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1 Corinthians - Part 32
"Bodyworks"
Copyright 2003
by Pastor David Legge
All Rights Reserved
(Permission is granted to distribute this transcript in its entirety, with no alterations)
I Corinthians 12:12-31 |
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We're turning to chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, now we have been spending several weeks - I think this is our fourth week - on the subject of spiritual gifts, which is found in this chapter, and not just this chapter 12 but we're going to see later on that the great chapter on love also has a context in the theme of spiritual gifts, as does chapter 14 as well and takes up that wonderful subject of tongues that we've already touched on. But we're coming now to the final section in chapter 12, and beginning to read at verse 12 - and God willing we will get right to the very end of the chapter. We're looking tonight at 'Bodyworks', or we could say 'How the Body works', how the church, the spiritual body of Christ works - and specifically how these spiritual gifts that have been given by the Holy Spirit to the church are worked out in reality in the body, which is the church universal of the Lord Jesus. So let's begin our reading, we'll take time to read this whole section beginning at verse 12. Let's read verse 11 to take up where we left off:
"But all these", these gifts, "worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and 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 we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary", or more necessary. "And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way".
Like the best preacher that has ever been, who is of course the Lord Jesus Christ, every disciple after the Saviour - including the apostle Paul whom we're reading tonight - used illustration much in their ministry. In fact, the best preachers use illustrations and plenty of them because, as one has said, the illustration in the sermon is like the window that shines light on the truth of God - it seems to just bring alive and breathe life into many of the truths that we have within the Scriptures. Now if you are a preacher you will know that it's often hard to get good illustrations to many spiritual truths within the word of God - I'm not talking about little stories, but I'm talking about truths, illustrations, metaphors, representations, pictures that can bring to life the word of God and really shed light on a spiritual truth.
Now we see here tonight that in chapter 12 Paul lifts up a tremendous illustration of spiritual gifts, and specifically how spiritual gifts relate in the mechanism of the bodyworks of the church which is the body of Christ. Now the difference with Paul's illustration to mine is that Paul had the privilege of having his illustrations breathed by the breath of Almighty God through inspiration. Paul didn't get his illustrations from a book on the shelf, but from the Spirit of God Himself. So please note tonight that the illustration that we're going to look at in great intricate detail, is one that God gave Paul to show all of us how our spiritual gifts should operate within the church which is His body, the body of Christ on the earth.
So let's not waste any time, and get right in first of all to the first point on your sheet: the illustration itself. We see that in this illustration Paul presents us with the workings of the human body. As we travel through verse by verse through this section tonight we will see that the illustration leads on to the implication of his illustration, which is that the workings of the human body are being used of God to show us the workings of the body of Christ, the church of the living God. At the end of this evening we're going to see how Paul takes this illustration and the spiritual implications of it, and starts to make an application to the specific situation of the Corinthians in all the mess and misunderstanding that they were in with regards to spiritual gifts.
So let's look in detail at the illustration that he gives us, the workings of the human body. Verse 12, look at it: 'For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ'. Paul takes your human body, the physical body that you are in tonight, and uses it as an illustration primarily of two things: first, the unity of the church; and then second, the diversity of the church. Those two things, as we'll see in a few moments, are not contradictory. To have unity and at the same time diversity is the beauty of the mystery of the church of Jesus Christ. He tells us in verse 12 that the body is one, it is one entity, yet that one body has many members - and although we're all different tonight, and perform many different functions in the church, we all combine to one functioning body, one entity which is the church of the living God.
Roy Lauren, the commentator, put it well in this sentence: 'The body does not function as many members, but many members function as one body'. What we need to do is clear out of our mind any idea that we are individuals in the church of Jesus Christ. Now that doesn't mean that in some way we lose our identity, or we're ascribing to uniformity and we all have to be churned out as clones in single file like one another - no, that's not what we're saying. We are saying that, as John Dunn the poet said: 'No man is an island within the church of Jesus Christ'. The body does not function as many members, but the many members together as a unity function as that body. So that's the first point that really we're going to see flowing right throughout all of this great illustration of Paul's tonight, and it's your first sub-point of point one: there are many members, but one body. That's the main thrust of his illustration.
