Dr. Jack L. Arnold
THE HOLY SPIRIT
SPIRITUAL
GIFTS AND THE NEED FOR ONE ANOTHER IN THE BODY OF CHRIST
1 Corinthians 12:14-26
Lesson 12
The Corinthian church did
not understand the local church was to function like a human body. The Apostle Paul told them the church
is a spiritual body of Christ. ÒThe
body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts
are many, they form one body. So
it is with Christ (I Cor. 12:12).Ó He also told them they got into this body by the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, which united them to and identified them with the person of
Christ, forming the spiritual body of Christ. ÒFor we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were
all given the one Spirit to drink (I Cor. 12:13).Ó Now Christians not
only share life with Christ but they also share ChristÕs life with all other
Christians. Paul explained to
these Corinthians that every true Christian has at least one spiritual gift and
these gifts are to be used for the common good of the church.
ÒNow the body is not made up
of one part but of many.Ó -- The church is a living organism as is the human body. There are many members but each one is
necessary to the life and well being of all. The loss of any one member would be a mutilation of the
body. God designed it so there
would be diversity in the church.
No one member is to be equated with the body, and it takes many members
to make up one body. Diversity in
the body is not accidental but planned.
Members are persons who are gifted by God to do the work of the
ministry. God does not expect
everyone to have the gift of evangelism, but He does expect all to
evangelize. Not all have the
special gift of faith, but all are to exercise faith. There are some that have the special gift of helps but all
are to help. God has gifted people
in the church to stir the whole church to deeper commitment to Christ.
INSIGNIFICANT MEMBERS OF THE BODY EXHORTED 12:15-20
If the foot should say,
ÒBecause I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,Ó it would not for that
reason cease to be part of the body.
And if the ear should say, ÒBecause I am not an eye, I do not belong to
the body,Ó it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. -- Paul addresses this
section to the lesser members in the body. Behind these words, we can feel the grumbling on the part of
the lesser members. By lesser
members, I mean those who have lesser gifts. The Corinthian Christians had a particular problem because
they were exalting the spectacular gifts like tongues and healing above all
other spiritual gifts. Those who
displayed the spectacular gifts were thought of as more spiritual. Those who thought themselves more
spiritual had an independent spirit and a superiority attitude brought on by
pride which caused atrophy and paralysis in that local church. Some of the less gifted members in the
church wondered whether they had a right to exist or could make a real
contribution to the church, seeing there were so many with wonderful and
spectacular gifts. They felt themselves
very inadequate, very insufficient and very inferior. This led to envy and discontent. Perhaps some were not happy because of the nature of their
gift; that is, they moaned because they had the gift of helps and not
evangelism, or the gift of giving rather than the gift of teacher, or the gift
of mercy rather than prophet.
Perhaps others complained over the quality of their gift. They had the gift of teaching but not
to the degree of another brother or sister, so they became discontented. Perhaps there were some that were
unhappy about their position in the church - they were deacons and not elders,
or Sunday school teachers and not deacons.
PaulÕs point is that there
are no insignificant members of the body.
What he is teaching is that if we think of ourselves as a member of the
church, the body of Christ, and we say to ourselves, ÒBecause I canÕt stand up
and preach or teach or lead, there is really nothing I can do in the body of
Christ,Ó we are deceiving ourselves.
Every one of us is part of the body, each has at least one spiritual gift,
and all of us are important to the total functioning of the church.
ÒAnd if the ear should say,
ÒBecause I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,Ó it would not for that
reason cease to be part of the body.Ó -- What a ridiculous body if everybody did the same
thing. In the church, God has
gifted each person to get the work of the ministry done. There are many jobs to be done in the
church and God has gifted the people to do these jobs. No member of the body can perform the
function of another member. Each
person is uniquely gifted and absolutely necessary to the normal functioning of
the body. If everyone were an
evangelist, who would do the helping?
If everyone were pastor-teachers, who would show mercy? If everyone were on the front line as missionaries,
who would do the praying and giving behind the lines?
Scripturally
the church is to model heterogeneous groupings that cause the world to marvel
at our unity within diversity. A
church should be a place where people gather together and get along with each
other who have no human reason to do so.
The Bible does not teach homogeneous groupings of people (upper, middle
and lower classes, Spanish, Jewish and African-American, Chinese, Greek and
Japanese churches) but heterogeneous groupings of people.
ÒBut in fact God has
arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to
be.Ó -- The ChristianÕs placement in the body of Christ, the church, is by
divine appointment. God has given
each one of us our particular gifts and no one else in the whole world can do
what we can for God. The eye does
not decide for itself that it is going to see; it is given the ability by God
to see. The ear does not develop
its own ability to hear but was given that ability by God. So it is that God gives the ability and
position to each member in the body.
Every member is in the body by the sovereign appointment and design of
God.
