Unity Through Diversity

Introduction: Last week, Pastor Brandon kicked us off in our new study in James's letter to twelve tribes of Israel, where the letter's central theme is "A Faith that Works." Even though we will not be in James this morning, I believe that the instruction we receive here in 1 Corinthians 12 is one of the most practical ways to put our faith to work.

Here in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is writing to a greatly divided church. There were divisions in Corinth over which preacher was the best, sexual morality, lawsuits, marriage, eating meat, head-coverings for women, the Lord's supper, the resurrection of Jesus, the resurrection of believers, and perhaps some others I have overlooked. Some of these divisions were simply petty and pointless (such as disagreements over which preacher was the best), while others were doctrinally significant (such as the resurrection of Jesus).

Among all the issues that divided the Corinthian church, the problem we find in 1 Corinthians 12 seems to be one that eventually shows up in every church across culture and time - a church member's value within the church. Paul explains that some church members thought they drew the short straw when it came to their spiritual gifts, so they viewed themselves as insignificant and were ready to separate themselves from the rest of the church. While others believed that they had received the most significant spiritual gifts and were prepared to remove others they considered to be less valuable.

They were like the members of the body in Menenius Agrippa's parable who one day decided that they were sick and tired of doing all of the work while all the stomach ever seemed to do was enjoy all the food. So, they decided that they would all go on strike until the stomach agreed to do its share of the work. For some time, the hand refused to pick up any food, the mouth refused to receive it, and the teeth refused to chew it. They kept this up as long as they could until the entire body wasted away to skin and bone. The hands could hardly move, the mouth felt dry, and the legs were unable to stand. Thus, the entire body discovered that even the lazy stomach was doing its part for the body.

Although that lesson seems obvious to us when it comes to our own bodies, it does not seem to click as efficiently when applied to our relationships with others. Still, it is precisely that point that Paul raises in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31.

Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Paul's primary concern for the Corinthians in this passage is that their faith would work by using their spiritual gifts, not for personal recognition, but the glory of God and the edification of His saints. As we consider this truth this morning, Paul will unfold it for us in the following three stages:

The Unity of the Church

The Diversity of the Church

The Interdependence of the Church

The Unity of the Church

Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-14

As Paul begins to explain to the Corinthians how their spiritual gifts ought to function within the church, he brings up the best metaphor that has ever been used to describe the church, that the church is a body. In particular, the church is the body of Christ. Like the human body, the church is comprised of many parts, yet they share one identity and have one goal - they are unified. This was Paul's message for the Corinthians, and like many of his messages to this church, he brought it because they were not functioning in unity, and Paul was so desperate for them to get this point he mentions that they are one 13 times between verses 12-31. More than that, Paul was so intent on driving home the goal of oneness that he refers to Christ as the church, for it is through the church that Jesus makes Himself known to the world.

Pastor John MacArthur puts it this way, "God did not intend the church to be merely an organization of believers, but rather the living manifestation of Christ that pulses with the eternal life of God. The common denominator of all believers is that they possess the very life of God." We, the church, are God's people designed to put on display the life-changing power of the gospel. We probably do not think about it as often as we should, but the world will not learn the incredible power of the gospel unless we live it out among one another.

Because Christ is one, so ought His people act as one. After all, Paul says in verse 13, "you were baptized in the Spirit into one body." The idea here is not referring to the act of believer's baptism in water, but the believer's baptism into the body of Christ. The Greek word βαπτίζω means "to immerse." In this context, it would be similar to the action of immersing a piece of cloth into a dye to change its color. Before the cloth is immersed into the dye, it is one color, but it comes out a different color - it is transformed. In the same way, at the moment of salvation, Christ immerses the believer into His Spirit; he is totally transformed and joined to the one body of Christ.

Just as Christ is one, so is His body. And the body's oneness has nothing to do with socio-economic identity. Look at verse thirteen. Regardless of whether a believer is a Jew or Greek, a slave or free, he has partaken the same Spirit as all other believers. As Pastor Brandon has mentioned before, the main reason the Bible does not address social justice issues head-on is that those differences are irrelevant in the gospel. The Bible's purpose is not to fix the pagan philosophies of this world. The Bible's purpose is to save individuals from sin and join them to the body of Christ, where their identity becomes forever transformed. In Christ, you are no longer identified by race, sexual orientation, or economic status. You are now in Christ. Paul put it this way in Philippians 1:21, "For me, to live is Christ."

