Gifts for the Body of Christ

Kids personalities

One of the great delights as a parent is watching your kids develop their own unique personalities.

When a child is first born, they are very cute, but lets face it, you don’t get a lot of personality. In the first, say, six months, you get a lot of development, and it might be very exciting to see, but even then, there’s only the slightest hint of their personalities.

But then… slowly but surely… things start to develop. As the years go on, you start to see whether they’re outgoing or more reserved. Whether they’re a leader or a follower. You might see a cheeky side. Or a intuitive side. They may be well considered, or act first, think second.

What I love, is that it doesn’t get revealed all at once. As you spend time with someone, you learn more about who they are. And it’s usually far more complicated then a few simple labels that we often like to place on people. We might label someone either an extrovert or an introvert, but really, there’s quite a spectrum to that.

The other thing I love about watching your own children develop, is how different they turn out.

I’m sure almost all of you could testify to the fact that two children, born of the same two parents, raised in the exact same environment, can turn out so vastly different. Certainly in my own three children, you will see three very distinct personalities.

Now, there’s something very special about this as a family. You see, if you take the five members of my family, we are five very unique personalities, yet there is something that unites us. The unique personalities make one family.

We can each celebrate our individuality, however, when it becomes about individualism, we’re going to have problems.

Now I’ve just used two very similar words and so it’s worth pointing out what I mean by them both. I’ve suggested individuality is good, but individualism is problematic.

So what’s the difference?

Well, the way I’m using them, individuality just recognises the differences that we have.

Individualism on the other hand, goes further. It puts your individuality in the centre. It becomes all about the individual.

When a family shifts into a mindset of individualism, then what you so often see, is that the things that make that family so distinct start working against one another. Rather than using the different personalities to make something amazing, we see individualism blinding us to the common good.

Spiritual Gifts

This morning we’re starting our series on spiritual gifts and the main point I want to make today, is that as we begin to discover our different gifts, we have to work hard to avoid individualism.

The problem of course is that individualism can be very subtle. It is very easy to convince ourselves that what we are doing is serving the body, where actually we just love the accolades.

This is perhaps become more of an issue when your gifting places you in a more upfront position, but yet, individualism can be a problem whatever your gifting. Individualism can puff us up and make us think that our gift is the most important. It’s so easy to think - this place would fall apart without me.

So as we ask ourselves the question - what is my spiritual gifting? - lets not separate this question from how am I building up the church?

Corinthian context

Okay, well, for the next few weeks, we’re going to be in the book of 1 Corinthians, so it’s worth taking a few moments to actually get some of the background of this.

Corinth is a city that Paul spent quite a considerable time in on what we refer to as his second missionary journey.

It’s an interesting city, partly due to it’s geography. You see, it is on what we call an isthmus, which apart from being a hard word to say, it’s a thin piece of land, between two larger pieces of land. Now why is that significant? Well, it’s because it becomes a bit of a junction point, with lots of land travellers moving through, and also a lot of sailors coming through. As a result, we get a very cosmopolitan group of people, which means you got people from a variety of backgrounds and a variety of worldviews.

Well, if you were to go through the entire letter, you’ll also see that this has resulted in various factions and divisions.

It becomes quite a fascinating letter as Paul tries to bring wisdom to quite a few of the divisions that have occured. As we get to chapter 12, we see another such division.

It would appear that some of them had discovered spiritual gifts but they kind of misunderstood the purpose of them.

As we’ll explore in more depth in a few weeks when we get to chapter 14, it would seem that two of the gifts in particular seemed quite exciting, namely speaking in tongues and prophecy.

You see, there was an obvious supernatural element to these gifts and so it’s not hard to imagine people who have been given these gifts can start to think of themselves as something special.

Actually, I find it interesting the way that Paul first tackles this particular issue.

In some ways, it’s quite unexpected.

He starts with the words “Now about the gifts of the Spirit...” so that they know he’s going to be speaking about this particular issue.

But he actually starts the conversation by essentially looking at their conversion.

You see, the very fact that they can say the words “Jesus is Lord”, is because of the Holy Spirit.

