Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
A classic series of Peanuts comic strips by Charles M. Schulz features Snoopy taking up jogging. As he runs, his body parts speak up. The lungs complain, “This is hard on us lungs.” The feet whine, “Why do we feet have to do all the work?” And the heart warns, “If I start complaining, you’re all in trouble.”
Sometimes the body of Christ acts this way as well! But that’s not what God intended. By comparing the church to a human body, Paul has highlighted its diverse yet unified nature. He had already taught on the imperative of unity, but unity doesn’t mean sameness. God’s design includes amazing, wonderful diversity, and this is beautifully communicated in the metaphor of the body with Christ as the Head (vv. 12–14). A body has many parts and functions and differences, yet it has a single identity and passes through experience as a unified entity. So, too, does the church.
In Paul’s first cycle of rather humorous examples (vv. 15–20), his point was that no part of the body is inferior or unneeded. Jews were not more important than Gentiles; slaves were not less essential than free believers. In context, then, we know there is no pecking order in the second list of spiritual gifts in verses 28 through 30—none are inferior or unneeded. The second cycle of examples (vv. 21–27) makes the same point from the other direction, as Paul asserted that all parts of the body are indeed necessary and interdependent.
Whether ears, fingers, or lungs, we are all arranged in the body by God’s sovereign plan (v. 18). If we do not act in unity and shared concern, divisions and quarreling will generate a lose-lose situation—as if our feet were trying to go in two different directions!
APPLY THE WORD
In what ways are you serving in your church? How are you using your spiritual gift(s) for the benefit of the body? God never meant for us to just sit in the pews and soak up good preaching every Sunday! If you need advice or ideas, we suggest meeting with a church leader. They know the needs and should be able to discern how your spiritual gifts might fit.
DAILY DEVOTIONS, NEWS AND INFORMATION 