Our Oneness In The Diversity Series

1 Cor 12:12-31 - Our Oneness in the Diversity

Paul explained in the previous section that God has given the Body of Christ the various gifts necessary for the growth of His church.

• The spiritual gifts come from a common source (the Holy Spirit) and for a common purpose – the building up of the Body of Christ, for the common good.

• Hence, building on what he has already said, Paul now addresses the problems of the divisions in the church regarding spiritual gifts.

1 Cor 12:12-13 ESV – BAPTISED INTO ONE BODY

12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Paul uses the analogy of the human body to describe the church, Christ’s body.

• The basis for us being brought together as one church is our common faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

• Faith in Christ unites us as one body. We are “baptised” into one Spirit when we profess faith in Jesus and are regenerated by His Spirit.

• We are born again into a new life by the work of the Holy Spirit who now dwells within us.

So whether we are, as Paul said, “a Jew or Greek, slaves or free”, we are all believers of Christ and therefore members of His body called the church.

• Our basis of unity is our common faith in Jesus Christ.

• God brings us together, so what does this congregation look like?

1 Cor 12:14-20 ESV – ONE BODY MANY MEMBERS

14For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

WE ARE DESIGNED TO BE DIFFERENT

When we become members of the church, one thing we will come to know is that everyone is different.

• We are different by DEFAULT – different because we come to know Christ at different times, and we are at different stages of growth in our relationship with Christ.

• But we are different also by DESIGN – different in our roles and functions because God has gifted us differently in the Body of Christ.

Paul likens the different members of the church to the different parts of the human body to show us the necessity of diversity. They need to be different.

• To have the foot say I do not belong because I am not a hand, or the ear say I am not an eye, therefore, I do not belong, is ridiculous, and to the point of being funny.

• We don’t think that way about our physical body, so it is odd to think that way concerning the Body of Christ.

And we get his point! Why is it difficult to accept that others are different from us?

• Paul stretches it a little further. It would be ridiculous for the members to be all the same, with the body functioning only with the sense of sight or hearing or smell.

• Not only are the individual parts important, but diversity is also necessary for the body to function properly as a whole.

• The different spiritual gifts are both important and necessary for the Body of Christ.

12:18 “… God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose.”

• If the gifts are assigned by His Spirit, then the differences are of His sovereign will. He planned it on purpose.

• God builds in the differences by design. They are important and necessary.

• They are not incidental. They are not redundant, no matter how insignificant they might seem to us. There are no “inferior” gifts.

1 Cor 12:21-26 ESV – THE PARTS ARE INTERDEPENDENT

21The 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.” 22On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, 25that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.