But something that transpires from this is your second sub-point: that there are many functions from those members, but there is one purpose - now he's looking at the motivation of this bodyworks. It's found in the last statement of verse 12 that we could very easily skip over: 'so also is Christ'. Now that could more precisely be translated: 'so also is the Christ' - the definite article is clearly there: 'The Christ'. So he takes this illustration, and he says: 'As the human body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is the Christ'. Now what he's doing here is, he's not simply referring to the glorified risen Lord in heaven, but he is specifically referring to the Lord Jesus Christ now as the Head of the body, the Head of the church. He is saying that our Head is in heaven, and that Head, Jesus Christ, is joined in spirit to the rest of the body which is the church universal and in heaven, and He and us together make up this great body of His church.
Now the main point that Paul is trying to make is, by using this statement 'the Christ' he is saying: 'Just as the human body is the vehicle in which you as a person express yourself to other people around you in the physical realm, so the body of Christ, the church, is the vehicle on earth by which He chooses to make Himself known to the world around'. So he is saying that our Head in heaven, the Christ, has chosen to make Himself known on earth through the body which is the church. Let me take it a step further, because not only does it mean that, but we find in this verse a wonderful truth: that we are inextricably linked, as the church on earth, with our Head in heaven! Isn't that wonderful? I hope that you know that the Greek word for 'Christ' is just the word for 'anointed', it's God's anointed one, God's chosen one - in the Hebrew it is the word 'Messiah'. But you know we read in 1 John, John said to those children of God: 'Ye have an anointing of the Holy One'. And there is a sense in which we are being coupled with Christ, the Head and the body, and Paul is actually saying that as the body - not only the Head, but all of us - are the Christ, we are representing the Christ, the Head of the church on earth.
Now I don't know what you think when you allow that spiritual thought to sink into your heart, but the first thought that I had today was: 'Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!'. Imagine this: that you and I have been chosen to represent Christ on earth, that we are part of His body, that He has called us with all of the baggage from our past - praise God all the sin has been forgiven - but who of us are where we ought to be or what we should be, yet we have been chosen as His body. Sure, it's wonderful, isn't it? You could nearly muster an 'Amen' somewhere along there, couldn't you?
Now we must move on, because this illustration really filters out into many many spiritual applications that I hope that we're going to have time to deal with. The workings of the human body, as an illustration, bring the implication of the workings of the body of Christ, which is us as the church. Here are the implications, let's look at verse 13 till we find the first one: 'For by one Spirit', Paul says, 'are we all', underline that word 'all', 'baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit'. Now here's the first point, the implication of this illustration of human body, here it is: that this body of Christ, the church, is different in its members; made up of different nationalities, social status and class; but ultimately although there are all these differences they are one in Spirit - now not in their own spirits, but one in the Holy Spirit, because Paul says 'we have all been baptised into one Spirit, and we have all drank one spiritual drink, the Holy Ghost of God'.
So we are different in nationality and social status, but we are one in the Spirit of God that we have been baptised into. Now do not misunderstand this, when Paul says 'whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free', it does not mean that earthly distinctions are eradicated. I hear some people say: 'If you were a Jew before you were converted, you're no longer a Jew' - well, I was an Ulsterman before I was converted, and I'm still one because conversion doesn't change your nationality! Of course, if you're using 'Jewish' as a religious label that is the case - it is changed. If you're a slave, when you get saved you don't suddenly become a master or vice versa. What we're talking about here is how these status symbols and badges of prestige do not exist in the assembly of God, in the body which is Christ Jesus, the church. In other words, when you get saved, I'm afraid - I'm sorry to break the news to you - you're still under an obligation to obey your master or your boss in the workplace. But the fact of the matter is, you could come into the assembly on the Lord's Day morning around the table, and it could be your work colleague - ie your servant, or your employee would be a more politically correct term today - they could be the one that is standing to minister to your needs, in fact they might be one who is overseeing you in the assembly of God as an elder! Because the status of the world does not automatically reciprocate into the church, in fact the status of this world means nothing in the church of Jesus Christ - and we ought to be warned here and now never ever to bring the distinctions of the world into the church, because they don't matter as far as God's body is concerned!
