1Cor 12:14-31 | KingComments | STEP | . In an appealing way, Paul is now going to use the body of man as an example to make it clear that the body of Christ, the church, is also made up of different members. By this example it also becomes clear that there are two risks to which the members of the church are exposed. One danger is that of laziness: I am nothing and not capable of doing anything; someone else have do it. Another danger is that of pride: I alone am important and can do something, I don’t need anyone. Of course these are the extremes, but I think they are quite recognizable. The starting point for this example is: “The body is not one member, but many.” So it is about the multitude of different members that the body consists of. Perhaps needless to say: the members of the body are the individual believers, that are you personally and me personally. In fact, the thought has been expressed that the members are the different denominations but that is, of course, absolutely out of the question. . Now about the first danger: laziness. Just imagine, Paul says here, that a foot and an ear would say, that they are not of the body. Just look at the reason they mention for this foolish statement. They say respectively: “Because I am not a hand, … because I am not an eye.” What does this saying imply actually? That they envy another member for having that place and that they are not satisfied with their own place. That’s why they feel like they are “not [a part] of the body”. They feel like outsiders. As absurd as this reasoning is for the human body, in that way it is absurd for the body of Christ. You cannot deny the function you have in the body, only because of the fact that you are not satisfied with the place you take in the body, can you? Despite that, there are believers to whom this applies. They are often critical, regarding many things, but in their life you cannot find anything that is for the profit of the church. They shirk their responsibilities and live their own easy life. They resemble the man from the parable of Matthew 25. That’s the parable I referred you to at the beginning of the previous section. The servant who received five talents, traded with those and earned five more. He made one hundred percent profit. The servant with two talents made a profit of one hundred percent as well. However, what do you read about the servant who received one talent? “I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground” ( ). It is apparent here that he dealt in a wrong way with his talent because he did not know his lord; he was afraid of him. In fact he did not find it worthy to trade with and hid his talent in the ground. After all it was ‘just’ one talent, while the others had more. His lord calls him a “wicked, lazy slave” ( ). He was wicked and lazy. He was wicked because he called his lord a hard man and he was lazy because he did not do anything with his talent. Do you recognize the similarity with our verses from 1 Corinthians 12? Therefore bear in mind: whatever function you may have, be satisfied with it and trade with it. You are only useful and needed for the other members of the body if you take the place God has given you. You had no influence on that. . “God” has given the members, each of them, a place in the body “just as He desired”. His will is always the best and the wisest. He knows exactly where someone fits best. What a monster a body would be if it would be all eye or all ear! That is not a body at all. No, each member has been put on the right place by God in the body with the purpose to serve each of the other members. . The second danger is pride. A believer who as we say ‘has a great gift’ is in danger to think that he does not need other believers. That may not happen consciously, but unconsciously. Because of the ‘great gift’ he might exalt himself. He alone knows it; he can put it into words very well. It can also happen that the other members of the church because of their laziness, love to give him that position. Therefore, where situations are destabilized, the wrong positions strengthen each other. The lazy ones like to delegate to others, while the others like to have people who depend on them. But let this be clear: they who have a greater gift (at least what they think themselves) to function well, are dependent on those with a smaller gift (at least what they think themselves). If there is a piece of dirt in the eye, the little finger is an especially suited member to remove it. What we consider great or small, is not the same as how God considers great and small. We often consider a gift from what we can see of it and how it impresses us. We are often more impressed by someone who is proclaiming the gospel to a full hall, than by someone who is testifying to his or her Savior with a highly blushed face toward a neighbor, a colleague or a fellow-student. To God one thing is important and that is that we faithfully fulfill the order He gives us. He doesn’t reward to the size of the gift, but to the faithfulness with which the gift has been practiced. In Matthew 25 the reward for the man who received two talents, was as great as for the man with five talents: “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” ( ). Do you also notice that it is said here: “You were faithful with a few things”? Even the greatest gift is just few in comparison to what the Lord Jesus possesses and distributes. . In a human body you have members that are hidden, like the heart, kidneys and lungs. Although you do not see them, they are of crucial importance for the proper functioning of your body. In the body of Christ it is also exactly like that. There is a story of Spurgeon, a great preacher from the nineteenth century. He always had full halls and many have become believers due to his ministry. One evening when the building was full of people again, he was asked why he was that successful. He replied to this question by suggesting the questioner follow him to another room where he would show him the ‘central heating’. When he opened the door of that room, his companion saw a number of people who were kneeling down in prayer for the sake of the gathering. All the work that may be done for the Lord Jesus and His own is done well through prayer. Eternity will tell what has mattered more: the eloquence of a speaker or the intensive prayers that an unknown believer prayed to God on behalf of the speaker as well as the sermon and also the audience. In the meantime you must have figured out what the importance is of this section. The members of the body are given to one another to complement each other and support one another and not to fight against each other. If one of your legs wants to go left and the other leg wants to go right, you will not move one step forward. Just try how far you can spread your legs from each other. If you’re not limber, you might end up in a painful posture. Take your own place and pay attention to where you can be of profit for others. Now read 1 Corinthians 12:14-23 again. Reflection: Do you recognize one of the two risks to yourself? What should you do about that?