Again, Paul's central point in verse 13 is that baptism with the one Spirit, makes the church one unified Body. There is to be a sweet unity within the church.

Transition: And this is where the Corinthians got it all confused. I'm sure some in that church defensively said, "But we are unified!" To which Paul responded, "No, you're not!. You are seeking uniformity when you should be cultivating unity." You see, the Corinthians valued certain spiritual gifts while discrediting others. The Corinthians' idea of unity was that they all desired to have the same showy, "more important" gifts, and Paul brings to their attention that their desire to all look the same has actually caused division in the church. So Paul says in verse 14, "You are one; however, don't forget that the body is made up of many members." This brings us to our second point, the diversity of the church.

The Diversity of the Church

Read 1 Corinthians 12:15-21

Unity is the most important characteristic of the body, but diversity is essential to the life and function of the body. It would make absolutely no sense for the different members of the body to all look the same. Paul asks in verse 15, "Can the foot say, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body?'"

Think of your body. Imagine one day your feet get jealous of your hands. I mean, the hands get to pick things up, catch balls in the park, and do meaningful work while all the feet get to do is get shoved into shoes and get walked on all day. So, one day, your feet make that fateful decision. "You know what, I'm done with this whole 'unified body' thing. If the hands want to go anywhere, they are going to have to get there themselves."

Or consider your ears. One day they get jealous of your eyes. I mean, the eyes are upfront, and everyone sees them. The ears are just meh. They are off to the side and not really noticed - unless, of course, they're too big. Then everyone is an ear expert, right? So, one day, your ears say, "You know what, I'm done teaming up with the eyes over there. If the eyes want to know if there is danger coming from behind, good luck seeing that coming while you're hanging out on the front of the face!"

But just because the feet and ears refuse to do their jobs, does that mean they are no longer part of the body? No, but it does mean that the rest of the body suffers.

Some of you already know this, but I am kind of a nerd, and one of the things I like to nerd out about is health and wellness. Not everyone agrees, but I think the studies and data connected to how the human body can better perform is fascinating. Whenever somebody decides to start working out, one of the first things they begin to notice is minor aches and pains resulting from additional stress on the body. Well, more often than not, those aches and pains are the result of prolonged compensation patterns. Now, a compensation pattern results from the body's attempt to make up for the lack of mobility in one area by adding a new movement to a different area. For example, my younger brother reached out to me this week about some knee pain he was experiencing and asked what exercises he could do to relieve the pain. I told him that he should check out how his ankles and hips are moving before he does anything with his knees. It is most likely that after years of driving an Amazon truck and paying little to no attention to posture or how his ankles hit the ground jumping off of the truck, his knees were absorbing stress that his ankles and hips should redistribute. As a result, his knees were suffering.

And just like the members of your body suffer when other members don't quite work right, so the body of Christ suffers when you refuse to exercise your spiritual gifts. Paul asks, "Can you just imagine if your whole body were an eye? What a disaster; how would it hear? Or if it were all an ear, how would it smell?"

Can you imagine if the entire church was made up of people just like Pastor Brandon? We love him, right?! But who would teach children's church? Who would run the sound booth? Most importantly, who would make the coffee?

When one member refuses to use his gifts, the whole body suffers. It may even be that some person here is feeling a lot of pressure this morning serving in a role that doesn't fit them, because maybe you are allowing envy to keep you from serving in that role.

In my former church, we had multiple pastors that were of a variety of ages? We had a pastor in his 70s, 60s, 50s, two in their 40s, one in his 30s, and another in his 20s. As the pastor on staff in their 30s, I would often hear from the younger families who would come to me with some things they would like to see changed. They would say something like, "Pastor Bryce, I think this pastor's ministry would do much better if we did this." My response would often be, "Thanks for that suggestion! I appreciate it. Since God has given you the ability to discern that need, can you use your gifts to make that ministry better?"

