The Living Body - Unity

READ (1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-26)

Last week, we focused on 9 various gifts mentioned by Paul to the church in Corinth.

He wrote a church struggling to be unified.

Society struggles, lack of order, immoral problems.

Every gift offered to the church was provided by the same Spirit.

When exercised correctly, spiritual gifts bring clarity, assurance, and power for the church to represent Christ.

Praise band in Graham. I had to ask them to step down.

The world is addicted to drama. People want to see people fall. It’s a pandemic that has destroyed the effect a church can have in the community.

For the church to be unhindered, we must embrace one another and walk in the same direction.

Without unity, we cannot be effective for the kingdom of God.

1. Baptized Into the Same Family

12-13 uses the analogy of the human body.

Our body consists of a variety of external parts (feet, hands, nose, ears), but also many complex internal systems (circulatory, respiratory, nervous, skeletal, and digestive systems).

When you hear the term, “body of Christ”, this passage is where the phrase was coined.

When the body functions together correctly, you and I are capable of accomplishing great tasks.

When something stops working correctly, we are all out of sort!

Baptized - (baptizo’)

At the moment of salvation, men and women are baptized by the Holy Spirit.

Jew, Greek, Slave, or free makes no difference in the kingdom of God.

All has what matters the most! A relationship with Jesus Christ.

Moment on bus driving through India with poor child.

Ethnic, societal, or economics may appear to separate us in society, but they mean NOTHING in God’s kingdom.

In Corinth, people were made to feel inferior due to their differences.

The modern church in the west can easily fall into the same trap.

As believers, we must remove anything that makes the church appear to be a special club for certain people. We are inclusive to ONE God, but exclusive to ANYONE who places their faith in Jesus Christ.

2. Every Part Matters Differently

Paul pointed out the fact body parts are distinct from one another, but serve toward the common goal of keeping the body healthy.

No one member is to be equated with a body. It takes many members to make up one body.

The disputes brought up by the church in Corinth seemed to involve the idea of depression among the less gifted members of the church.

Some of the public gifts seemed to be more spectacular and left others to feel inferior.

If a foot decided to be a hand, the body would be in trouble.

An ear can’t leave the body because it’s not an eye.

They need each other.

Certain parts of the body are covered with clothing… Not because they aren’t important.... On the contrary! They deserve the honor of clothing.

Anytime I go outside, I cover my head. Have you ever had a sunburn on your head? Shoes for legos and my pinkie toe.

Every person in our church is vital…

We are a multi-generational church. This is something we all must fight to protect.

I want every member to be a disciplined follower of Jesus Christ so we can all reach people with the gospel.

There are ministries galore that we can join together in.

“The great cannot exist without the small, nor the small without the great; there is a certain mixture among all, and herein lies the advantage. Let us take our body; the head is nothing without the feet, likewise the feet are nothing without the head; the smallest members of our body are necessary and valuable to the whole body, but all work together and are united in a common subjection to preserve the whole body”. - Clement of Rome

As the Body of Christ becomes aware of every parts ability to function towards the same goal, there is no limit to their reach to the community and world.

3. The Family Stays Together No Matter What Happens.

There were factions within the Church of Corinth that had brought division.

“Now in giving this instruction I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.” - (1 Cor. 11:17-18)

God put the body together so all can be honored which would prevent the divisions they were experiencing.

Chrysostom - early church father and patriarch of Constantinople who lived. from 347-407.

“All suffer with it” - When a thorn enters the heel, the whole body feels it and is concerned: the back bends, the belly and thighs contract themselves, the hands come forward and draw out the horn, the head stoops, and the eyes regard the affected member with intense gaze.”

“rejoice with it” - When the head is crowned, the whole man feels honored, the mouth expresses, and eyes look, gladness.

The church catches a lot of flack these days. We are pretty easy to blame the worlds problems on aren’t we?

It’s not our job to explain who we are to the world. Instead, let us look at one another in acceptance under the model the Lord gives uin scripture.

11 So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11-22)

Jesus did not bring us into the family to be separated while walking in disharmony.

We were saved for so much more. To embrace a culture of love and unity under scriptures that proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

To make disciples who live on mission to increase the kingdom of God through worship, community, ministry, and missions.

Where am I serving a source of disunity among the people of God?