If you have your Bibles please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12.
Have you ever watched a pit crew in action at a Nascar race? In less time than it takes for most of us to put our seatbelt on and adjust the mirror, the crew had changed four tires, filled the gas tank, cleaned the grill, washed the windshield, given the driver a drink, and made a wedge adjustment to the car so it handles better.
It all happens in 12-15 seconds. It happens so quickly and efficiently because each crew member knows his job, has developed and practiced his job and does it well.
It takes a lot of people to put on a race. If everyone wanted to drive, it would be chaos.
It’s the same with the pit crew. If everyone wanted to change tires and no one wanted to fill the gas tank, the car wouldn’t have a very long ride.
Likewise, in the body of Christ we all have been equipped with different gifts and skills to do certain tasks. Some drive, some “change the tires,” some fill the gas tank, and some “wash the windshield.” And each job is just as important as the other.
For the body of Christ to fulfill its purpose in being a light to the world, we each need to do their part, develop their skills, and then do it efficiently by grace through faith.
1 Corinthians 12:12 says, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”
The analogy of believers as a body is unique to the epistles of Paul. NO OTHER WRITER of Scripture mentions the Church, the Body of Christ.
The reason this is so is because of this dispensation we are living in, the dispensation of Grace is a dispensation that had been hid in the mind of God from eternity past, and which was first revealed to the Apostle Paul (Eph. 3:1-5).
Paul had a unique revelation, the revelation of the Mystery, and this is why only Paul speaks of the Church the Body of Christ as it’s a truth unknown before him.
And within this dispensation, only believers from this present age are made a part of this spiritual organism, this “one new man” as Paul calls it in Ephesians 2:15.
We find through Paul that the Body of Christ has a unique gospel, by which we are saved, as we are saved by faith alone in Christ’s death, burial & resurrection.
In trusting this for our eternal soul salvation, a distinct baptism takes place by the Holy Spirit, who spiritually baptizes us, He identifies or joins us to Christ, and places us into the Body of Christ, where Christ is our Head and we are His Body.
Paul speaking of the human body says in verse 12, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body.” The human body is truly amazing and marvelously complex.
It functions with unparalleled harmony and interrelatedness, yet it is a unit, a single, unified entity. Even though it has many parts, it is still one body.
The human body has many parts with a necessary diversity in its members and the parts of the body are dependent on the other parts, with each fulfilling an important function, and it all works together as one.
Then Paul says, “So also is Christ.” In other words, “So is the Body of Christ.” Christ’s Body is also one, with many members functioning together as a unit.
The human body consists of many parts, which constitute a single, unified entity and in the same manner is the Church, the Body of Christ. We are a part of one Body, with the individual members constituting different parts of it.
And God has designed the Body of Christ to function like a healthy human body, each member fulfilling its specific role, working together in harmony with the other members for the spiritual health and oneness of the Body.
1 Corinthians 12:13 reads, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
Verse 13 explains how we become members of the Body of Christ and how the Body is formed. And it is through the operation of the Holy Spirit.
The one baptism of today, the Spirit baptism, identifies and places us into the one Church of today the Body of Christ.
There are many Christian organizations, denominations, and groups of every sort, but there is only one true Church, the Body of Christ.
And the Body is made up of believers in the Lord Jesus, those who have placed their faith in the gospel of salvation that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.
National origin, social or political status, male or female, rich or poor, makes no difference within the Body of Christ. We’re all one, we’re all one Body.
Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
There definitely was a difference under the Prophetic program between Jew and Gentile, but now under Grace and in the Body of Christ there is none.
In this dispensation of the grace of God, God is saving souls out of every nation, who simply place their faith in Christ alone and in His finished work.
And by the Holy Spirit, they’re spiritually baptized, they are joined together into the Church, the Body of Christ, making us one with Christ and one with each other.
According to verse 13, being members of Christ’s Body, we also are then given the Holy Spirit from whom we drink and are given spiritual life and strength through Him.
1 Corinthians 12:14-19: “For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
“And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
“But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body?”
Richard Love wrote the following: Sir Michael Costa, the celebrated conductor, was holding a rehearsal.
As the mighty chorus rang out, accompanied by scores of instruments, the piccolo player—a little pint-sized flute—thinking perhaps that his contribution would not be missed amid so much music, stopped playing.
