The Body (Worship Issues, Part 4)

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul uses his most masterful illustration yet. It’s so good, it can hardly be improved upon. There’s no explaining this any better than Paul already has.

It’s something we all understand, this illustration. It’s not like his illustrations of farmers or soldiers or runners; it’s a real stretch for city folk to grasp the life of a farmer. It’s next to impossible for a civilian to understand what our service men and women go through. People who run are crazy, so only crazies are able to understand what runners might be thinking.

But this illustration, this illustration all of us readily understand; it takes almost no effort on our part to grasp what he’s saying. Paul couldn’t have picked a better illustration if he tried.

>Every person has a body. It’s not a profound truth, but it is a helpful truth when we are tasked with thinking about the church—the Body of Christ—and how it functions, how it works, how it is supposed to behave.

Every person has a body. We understand that an individual body works together, all the parts of the body doing their thing, and this without any sort of extra effort.

I don’t have to tell my hand to reach for that cup of coffee. Every morning, instinctively, my legs carry my sleepy body to the coffee maker. My hand grabs the coffee pot, pours the coffee in the coffee mug. And the coffee in the coffee mug goes right in the coffee hole situated nicely on my face.

The body just works, doesn’t it?

Over the last few years, it’s become painfully obvious to me that I’m not 18 years old any more. I’ve started to mimic what I though was weird behavior from my Grandma Lindy. When sitting on the couch or in her chair, she’d say to herself (though loud enough for everyone else to hear), “Okay, body…time to get up.” And then as she got herself to her feet, she quietly quote a Bible verse: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

There have been more than a few moments, in times of sheer exhaustion, where I’ve pulled a Grandma Lindy: “Okay, body…time to get up…the spirit is willing...”

We might have to motivate ourselves like that from time to time, but overall, the body just works. The parts all work together and they don’t typically do anything our central nervous systems haven’t told them to do. The body is incredible; the Creator knew what He was doing, didn’t He?

Paul makes the case here, in 1 Corinthians 12, that the Creator, the same one who made the human body, has made the church one body in Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12–14 NIV

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Paul’s writing about the human body as a Jewish thinker for whom, with Genesis 1-2 in the background, the question of God creating a new, true humanity in and through the Messiah, Jesus, was all-important.

Paul uses the metaphor of the body to build his case for the beauty of the church.

The church does not function (or shouldn’t function) as a collection of separate individuals.

The church does not even function like a democracy. There is never a 51% to 49% victory in the church.

The church doesn’t (or shouldn’t) split up along party lines.

The church is far more vitally connected than that. The church functions as a body (or should).

Consider our own bodies. When we stub our toe, our whole body reacts. Our legs react; we bend our knees and raise our feet. Our arms react; we reach down and grab our toe. Our mouths cringe, and we yell (you know what you yell). Our eyes dart about to see what we stubbed our toe on.

The body words seamlessly and organically, together. there are no individual decisions to be made. The body reacts as a whole unit. It is not as though certain members of the body decide to opt out when they don’t feel like helping. And yet the body exhibits great diversity. Toes are unlike ears; eyes are unlike elbows. Their diversity is not a hindrance to their unity, but absolutely necessary for it. The body couldn’t function if it were made up of 100 ears or 100 elbows.

Paul wants church members to see themselves as integrally tied to one another like the various members of the human body.

The church is meant to function as a body. The Church should work just like the body does, each part playing its role with an (albeit unspoken) appreciation for the other parts.

Your mouth doesn’t thank your eyes or your nose. Sometimes it should, but it doesn’t; it just works, it functions, each part together as one.

>The Church is meant to function as a body.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of issues that keep the Church from functioning as it should. There are always issues when you get more than a few people together. The Church is not immune.

The sad truth is: as long as the Church has been around there have been issues (hence the section title I’ve given 1 Corinthians 12-14: “Worship Issues”). For 2,000 years, the Church—the people who belong to God by faith in Jesus Christ—have had and have dealt with their share of issues.

