritual gifts thing. Paul’s reasoning here in the last couple of verses, and those verses that bleed into the next chapter – they’re for you. They’re for me. They’re for the apathetic. He says, “Earnestly desire the higher gifts,” or in other words, the gifts that are more useful to the church.
And a command to desire implies an effort to obtain them. How do we obtain the higher gifts? Well, that’s the more excellent way of verse 31. There have been movements within Christianity that focus on figuring out, “What is my spiritual gift? What are my gifts?” and that’s not bad in and of itself. But often, they get so focused in on that they don’t actually exercise their spiritual gift. Paul’s remedy for the Corinthian thinking and that kind of thinking and our cultural moment of apathy are all the same thing. It’s love. It’s chapter 13, which you are probably very familiar with. Look at what he says. “If I speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing.” Love is the motivation for the ministry of the church. It’s the motivation for using your gifts, seeking another’s best interest. That’s what love is. Because once you truly understand that these people sitting next to you, that they are a part of your spiritual body, you begin to seek their best interest. You love them and that love leads you to action. You minister to them.
How do we seek the better gifts through love? It’s as you go out in love that you discover how you benefit the body, your gifts to the body. Don’t focus on the gifts but focus on loving those around you and you will find the gifts. And yes, I know chapter 13 isn’t a part of our text for tonight, but do you see how it’s intimately connected, intimately connected to chapter 12, connected to the beauty of the church. It’s the motivation for ministry. Read chapter 13 tonight or this week, sometime, and maybe you’ll catch the same vision, the vision that God has for His church. Maybe you’ll be caught up in the plans of God and His mission to the world. Maybe you will see its people.
And just as unity in diversity is patterned after the Trinity, so this mystery of love is patterned after the love of Jesus Christ. Psalm 68 says, “This King rescued captives and gave gifts to men.” Who is that King? It’s Jesus Christ. He rescued us from sin, and the gifts He gives He gives through the Spirit. It’s the charisma. Scripture says He foreknew us. Another way of saying that is that He foreloved us. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He loved before the foundation of the world. And the ministry of grace gifts within the church and without, is not motivated by being best friends with someone or by any perceived gain it might come from. It’s by love.
I’ll end with this. Vacation Bible School is this week, as you heard in the announcements, but how does our vision for Vacation Bible School reflect this? How does our vision for the different ministries of the church reflect this? Well, we have unity. God’s Word, the faith, being taught, so that more come into true faith and membership of the church – true Spirit baptism membership. We have diversity. How many different people, exercising how many different gifts will we have this week? How many different people speaking God’s Word? How many different people serving in various ways with their grace gifts? And remember this week. Remember what’s happening here at the church as you are here doing it or as you are at work praying for them, praying from your work that faith, remember, faith without love is not beneficial; it’s nothing. Love those kids this week so that they too may see the beauty of Christ and His Church. Let’s pray.Heavenly Father, we often get self-conscious or prideful when we consider our contributions. Would You help us to see Your Church and love Your Church? Would You help us by Your Spirit to bring more into the fold, even this week, Lord? As we go away from here, we ask that You would bless us and keep us, that You would make Your face to shine upon us, that You would be gracious to us and give us peace. It’s in the name of our Head, our King, Jesus Christ, that we pray. Amen.