The Body Of Christ – Part Ii Series

In the church there are what some would be inclined to call the “unpresentable.” These are the poor, the despised and the less prominent who are to be nurtured and cherished as well as all the others in the body.

Some have gone as far to say that the “unpresentable” parts of the body are physically and mentally disabled that the church is disinclined to pay attention to. I think this could work as a proper interpretation.

You may have heard me say when I’ve talked about how God brought me and my wife together that it was my daughter Precious who introduced us. Debbie was a single mom when I met her and one of her two children was disabled. I stalked Debbie from a distance and noticed over the course of a few weeks how well Precious was cared for by her mother.

Some would be inclined to call my daughter Precious “unpresentable.” She doesn’t look like other people and doesn’t act like other people; yet she is to be nurtured and cherished as well as all the others in the body.

Continuing with the second half of verse 24, Paul brings the sovereignty of God into view when it comes to how the body is composed.

(1 Cor 12:24b NKJV) But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,

Paul is arguing that God has so composed the body to achieve His purposes. While still speaking of the “unpresentable” parts of the human body such as the organs of intimacy, Paul says that God gives these parts greater honor.

One commentator has said that, “Paul means that through implanting modesty and self-respect in our hearts, God has caused us to protect our unpresentable parts (as the sex organs) from exploitation by properly covering them.”

What this is saying is that if someone’s clothing is unexpectedly torn from their body, they almost instinctively will cover themselves (with their hands). It should be the same way in the body of Christ. Each member should have the “spiritual instinct” to care about the exploitation of other members in the body no matter how insignificant they might appear to be.

We have people in our church who suffer with disabilities. We need to care for them. We need to be patience with them. We need to make allowances for them. We need to assist them.

And some of that is already happening at our church. Some of us can’t make it downstairs to AromaHouse for breakfast and others gladly go down to fix them a plate and bring it up. Praise the Lord!

We may have people in our church who suffer with trust issues—it takes them a while to trust and so they find it difficult to fellowship with others for fear of getting betrayed and hurt.

We may have people in our church who suffer with anger and bitterness issues—they fly off the handle sooner than others do when it come to things they experience and so people have a hard time fellowshipping with them.

Rather than saying, “Oh he has an issue” or “I noticed there is this coldness about her” we need to extend some grace and spend more time praying for this person rather than talking about them.