The reason being that whatever our national or social diversities are, we are all baptised into one body - isn't that what he says in verse 13? Now, there's great controversy over what this means. There's many teachings on the baptism 'with' or 'by' or 'in' the Holy Ghost - and it's important that in all of this morass of confusion and technical terms, that we forget about anything that we've learnt hitherto and make sure that our definitions are primarily and only from the word of God. It was on the day of Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2 we find the record, that the Holy Spirit was sent upon the promise of the Lord Jesus that He would come, and the Lord Jesus was the one who sent the Holy Spirit on that day to indwell believers and to baptise them into the body - and it was, effectively, the birthday of the church.
Now my birthday is the 21st August if you want to note that down on your notes, but you know my birthday was 19...whatever, and you know every other birthday after that is not technically a birthday, it really is an anniversary - you only have one birthday, don't you? The day of Pentecost was the birthday of the church - the church is not found in the Old Testament. The birthday was, as we read, in Acts chapter 2, and the Holy Spirit was given in a sense that He had never been given before - and because of that we don't just have the experience, as the Old Testament saints did, of the Holy Spirit coming upon us, but He indwells us - we are made to be the temples of the Holy Spirit, and because He indwells us all we are all made one as the body of Christ.
Now this word 'baptise', 'baptidso' in the Greek, is simply translated literally 'immerse'. That's why we believe the New Testament teaches baptism of believers by immersion, because that's literally what the word means. You could translate verse 13 like this: 'For in one Spirit are we all immersed into one body'. Now let me make this distinction: the baptism in the Spirit is not identical to being born of the Spirit. When you're born of the Spirit, the life of God comes into you; but when you're baptised by the Spirit, we are put into the body of Christ. When the baptism of the Spirit is spoken of today people often misunderstand it, particularly in charismatic circles, of something coming into them - that's not the case at all: you are being put into something! Being born of the Spirit of God gives us new life, but being baptised by the Spirit gives us a new place - it is something that is positional.
Now we could argue that it often happens, and always happens now, simultaneously - but we have to say that it is not the one and distinct experience. You see, in the Greek the word 'baptised' here is in the aorist tense - now that means this: that it was one completed historical act that is never to be repeated again. It was the birthday of the church. Now when you get saved, you enter into the benefits of the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church at Pentecost, but everybody that gets saved doesn't go through another Pentecost over and over again and again. I hope you understand what I'm saying.
Let me say what this baptism in the Spirit is not. First of all, it clearly is not baptism with water, water baptism. I have to say this because many, particularly established churches, would teach and even in their liturgies state that when a little infant is baptised that they are being ingrafted thereby into the church of the living God, and they become a member. They might argue that later in confirmation they will have to talk and make a confession themselves from their own lips, but as a dumb child who has not even learnt to speak, they are ingrafted, it is claimed, into the church by baptism - and this is often the text that they use. Let me show you clearly that this cannot be the case - Matthew chapter 3 and verse 11 is the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. John said, John the Baptist: 'I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire'. The Lord Jesus was said by John the prophet to be one who was coming, yes to judge the world with fire and judgment one day, but before that He baptises the church with the Holy Ghost.
You might say: 'Well, that doesn't mean that 1 Corinthians 12 that you're reading from doesn't talk about water baptism'. Well, let's see where the fulfilment of this was - turn with me to Acts chapter 1 this time, verse 5. Jesus said to the disciples assembled with them: 'He commanded them', verse 4, 'that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence' - and we read on in chapter 2 of Pentecost and the Holy Ghost's coming, and the church being born. So this is not water baptism, this is something that only the believer experiences: they are born again, they're indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and they're baptised into the body that was born at Pentecost.