This is a really good corrective for us. If we’re going to get matters of the supernatural - well guess what? It’s not natural that you’ve gone from being led astray by things of this world… from putting yourself first… from craving things of the flesh… to a point where you can say, not my will, but yours be done.

To have such a change in your view of the world - well, this is supernatural.

The problem is, we don’t often recognise this, and so we’re on the back foot from the start. We get a warped idea of the work of the Spirit because we only put it on things that we deem to be spectacular, whereas the whole transformation that is happening within you, that is spectacular.

So to this Corinthian context, Paul makes this corrective in the first few verses of raising this topic - and it’s a good one for us to remember.

Different gifts

Okay, so as we move to the fourth verse, after acknowledging that all believers share in a common but incredible work of the Holy Spirit, he also acknowledges that to different individuals, there are different gifts which are given.

In fact, when we get to verse 8, he’s going to list nine such gifts.

Now I believe while I was on holidays, Dennis Carter helpfully went through many (maybe all) of these gifts, so I’m not going to do that now. If you want to explore them, well, I’m sure quite a number of them will get a good discussion in our afternoon workshops, or I could point you in the direction of some good resources.

I will say however that it’s not right to think of this as an exhaustive list. Certainly, Paul himself describes other gifts.

Rather, the point of this whole process is actually told to us in verse 7.

Let me just read that verse again. It says: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good”.

In fact, I’d like to suggest that it is this verse that we should use to help us understand the whole discussion around Spiritual gifts.

You see, it tells us a number of things.

Firstly, that these are given to each one of us. In other words, if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and saviour, then he has transformed you, and this applies to you.

Secondly, another description of a spiritual gift is “a manifestation of the Spirit”. Whatever is happening, is happening because of the Spirit working in your life.

And thirdly, there must be a purpose to all of this - and that is, that this is all for the common good.

And in some ways, this actually comes back to the main point that I want to make today. As I said before, we cannot separate the question of what is my spiritual gift from the question of how am I working in the church. They must go together.

The Body Analogy

As we move to verse 12, Paul introduces for us the image of a body - an image which he is going to give quite an extended discussion on.

In this verse 12, he really summarises the main idea he’s going to explore. That is, that a body has many parts, but form one body.

It’s not exactly a difficult concept to grasp, and yet somehow, it can be so easy to miss in practice.

But first, let’s just explore this analogy as Paul explains it to us.

When Paul explains it to us in the analogy, its really absurdly simple.

He starts with the foot and the hand. A foots not going to say that because it’s not a hand it doesn’t belong. Of course the foot and hand are both extremely important, they just play different roles.

And in case you didn’t follow this very simple example - the same goes for the ear and the eye. Of course you need both. Being able to see and hear are two very important functions and we need them both.

In verse 17, he comes at the exact same problem from a slightly different angle. What if the whole body were an eye - well that’s a bit of an absurd image - but that’s what it’s meant to be.

We’re meant to say - that’s ridiculous!

As we would if the whole body were an ear.

Now I’m pretty sure you’re probably thinking - okay Paul, we get it - a body has many parts, but each part is important and it all comes together to make a single body.

And I’m sure Paul would respond - well good, the concept of gifts in the church is no different. It’s just as straight forward.

In theory, we’re all probably going to agree to this just as quickly.

However, in practice - I’m going to suggest we come across a few additional problems.

You see, the problem is, we become self-focused. We become very familiar with what our function is and have a lot less clue about the other functions.

Let me just take some examples from the gifts that Paul described in verses 8 to 11.

Let’s say God has given you a gift of knowledge. Now, you’re pretty happy with that gift. Without this gift, nothing would be grounded in any truth. After all, Christianity is based on real historical events and knowledge of this is important to understand what is happening.

Now because you’ve got knowledge, you know the other gifts are important, but they’re only important because they lead to the truth - of which you have the knowledge.

You’ve just done a little subtle shift which has put your gift out on top.

Or perhaps you’ve got the gift of healing. And let’s just say that healing can be more than just physical healing. It can be the healing from trauma. It can be emotional. It can really be any type of healing that restores things the way they should be.

