The Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:1-31 - Riley Boggs

Introduction

This text has been long anticipated for me. The moment I decided to preach through 1 Corinthians, I have been eager to preach chapters 12 to 14. There are several reasons for this, but I’ll just give you 2 quick ones. The first one is that I have personally had quiet theological swing on the subject of these chapters, spiritual gifts. There was a time where I was starting to get convinced of some pretty charismatic, and I don’t mean the good kind, movements. Then, I began to see the error of some of this, and I swung all the way in the other direction. I wanted nothing to do with the gifts, thought they had totally ceased, and was content to live as if they were not a reality. And then finally, thanks to God and faithful pastors and teachers, I have settled in a place that seems to be driven by the Bible and not my emotions. Hopefully you’ll see that as I work through this text this morning.

The second reason I have been eager for the chapters is because I think we, as a church, have a unique opportunity to apply truths that many churches have a hard time applying. Here’s what I mean. Southern Baptist churches are not known for encouraging a pursuit or exercising of the spiritual gifts. And even if a pastor comes along and preaches this passage, the application can feel a bit out of place in churches who have very established traditions. It’s possible and I believe many churches have done and will continue to do this well, but it’s not easy. But for us, I think we have the chance to apply this text well. We’re a new church with hardly established traditions. So, where our routines come up against the Scriptures, it should be easy for us to lay the routines aside. And truly, that is my desire for us. That we might approach these chapters with humility and with a desire to do what has been asked of us, even if it feels odd or out of place.

With all of that being said, let me give brief overview of what Paul is attempting to do in this chapter. Paul starts off in verse 1 by saying, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uniformed.” We’ve seen this several times before in this letter, where Paul makes it clear that he is switching topics to address something that needs to be addressed because of a report, or the Corinthians have written to him about something specific. And he makes it clear that the thing that is going to be addressed here is spiritual gifts. This word “gifts”, and some of your Bibles might have this as a footnote, can also be translated as “persons”. I think the choice of “gifts” here is a better choice because he clearly discusses spiritual gifts. But I also think it’s important to take into account that Paul is certainly going to be addressing the what, who, and how a person might be a spiritual “person”. In other words, he is addressing more than just the spiritual gifts.

The last thing I want to note before our first point is what he is saying here is the fact that Paul does not what the Corinthians to be uniformed on these things. As those who have been saved by the grace of God and are seeking to follow Jesus day-by-day, there is an expectation that we are informed concerning spiritual things. We are spiritual people living in a spiritual world engaging in spiritual things, so we cannot be uniformed. It would be the same as someone playing attempting to play basketball with no understanding of the rules and operation of the game. No understanding of the teams, the out-of-bounds lines, where to shoot, how to dribble, and so on. You get the point. So it is with us concerning these spiritual things. Let’s seek the truth so that we might engage it well, so that we might run the race well. With that being said, let’s look at the first point.

1.) God gifts every believer

The first thing I want you to see starts in verse 2. Paul says, “2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.” Immediately Paul answers the question, “who is spiritual?” by saying “everyone who confesses Jesus is Lord”. We’ll see this more as we work through this text, but there were certainly those who thought that to be truly spiritual was to have this gift or that gift. If you spoke in tongues, then you are spiritual. Whereas if you have the utterance of knowledge, not so much. Paul knows this and starts off by saying that all believers are spiritual people.

And he shows this by reminding them how they came to saving faith in the first place. Many of the Corinthians were involved in idolatrous pagan worship, rejecting the very God who made them. But at some point, they heard the Gospel, the Spirit of God opened their eyes, they believed, and they confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord. The reminder is that no one confesses this without the very Spirit of God enabling them to do so, and even further, the Holy Spirit dwells in every single person who confesses this.

Paul continues this this line of thought and says that in the same way the Spirit indwells every believer, God gifts every believer. Look at verses 4-7. We read, “4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 

Notice how throughout this, Paul is emphasizing 2 things above all. First, every single believer, without exception, has been gifted and empowered. Every believer has been given something. Secondly, the source is the same for everyone. It is God, the Lord Jesus, the Spirit, that gifts us. Our Triune God is the one who has gifted each and every one of us according to His desires. No one is without a gift, and no one has fostered a gift themselves. 