The implications of this
verse are clear. For a Christian
to be envious of the ability or position of another Christian is to resist the
will of God for his life. To be
discontented with our gift or to be envious of another gift is to stand against
the will of God. Submission to the
will of God is recognizing our position in the body of Christ and knowing what
God has spiritually equipped us to do, and then doing it, yielding to the
Lordship of Christ. We are what we
are in spiritual gifts and we should not try to be something God never intended
us to be.
ÒIf they were all one part,
where would the body be? As it is,
there are many parts, but one body.Ó -- No matter how important
any one member may be, there can be no body formed from that one member
alone. It takes all the members to
make up one body. This ought to
settle forever the issue of insignificance and inferiority. No Christian can say there is no place
for me in the church. There most
certainly is a place and God designed it that way.
Envy and discontent over spiritual gifts will lead
to a critical spirit and an inferiority complex. The only way to overcome these feelings is to understand
that you alone can fill a place in the church that no one else can, and you are
important to God and the smooth functioning of the church.
The eye cannot say to the
hand, ÒI donÕt need you!Ó And the
head cannot say to the feet, ÒI donÕt need you!Ó -- The Apostle Paul now addresses the greater gifted members
in the body. The eye is more
important than the hand, and the head more important than the feet. Yet the eye needs the hand and the head
needs the feet. Those in the
Corinthian church who had greater gifts thought themselves superior to those
who had the lesser gifts. Those with
the up-front and spectacular gifts looked down their noses at those with lesser
gifts. This attitude produced a
very independent spirit, causing those with the greater gifts to get the idea
they did not need the rest of the body; they could function on their own; they
could do their own thing; they could get on in the ministry without others
helping them. God hates a spirit
of pride and independence because this always produces an attitude of
competitiveness and rivalry, which leads to division in the local church.
What Paul says is that those with the greater gifts are actually dependent upon the lesser members. It is all the little gifts functioning properly which make the big gifts function effectively.
ÒOn the contrary, those
parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that
we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable
are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special
treatment.Ó -- The church cannot function properly without the lesser gifts. The tongue would be nothing without the
lungs and larynx that are not seen or heard. These lesser and sometimes unseen spiritual gifts are
absolutely necessary for the proper functioning of the church as a body. A little toe seems insignificant, but
break it or stub it and the whole body is hurt. The lesser members are indispensable to the effective
functioning of the body.
We doll up the parts of our body, which are not too attractive by nature by wearing clothing, which draws special attention to these parts. Those with the greater gifts are to honor those with the lesser gifts, drawing attention to their importance for the effective functioning of the church. We are to honor those Christians with the gift of helps for instance - those with an ability to know what needs to be done. Food needs to be served, chairs need to be set up, a house needs to be cleaned. If we reason, ÒThose with the gift of helps are nice to have around but they are not nearly as necessary as those with the flashy gifts like teaching and evangelism,Ó we are not giving these folks the lesser gifts honor. If we did not have the gift of helps in the local church, we soon would not be able to preach and teach effectively.
ÒBut God has combined the
members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it,Ó -- In God eyes, the person
with the gift of helps or mercy or administration is just as honorable as those
who are healers, pastor-teachers or evangelists.
ÒSo that there should be no
division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each
other.Ó
-- God hates division in the church, and the way to avoid division is to get
every member in the church to use his or her spiritual gift, giving honor to
those who have the lesser spiritual gifts so they will feel wanted, needed and
useful. When the body is
functioning properly, there is genuine care and concern in the church. There will not be concern just for the
wealthy and powerful or the elders and deacons, but for all in the church. There will be concern for the new
visitors as well as for the established members.
ÒIf one part suffers, every
part suffers with it,Ó -- When any member of the
body suffers because he is not using his spiritual gift in the body, the whole
church suffers. One troubled
center of pain in the human body affects the entire body. When one member suffers in any way, it
is essential for the body to feel the pain together. When we fail to use our gifts,
the whole church suffers. When we
gossip or have a critical spirit, the whole body is affected. When we withhold our monies because we
are not happy about something in the church, this hurts the whole body. Whatever
we do or donÕt do affects the whole body.
You would think it hilarious
if you saw someone walking down the street slapping himself in the face. Yet, Christians are constantly slapping
other Christians in the body by neglect, slander, criticism and antagonism or
whatever.
ÒIf one part is honored,
every part rejoices with it.Ó -- If God is blessing someone in a big way in the use of his spiritual
gift, this should cause the whole church to rejoice. If God chooses in His sovereignty to bless some families
more than others, we should all rejoice.
Someone has said, ÒIt is much easier to suffer with those who are
suffering than to rejoice with those who are rejoicing.Ó
What is PaulÕs point? We are not islands. We are not Lone Ranger Christians. The Bible speaks of individuality but
not individualism. We are all
dependent and interdependent on one another. God hates pride and an independent spirit. When we are submitted to the Lordship
of Christ and using our spiritual gifts for the common good, we are blessing
the body, and when we are not, we are causing the body to suffer. This is also true of our brothers and
sisters in other denominations and parachurch groups. They need us and we need them and this will become even more
evident when persecution comes to Christians in our country.