FITTING IN?
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
(Pass out puzzle pieces) Today I want to talk to you about fitting in. Right now everyone is receiving a puzzle piece. I want you to keep this puzzle piece as a reminder that even though you each are your own individual, we all fit into a puzzle that is much bigger than ourselves.
One of the greatest desires that people have is to belong. It doesn’t matter whether you’re young, old or in-between, we see it in every area of life. Everyday we encounter people who, even though they may be in the middle of a crowd, are perhaps the most loneliest people on earth. The reason is because you don’t belong to them and they don’t belong to you.
I can remember when I was a teenager the most important thing in my life was to fit in and to belong; I don’t think that’s something that you ever outgrow. This desire to belong is what drives people to join fraternities, lodges and even churches.
I also think that this is one of the key attractions to Christianity; it’s a place where you can truly belong. When you come to Christ, you get so much more than a ticket to heaven; you become a child of God. He loves you like a father and sometimes He corrects you like a father, but the point is that you belong.
That’s not all, coming to Christ means that you become a part of the family of God; you have brothers and sisters in Christ. You are joined to them in a way that goes beyond every other relationship known to humanity. It’s much closer than a marriage because a marriage is only “till death do you part.” The relationship you have with your brothers and sisters in Christ won’t be separated by death, it’s an eternal relationship. Paul often refers this relationship to that of a body. Let’s being by looking at:
THE NECESSITY OF BEING UNITED (Vv. 12-13)
There’s nothing more united than a body. I don’t think of my body in terms of its parts. When I get up in the morning, I don’t say to myself, “Chris, you better remember to take your arm with you when you go to work today.” My arm is a part of me, I would hate to lose it. It’s united to me and I’m going to protect it at all costs.
In the same way, believers are a part of a body. And because we are all parts of the same body, we shouldn’t think of one another as individual parts, but as one. Let’s look at a couple of ways we are united:
We are united by spiritual baptism.
When we hear the word “baptism,” most people think about a church ceremony where somebody gets wet, but baptism is so much more than that. There’s a lot of different types of baptisms found in the Bible, but only in a few of them is water anywhere to be seen. The one idea that is ALWAYS present in each of these cases is the idea of IDENTIFICATION. When you’re baptized, you’re being identified with something.
Paul tells us that “by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (v. 13a). When you trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you were given a place in His body and you were identified with Him. You’re a new person; you have a new identity.
Because Jesus is the Son of God, you are also a child of God.
Because He has eternal life, you also have eternal life.
Because He is righteous, you have also been declared to be righteous.
Because He was crucified, you are considered to have been crucified with Christ.
Because He rose from the dead, you will also rise from the dead.
Because He is the heir to the kingdom, you are also a co-heir to the kingdom.
The baptism of the Spirit of that Paul is talking about is a once and for all event in the life of a Christian, it takes place at the very moment we are converted.
2. We are united in a way that goes beyond all boundaries
whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. (v. 13b)
The prejudices that existed between the Jews and Gentiles don’t even come close to the prejudices that we experience today. The Jews wouldn’t even eat at the same table with the Gentiles.
Another barrier Paul mentions is between those who were slaves and those who were free. This barrier was so great that one group was considered property while the other group was considered people.
Do you see what Paul is saying?
There’s no such thing as one church for Jews and another for Gentiles.
There’s no such thing as one church for slaves and another for free people.
There’s no such thing as one church for upper class and another for homeless people.
There’s no such thing as one church for whites and another for blacks.
I may not be very popular in saying this, but we are doing the kingdom of God a disservice when we segregate our congregations. Our church should be a reflection of our community. There’s going to be a lot of people in heaven who aren’t exactly like us, and if we can’t worship with them now then we’re not really going to fit in when we’re spending an eternity with them in heaven.
God will be honored and our hearts will find deeper satisfaction as we seek to love people just as Christ loves us. We’ve all been baptized into the same body. We’re all united in Christ. The church is the only place of true equality. When it comes to fitting in, not only is it necessary to be united, there's also:
THE NECESSITY OF BEING DIFFERENT (Vv. 14-19)
Have you ever considered to think that it’s good to be different? Most people like to be the same. We constantly look to the latest fashions so that we can buy clothes that are in style, so we can look like someone else. When you hear someone say, “They’re different,” usually it’s because they don’t quite measure up.
God’s people are different and distinct from one another and that’s a good thing. Just like your body is made up of many different parts, the body of Christ is made up of many different members.
Have you ever known someone who insisted that you have to fit into their mold? We have some churches like that. They want you to dress like them, talk like them, comb your hair like them and use the spiritual gift that they tell you to use and, if you don’t, then they think that something is wrong with you.
