Many parts of one body
This week's study is on 1 Corinthians 12:12-27:
These verses come up a lot. But Christians still disassociate themselves from the church or try to claim that other parts of the church aren't part of the church. It's madness, the same as if my finger were to try to amputate itself or to cut off the foot. The parts may be different, but it's the same body.
I've heard Christians say "I'm not a Christian, because Christianity is a religion and I'm not religious." But then when you ask them what they believe, it's everything a Christian believes. They just don't want to be part of the body. But you can't not be part of the body if you're a Christian. It's part of the deal. How can the finger be separate from the body and still be a finger? If you have God's spirit, and believe that Christ died for our sins, you're in! You can't separate yourself!
I've also heard Christians say "Well, that guy is not operating in the body, because he's doing something I don't like," or "Well that other denomination are not Christians because they describe communion differently or sing different worship songs." In the first place, how is a person going to make that determination? God knows who is his and he doesn't need our opinion on the matter. But we can't say "We don't need that part of the church because we're better." We're one mass.
If one part suffers, we all suffer. Think about that in context of the world we live in now. Christians are being attacked, robbed, tortured, and crucified in another part of the world. Can we be separate from them as though their suffering doesn't matter? It's interesting that we can live as though they don't exist, and that they must live as though we didn't exist. I wonder if they think about us as well, in the west, and rejoice at how lucky we are to be able to worship freely. What other body could have one end being pushed into a wood chipper while the other end happily enjoys an ice cream?
It happens in our local churches too. Someone is sick, or in need, and the rest of us live as though their suffering doesn't exist. Someone is blessed and there is no sense of rejoicing with them at their blessing. We feel our own joy and pain clearly, and maybe that of our closest loved ones, but the rest of our congregation? The church in general? Nothing, except maybe a sense of duty.
I'm not sure why things are that way. Is it a lack of love? Are there simply too many of us and we can't keep track of us all? Is it a lack of relationship? We hear that each generation somehow has fewer interpersonal skills than the last. The way Paul describes it, there was a general sense of togetherness amongst the church in his day. People on one side of the Roman Empire were taking up a collection to help people on the other side to survive a famine. People were looking out for widows among them. It sounds very different to today.
I don't even know how God handles this stuff with us. I mean, we can't all help everyone all the time. I wonder if the nudge of his spirit to help specific people, or the way certain plights resonate more with some of us than others might be God's way of coordinating it. But I fear there may be something more to these verses and that our love may be colder than it needs to be. How many people do we know from other churches or denominations? Do we even know everyone in our own congregation?
If God lays a burden on our hearts, for lack of a better term, to help someone, or to pray for them, do we shrug it off? Is it too inconvenient? When the legs are telling the brain they're about to be destroyed in the wood chipper, is the mouth too happy eating ice cream and enjoying its blessing to worry about calling for help? Are the hands pretending they're not there, or expecting the feet to run to safety like they've always done? We can only answer those questions ourselves, I think.
It's weird to think of ourselves as being parts of a larger organism, like a holy swarm of bees or something. But that's what we are, in a way. We're the swarm of Christians that forms Christ's physical presence in the world we live in. His love is expressed partly through us. We may have a part in a given expression of love, or it may be someone else, but playing that role and being used to deliver that love is incredibly important.
When there is persecution, or a scandal, or a cause for rejoicing, we can't just be like "Well, I'm not a part of that" or "that's just for us." We all have our place, and we all have our job to do. Pray God shows us what it is and helps us to value each other the way he does.
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being 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 stop being 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? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
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. But God has put the body together, giving 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. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
These verses come up a lot. But Christians still disassociate themselves from the church or try to claim that other parts of the church aren't part of the church. It's madness, the same as if my finger were to try to amputate itself or to cut off the foot. The parts may be different, but it's the same body.
I've heard Christians say "I'm not a Christian, because Christianity is a religion and I'm not religious." But then when you ask them what they believe, it's everything a Christian believes. They just don't want to be part of the body. But you can't not be part of the body if you're a Christian. It's part of the deal. How can the finger be separate from the body and still be a finger? If you have God's spirit, and believe that Christ died for our sins, you're in! You can't separate yourself!
I've also heard Christians say "Well, that guy is not operating in the body, because he's doing something I don't like," or "Well that other denomination are not Christians because they describe communion differently or sing different worship songs." In the first place, how is a person going to make that determination? God knows who is his and he doesn't need our opinion on the matter. But we can't say "We don't need that part of the church because we're better." We're one mass.
If one part suffers, we all suffer. Think about that in context of the world we live in now. Christians are being attacked, robbed, tortured, and crucified in another part of the world. Can we be separate from them as though their suffering doesn't matter? It's interesting that we can live as though they don't exist, and that they must live as though we didn't exist. I wonder if they think about us as well, in the west, and rejoice at how lucky we are to be able to worship freely. What other body could have one end being pushed into a wood chipper while the other end happily enjoys an ice cream?
It happens in our local churches too. Someone is sick, or in need, and the rest of us live as though their suffering doesn't exist. Someone is blessed and there is no sense of rejoicing with them at their blessing. We feel our own joy and pain clearly, and maybe that of our closest loved ones, but the rest of our congregation? The church in general? Nothing, except maybe a sense of duty.
I'm not sure why things are that way. Is it a lack of love? Are there simply too many of us and we can't keep track of us all? Is it a lack of relationship? We hear that each generation somehow has fewer interpersonal skills than the last. The way Paul describes it, there was a general sense of togetherness amongst the church in his day. People on one side of the Roman Empire were taking up a collection to help people on the other side to survive a famine. People were looking out for widows among them. It sounds very different to today.
I don't even know how God handles this stuff with us. I mean, we can't all help everyone all the time. I wonder if the nudge of his spirit to help specific people, or the way certain plights resonate more with some of us than others might be God's way of coordinating it. But I fear there may be something more to these verses and that our love may be colder than it needs to be. How many people do we know from other churches or denominations? Do we even know everyone in our own congregation?
If God lays a burden on our hearts, for lack of a better term, to help someone, or to pray for them, do we shrug it off? Is it too inconvenient? When the legs are telling the brain they're about to be destroyed in the wood chipper, is the mouth too happy eating ice cream and enjoying its blessing to worry about calling for help? Are the hands pretending they're not there, or expecting the feet to run to safety like they've always done? We can only answer those questions ourselves, I think.
It's weird to think of ourselves as being parts of a larger organism, like a holy swarm of bees or something. But that's what we are, in a way. We're the swarm of Christians that forms Christ's physical presence in the world we live in. His love is expressed partly through us. We may have a part in a given expression of love, or it may be someone else, but playing that role and being used to deliver that love is incredibly important.
When there is persecution, or a scandal, or a cause for rejoicing, we can't just be like "Well, I'm not a part of that" or "that's just for us." We all have our place, and we all have our job to do. Pray God shows us what it is and helps us to value each other the way he does.
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