Read 1 Corinthians 12:21-26
A great experiment you can conduct to help you intimately understand today’s passage is to try to brush your teeth with one hand tied behind your back or to try to eat dinner with your eyes covered over. As you do this, you realise that every part of the body
So we read in 1 Cor 12:21 that the hand cannot say to the eye nor the head to the feet, ‘I don’t need you’. Similarly, no one in the church can say to any other member ‘I don’t need you.’ Each and every single person in the church is valuable and needed. Each and every single person in the church is precious to God.
We may think that such things rarely, if ever, occur in the church, especially in my church. But far too often I’ve heard of and seen in person this kind of thing happening. Poorer people are told that they aren’t needed in the church. Uneducated people are told that they can’t serve in this or that committee. Younger believers are told to sit and to be quiet until they grow up. Blue collar workers are relegated to the back row, unneeded and sometimes unwanted. If the church is to function holistically as the body of Christ we need to start valuing each and every member as Christ values them. We need to give each person the opportunity to serve and to give in line with their spiritual gifts.
We are then told that special honour is given to those who lack honour. Those parts of the body that seem weaker are actually indispensable. As such we should honour and treat with respect those members of the church that have ‘less honourable’ functions. Those that have outward and ecstatic gifts need less special treatment.
The goal is seen in verse 25. There should be no division in the body but each part should have equal concern for the other. Practically that means we should honour the cleaner as much as the preacher. We should give as much recognition to the morning tea servers as to the elders. We should honour the welcomers as much as the evangelists! The bottom line is that each member of the body of Christ is equally valuable in God’s eyes and should be so in our eyes. There are to be no favourites in the church of Christ Jesus.
Verse 26 is the outcome of having equal concern for each other. We are to suffer together and rejoice together. If one part suffers we suffer with him/her. If another part of the body is honoured, we rejoice with him/her. It would be easy for example for a team of preachers to become jealous and petty because one member of the team preached a great sermon one Sonday. Factions could easily form around these preachers and the church could easily be divided.
It would be very easy for a church to push aside a member that is suffering greatly and needing constant care. It would be easy to be distracted and diverted from caring for this member. We are to suffer together and rejoice together. Our unity and oneness in Christ means that things like jealousy, anger and so on need to be put aside.
Remember, each and every single believer is a valuable and necessary part of the body of Christ Jesus.
Prayer:
Use the day’s reading notes and Bible passage to pray meaningfully:
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
· Ask God that He would bring conviction upon people this weekend who don’t know their spiritual gift. Pray that there would be great revelation to them and that each person in your church would be willing to use their gift for the common good.
· Pray for unity across all churches in your area.
1. What are the implications of today’s passage for church hoppers?
2. If you have witnessed one part of the church telling another part that they are not needed, share with the group what happened and how it made you feel.
3. How can your cell group be growing the type of unity seen in verse 25-26?
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