There were Corinthian believers who had bought into this lie. They thought that, because they didn’t have certain spiritual gifts, they weren’t part of the body of Christ.
I like to use football to illustrate this. Imagine that the offense enters the huddle to plan their next play. Suddenly the two guards say, “Wait a minute. If we can’t be the quarterback, then we’ll go and sit in the stands because we’re not really a part of the team.”
That brings up another point that I should mention. Christianity isn’t a spectator sport. Again, back to football. Football is a game where 22 men, who desperately need rest, are watched by 50,000 people, who desperately need exercise. But Christianity isn’t like that, or at least it shouldn’t be. Christianity is a religion of involvement.
I find the illustration that Paul uses to be quite humorous. Imagine the idea of a foot saying, “I’ve been watching the hand up there, and it does all sorts of things that I’ve never done. It plays the piano, writes letters, pats babies on the head and presses buttons. I’ve never done any of those things. If that’s what it means to be a part of the body, then I guess that I’m just not really a part of the body.”
A healthy body has many different parts that support many different functions. It’s not enough for the church to support one function and to ignore the rest, to do that would be to cripple the church.
That’s what’s so dangerous about a church that is led by a single pastor rather than a number of deacons plus the pastor. The pastor of this kind of church has the tendency to use only his spiritual gift and ignore all of the others. As a result, teaching might become important but evangelism and helping others are left by the wayside.
God didn't create a crippled church. He has given the church an entire body, with all its members in working order. He is the One who has assigned the various functions to the different parts of the body. That means when you take people who are different and try to make them the same, you are fighting against God’s design.
So far we’ve looked at the necessity of being united, the necessity of being different, and lastly I want us to consider:
THE NECESSITY OF BEING INTERDEPENDENT (Vv. 20-26)
We live in the age of independence. Our society bombards us with the philosophy of doing your own thing. Christianity, however, is not a religion of independence. It’s a relationship of interdependence. You enter that relationship through the dependence on Jesus Christ and the work He’s already done. Once you become a part of the body of Christ, you begin to experience an interdependence with other members of the body as well.
And the 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.” (v. 21)
In the illustration that Paul used in verse 15, the part of the body was saying, “Because I’m not like them, they don’t need me.” Now we see another part of the body saying just the opposite: “I don’t need them.”
Independence isn’t a part of God’s plan for His people. He doesn’t say, “Oh, you don’t want to fellowship with other believers? That’s okay, we have this ‘Do It Yourself’ plan that allows you to walk only with Me.” There’s no such thing as a self-sufficient Christian. I can’t do it without you, and you can’t do it without me.
No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. (v. 22)
There are some parts of our bodies that, at first glance, may seem unimportant. When you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, the first thing you see is your face. You may not ever pay attention to your feet or your knees. Heck, you probably don’t even think about your spleen, but that doesn’t mean that these parts aren’t important.
The same is true of the body of Christ, there are no unimportant parts. Another thing to think about is that many times it’s the most neglected or dishonored part of the body that would be the deadliest if it ever stopped working. There are no unimportant people in God’s church, we are all necessary.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (v. 26)
When someone in the church is hurting, everyone should be hurting. One of the things I really dislike doing is any kind of mechanical work. It’s not that I’m against any sort of manual labor, I just understand my lack of ability in that area. Anytime I try to do something that I wasn't designed to do, like mechanical work, something ALWAYS goes wrong!
One time I was doing something as simple as changing the oil in my truck and I lifted my bald head up a little too quick and slammed it into the hot oil pan underneath the truck leaving me with a headache and a first-degree burn. But let me tell you, my head wasn’t the only thing hurting. My feet began to jump up and down, my eyes started to water and my mouth made it known that I was in pain. The same ought to be true when someone hurts in the church, everyone ought to respond.
The unity of the body should also be seen in good times. When something good happens to one member, then it should make us all happy. We are called to be supporters of one another.
CONCLUSION
I could go on and talk about the provision for spiritual gifts in Vv. 27-31 but I’ll sum it up by saying that these gifts are only a means to demonstrate our love for one another and for the Lord. It’s not the gift that’s important, it’s our love that is important. There are many gifts within the church, but we are more effective when we appreciate each other’s uniqueness by living and working in unity.
Maybe this morning God has convicted your heart for treating others poorly because they are different from you. Remember, being different is God’s design. When we look down on others because they’re not like us, then we’re looking down on God. It’s up to us to embrace God’s design by showing love to everyone, regardless of how we may feel about them. Ask God to change your heart.
Today could be the day when you decide to fit into God’s plan for your life. For some of you, that may mean accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. For others, it may mean asking God to forgive you for the areas I’ve discussed this morning where you’ve fallen short. And for some, you may be looking for a place to call home. God wants you to find a place where you can fit in and get busy doing His work.