‏ 1 Corinthians 12:14-31

The Members of the Body

1Cor 12:14. In an appealing way, Paul is now going to use the body of man as an example to make it clear that the body of Christ, the church, is also made up of different members. By this example it also becomes clear that there are two risks to which the members of the church are exposed. One danger is that of laziness: I am nothing and not capable of doing anything; someone else have do it. Another danger is that of pride: I alone am important and can do something, I don’t need anyone. Of course these are the extremes, but I think they are quite recognizable.

The starting point for this example is: “The body is not one member, but many.” So it is about the multitude of different members that the body consists of. Perhaps needless to say: the members of the body are the individual believers, that are you personally and me personally. In fact, the thought has been expressed that the members are the different denominations but that is, of course, absolutely out of the question.

1Cor 12:15-16. Now about the first danger: laziness. Just imagine, Paul says here, that a foot and an ear would say, that they are not of the body. Just look at the reason they mention for this foolish statement. They say respectively: “Because I am not a hand, … because I am not an eye.” What does this saying imply actually? That they envy another member for having that place and that they are not satisfied with their own place. That’s why they feel like they are “not [a part] of the body”. They feel like outsiders.

As absurd as this reasoning is for the human body, in that way it is absurd for the body of Christ. You cannot deny the function you have in the body, only because of the fact that you are not satisfied with the place you take in the body, can you?

Despite that, there are believers to whom this applies. They are often critical, regarding many things, but in their life you cannot find anything that is for the profit of the church. They shirk their responsibilities and live their own easy life.

They resemble the man from the parable of Matthew 25. That’s the parable I referred you to at the beginning of the previous section. The servant who received five talents, traded with those and earned five more. He made one hundred percent profit. The servant with two talents made a profit of one hundred percent as well. However, what do you read about the servant who received one talent? “I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground” (Mt 25:25). It is apparent here that he dealt in a wrong way with his talent because he did not know his lord; he was afraid of him.

In fact he did not find it worthy to trade with and hid his talent in the ground. After all it was ‘just’ one talent, while the others had more. His lord calls him a “wicked, lazy slave” (Mt 25:26). He was wicked and lazy. He was wicked because he called his lord a hard man and he was lazy because he did not do anything with his talent.

Do you recognize the similarity with our verses from 1 Corinthians 12? Therefore bear in mind: whatever function you may have, be satisfied with it and trade with it. You are only useful and needed for the other members of the body if you take the place God has given you. You had no influence on that.

1Cor 12:17-20. “God” has given the members, each of them, a place in the body “just as He desired”. His will is always the best and the wisest. He knows exactly where someone fits best. What a monster a body would be if it would be all eye or all ear! That is not a body at all. No, each member has been put on the right place by God in the body with the purpose to serve each of the other members.