Sometimes they would, and sometimes they wouldn't. But I always wanted them to understand, "Listen, if you see a need, you are part of the body. That ministry leader probably is struggling to get the job done, but maybe it's because you haven't started using your gifts yet. Maybe God wants you to be a part of the solution."

Do not allow yourself to disengage from the body just because you would rather have someone else's spiritual gift. Because, as Paul says in verse 18, "It is God who has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He pleased." God has sovereignly equipped you to serve the body of Christ. You might not realize how valuable your gifts are, but God does, and that is why he has placed you here. Your gift pleases Him!

I agree with Paul's question in verse 19, "If you weren't here exercising your gifts, what would happen to the rest of us?" It wouldn't be a pretty picture, I can assure you.

Do not devalue your gifts because, without them, the other gifts would not be possible. The body is one.

Paul then turned to the second group of Corinthians. These Corinthians did not devalue their own gifts but rather devalued the gifts of others, and so Paul rebuked them, "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."

Transition: "Listen," Paul writes, "if it weren't for those with the 'lesser gifts,' your gifts would not even be possible." Because the body is diverse and each person has their unique role to fill, the members of the body are interdependent.

The Interdependence of the Church

Read 1 Corinthians 12:22-31

The point here is clear. Do not devalue your own gifts, and do not devalue the gifts of others. Instead, care for one another, just like you care for the weaker parts of your own body. For example, your body cares for your heart. Compared to the hardness of your bones, the heart is fleshy and relatively weak, but without it, your body dies. And so the ribs protectively encase your heart. The heart isn't showy, it is hidden, but it is necessary for life. Or the parts of the body which are less honorable. Paul is most likely referring to the torso region of the body. As my sister-in-law put it a few weeks ago, "Let's be honest, everyone has a little bit of a belly." I don't know about you, but none of us are anxious to show that off. So, what do we do? We bestow greater honor to it. The word bestow has the idea of carefully clothing. We carefully cloth our midsection so that it appears more honorable. And the same goes for our unpresentable or private parts. We are even more careful to cloth those areas so that the body can be presented as a dignified whole.

The idea here is that the body does what is necessary to take care of one another. Those with "lesser gifts" are necessary for life, and those with more upfront gifts are careful to bestow honor on everyone else. A healthy body understands that all of its parts need one another, so there is no division. The entire body is unified in its care for one another. So much so that if one member suffers, so do the rest. If one member is honored, the rest rejoice. Just as Paul wrote in Romans 12:15, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."

And again, Paul stresses the sovereignty of God in all of this. Each member needs to understand that it is God who composed the body this way.

Conclusion: Paul concludes this section with yet another reminder that, as the body of Christ, you are individuals, but you are also members of one body. And God has designed it that way. God values and takes pleasure in the faithful exercise of each and every spiritual gift. Do you all have the same giftedness? No! Thank the Lord for that, or the body would be dysfunctional. Each individual is equipped and placed within the local church, as Ephesians 4:12 puts it, "For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

The proper response to diversity within the church is to care for and respect one another. Take a look at verse 31. It says, "But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet, I show you a more excellent way."

What is the more excellent way? Look down at chapter 13 (which we don't have time to get into this morning), but even a cursory reading shows us that the more excellent way is love for one another. Paul is diverting their attention away from the gifts and toward love for one another.

"Now wait a minute," you might say, "it sounds like Paul is commanding them to pursue the best gifts." Well, in the Greek text, there are two verb forms for the word desire. One is the indicative form which simply states a fact, while the other is the imperative form that gives a command. In the case of the word ζηλόω, both the indicative and imperative forms are spelled the same. So, it is a complex verb to translate. However, after spending thirty verses explaining that God is sovereign over spiritual gifts and they ought to be satisfied with God's plan for them, I doubt he would encourage them to keep pursuing specific gifts. With that in mind, the best translation in this context would read, "But you keep earnestly desiring the better gifts, yet, I will show you a more excellent way."

Again, Paul was diverting their attention away from specific gifts to a better way. You will find unity in the body of Christ, not by seeking personal recognition but by exercising your gifts for the glory of God and the benefit of the saints.