Suddenly, the great leader stopped and cried out, “Where is the piccolo?”
The sound of that one small instrument was necessary to the harmony, and the Master Conductor missed it when it dropped out. The point? To the Conductor there are no insignificant instruments in an orchestra.
Sometimes the smallest and seemingly least important one can make the greatest contribution and even if it doesn’t seem to make that big a difference to the audience at large, the conductor knows it right away!
Richard Love continues: In the Church the players and the instruments are diverse-different sizes, different shapes, different notes, different roles to play.
But like the piccolo player in Sir Michael’s orchestra, we often in our own sovereignty decide that our contribution is not significant.
Our contribution couldn’t possibly make a difference. And so we quit playing. Stop doing that which we’ve been given to do. We drop out.
But the Conductor immediately notices. From our perspective, our contribution may be small, but from His, it is crucial.
Some piccolo players have dropped out of the orchestra, for reasons like: pain, exhaustion, insecurity, criticism, laziness, misbehavior.
Convinced that their contribution doesn’t mean a hill of beans in the bigger scheme of things, they bury their talent in the ground.
The verses before us show that each and every member of the Body of Christ is vitally important, nobody’s a nobody, everybody’s a somebody, each has an essential role.
Many of the Corinthian believers were not happy with their gifts, and many in the church wanted a gift that someone else had. Paul says “the body is not one member.” I.e., we simply cannot all hold the same position in the Body.
God has graced different people with different abilities and God in His wisdom and sovereignty has placed each member in the Body where we will be the most useful for Him, “God set the members…as it hath pleased Him” (Ver. 18).
The “honorable,” “less honorable” and “comely,” “uncomely” members that Paul refers to is from man’s view (“which seem,” v. 22; “which we think,” v. 23). From God’s vantage point all members of the Body of Christ are important and needed.
And that’s what Paul says in verses 15-16, “Should the foot complain that he is only a foot and not a hand, or the ear that he is not the eye?”
I.e., the foot is apart of the Body, the ear is apart of the body, & they’re both needed and for a body to be a body it must have different parts and diverse members.
God does not want us to wish that we had a different ability or position in the Body of Christ. He placed us where we are. Verse 18 again says that “God set the members…in the body, as it hath pleased Him.” To be dissatisfied with your place in the Body is to be dissatisfied with God, who placed you where you are.
As members of the Body of Christ we have a particular function to perform and our burden in life should be to perform that function as well as we possibly can and in His strength for the glory of God.
God does not want us to envy other people’s gifts and position in the Body of Christ and He also does not want us to judge others who may not have your gift.
Some are prayer warriors, some are evangelists, some are teachers, some are pastors, some give, some rule, some show mercy and compassion, some minister by caring for the poor, providing for the sick, or watching over the local church.
We’re not all eyes, or hands, or feet, and while I hope you are, we’re not all ears. If we were all one part of the Body, like the eye, Paul says in verse 17, then how would we hear, and if we were all an ear how would we smell?
In other words, if we all had the same position in the Body, how would the Body work, how would we minister? It would not even be a Body, as v. 19 shows.
The diversity in the Body allows Christ’s Church to reach more people, to help more people, to minister to more people. The Church is most effective with its members faithfully performing the different ministries that God has called them to do.
Many in Corinth felt that with their gifts that they weren’t important, that they weren’t needed in the Body. And with envy and selfishness they complained about not having a more visible position in the Body.
God does not want us to be disgruntled or to try to be something we’re not. He wants us to accept the position that He has given us in the Body and to serve the Body and Him, knowing that He sees each of us as vitally important to it.
1 Corinthians 12:20-22: “But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.”
In verse 20, Paul turns from those who were discontented and disappointed with their positions in the Body to those who boasted about theirs.
All of us have deficiencies. None of us are perfect or gifted in all areas. And this is why we need each other, so that the ability of others in the Body can compensate for our deficiencies. And it’s why we should honor each other as well.
Sometimes believers fall prey to the notion that we don’t really need other believers. But John Wesley rightly said, “There is no such thing as solitary Christianity.”