Let me say secondly what this also is not: it is not a second work of grace subsequent to salvation and necessary for ultimate salvation and sanctification. Now listen: this cannot be some kind of second blessing in a charismatic sense, and let me show you why that cannot be the case. Turn to chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians and verse 1 - we've already looked at this, but not in this context - verse 1: 'And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ'. Now if you look at chapter 12 again and verse 13, Paul tells the Corinthians: 'We are all baptised into one body'. These Corinthians who he couldn't even call spiritual, but carnal, they were baptised with the Holy Spirit! So this cannot mean some kind of sanctification, or full holiness or purity before we get to heaven. Even these Corinthians were baptised with the Spirit. Now let me add on as an appendix to that that it therefore cannot be the case that speaking in tongues is the sign of being baptised by the Spirit. It cannot be the case, because all of the Corinthians were baptised in the Spirit, verse 13, but we read in verse 30 - as we'll come to it in a few moments - that all have not the gift of tongues, nor have the gift to interpret. He asks the rhetorical question: 'Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?', and the answer to every rhetorical question here necessitates the answer 'No'.
So, we're knocking down all the skittles now aren't we? It cannot be entire sanctification, it cannot be proved by the gift of tongues - this baptism is intrinsically linked with the birth of the church, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the believer who is - when they are saved - placed into the church of Jesus Christ. Now let me, in balance, say that although this baptism of the Holy Spirit is not those things, I do believe that there are crises experiences that men and women have in the realm of the Holy Spirit, when the believer surrenders to the Spirit's control in obedience and entire, total surrender to Jesus Christ, and are empowered from on high to serve the Lord - I believe all of that, but do not make a doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit out of it! This is were much of the confusion comes - great men of God, greater than I'll ever be probably, have used this term 'baptism of the Holy Spirit' for something that is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Many great men of God have had experiences in the closet with the Holy Spirit, but as a great preacher once said: 'You have those experiences and, like the apostle Paul, keep them to yourself - but don't make a doctrine out of them!'...because it is not the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. That name should not be used, 'the baptism of the Holy Spirit', nor confused with anything that God does for you in the private life of devotion.
Let me say that those are negatives, but a positive of this baptism of the Holy Spirit, as a result, is the organism of the church is born. It's important to note that Paul uses the illustration - here's one of the implications - of a body. He doesn't use the word 'institution', he uses the word 'body', a living organism as opposed to something which is just an empty organisation. So we have to say also that this tells us that the church, the body, and all these gifts that are being used in it, it is not the exclusive possession of any Christian camp, any doctrinal persuasion, any particular people or any denomination - Amen? It is a body, it is living, and I'll tell you: what man-made organisations produce is uniformity, not diversity and unity together, but uniformity. But the balance of life is both unity and diversity, because uniformity ultimately brings death. If you think of your own body for just a moment, there is great diversity within it, but eventually your body and mine - if the Lord does not come before it - will dissolve into uniformity, into dust. We'll all be the same, dust to dust - uniformity is not spirituality, and uniformity is not a necessity for the church worldwide nor for the local assembly, let me say it.
Incidentally, I think this is why many churches and ministries have weakened and even died in our age, because they have not had sufficient diversity in them to keep that unity in the bond of peace - and they have entered into the realm of uniformity, and through uniformity they have died! Vance Havner put it well in this quip: 'First there is a man, then a movement, then a machine, and then a monument' - isn't that it? We would have to say that many ministries that began as a protest against dead orthodoxy have become dead themselves, because they have espoused the doctrine of uniformity: 'You must be like me, we've all got to be the same'. That is not the body.
