The Body

The Body – I Corinthians 12: 12 – 31a

Intro: You may be interested to know that there is a certain part of your body that is absolutely essential to every person. Without this body part you could not stand erect for very long, walk or run well. Guess what body part it is. - - - It’s the big toe. Without the big toe on each foot you can’t stand erect for very long. The big toe helps bear the weight of the body helping humans to walk erect. It has the ability to sense when your body begins to lean, or shift, get out of balance, or fall. It is the big toe that causes you to strengthen yourself so you can stand erect, walk or run for longer periods of time. (Darryl Klassen. “The Art of Body Building.” A sermon on SermonCentral.com)

I Paul points out two attitudes regarding the “gifts” of the Corinthian Christians. He is here defining the problem that has existed not only in Corinth, but in the church down through the ages to the present time.

A The first problem is defined in VV 15 – 17. One of the problems in the Corinthian church is there are people who have low self-esteem.

B An example is in Vs. 16 “And if the ear should say, “because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body.’ It would not for that reason stop being part of the body.”

C This is what I like to call the revolt of the “players.” Those who say, “Because I am not a “coach” I refuse to play your game.” Because you disagree with the policies of the national church or the local Session, you pick up your “marbles” and go home and refuse to participate. My answer: “If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.”

II Paul goes on to point out a second problem that existed in the Corinthian church. This problem involves people who believe they are better than others because they believe their spiritual gifts are more important or greater.

A This second problem plagues many churches and is defined by Paul in VV. 21 – 24. This situation not only existed in Corinth; it exists in many churches today.

B Look at VS. 21 “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’”

C This problem is the other side of the coin of the revolt of the “players.” These are the people who want to tell everyone else what to believe and how to act in order to be a part of THEIR TEAM! These people refer to the church as my church and remind people of how long they or their family have been a part of the church. My answer: “It isn’t your church. It is God’s church.”

III I invite you to go back and look at VV 13 & 14 “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body --- whether Jews or Gentiles, salve or free --- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”

A After defining the problems that exist, Paul goes on in VS. 27 to drive home his point. “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

B If any sport’s team was composed of just players, how many games do you think they would win? The same is true of coaches. If a team had only coaches, who would direct the play and how many games would they win?

C We are not just any body. We are uniquely bound together to be “the body of Christ.” When we remember that we are a “team” that must learn to appreciate each other and our contributions. We are all baptized into the body of Christ. That is our commonality. It is there that we must recognize our unity. It is the glue that holds us together. When we forget that fact, the church / the team falls apart into factions.

Concl: VS. 25 “so that there should be no division in the body.”

Now you know that I cannot deliver a sermon without delivering a lesson in Greek. So, the GK. word used here for “division” is the word s??sµa is schisma. The meaning here is much stronger than just a division. The word can mean “to be torn apart / to divide into factions / to be split apart.”

Each person is to contribute their own special and distinctive work to the well-being of the whole body. No one gift is superior to all the others and no gift is the hallmark or telltale sign of being a christian. Our baptism is the starting point of our new identity as belonging to the Body of Christ.