After this, Paul gives examples of gifts that have been given. Now it’s important that we approach this list rightly. We are not to see this list as the exhaustive list of Spiritual gifts. We read for our middle Scripture another listing of the gifts in Romans that does not exactly line up with this list. And so I don’t think this text is meant to give us a list of every gift and I also don’t think this text is meant for us to perfectly understand every gift listed. If you look, you’ll notice that Paul doesn’t explain each of these. And for that reason, I don’t think it’s particularly helpful for me to do that exhaustively. I’ll briefly go through each one, but I don’t think that’s the point here. I think the point Paul is trying to convey is not what the gifts are, but how we might see and approach spiritual gifts as a whole.

With that, let me briefly do the thing that I just said isn’t particularly helpful. I won’t explain them completely, but just clarify a bit. Also, I’m drawing a lot of help here from a previous pastor’s podcast, which I will happily share with you. Starting in verse 8, we see the utterance of wisdom and the utterance of knowledge. These are not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, making them a bit more difficult to understand. I think just simply saying that they are gifts where someone has unique wisdom or knowledge, and then is able to share that for the building up of the church, such as preaching or teaching, will suffice for now.

In verse 9 we have the gift of faith. This is not saving faith, since all believers have been given saving faith since they are believers, but rather this is a gift where someone believes or trusts God for something that is not promised in Scripture. Trusting God to heal, provide, or something like this, with seemingly supernatural faith.

Then we have the gift of healing and miracles, which are rather straightforward. Someone gifted in such a way that God uses them and their prayers as the means to heal someone or perform a miracle. Then we have the gift of prophesy, which we’ll talk about more as Paul discusses it in the following chapters. This seems to be where God reveals something to a believer so that they might share it with other believers. Some limit this to preaching, but I would say that it includes, but is not limited, to preaching. Next, we have the ability to distinguish between spirits, which seems to be a kind of spiritual discernment. And then lastly, the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues. Again, we’ll look at this more as Paul talks about it in the following chapters. I’ll simply say that this is a gift where someone speaks in known human languages or another kind of heavenly language. We can parse out which one or if it is both later, and then of course, the ability to translate it for the church.

Okay, with all of that out there, let me say this. We have not been told or promised that every gift is always present in every church. We are simply told that God has gifted each and every one of us in Christ, by the same Spirit, according to how He thinks we should be gifted. This is not the exhaustive list, but it is a list.

2.) Every believer has been uniquely gifted so that we would be dependent on one another

Paul continues on after listing these examples of spiritual gifts and makes a larger argument that really can be boiled down to this. Every believer has been gifted, but no believer has all the gifts. And since this is the case, it makes us as a church wholly dependent on one another. The way that Paul does this is through the illustration of a body and its many parts. He writes that we have all be saved by the same Spirit and baptized into one body. We are all a part of the church universal, and for us, we are a part of the church locally. We are the body of Christ. And just like a human body has so many different parts that are necessarily for growth, health, and survival, so the church has many different parts that are necessary for growth, health, and survival. And those parts in the church, are you all. Those parts are individuals that make up the church.

Listen to how masterfully Paul paints this illustration. Starting in verse 14, he writes, “14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”

Each person in the church is absolutely necessary, and God has forced us to see and recognize this by not gifting us all the same. And just because we are not all gifted the same does not make any of us less a part of the body. We are all needed. Each and every one of you are needed in our church. 

And if you are sitting there and you are thinking, “yes, I know this is true. I am very needed because I’m gifted a bit more than this person or that person.” If that’s you, Paul has a warning. Or if you are sitting there and you are thinking, “Well, I am not as needed as some of the others in this church. I might have this small insignificant gift and compared to this person; I am not really as needed.” If that’s you, listen to what Paul says here in verse 21.

He writes, “21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.”

Do you see what he is saying? Every part of the body is needed, and for one part to say to another part, you aren’t needed is so very wrong. And how much you are needed is not determined by whether or not your gift seems weak or strong, or if what you do happens in front of people on Sunday mornings. None of that determines how important you and vital you are for this church body. Paul makes the point to say that some of the most important parts of the body are not even seen, acknowledged, or talked about. A previous pastor commented and said, “What a nice pair of lungs you have”, and yet, your every breath relies on them. And not only that, but there are parts of the human body that we treat with a greater modesty because of their importance, not because they lack importance. 

The point is this. Our church, all churches, the body of Christ, is made of up uniquely gifted individual. All of whom are absolutely necessary for the health of the body. And it is because of this we are all dependent on one another, which means that we must commit to one another, which is the next point.