So that is our first point of implication: we're different in national and social status, but one in Spirit. Here's the second: we're different in ability, but one in satisfaction. Look at verse 14 - I better get the right chapter myself - verse 14: 'For the body is not one member, but many', verse 15, 'If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?'. Now when you look at this implication, you're beginning to see that just as diversity and unity are essential to your own physical human body, it's also necessary for a healthy body of Christ. The two dangers in implication that Paul is warning against here is: one, of belittling ourselves in the gifts that we have and coveting another man's gifts; and two, of belittling others because we think we have a greater gift or greater ability, that we look down on those around us even in the body.
Now he illustrates this with this illustration by the greatest absurdity that we could ever think of. The foot, he feels so unimportant because he can't do the work of a hand - after all, the foot just has to stand about day after day, it takes the weight of the body all around the town and work. Sometimes it has to run out of trouble or for the bus, it has to climb - all these mundane jobs, and he thinks to himself: 'I want to be a hand!'. Can you imagine some morning your foot going on strike? Maybe some of your feet do go on strike in the morning - but you get up and you put your foot over the edge of the bed, and as you're about to put it on the floor it looks up at you and it says: 'I don't like being a foot. I always have to do this, I'm always being shut up, you're always putting on me a smelly sock and confining me and restricting me by a boot - and I'm fed up with it all! I've just as much right to be in the open-air as the hand! I want to do things like the hand - he does all the writing, he paints the portraits, he plays the piano - I have to be hidden all the time, nobody sees me! I don't like it any more, I want to function like the hand, and unless I function like the hand I'm not going to function at all!'.
Seems absurd, doesn't it? Except it's so common within the church of Jesus Christ, that in this realm of gifts we can often belittle ourselves - and because we don't have the gift that we would like, or that another brother has, the old nature comes to the fore, and we want to do that thing or we'll do nothing at all! How many are doing nothing at all? We have to admit that there are some members that do have the limelight more than others. The hand is more delicate and more organised than the foot, it's a masterpiece of design when you think about it for a moment - it consists of five levers suspended at the extremity of your arm by tendons. This thumb here faces every finger so that you can lift up almost anything. All of those fingers are intricately connected with muscles and nerves to perform the most delicate of operations. Your hand can hold a surgeon's knife, an artist's brush, a sculptor's chisel - it can be used in itself as a delicate instrument of the musician or the craftsmen, and it has the prominent place: you always see your hands, they're always exposed and at the forefront of the action. So you can understand why the foot wants to be the hand.
Then in verse 16 the ear wants to be the eye, and 'If I'm not going to be like the eye, I'm not going to operate at all as the ear'. What Paul is saying here is that if the foot does the work of a foot, well the body is working tremendously and it's being edified all round - but if the foot starts to inkle to be like the hand, and the eye like the ear, well they will fail in the task for which God has created them and designed them - and then the body will begin to function badly. The main point that Paul is giving all of us tonight is this: be satisfied with where God has placed you. Have you got it now? I'm not saying be satisfied with your spiritual temperature, don't you quote me on that, you know better than that. But I'm saying the gifts that you know that God has given to you, and if you're wanting to have more of a prominent place, but you know you're not gifted in that way - be content!
Verse 17 says: 'If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be?'. Just imagine a great big eye walking down the street - it would see everything, but it wouldn't hear the car coming behind it would it? It just wouldn't work: if the body were one immense ear what a peculiar thing that would be! Paul is saying each member has its place, and here's an interesting insight by one of the church fathers, Chrysostom - he makes the comment that the foot contrasts itself with the hand rather than with the ear, because we do not envy those who are much higher than ourselves, so much as those who have risen a little above us. Isn't that interesting? The point Paul is driving at is this, and this is so relevant to the Corinthians because as far as he was concerned they were all a tongue! They all wanted this gift of tongues, and he might as well have said: 'If all were tongues you would have a lot of speaking, but very little else!'.
