1 Corinthians Episode 17: One Body Composed of Many Parts

Paul teaches the Corinthian church about spiritual gifts, motivating them to delight in all the gifts and exercise them fully and humbly.

- Podcast Transcript - 

Wes

Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you're interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today's episode.

This is episode 17 in our 1 Corinthians Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled One Body Composed of Many Parts, where we'll discuss 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. I'm Wes Treadway and I'm here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we're looking at today?

Andy

Well, first and foremost we're going to get a beautiful image of the body of Christ, as that of the body of Christ with different members. And the members do not have the same function, but they are a unity. And fundamentally the idea is we really do need each other, and we really are interconnected with each other.

One of the sweetest verses in all of this that I meditated when I wrote my book on heaven was if one part of the body is honored, the whole body is honored with it. So, we don't have to be jealous of each other. We're set free from that. I want the other members to flourish, and I flourish when they flourish. So, we're not in competition with each other.

What we're going to see here is the beginning of Paul addressing problems in the Corinthian church with spiritual gifts. And there are three I discern over these three chapters in particular: pride, a lack of love, and disorderliness. So, we're going to address each of them in turn, but now we're going to address the issue of pride. And he's going to attack their pride by talking about the fact that we are one body and each of us members of it. There shouldn't be any pride toward each other in the manifestation of spiritual gifts.

Wes

Well, let me go ahead and read verses 12-31 in chapter 12 as we begin.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 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. 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. 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? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

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." On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 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, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 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. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Andy, what's Paul's main idea in verses 12-13 and how can meditating on the complete unity that we have with other saints in Christ help us to use our gifts properly?

Andy

What Paul's doing here is he's using an analogy from the physical world to go over into the spiritual world. This is just good teaching. He uses the analogy of the physical body. We all have bodies, and we see each other's bodies, we see each other's eyes and ears and nose and hands and feet. And so, we're used to that. And he's using that to teach us about spiritual gifts and the mystical body of Christ, so to speak, the church, the union that we have with other Christians, and he uses the body analogy. And he's teaching this to teach the unity we all have with each other.

The concept of unity is vital in theology. It's the unity of the Trinity, which is a great mystery. How the Father, the Son and the Spirit are one God. There's the mystery of unity between a husband and wife, the two will become one. And there's the mystery of the unity of all Christians with one another. And that manifestation in the church is in two senses: the universal church, a mystical unity that we have with all people that have ever been converted, living or dead, and then the unity that we have together in a local church manifestation. And so, he's talking about that now with spiritual gifts, and he says you are part of each other. And he's using it to destroy pride, as I said at the beginning of this podcast. He wants them to understand how one we are together, we're not in competition with each other. There should be no pride. So, he uses the analogy of the human body to teach about our roles in the church.

Wes

What does verse 13 then teach us about baptism and what does it mean that we were all given the one Spirit to drink?

Andy

Yeah, this is a very important verse for me in understanding water baptism. Actually, 1 Corinthians 12:13 is vital as I teach people who I'm about to baptize, what is water baptism? I believe based on John the Baptist's ministry and the water baptism he did and then the promise that one would come after him greater than he. And why is he greater? "Because his baptism is greater than mine. I only baptize in water. He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 3:16 paraphrase). And so, baptism means immersion, and so Jesus came along and he immerses us in the Holy Spirit. And that I think is a picture of conversion, especially here in this verse. In 1 Corinthians 12:13, it is by the Spirit we were immersed into Christ. By the Spirit we were immersed into the body of Christ. And so fundamentally then, water baptism, actual physical water baptism is a picture of a Spirit baptism that has already happened if you're a genuine Christian.

Now we are Baptists and what that means is we're only going to baptize people we believe have already been Spirit baptized into the body of Christ. We are going to give an outward and physical manifestation in the physical water of a Spirit baptism we believe has already taken place. And how do we know it? Well, going back to verse 3, "No one can say Jesus is Lord except speaking by the Spirit of God." And so, if they can say Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead, we're going to accept them as Christians. We'll ask a few other questions, but we're going to accept them as Christians, and then we'll do water baptism. And that water baptism doesn't save anybody. It's not required to go to heaven, but it is commanded in the Great Commission, and it is a picture of a Spirit baptism that Jesus has done immersing individuals into himself.

Now concerning the second half of your question, "He has given us the Spirit to drink," I think it goes back to the woman at the well. And Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14). The idea is one of life-we need water to live-and then one of refreshment, of satisfaction, of reviving our strength, of the ability to produce fruit. Like you could think of a field and then the rains come and enable it to bear harvest. And so, it's the blessing of God poured out on an individual, refreshing them and giving them life and enabling them to bear fruit.