As I was reading these verses over and over in preparation for this week, something struck me, something I hadn’t seen before. The Bible’s like that. It’s like a jewel, multi-faceted. Turn it this way and that, look at it from this angle and then that, and you’ll see the text in different ways. It’s all a matter of perspective.

I was just a kid, really, when I started pastoring a small church in Middle-of-Nowhere, Kansas. I didn’t know anything other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I hadn’t yet realized how badly the church can hurt individuals. It took me a few years to realize that.

It took me even longer to realize how badly individuals can hurt the church.

As I was reading these verses, two phrases jumped out at me. I hadn’t paid them much attention before. I’m not even sure I had noticed Paul uses each phrase twice.

There must have been something going on in Corinth. I’ve spent my life in the church, so not only can I imagine people saying something similar to what’s said here, I’ve heard people say them (in one form or another). Sadder still, I’ve said something like this, more than once.

The first phrase is found in verses 15 and 16:

1 Corinthians 12:15–16 NIV

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being 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 stop being part of the body.

Do you see it? “I don’t belong.” This comment is made here hypothetically, but there’s no doubt that this was being said by some in the Corinthian church:

“I don’t belong. I just don’t; I never have. I don’t belong.”

The second phrase is found in verse 21:

1 Corinthians 12:21 NIV

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!”

This one stings. To hear this kind of thing, to be dismissed, to be turned away, to be asked to leave. That hurts.

“We don’t need you.”

Think about how awful, how fractious a thing this is to say to someone else, to your brother or sister in Christ:

“I don’t need you!”

This is a major issue. We can surmise that this was a problem in Corinth from what Paul is saying, from his having to remind the Corinthians that the Church is a body—each member belongs, each member is needed.

1 Corinthians 12:15–20 NIV

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being 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 stop being part of the body. 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? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

You Belong to the Body

There might be no better feeling than belonging. It’s good to find your place. It’s nice to find your spot on the team, to break your way into the community, to be a part of something.

Paul, here, insists that each member—foot, hand, ear, eye—is part of the body. Each part plays an important role, and it is essential for each one to play the particular role for which it was created. If any part were not to fulfill its proper role, the whole body would suffer from its absence.

Paul uses rhetorical questions to stress that the body needs all its parts, including eyes, ears, nose.

1 Corinthians 12:17 NIV

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?

Without a variety of parts, it’s all seeing, all hearing, all smelling.

The image is horrifying—the whole body an eye…the whole body an ear…that’s a creepy picture (like the Afrin nasal drip commercial, it’s the stuff of nightmares).

[Show Picture]

A body that functions well requires a multiplicity of members with a multiplicity of functions, and a church full of just one kind of gift (or even just a few different ones) would quickly shrivel up and die from the loss of its other senses and lack of nourishment.

Paul plays-out these strange scenarios (the foot telling the hand, “I don’t belong”; the whole body made up of just an ear), Paul plays-out these strange scenarios to help us see how strange this would be in the church, to see how impossible this would be in the church. And then he introduces the real situation:

1 Corinthians 12:18 NIV

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

The stress here falls on God’s action. The body is fit together, not accidentally or haphazardly, but it is arranged on purpose. Everything is just as He wants it to be.

It makes me feel better about my own compulsions to know that God is a particular God. He has put everything right where He wants it. There’s a place for everything and everything has its place. But with God, this is not a disorder, nor is it unhealthy. It’s perfect.

You Belong to the Body

And it means something for all of us seeking to belong.

You belong because God is sovereign over the placement of the body’s parts (both in the typical human body and in the church).

To tell anyone that they don’t belong or for you to tell yourself that you don’t belong is to insult God’s wisdom and sovereign choice.

Christian, you belong because God created you to belong.

You belong to the body, and

The Body Needs You

It’s pretty bad when someone feels like they don’t belong or that they’re not needed. It’s even worse when someone believes that they don’t need others (and even tell them so: “I don’t need you.”)

It’s almost ridiculous to imagine members of the body deciding they don’t need one another: the eyes team up against the hand (“We don’t need you, we don’t want you!”), the eyes bully the hand until it goes away. That’s a crazy thought.

