We Need One Another

Game Observations

To the winning team: How did your team work together to win? Did everyone do the same thing or did you have to take on different roles in order to win?

To the other teams: What happened that led to you losing? Could you have worked together better? Were you missing a certain kind of teammate?

Everyone is Important

We have been studying the idea of unity and community.

Today we are going to look at how our diversity helps us be more unified.

Game example: If everyone on your team did the same thing you wouldn’t be as successful as when everyone play a specific role.

Imagine playing on a soccer team with only goal scorers and no one cared about passing or defending. That team wouldn’t do very well.

Or a baseball team with all pitchers and no one cared about catching or hitting.

Imagine any job or industry if everyone did the same job, things likely wouldn’t get accomplished.

Our difference can often be the thing that draws us apart, but our diversity is actually what makes unity possible.

That is the message of our passage today:

1 Corinthians 12:12–14 CSB

12 For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. 14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many.

Verses 12 and 13 set up the rest of the passage by grounding our understanding of diversity in the way our bodies function.

There are different parts, all functioning in different manners, but together they make up one body.

In the Church, which is often called “the Body of Christ”, we have important differences, but those differences don’t determine our inclusion in the body of Christ.

Paul is arguing that our differences are what make us the body of Christ, everyone draw and knit together by our shared relationship with Jesus.

The analogy in this passage is incredibly helpful:

just as a body needs different parts to function, the body of Christ needs people with different perspectives, skills, and gifts.

“Perhaps Paul chose the feet, hands, ears, and eyes as examples because of their prominence in the body. Even though they are prominent and important, they cannot function alone. They need each other.” — Thomas Constable

Each of us have gifts and talents we should use to serve God.

They are different and have different functions though:

Some of them get a lot of attention and praise—like if you can sing in the worship service or have the people skills to evangelize a lot of people.

Others will be quieter or seemingly unnoticed—like helping with kids ministry or running sound in the back of the church building.

But all of us are necessary for the whole body to function.

Body Disorders

Just like how our physical bodies can get sick or injured, the church body can also get sick or hurt.

Paul mentions 2 ways this can happen.

The first is “feeling useless or unimportant

1 Corinthians 12:15–18 CSB

15 If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted.

It is common for people to feel like they have nothing to contribute because there particular gifts, talent, interests, or personality just doesn’t stand out like someone else’s.

You might feel that at school, on a team, at home, or in church.

But Paul is saying EVERYONE MATTERS.

Regardless of what area we are talking about, you play an important role even if you are the upfront person.

We all have value and purpose, so don’t lose sight of that and down let that discourage you from getting involved.

We also have the tendency to think of certain roles as not that important.

I would imagine on a baseball team, if you play right field for a whole game and never get a ball hit to you, it might feel like you were unnecessary, but that would be wrong.

In church, it might seem like someone greeting in the parking lot wouldn’t be all that important, but studies show the sooner someone feels welcomed at church, the more likely they are to come again.

Everyone matters and every role matters.

The Second disorder is “the feeling of self sufficiency”:

1 Corinthians 12:19–26 CSB

19 And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. 23 And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, 24 which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, 25 so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. 26 So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

What we are doing here matters. What we do on Sundays matters. It matters to our growth as Christians that we are serving, using our gifts, and connecting with one another.

Paul paints a ridiculous picture of a disembodied eye or a decapitated head saying to the rest of the body “I don’t need you.”

It is ridiculous because those things cannot exist without one another.

They are codependent.

This is a great analogy because it is how we function as well.

We need one another and when we try to live our lives as if we don’t need anyone else, we become pretty miserable people.

One of the most effective ways to overcome depression, addiction, or many other struggles we deal with is by serving others and being in community with others.

Individuality is celebrated in our culture. The idea that I can take care of myself and don’t need anyone.

But it is a misconception. We are dependent on others regardless of how individual we might feel.

And when we are only focused on ourselves, we become really miserable people.

God put the body together so that we could have unity and the we would be able to help one another in our trials and celebrate with one another in our successes.

This is what it means to be a part of God’s Church.

So lean in to relationships, find a place to serve, and fight against those aliments/disorders.