Deo Gloria
Sermon for January 27, 2019
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Theme: We are the Body of Christ!
- We work with one another.
- We work for one another.
Rugged individualism—the belief that an individual can succeed on his or her own without the help of anyone else; a spirit of fierce independence and self-reliance; being strong, resourceful, resilient, able to handle whatever life throws your way; the spirit of the pilgrims who came to this country to start a new life, and the pioneers who settled new and uncharted lands. “I don’t need anyone else. I don’t depend on anyone else. I can make it on my own.” Some say it’s the “American Way,” what made America such a great and prosperous nation. Though it may be the “American Way,” it is by no means God’s way when it comes to his church.
God never intended his people to be a bunch of rugged individualists, people who are self-reliant and self-sufficient, people who can get along just fine on their own—just the opposite. As Paul makes clear today in the verses of our text, God’s plan and his desire is that we work together as Christians, that we work with one another and for one another like a body. That is, after all, what we are. We are the body of Christ.
Being a member of the body of Christ is, of course, no accident. You and I do not just happen to be members of God’s family because we were born into it. We may have been born into the Anderson family or the Nelson family or the Schmidt family, but we were not by nature members of God’s family. All of that changed, however, on the day of our baptism. Paul explains this for us in verses 12+13:
The 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. For 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.
When we were baptized, the Holy Spirit accomplished some pretty incredible things. He washed away our sins, for example—our dirty, rotten, filthy sins, the sins that make us unacceptable in God’s sight and disqualify us for eternal life in heaven. He washed them all away and made us holy and righteous in the sight of God. In addition, the Spirit created faith in our hearts, faith to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, or he strengthened our faith if we already believed through the hearing of God’s Word. But that isn’t all he did. Through the waters of Holy Baptism, the Holy Spirit also brought us into God’s family. He made us children of God. Yes, we still are members of the Anderson family or the Nelson family or the Schmidt family, but now we are members of God’s family too. Before we were separated from God because of our sins. Now through the working of the Spirit, our broken relationship with God has been fixed. We are at peace with him. We are in a right relationship with him. We are united to our Father in heaven as his very own sons and daughters, which also means that we are united to one another.
That’s really the point that Paul is making in these verses. Yes, as believers in Christ, we are united to Jesus and to our Father in heaven. And what a blessing that is! But we also are united to one another. We are joined to one another by our common faith. We all went through the same baptism. We all had the same faith created in our hearts. We all have the same Holy Spirit living in our bodies as his temple. So we’re not a bunch of independent individuals. We are a body, a body of believers. We are the body of Christ.
Obviously, since we are a body, it is important that we work together as a body, that we work with one another, that we all use the different gifts and talents we have and work together to accomplish what needs to be done. There are two things, however, that could stop us from doing that, that could prevent us from working together. One can be called an inferiority complex.
Sometimes Christians may look at the gifts they have as not being very important, especially compared to the gifts that other people have. They may feel as though they have little or nothing to offer, little or nothing to contribute to the work of the church. And because they feel that way, they may feel like they really don’t belong either, that they’re really not part of the church. As you might expect, there were people like that in the church in Corinth. And these are the ones Paul is speaking to in verses 14-17:
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
The foot is a very important part of the body. It gets you wherever you want to go. But imagine the foot looking up at the hand and saying, “Boy, I wish I were a hand. I could do so many neat things like draw a picture or play the guitar or give my friends ‘High 5.’ Nobody ever gives me a ‘high 5’ down here. It’s not fair. I don’t think I want to be part of the body anymore.” Or imagine your ear saying something like that about your eye. “I wish I were an eye. Then I could see a beautiful sunset and all the beautiful flowers, and people wouldn’t poke me and pierce me and hang things on me anymore. What do they think I am anyway—a Christmas tree? No, I don’t like being an ear. I don’t want to be part of the body anymore.” Imagine the effect that would have on your body. You need your feet to get around. You need your ears to hear. Though they may not be very glamorous, the service they perform is very valuable and important.
The same is true in the body of Christ. Every member is important. Every member has a valuable service to carry out. It does no good for me to say, “Man, I wish I had a nice singing voice so I could sing in the choir. I wish I could play the piano or the organ. I wish I had the gift of leadership or the gift of teaching. All I can do is cut the lawn or usher or organize craft projects for Sunday School. It’s not fair.” What I’m really doing when I say things like that is despising the gifts God has given me. Instead of appreciating my gift of serving, I’m despising it. Instead of appreciating my gift of showing mercy, I’m despising it. Instead of appreciating my gift of giving, I’m despising it. And when I refuse to use those God-given gifts, it hurts the rest of the church. It handicaps the body and makes it less able to do the work God has given it. The fact is every gift is needed—whether it’s serving or leading, whether it’s teaching or helping, whether it’s singing in the choir or showing mercy to someone who is hurting. Every gift is valuable and needed and necessary. And it’s important that we all use our gifts and work together as a body.