And yet, think about how we have fractured ourselves within the church. It’s like an amputation when one member decides another member isn’t needed. It’s just a painful and just as much damage.

1 Corinthians 12:21–27 NIV

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!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

What Paul addresses here are those who consider themselves self-sufficient, without need of certain other parts of the body.

“I don’t need you; I’ve got this taken care of. I’m independent. I need no one else.”

The church father Jerome actually allegorizes the parts of the body and says this:

“The church has real eyes: its teachers and leaders who see in sacred Scripture the mysteries of God.… It also has hands, effective persons who are not eyes but hands. Do they plumb the mysteries of sacred Scripture? No, but they are powerful in works. The church has feet: those who make official journeys of all kinds. The foot runs that the hand may find the work it is to do. The eye does not scorn the hand, nor do these three scorn the belly as if it were idle and unemployed.”

We don’t need to try to make such direct identifications with each body part, but the point there is well-made. Different people in the church have different roles, all of which are needed.

The Body Needs You

Spend any amount of time in or around the church, and sadly, you’ll come to realize that there are certain people who think that their position, their gifts, their high-status make them think that they are the “inner circle” and that the identity and function of the church actually depends on them.

I’m sad to say, many pastors have this feeling. Long-time church members can be tempted to believe this to be true of themselves. Members with money can express this idea to others. Each one can even convince themselves that the church would crumble without them.

It’s not just that all these parts are needed by the body as a whole, but no individual part can claim that they don’t need some other part that God has placed in the body.

Again, all this is God’s idea. He has put the body together. The church is His grand composition.

And just when some are tempted to say of another, “I don’t need you,” Paul reminds them that the very part (the very person) one might think is weak and disposable is actually indispensable.

It’s kind of like your car’s oil drain plug and its fancy electronic push button ignition system. One is as low-tech as could be, while the other is pretty sophisticated. But a car won’t last long without its oil drain plug, no matter how impressive its ignition system.

The failure of one little valve can shut down the whole body (right, Tyler?). The implication is that there is no unimportant gift or person in the body of Christ.

God has placed everything together, just as He wanted. If it wasn’t good for man to be alone, it is also not good for the parts of the body to be separated or divided from each other. Each part needs the other.

Only with the understanding that you are needed so the body can function and that the body needs each one, can we get to the point of unity and mutual concern:

1 Corinthians 12:25 NIV

25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

Such is the unity and the concern each part of the body is to have for one another, that Paul says:

1 Corinthians 12:26 NIV

26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

We are so intrinsically connected, that we hurt when another hurts. We rejoice when another rejoices.

We have this inseparable connection, you and me. We belong to the same body, and to one another.

>Verse 27 is a good summation of Paul’s points:

1 Corinthians 12:27 NIV

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

Just in case the Corinthians haven’t realized it, Paul clarifies that he is talking about them.

They are the body Paul has in mind. And it’s not just any body, but the body of Christ—this God arranged, God composed, God appointed body.

The body of Christ is, in case you missed it, the church.

1 Corinthians 12:28–31 NIV

28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

Paul again (as in 12:1-11) stresses the diversity of gifts among the various members of the church.

Now he makes it clear that no spiritual gift is given to everyone. Most of the other believers will not have whatever gift any particular person in that same church might have and therefore has need of it.

You are needed. Your gifts are needed. The Body needs you.

Are all apostles? No.

Are all prophets? Nope.

Are all teachers? No sir.

The church needs people with a variety of different gifts in order to function properly.

Christian, it’s clear: God has gifted you. You have been gifted by the Triune God. And this is for a reason: it’s for the common good that you have been so gifted.

As a Christian you belong to and are needed in the body of Christ. You don’t get to remove yourself, and no one else gets to say that you are unnecessary.

You belong.

You are needed.

God arranged it this way. God has composed the body with you as an integral and indispensable part. And God has appointed your place in the body.

You belong. And we need you. Never think otherwise.

You belong and you are needed so that Christ’s Church can shine in all her glory, so that Christ’s Church can tell the world the Good News that Jesus has come to save sinners and build us up into one body.

You belong to the Body. The Body needs you.