July 17, 2013

I Corinthians 12:12-27

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

I Corinthians 12:12 through 27 is rather a long passage, but I think we need to reproduce it here:

    For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one
    body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit are we all
    baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free —
    and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.  For in fact the body is not one
    member but many.  If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not
    of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?  And if the ear should say, “Because
    I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?  If the
    whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?  If the whole were
    hearing, where would be the smelling?  But now God has set the members, each
    one of them, in the body, just as He pleased.  And if they were all one member,
    where would the body be?  But now indeed there are many members, yet one
    body.  The eye cannot say unto the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again
    the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”  No, much rather, those members
    of the body which seem to be weaker, are necessary.  And those members of the
    body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor;
    and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts
    have no need.  But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that
    part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that
    members should have the same care for one another.  And if one member
    suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the
    members rejoice with it.  Now you are the body of Christ, and members
    individually.

Paul is talking about the human body likened to The Body of Christ.  Obviously, in the human body, all the different members – the different parts – serve a purpose.  As a teenager, one of my brother’s friends had his little toe completely severed in a lawn mowing accident.  He testified that he had to relearn his fine balance since that little toe was no longer there to provide its support!

A member of The Body of Christ may seem insignificant – always in the background, never in the limelight – but let that one be taken out of the picture, and he or she will be missed.  That one may be the person who keeps the waste baskets emptied after filling them with gum wrappers or old bulletins left behind after a church gathering.  He or she may be the one who takes some groceries to a needy neighbor, leaving them on the doorstep so they won’t be identified as the giver.  That one is significant to The Body of Christ!  That one will be missed!  We are all needed in The Body of Christ!  And we have all been gifted to serve.

The apostle says in verses 25 and 26:

    …members should have the same care for one another.  And if one member
    suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the
    members rejoice with it.

Do you hurt when others are hurting?  Do you praise God when others are blessed?  When I was 15, a friend gave me a ride in a doodle-bug cut down from a 1937 Chevy one-ton four-speed truck.  It was shortened so much that the distance from the back of the front wheel to the front of the back wheel was only about two feet!  In first gear (duel low to you newbies!) that thing could do a wheelie lifting the front wheels three feet off the ground!  I jumped in the passenger seat barefoot.  My friend said, “Watch this!” and popped the clutch!  The wheelie made the battery – on a shelf under the dashboard – jump off, and the corner landed on my bare big toe!!!  The bone in my toe broke and the toe itself split!!!  I suppose I could have said, “It’s only my toe!  The rest of me is fine!”  But that small member of my body hurt soooo bad, every other part of my body was in agony!  My hair hurt!!!  And the sympathetic pain remained in my whole body for weeks while the toe slowly healed!

Should not the members of The Body of Christ “…have the same care for one another…”?  Let’s start being the Body that Jesus wants us to be.