Can I just sound a note of warning? You don't have to be charismatic to have an awful lot of speaking and very little else. You can be a preaching centre where the people listen and drink it all in, but do very very little in obedience. The implication thirdly is that they're different in position but one in God's sovereignty. Yes, you're to be satisfied where God has placed you, and the reason being that although you might have a different position to another, it's God's sovereignty that has ordained this. Verse 18: 'Now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him'. Just as when He created you He didn't stick your ear where your nose is, He has put you in His spiritual body where He wants you - now give Him the credit that He knows what He's doing! I wish that some would stop trying to preach when they cannot preach, and start doing the things that they can do to the glory of God!
Now friends: we don't choose our place in the body, we fill our place that God has chosen for us. Listen, this is wonderful, because only you can fill your place - another cannot do it. If you're in somebody else's place you're not in your own, and if you don't fill your place the point Paul is making is that there is a collective loss in the whole of the body, if you're not doing what you ought to! Different in position, but one in sovereignty - God has placed you.
Fourthly, implication four: different in apparent importance, but one in solidarity. Now listen: just as it's wrong to envy someone who has another gift you think is better than yours, it's equally wrong to depreciate another's gift that you feel just isn't as needed as yours or somebody else's. You see, the eye can see, can't it? It can see the things that need to be done, but it can't do them. It takes the hands, it depends on the hands for that; and the head might know it's necessary to go to a certain place, but the head depends on the feet to take it there. Speech is the production of the brain - if you've got one of them - but without the lips it can't articulate and make those thoughts known in language. In fact, without the hands the brain would be impotent - it wouldn't matter if it was the greatest brain that you had, if you hadn't a mouth and hands it would be nearly useless.
Let me just say that one of the greatest implications about this fourth implication, different in apparent importance but one in solidarity, is that it is a rebuke to all of us who despise those who are other members in the body of Christ. Could it be that some of us, or any of us, despise other believers in the Lord? I'm not talking about despising false doctrine, we're allowed to do that and I do it all the time, but I'm talking about individuals, personalities, your brothers and sisters in Christ, whatever denomination they are or persuasion, if they are a child of God it is not permitted that you can say - no matter what they believe - 'Well, I don't need them!'. You're not allowed to do that! You're not allowed to depreciate them! That means you ought not to castigate them personally - yes, critique their doctrine, but don't put them down in their personality!
In a restaurant on one occasion there was a sign hung up which read: 'If you like our food, tell others; if you don't, tell us'. There's a lesson - we should hang it in the church, shouldn't we? We ought to follow Matthew 18, and if we've a problem with a brother we ought to go to them, because there is no ministry in the body of Christ, believers in the church, for those who demolish personalities! I read a poem today, it went like this:
'I watched them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a whole 'Heave-ho', and a lusty yell,
They swung a beam and the side wall fell.
I asked the foreman: 'Are these men skilled?',
And the kind you would hire if you were to build.
He laughed and said: 'Why no indeed,
Just common labourers are all I need'.
'They can easily wreck in a day or two
That which has taken builders years to do'.
So I said to myself as I went on my way:
'What part in the game of life do I play?'
'Am I shaping my deeds to a well-made plan,
Carefully measuring with a rule and square, patiently doing the best that I can.
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,
Content with the labour of pulling down?''.
It's easy to be a wrecker, isn't it? Verse 22 is another of these implications out of the fourth: 'Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary'. Now perhaps you discount another brother's gift because it just doesn't appeal to you - well, that's fine, we've all got our tastes don't we? But you know, when I hear someone say: 'I just didn't get anything out of that tonight', do you know what I think to myself? Who said it's all to do with you anyway? Is it all about you? Some of us think it is - but we're a body, and there are men that can minister to other folk, they mightn't minister to your heart, but they might be the greatest blessing on this earth to other men! Let me say, incidentally, that it galls me at times folk who just absent the meetings because there's somebody going to speak, or somebody going to sing that they don't like - those who you don't appreciate, others may appreciate. What would you do if you did get up in the morning, and the leg just decided to say: 'Well, I'm not going to go today anywhere, I don't like the places you want to take me today. I'm not going!'? The body wouldn't work very well, would it?