The other thing that can prevent us from working together falls on the other end of the spectrum—not an inferiority complex, but a superiority complex. Sometimes Christians are so gifted and blessed with so many different talents that they don’t think they need anyone else. Paul speaks to these people in verses 21-24:
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On 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.
The eye may be very gifted and may be able to do some pretty amazing things, but it wouldn’t do too well without the hand. It would run into a lot of doors without the hand to open those doors. The head, likewise, may be very gifted and talented, but it wouldn’t get very far without the feet. It could never get up and go outside for a walk. It could never go down to the break room and talk to the other heads. It would just sit in the same place all day long.
The same is true in the church, in the body of Christ. There may be some people who are very gifted and talented. And they may be tempted to think that they don’t need anybody else, but it would be very foolish on their part. It would be foolish for the leaders to say to the helpers, “I don’t need you,” because then there wouldn’t be anyone else to help them get the job done. Likewise, it would be foolish for those with the gifts of wisdom or knowledge to say to the other members, “I don’t need you,” because then there wouldn’t be anyone for them to share their wisdom and knowledge with. In fact, taking that kind of attitude would be more than just foolish on our part. It would sinful and loveless and wrong. It would be despising our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and the gifts that God has given them—as if they and their gifts have no value or importance. Likewise, it would be discouraging those Christians from using their gifts and talents. And even more than that, it would be placing ourselves above God, as if we know better than he does. God designed the church to be a body with many different parts that can do many different things. And now we’re going to tell some parts they aren’t needed. They aren’t important. Shame on us for doing that, for acting that way at times or adopting that kind of attitude! And shame on us too if we adopted the other attitude Paul was talking about, thinking we have no gifts or that our gifts aren’t very important and aren’t needed in the work of the church. Both attitudes are sinful and wrong. Both attitudes are deserving of God’s punishment: to get us kicked out of the body of Christ forever.
How thankful we can be that we have a Savior, a Savior who recognized the gifts he had and used them to their fullest for the kingdom of God, a Savior who also recognized the importance and value of other people and their gifts and what they could do and never looked down on them or put them down, a Savior who suffered and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sinful neglect and our sinful pride, so that we might be forgiven! How thankful we can be for Jesus Christ our Savior!
For his sake let’s recognize the valuable and important gifts that God has given us and use them for the good of the body. Likewise, let’s recognize the gifts that God has given others and the valuable contribution they make to the body. We are the body of Christ. So let’s work with one another as a body.
And let us work for one another as well. Notice again Paul’s words, starting in the middle of v. 24: “But God has combined the parts of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other”(vv. 24+25). The word Paul uses that is translated “have concern” is the same word Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount, where he told his disciples not to worry or be concerned about what they would eat or drink. It’s also the word Jesus used in the story of Mary and Martha, where he told Martha that she was worried or concerned about many things. You and I shouldn’t worry about having enough food or clothes. God will take care of us. Likewise, we shouldn’t worry or be concerned about all the things we have to do and let them get in the way of listening to Jesus. What should we “worry” about? What should we be concerned about? We should be concerned about one another. We should be concerned about our fellow Christians and what’s going on in their lives and use our gifts to help them.
In the next verse Paul gives an example of how our concern will show itself: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it”(v. 26). When our principal, Mr. Whitney, lost his dad last summer and then his mom just a couple of months later, whose heart did not go out to him and his family? Whose heart did not hurt with theirs and mourn with theirs? Or when Mr. Weiers was injured in that motorcycle accident last fall, whose heart did not go out to him and his family? Who didn’t pray for him and his family? Who didn’t pray for his healing and recovery? That’s what God intended when he brought Christians together and made them into a body—not that one person or one family suffers alone, but that we all suffer with them, that we pray for them and do our best to encourage them and help them, that we have mutual concern for one another.
And because we have this concern for each other, we use our gifts and talents to serve one another. If our gift is wisdom or knowledge, we use that gift to give guidance and direction to those who are struggling. If our gift is encouraging, we use that gift to encourage those who are hurting. If our gift is faith, we use that gift to encourage others to trust in God and his promises. If our gift is helping, then we use that gift to help others anyway we can. That’s the way a body works, the way God intended the body to work, that we not only work with each other but for each other and help each other, especially those who are hurting.
And yet, our mutual love and concern can be seen not only when there are tragedies and heartaches, but also when there are victories and celebrations. If someone in our congregation happens to be honored in some way—maybe one of our students makes the dean’s list or the A Honor Roll, or maybe someone is recognized for their accomplishments in business or their community service, or maybe a couple is blessed with a new baby or they’re celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary—do we become jealous of them or try to throw cold water on their celebration? Of course not! We rejoice with them. Their joy is our joy. It’s something we all can be happy about and rejoice in because we’re all part of the same body, the body of Christ.
Rugged individualism—it may have been seen as a virtue among the settlers in the early days of our country, but it is anything but a virtue in the church of Jesus Christ. Through the working of his Spirit, God has brought us into his family and made us part of his body so that we would not be alone, but would have others around us who can work with us and for us and help us. As Christians we need one another, and—thank God—we have one another. We are the body of Christ. Amen.