Whether we realize it or not, we are interdependent, mutually dependent on each other in the Body of Christ. This is God’s design. He desires the Body of Christ to work together to be His hands and feet to reach out with Christ’s love and grace in this world.
The first person in this passage in verses 14-19 says, “They don’t need me,” the second in verses 20-24 says, “I don’t need them.”
This passage tells us that some underestimate their importance to the Body and some overestimate their importance. But in God’s eyes, each member is equally important to Him and to the Body as a whole, so all should be honored.
Paul says in verse 21: “the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”
If the “eye” sees a penny on the ground, it needs a “hand” to pick it up. Or if the “head” wants to go somewhere, it needs “feet” to go.
Nobody in the Body is self-sufficient, and not having the same abilities produces this strong interdependent relationship between the members.
Paul says that “those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble [or weak], are necessary.” Those who “seem to be more feeble,” in this verse are only so from a purely human vantage point.
This verse is clearly seen in the ministry of the local church, the people that are not out front or up front, are necessary, they’re the life-blood of a church.
I.e., the ones who faithfully attend, who pray, who give, who undergird and are involved in the less noticeable ministries of the church, like cleaning, home Bible studies, VBS, youth groups, prayer meetings; these reliable, dedicated members of the Body are frequently the greatest channels of spiritual power in an assembly.
The “silent saints” are often the ones greatest used by the Lord and will be the most richly rewarded at the Judgment Seat. He’ll give “more abundant honor” to the less visible, overlooked, but faithful members of the Body.
And those who minister in these ways and in these “less noticeable” ministries are often subject to neglect and lack of appreciation, which should not be.
A number of years ago in the America’s Cup, a twelve-meter sailboat race held in Australia, America won 4 races to 0. Many were thrilled.
Dennis Connors was the one who led the project and the one with all the glory; the one seen holding the trophy and in the middle of a ticker-tape parade.
But Connors was not alone and didn’t accomplish this on his own. A whole crew of people worked around him as he skippered the boat.
A TV documentary did a piece on this and it showed the people on the crew, aside from Connors. One of the crew members never sees the water and he goes on every one of those races.
He never gets to enjoy watching where the other boats are in the race or how close they are to the finish line. Instead he gets continually drenched by the ocean waves. He works down underneath in what’s called the sewer of the boat.
But his duty, according to Connors himself, makes that race possible for that boat and makes it possible for them to win.
God has “tempered the body together” verse 24 states. He has composed or mixed and joined together the members of the Body so that we all need each other. He’s made it so that every part is useful and needful and no part is unimportant.
1 Corinthians 12:25-27: “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”
Paul says that there should be no schism in the Body. As we know, schisms in the Body do occur, as people do not always get along in the Church.
Pastor Charles Swindoll tells the story of the woman who had been bitten by a rabid dog. And after a period of time she went to her physician and the physician told her that she had developed a severe case of rabies.
She quickly asked for a pencil and a piece of paper and began to write down names. The physician thought she was writing out her will and he said to her, “How long do you plan to make your will?” And she said, “My will? This is no will. These are names of people I am going to bite.”
When we realize how we need each other and how we’re joined to each other in the Body, every believer and every ministry should be honored. We should have the same care for one another. We should equally support and encourage one another.
When a speck of dust blows into an eye, instinctively and without thought the eye is rubbed with a finger. There is no debate with the finger about whether to help the eye. This is the kind of care God wants us to have for each other.
It should be a reaction to help one another, because being one with each other in the Body, when one Body member suffers, we should feel that, we should feel it when another member hurts, and we should rush to their aid.
And we should honor one another, and be grateful for one another.
Feelings of jealousy should go out the door, and when one member is honored, we should naturally rejoice with them and praise them and praise the Lord for them.
Being members of one another, we have an obligation before the Lord to treat one another with the utmost respect and with grace.
No one is greater or lesser, we each have different responsibilities, and God has placed us as He has saw fit, so we should have the same care for one another.
God’s instructions here are that there be no competition, rivalry, envy, or attitudes of inferiority or superiority in the Body.
God wants us to truly care for and love one another, and this is possible as the members of the Body exhibit the mind of Christ, the Head of the Body.
Next time, we’ll return to our study of the book of Ephesians and look at the gifts Paul spells out in Ephesians 4 and God’s goal for the church. Thank you for watching.