The Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:12–18 NASB95

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.

a. The Body’s Diversity (다양성) (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)

b. The Body’s Equality (평등) (1 Corinthians 12:15-17)

c. The Body’s Head (1 Corinthians 12:18)

1. INTRODUCTION

i. The context of the church starts in 1 Corinthians 11. Paul starts with his argument in 11:2 where he writes to hold firmly to the traditions that was delivered to them. What is that tradition? 11:3, Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. Paul then goes on to explain what he means by this from 11:4-15.

ii. Then from 11:16-22, Paul starts to discuss the church. Paul writes in 11:18 that when you come together as a church, he heard divisions existed among them. Paul writes in 11:20 that we don’t meet to eat the Lord’s Supper if there are still divisions among us. The Lord’s Supper must be done to rid these factions. This is why Paul writes in 11:27 if we take communion in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

iii. Notice Paul’s statement there. Guilty of the body is referring to the divisions residing in the church. 11:21 speaks of the division that was happening in the church. When they were having communion, some were filling their stomachs while others were still left hungry.

iv. Paul’s argument for the Lord’s Supper is that there were people in the church who were not welcoming and only thinking about themselves. Paul concludes chapter 11 by telling the church at Corinth that the Lord’s Supper was judgment if done wrongly and if they are to take Communion, they must do it in a worthy manner.

v. This leads us to Chapter 12, where Paul now speaks about Spiritual gifts and other areas in which the Church was divided at Corinth. Paul goes on to teach that some people have a certain type of gift and people might look at others are more important than others.

vi. This leads us to today’s section. We are dealing with the section where people in the church are divided because some people think there are some people who are more important than others. Paul tells us three central truths about the church. 1st, the church is diverse (12:12-14). Secondly, the church is equal (12:15-17) and lastly, Christ is the head of the church (12:18).

2. BODY

a. The Body’s Diversity (다양성) (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)

i. Paul starts our section to help us understand that the church itself is diverse. Paul’s point in verse 12 is to tell us that there is one body and yet has many members and all of these members are one body. Paul outlines to tell us that as a body of Christians, we are the body of Christ. At the same time, Paul is stressing the point of unity in plurality but not uniformity.

ii. I love this idea that Paul is throwing out here. Many people think that if we are to be united, we must be of one mind and because of this, we must all look like the same. We think that the standards are the same. Can I remind everyone that the standard if sinlessness? And if that is the goal, it is not that everyone must look like me or act like me. No, rather it is that everyone must overcome their own sin. Holiness is not living our lives the way other people in our church live. Holiness is living our lives understanding what my weakness is, what my sin is and turning from it. That will look different from everyone else because although some people in my church might struggle with the same sin as me, the way we handle it is very different because we are all different people. We are at different stages of our lives.

iii. This is what I think is extremely unhealthy for the church. Unity in the body is not looking, acting and talking like everyone else. No, that’s a cult. Rather, the church is to be unified in Christ, because we all have been washed by the blood of Christ, but yet, exercise personal integrity. When the church is able to exercise this diversity, it makes unity even stronger because it allows people in the church to share and encourage other people who might struggle in those sins. We must never forget that the church is a place for sinners. It is where we can all share about our shortcomings and the lessons we have learned from our past experiences. We should not be ashamed about our sins if we have repented of them. Why? Because that is what Christ has forgiven about us. These sins that we have committed are no longer what identifies us. We are no longer bound to these sins. It might be difficult to share and confess our sins but if we still struggle with that, it means we haven’t fully repented of our sin.

iv. We must believe in the forgiving power of Christ’s death on the cross. Unity (통합) is not the same thing as uniformity (균일성). This is what makes the church beautiful because it shows the power of Christ’s forgiveness. If everyone in the church was the same, we would question, can God truly forgive a sinner like me that’s so different than everyone? But when the church is comprised of many different people, many different backgrounds and walks of life, and we can all have a common bond, that’s what makes the church beautiful and powerful.

v. The church is beautiful because everyone is different and yet, we have all been brought together by God. This is Paul’s argument in this section. Which is why in verse 13, Paul writes that by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, it doesn’t matter what background we have had in the past, now, in Christ, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

vi. Can I remind everyone how beautiful this is? That the Church is unified because of the person and work of Christ? It is not because we like certain people or because we get along with certain people. No. The reason why we are even here this morning is because Christ has brought us here. And the thing that makes it so beautiful is because everyone here has different talents and gifts they bring. This is what Paul was explaining with the gifts of the Spirit. Some people have the gift of teaching, some the gifts of miracles, some the gifts of prophecy and the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues. 12:11 tells us though that one and the same Spirit works all these things.