Now, isn’t this really what it’s all about? The whole thrust of the Bible is to move towards restoration. Without healing, we just have empty words. Sure the other gifts are important, but this is where things get into practice.

Now I could actually do the same for each of the gifts. I could spin it so that any particular gift is seen as the most important. And when we become really aware of our gifting, it is so easy to think in such a manner. Even though we’ll quickly say, yeah yeah, all gifts make the one body, but we’re actually thinking ours is the one that underpins the whole thing.

The body analogy might seem straight forward enough, but our selfish ways are pretty good at putting the focus back on ourselves, so before you throw this lesson away as simple, take a good think about it.

Special treatment

Paul pushes the analogy even further in verses 21 to 26. You see, it follows that if every part is important, then we need to treat each part accordingly. This doesn’t necessarily mean equally, at least not in the sense of the same. Using the analogy of the body, Paul brings to mind the parts that need special modesty. Paul even says that some parts which we think of as less honourable we treat with special honour.

Basically, this comes down to thinking like a body, not like a bunch of individuals.

As I said at the start, while we all have individuality, this can’t be about individualism.

When we think like a body, we become a whole lot less interested in looking at one individual member and asking: what are they doing? If they’re part of the body, then they are part of the body. They might be hanging limp - but maybe that’s the time we need to put a sling around them rather then getting upset because they’re not contributing.

As Paul says in verse 26: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it”.

As we think about Spiritual gifts, is cannot be about individualism, it must be about how it supports the body - the body of Christ.

The direction of the body

Because that is what we are. As Paul states very clearly for us in verse 27: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it”.

To reiterate the point, Paul again describes the gifts that God has given, and interestingly, it is quite different to the list he gave earlier in the chapter. Now, it does have some similarities, but he adds some, and leaves out others.

But what I find somewhat curious however, is that in the list he gives us in verse 28, he puts an order to them.

Now I’m going to suggest that this is not an order of importance. If it was, than it would contradict much of what he has just said. Rather, I want to suggest that it shows an order which shows the general direction of how God’s word goes out.

Let me just go through the order and I’ll give a really brief explanation of each gift.

It starts with the apostles. These are literally the sent ones. The ones who go out and pioneer new work for the kingdom. These people aren’t more important, but they are at the start of the process.

Then comes the prophets. Now we need to understand that prophecy is much more than future telling, even though this is a small part of it. Prophecy is rather about speaking God’s word into a situation. The prophet is needed to set the ground work for the new work. So that is why they come next.

Then comes the teachers. They provide the basis of the truth of which is needed.

Once all of this work is set, now we see things begin to take shape. Miracles happen. Healing takes place - and remember, this is not just restricted to physical healing. People find help in their need. And there is guidance.

And then if you look at the end of verse 28, there is one last gift which some of us might not quite know what to do with - the gift of tongues. Now, where going to look at this a bit more when we look at chapter 14, but what is it doing in this list here.

After all, we’ve just seen this order which essentially shows how the church will come into a new area, set up the ground work and then see changes happen. But what do speaking in tongues have to do with this?

Well let me just suggest a possible answer. I’m going to suggest that speaking in tongues represents a reversal of what happened at the tower of Babel. Now we’ll look at what place it has in a church service when we get to chapter 14, but it fits here because when God’s church does it’s thing, the effects of the curse start to reverse.

Now the beauty of what Paul has done here in verse 28 is that it helps us think about this bigger picture of the church. When we see this direction that God is taking his church it makes it easier to see how our part is important.

But we can’t do it all. We can’t all be apostles. We can’t all be prophets. But if each play their part, then something truly amazing will take place.

Conclusion

It’s exciting to think of the ways that God might be using us. For those of you who will be joining us for the afternoon workshops, will get an opportunity to think about the special ways that God has gifted us. You might already know, or maybe it might come as a surprise to you. But either way, we’ll be able to see how we fit into a much bigger body, and how we can serve that body.

But what is so important as we go on this journey, is that we look at this whole process through the lens of the body. This is not about you as an individual. This can’t be about individualism. Sure you are an individual and God has uniquely placed you for his purposes, but this is about his body and what God is doing in this world.

So let me pray...