Oh, there's so many lessons, and verse 23 tells us more: 'And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness'. Now let me just say what that means: there are parts of your body that are hidden - you can't see your kidneys, but they have a great function, don't they? You need them. Some of them are functioning very very well, but they're not as strong as your arms, sure they're not? But you can see your arms, yet your kidneys are indispensable - your arm is not indispensable, you can live without them. You can live without your tongue, but you can't live without your heart, or your lungs, or your liver, or your brain. What Paul is saying is: 'Just because some people aren't up at the front in the church, they could be more indispensable than the man that you see all the time!'
I tell you, I don't know what I would do without many a praying saint no-one ever sees - how much they are on their knees and what they're doing for the Lord - yet these vital organs, Paul is saying, they never put themselves on public display but they just function unostentatiously. They don't care who knows what they're doing, and those are the most honourable members - that's why they're more necessary, I think. Some members of the body are hidden because they're unattractive - now don't come to me after this, I'm not talking about physical attraction! Some aren't so spiritually attractive, and Paul says: 'Do you see the parts of you that aren't so physically attractive? You cover it over, don't you?'. Maybe someone has a disfigured ear, and it's a lady and she gets her hair and she styles it in such a way that it covers over that uncomely part. What Paul is saying here is: what way do you react towards those who are a little bit more ugly than you spiritually - do you expose them? Or do you put your arm around them and do you help them? Do you cover over their sins or do you declare their sins?
I always laugh at these men who know they're bald but they don't want to admit it, and they have this wee thing and when the wind blows it all sits up like a sail. What do they do as soon as it blows up? The hand puts it down, doesn't it? The hand compensates for the problem - do we compensate for the problems of our brothers and sisters? Do we cover them over? Does one member cover over the shortcomings of another member? Is it true of Christians that they do that today? Do we take care of our brethren like we take care of our own bodies? We put the gloves on when it's cold, scarf round our neck - do we look after them?
Paul says in verse 25 that it is the mutual care of the members that prevents schism within the body. If we cared for one another a lot of folk wouldn't go elsewhere perhaps. In verse 26 he says that what affects one member ought to affect us all. In your physical body - we're still in this illustration - when you have a fever it doesn't just confine itself to one part, sure it doesn't? It affects the whole system. In fact, an eye doctor can tell, often he could detect even something as serious as a brain tumour or kidney disease or a liver infection, just by looking at your eye. If you have an exposed nerve on your tooth, you know that you feel the pain absolutely everywhere - it doesn't localise itself in one place. What Paul is saying here is that if there's a sinful believer in the assembly we ought to all feel the pain of it! Too often when there's a sinful person in the assembly nobody wants to know. I know we're all sinful, but when there's a problem or when there's pain, when there's persecution - our brothers and sisters in Christ on the other side of the world, and we were hearing about them at the missionary weekend: do we get touched and moved emotionally, does it affect all of us because of them - they are the more honoured Paul says.
It's alright feeling for a person and sympathising when they're in pain, but what about when they're honoured more than you're honoured? I think that's harder, isn't it? It takes more grace than I can tell, to play the second fiddle well - can you rejoice with those who are being blessed maybe more than you are...can I? What Paul is saying is, therefore, instead of discontent about what God has given to you in gift or what He hasn't given to you, instead of feeling a sense of independence: 'I can get on without the rest of you', we should have a real sense of solidarity with the body of Christ. We might be different in apparent importance, but we are all one - and let me give you a few lessons from this that we need to remember continually - it's this: one, we need each other. Now there's things you mightn't like about me, and I can tell you there's things I don't like about you! But we need each other, isn't that right? We can't do without each other - we should, here's the second thing, respect one another. A little respect goes a long way, you know, when you disagree we can do it respectfully. Thirdly, we should feel for each other - really feel.