1Cor 12:21. The second danger is pride. A believer who as we say ‘has a great gift’ is in danger to think that he does not need other believers. That may not happen consciously, but unconsciously. Because of the ‘great gift’ he might exalt himself. He alone knows it; he can put it into words very well. It can also happen that the other members of the church because of their laziness, love to give him that position.

Therefore, where situations are destabilized, the wrong positions strengthen each other. The lazy ones like to delegate to others, while the others like to have people who depend on them. But let this be clear: they who have a greater gift (at least what they think themselves) to function well, are dependent on those with a smaller gift (at least what they think themselves). If there is a piece of dirt in the eye, the little finger is an especially suited member to remove it.

What we consider great or small, is not the same as how God considers great and small. We often consider a gift from what we can see of it and how it impresses us. We are often more impressed by someone who is proclaiming the gospel to a full hall, than by someone who is testifying to his or her Savior with a highly blushed face toward a neighbor, a colleague or a fellow-student.

To God one thing is important and that is that we faithfully fulfill the order He gives us. He doesn’t reward to the size of the gift, but to the faithfulness with which the gift has been practiced. In Matthew 25 the reward for the man who received two talents, was as great as for the man with five talents: “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Mt 25:21 ; 23). Do you also notice that it is said here: “You were faithful with a few things”? Even the greatest gift is just few in comparison to what the Lord Jesus possesses and distributes.

1Cor 12:22-23. In a human body you have members that are hidden, like the heart, kidneys and lungs. Although you do not see them, they are of crucial importance for the proper functioning of your body. In the body of Christ it is also exactly like that.

There is a story of Spurgeon, a great preacher from the nineteenth century. He always had full halls and many have become believers due to his ministry. One evening when the building was full of people again, he was asked why he was that successful. He replied to this question by suggesting the questioner follow him to another room where he would show him the ‘central heating’. When he opened the door of that room, his companion saw a number of people who were kneeling down in prayer for the sake of the gathering.

All the work that may be done for the Lord Jesus and His own is done well through prayer. Eternity will tell what has mattered more: the eloquence of a speaker or the intensive prayers that an unknown believer prayed to God on behalf of the speaker as well as the sermon and also the audience.

In the meantime you must have figured out what the importance is of this section. The members of the body are given to one another to complement each other and support one another and not to fight against each other. If one of your legs wants to go left and the other leg wants to go right, you will not move one step forward. Just try how far you can spread your legs from each other. If you’re not limber, you might end up in a painful posture. Take your own place and pay attention to where you can be of profit for others.

Now read 1 Corinthians 12:14-23 again.

Reflection: Do you recognize one of the two risks to yourself? What should you do about that?

God Composed the Body

1Cor 12:24-25. Division in the body is one of the worst things that can happen. You have learnt that this can be caused by laziness, also by jealousy, and also by pride. It is as if God has taken that into consideration. He gives more honor to the members of the body who do not attract attention than the members who do. God operates differently than we often do. We often look on the outward appearance and what is impressive, but with God that is not the case. Therefore we ought to look at the gifts with the eyes of God.

When God gives more honor to those who (in our eyes) have smaller gifts it would be good if we do that too. That is not to belittle the greater gifts, but that there should be no division in the body. By giving the greater gifts more honor – and how easily that happens – the balance in the body gets lost.

You find that explicitly in many parts of professing Christianity, where all gifts seem to be concentrated in one person. He is the one who prays, the one who addresses the ‘church’, who leads the service of the Supper, who proclaims the gospel, who gives pastoral care to the flock. But even within denominations where there is not a ‘one-man-service’, where there is freedom in practicing the gifts, there is a great danger that the believers put their trust in the ones who have ‘greater’ gifts.

God’s purpose is that all members have the same care for one another. So it is about what you can do for another.

1Cor 12:26. How much the members are connected with one another, is shown in this verse. What is written here is not an order for the members to suffer with one another or to rejoice with one another. It is not something they should do, but it is something that happens. What is written here is a fact. Just compare it to your own body. If someone gives you a big kick to the shin, your whole body suffers from it. Therefore when one member of the church cannot function, it affects the whole church.