vii. I don’t want people to think that I believe in the gift of tongues, but the point here is that spiritual gifts were given to the church because it is to show us how different we all are, and yet, we are all one in Christ because of the Spirit that unites us and because everyone here was wonderfully and beautifully made by God.

viii. I also want to make it clear that this doesn’t mean that because of this, we can be proud of our sin. The fact that we have all been purchased by the blood of Christ calls us to repent and turn from our sin. This is also what makes the church beautiful because everyone struggles from different sins and yet, the forgiveness of God has overcome all our sin. There is no sin too great for God to forgive. This is what unites the body of Christ.

b. The Body’s Equality (평등) (1 Corinthians 12:15-17)

i. Paul starts verse 15 by explaining what he means by what he wrote in 12-14. Paul stated that it is one body with many members. So Paul explains it with parts of the body. The purpose of this section is to show that everyone in the church is equal. Paul’s point is that there is nobody in the church is better than another. Why? Because everyone is a sinner and the church is made of many people.

ii. But not only is the church made of many people, but these many people all are needed for the growth of the church. The focus of Paul’s statement is found in verse 15-16 where Paul writes, that it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.

iii. Because the church at Corinth consisted of many different types of people, and people from all different types of backgrounds, some people might seem more important than others. We see this even in the church today where we think that only wealthy people are important or people with power. Pastors gravitate towards people who have money because of the benefits this brings. 1 John spoke of this as well as the book of James when dealing with this topic. But Paul is explaining here that no matter the gift or wealth of certain people, everyone in the body is equal and everyone is equally important.

iv. This is why Paul uses different parts of the body to explain how each part of the body is important and each part of the body has different functions and roles.

c. The Body’s Head (1 Corinthians 12:18)

i. Paul closes this section by reminding the church at Corinth that God has placed the members in the body. Every single member of the church, God knew what He has doing when He called them into the church. The composition of the church is no accident. God has arranged every single member of the body just as he wanted them to be. The gifts of each individual reflect God’s sovereignty and His wisdom. Thus, the diversity of the body without out which would not be a body, demonstrates God’s wisdom and sovereignty.

ii. I know the church can become uncomfortable because not everyone does things the way we think should be done and the way we would like it to be done. The preaching can be better, the music could be better, we can find millions of things to complain about. But what Paul tells us here is that this is what God has willed. God has chosen and placed the members, every single one of us, exactly where He wants us to be.

iii. Many people don’t understand this today because we think that church is supposed to be for us. We are supposed to benefit from church and if the church can’t offer us something that we need, well then, God doesn’t want us there. But that can’t be further from the truth. If God has brought you to this church, He knew what He was doing and called you here for a reason. People might look at our church and see the problems and think that they’d rather go somewhere else, and they’d be better. But the problem is not the church. The problem is us. We think that church is supposed to be something that benefits me. But the church is about what Paul writes here at the end, it is about His desire.

iv. What God wants you to do in any situation is not to find out what’s wrong and criticize it. It’s to find out what’s wrong and find a way to be someone who can fix the problem. We want to sit around and complain because that’s what we are good at, but what God desires from us is that we would be people who see problems and fix it. Why? Because this church is the body of Christ. It’s not a building or just a club. No, it’s the body of Christ and our job is to do everything we can to glorify God. We can look at other churches and think wow they are blessed of God because they have a nice church, there are a lot of people, a lot of programs. That is a church that God has blessed. But in reality, a church is beautiful because of its people and how these people think about their current situation.

v. We can look at other people’s marriages and do the same thing. We can look at our marriage and complain about how we feel we are alone and when we look at other people’s marriages, we wish our marriage was like that. But, the solution isn’t to make your marriage like someone else’s marriage. Why? Because the way someone does something might not be the way you want it done. The finished product might look nice, but what God wants from us is to find a way to make it work in our current situation. This is what makes the church beautiful.

vi. The reality is, you will never find a perfect church. You will never find a church where everything is exactly the way you want it. Why? Because unity doesn’t mean uniformity. The church is beautiful because each person in the church is different and brings a different perspective (시각). My prayer is that we would recognize this and that we would not try to do church the way other people do it, but rather, we would do church because of our love for each other. This is why Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 and writes about love. The only way the church will work is if we recognize that God has put us here for a reason and our job is to try to figure out how to make this work. It’s easy to complain, but trusting God and building what we have is honoring and pleasing to God.

3. CONCLUSION