Finally, in the last couple of minutes, that's all it will take, let's apply the applications of the working to the Corinthian body. Here we're really homing in, verses 27 and 28: 'Ye are the body of Christ, the members in particular'. Now what he's doing is he's coming in, and he's telling these Corinthians that they are the body of Christ - now that doesn't mean that they are the body of Christ in its totality, because that's universal and many of the members are in heaven already. Neither can it mean that they are a body of Christ, since there is only one body of Christ, but what it means is that they collectively have formed in Corinth a kind of microcosm or a miniature of the body of Christ. So the local assembly represents a miniature of the greater universal church.
Now here is what he is saying: because you are the body of Christ, you need to learn these lessons: one, your priorities are not my priorities. Now we haven't time to go through these individual gifts, we looked at them just the other evening, some of which mentioned here weren't mentioned there, and others mentioned in another place we don't have either where we were last week or this week - the fact of the matter is, what I want you to notice is that he starts with apostles and he ends with tongues. This is a list in order of importance, and what he is saying is: 'You see the thing that you the first, top of the list - tongues - I'm putting it last!'. Now we need to be careful that we don't despise a God-given gift of the New Testament tongues. We do not despise it, it is of God, but the fact of the matter is their priority in these gifts were to have the 'showy' gifts, to have the dramatic gifts. He was saying: 'You put it top, I put it bottom - and what you're putting bottom, apostles, I put it top. You won't listen to my doctrine, you won't receive my teaching, but you ought to be!'.
Their priorities in the gifts were not God's - I wonder are ours? I wonder in a general sense is God's priorities our priorities, or do we have a little New Testament of our own that we follow? Secondly, the application to them was that none of them had a monopoly of the gifts. He's asking, as I said already, in 29 and 30: are all apostles? The answer is 'No'. Are all prophets? That's the inference, a rhetorical question answering specifically 'No'. Nobody has a monopoly of any of these gifts. Not everyone has the gift of tongues, and incidentally therefore it's wrong to say that with us all being baptised into one body we should then all have the gift - Paul clearly says in inference, all don't have the gift.
Thirdly, not only were their priorities in gifts not God's, and none of them had a monopoly, but edification of others should be their motivation for the gifts. Verse 31: 'covet earnestly the best gifts' - now you might think, I hope you're thinking: how can you covet a gift, and desire a gift, when God gives the gift and you can do nothing about what God gives you and what God doesn't? Well, I believe he's speaking here first of all to the assembly, he's talking to the Corinthians as a local church not as individuals, and he's saying that as an assembly they should desire to have in their midst a good selection of the gifts that edify. He's saying that the best gifts are those that are most useful to the assembly, rather than those that are the most gratifying in a spectacular sense to you as an individual.
All are gifts given by the Holy Spirit, but some edify more than others. Some are more of a benefit to the body than others, and the ones that the local assembly should ask for to raise up among them are the ones that will edify the body the most. You could even translate this verse, some say, like this - he's addressing the Corinthians: 'You desire earnestly the greater gifts', in other words he's castigating them, 'You want the great showy supernatural gifts, yet I show you a more excellent way'.
What way was that? That was the way of love, and we'll look into that next week.
Our Father, we pray and thank Thee for the fact that we are saved and we are born again and have been placed into the body - but Lord, we pray that we will know the place where we have to be, that we will know what member we are and what function we have. Lord, it's not a thing to be jealous about or to be proud about as some of the Corinthians were, because it's all for the one goal: the glory and honour of Jesus Christ. But Lord, let us not rob Him of that glory by not being in our place, by not operating in our function, by missing out the blessing of doing that work for Jesus that only I can do. So Lord, challenge us, encourage us to be what we should be, for we ask these things not for our glory - surely, Lord, we have learned that lesson over these weeks - but for the One whom we can say is Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Don't miss part 33 of the 1 Corinthians Study Series: "The More Excellent Way"
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Transcribed by:
Andrew Watkins
Preach The Word.
November 2003
www.preachtheword.com
info@preachtheword.com
This sermon was delivered at The Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Pastor David Legge. It was transcribed from the thirty-second tape in his 1 Corinthians series, titled "Bodyworks" - Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word.
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