The reason why a member is not able to function can be very different. A member who is involved with a church where all the gifts are assumed to be present in only one person, the clergyman or the pastor, has no room to develop in his function because of the church doctrine. Neither a church member, who had to be disciplined because of sin, can practice his function. In both cases all other members of the church are affected because they lack the practical effect of that function.

Conversely the fact is that if a member of a church takes the right place and functions rightly, all members rejoice in that. If you exercise your function, despite your feelings of weakness, then that is truly a joy for all members of the body.

You see how closely the members of the church are connected with one another. Keep that in mind in everything you do. Everything you do, affects the other members of the body. The good things you do, edifies the church. The wrong things you do, has a negative impact on the church.

1Cor 12:27. Then something important follows. To all the members of the church at Corinth Paul says: ”Now you are Christ’s body.” Before I clarify the importance of this verse to you, I need to tell you some other things about the body of Christ first. The body of Christ can be examined from different angles.

First, through the ages. The body of Christ came into existence on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out. This event is described in Acts 2. In our chapter, 1Cor 12:13, this event is referred to. Everyone who has converted to God and has accepted the Lord Jesus since the day of Pentecost belongs to the church. In this light the church is not complete yet, for happily it happens that daily people convert to God and are added to the church. The church is only complete when the Lord Jesus comes to take the believers to Himself. You can read about that event in 1 Thessalonians 4 (1Thes 4:15-18).

Second, you can see the church as it is at this moment on earth. In that way the church comprises all the believers who are still alive at this moment and who are, so to speak, actively a part of the church. This way of describing the church you can read in Ephesians 4 (Eph 4:16).

Third, the body of Christ is also used to indicate the church as a whole of all believers in a certain city. That is the way it is used in our verse. The church at Corinth is addressed like that, in spite of many things that were not good. What is meant here by the expression “Christ’s body”, is, as it is sometimes said, the local reflection of the worldwide or universal church. A local church is a kind of miniature of the whole. What applies to the whole church on earth becomes visible in the local church.

The division, at the moment that Paul wrote this, was not that great as we are dealing with today. Nevertheless this verse gives an important indication which applies for our time as well. It actually indicates that there is a church in every place where believers live. Unfortunately, due to divisions that is often not visible at all on the outside. Yet, just as at Corinth, nowadays it can become visible too.

Even if there are only two or three believers at a certain place who do want to gather as nothing more and nothing less than as members of the body, they form the ‘miniature’ body. It is not their purpose to be a new denomination next to the other denominations, but they simply take what Paul says here as a starting point for their gatherings. If all Christians would do that, then division would soon be finished.

1Cor 12:28. Do the believers, who gather like that, have all the gifts that are mentioned in this 1Cor 12:28? No, certainly not. Due to divisions the gifts are also scattered. But God surely gives what’s needed, even when there are only two or three believers who truly want to express what the body of Christ is. I say this consciously: ‘want to express’, to prevent the misconception that all other believers would not belong to the body of Christ. They are certainly included, but the point is that it ought to be expressed also.

The gifts mentioned, are gifts that God has given to the whole church. If you look carefully at the order in which the gifts are summarized, it seems to me that they are summarized according to the measure of importance that they have for the edification of the church.

1Cor 12:29-30. The questions that Paul is asking about the gifts emphasize once more that the gifts are not all united in one member or that all members have the same gift. In this case the questions give the answers at the same time. Of course not all are apostles, not all are prophets, etcetera. Each member has his own gift, but each is encouraged to strive using the gift optimally. To possess the gift is one thing, to really practice the gift and that in the best way, is another thing.

1Cor 12:31. If you look at your gift like that and you want to practice it with all your strength, you will discover in the next chapter “a still more excellent way”, namely, the way of love.

Now read 1 Corinthians 12:24-31 again.

Reflection: How do you experience the suffering and the joy of 1Cor 12:26?