3.) Believers should commit to one another

If you will, look with me at verse 26. Paul writes, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” Now, I want you to ask yourself, is this a reality in your own life? Do find yourself suffering when others in the church suffer? Do you grieve when they grieve? When they are honored, do you rejoice? If your answer is yes, thanks be to God. You already know the value of this point. If your answer is no, I want to call you to change things in your life so that this might be the case.

If you don’t find yourself feeling the burdens and joy of your brothers and sisters, you are living your life too disconnected from the body of Christ. Think about your own body. When you have an infection somewhere, your entire body knows it. You get a fever and your whole body is affected. Your whole body bears the pain and seeks to heal the one part that is hurting. So it is with the body of Christ. And if you find yourself never feeling the pain, then that might mean you are not meaningfully connected to a body.

And so I would sincerely urge you to connect yourself. The way that we do that here is through church membership. Lots of churches do this in different ways, and the way we do it is simply an attempt at obeying this text, and other texts like it. In joining our church, becoming a member, you are committing yourself, formally, to us and we are committing to you. We share our testimonies, welcome one another into our number, and we walk together as a body. We share our hurts and our joys so that they might be shared, and we share in the hurts and joys of others who share them with us. 

But if there is no commitment, there is no meaningful accountability. It’s a bit like the man who dates a woman for 10 years and wont propose. To him we would all say, you will not be able to love one another in truly meaningful way until you commit to one another truly in marriage. So it is with the church. We have a process and a covenant, not so we are an exclusive club, rather it is so that our commitment is meaningful and real.

If you still don’t believe me on this, ask others. When Shelby and I have walked through hard things, when we have burdens, we have literally felt them become lighter as we have shared them with this church. I want that for every Christ follower, because that is how the Bible talks about the church. The idea of a believer living in isolation from the church, disconnected from a body of Christ, should seem totally wrong.

One of my professors explained this truth like this. He said, “what would you do if you were walking down the sidewalk and you saw a severed toe?” You would immediately think, what in the world is this doing here? It’s not supposed to be here like this, it’s supposed to be connected to a body! And, left alone, you can be sure that this toe will die. Maybe you would throw it in some ice and make a Facebook post looking for the person missing a toe. Probably not, but you get the point. A Christian walking alone, apart from the church, needs to connect to a body. Our unique gifts make us dependent on one another and to live this out like Paul is urging us to requires a commitment to one another.

4.) As those committed to one another, we should pursue and exercise our gifts for the building up of the church

Look with me starting in verse 27. Paul writes, “27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.” So again, we see that the individual members of the body are all gifted in different ways, called to play a different role, and he gives examples. 

Then, he asks 7 rhetorical questions. He asks, “29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” The answer to all of these is, of course not! And because of that, can’t you see that we are needed. But not only that, we need everyone to be exercising their gift for the body. It’s not just that you are gifted uniquely and should be committed to a body, but it is that you must then exercise your gift for your sake and our sake, for the sake of the body.

The spiritual gifts given to believers were never meant to separate us into categories of more or less holy, it has nothing to do with that. They were never meant to be kept within, never exercised. And they were never meant to be used for selfish reasons, to boast in one’s abilities. Rather, they were given to us to bring us together, to be exercised, and to be used specifically for the building up of the body of Christ.

Paul says in verse 31, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts”. There are a few different ways to interpret what he is saying here, but I think what he is referring to is the gifts that we should pursue the gifts that more easily build up the body. We’ll see this more in the next couple chapters when he discusses prophecy and tongues. He says, in chapter 14 verse 1, “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophecy.” And then he will go on to say that the reason for this is because tongues have to be interpreted, whereas prophecy is readily understood, and therefore builds up easier. But regardless, the point he is making here is that the gifts should be pursued and are meant for the building up of the body of Christ. That is the reason for them.

The last thing he says at the end of this chapter is, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” I won’t dive into this now, as he is going to show us that way in the next chapter. But I will note that the way he is going to show us is the way of love, and the unreplaceable importance of it.

There might be several questions circling through your minds now. How do I pursue the gifts? What does it look like to exercise them? What even is my gift, are you sure I have one? Once we work through these chapters, we can address other questions in a Sunday School. But we don’t need all those answers just yet to live out this text. To live out this text we must simply believe these truths and aim for them to be reflected in our church. Trust that God has gifted all believers and that He has done so uniquely to make us dependent on one another. And then we ought to commit to one another, and pursue and exercise our gifts for the building up of the church. Let us be a people who seek to obey God in this way and trust that we will be greatly blessed in our obedience.