Also, Jesus said in John 7:37, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." So that's, "Come to me for life. Come to me for satisfaction." But then he keeps saying, "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Streams of living water will flow from within him'" (John 7:38). So that's water going out from us. The idea then is as we're immersed in Christ, we're able then to be a conduit of blessing to other people. We're able to give them the gospel if they're lost and give them teaching and blessings of the Spirit that refresh them. So that's a beautiful picture. We're all given the same Spirit to drink.

Wes

Why do you think Paul is so desirous of teaching the diversity of gifts and roles in the body of Christ in verse 14? And how does understanding this diversity help us to serve better?

Andy

All right, so he's trying to get at difference or diversity within unity. This is very clear in Ephesians 4 where he says, "There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is overall and through all and in all, but to each one of us, grace has been given according to the measure of Christ" (Ephesians 4:5-7). That's spiritual gifts. So, it's one, one, one, one, but... So, but goes in a different direction. So, what we got is unity and then diversity. And the diversity is spiritual gifts. We have different roles to play. And what was happening is because of those different roles, people were being prideful, they were being arrogant, and others were denigrating their own role. So, we're going to see the two different, the opposite errors. We're going to see somebody saying, "I don't belong because I'm not a prophet. Because I don't speak in tongues, I'm really not part of it." And so, they're not using their gifts.

Conversely, those that are speaking in tongues and are prophets, they're upfront and they say, "I don't need you." And Paul's getting at both of those errors. Don't say, "I'm not part of the body if I'm not a showy upfront person." Conversely, if I am a showy upfront person, don't be arrogant toward people who aren't and think you're better than them. So, the body analogy is we are one body, but we have different roles to play.

Wes

Let's deal with the first of those wrong attitudes that Paul seeks to address here in verses 15-20. Why is it harmful for someone to say, "Because I do not preach or serve in some famous or visible way, I have little or nothing to contribute"? I mean that seems humble. What's wrong with that attitude?

Andy

Well, it's wrong because the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good and for the building up of the body of Christ to full maturity. Everybody needs to do their work. There are no superfluous things. If someone's not doing their job, something's lacking in the overall growth of the church. I'm going to go to the two journeys. The individuals will not be growing appropriately or apace in holiness, personal holiness, and they will not be sharing the gospel and winning the lost as they should. As a healthy church is functioning and all the gifts are flowing, and people with the gifts of giving are giving to those that are needy and people with the gifts of hospitality, all that whole thing's running well, and a lost person comes into that says, "I've never seen anything like this." "By this will all men know that you're my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35)

Spiritual gifts are manifestations of love. That's why we're going to go to the love chapter. They are ways of showing love. If they're not functioning, something's defective. Imagine for example, all of the people with gifts of hospitality thought, "I'm not part of it. I don't have prophecy or tongues. I'm not doing hospitality." Well then you don't have any of that going on. The church will be defective and so we can't have that. You can't say, "Because I'm not X, I'm not really included here; I'm not part of the team." So that would be you thinking too lowly of yourself, all right? Paul says in Romans 12, "You should not think too highly of yourself" (Romans 12:3 paraphrase). We'll get to that later in this same section. Don't think too highly of yourself, but don't think too lowly of yourself either. Don't think, "If I don't have this gift, I don't really have a role to play."

"Spiritual gifts are manifestations of love."

Wes

What point does Paul make in verse 17 to counter this false humility?

Andy

Yeah, he says the different parts of the body are given to do different functions, like going back to hospitality or the gift of giving or administration. I mean you think about all the things. I look at the gifted people in our church. Let's take an event that we want to have in the fall. We have a church-wide picnic. Now that picnic is a social time in which there's a cookout. There's all kinds of food that people bring. There's a potluck aspect where people bring desserts or bring entrees. We have hundreds of people that come to this thing. You look at everything that needs to happen for that, okay, you got forks, knives and spoons, plastic forks, knives and spoons and plates and tables and tablecloths would be nice, make it look nice. Then you need chairs. Do people bring their own? Yes, but maybe others don't have chairs. So, we can do that.

And there's somebody or a group of somebodies that's really good at thinking about everything that needs to happen to make that happen. I do not think I have a pronounced gift of administration. There are people on our staff and among our elders who do. If I were running the church picnic, there'd be an overabundance of spoons and there'd be no forks. I mean, maybe not that, but something would be missing. That's the gift. The gift of administration is nothing significant is missing. Everything's addressed. That's what the gift is like.

And so fundamentally, if the whole church had my gift of preaching, first of all, my gift wouldn't be needed because everybody would already know what I'm going to say. Beyond that, you're not having a church-wide picnic because it would be handled poorly. And so, if the entire body were one of the functions, where would the other functions be? That's the point Paul's making. And also, it gets to a grotesque image. If the entire body were an eye and there's no feet, no hands, no arms, I don't want to see that. That's a monster. That's grotesque. It's an eyeball rolling down the road. That's gross. So, he's saying that's grotesque. Instead, God has made a beautiful human body with balance and symmetry and parts that have different functions.

Wes

How do we see the amazing wisdom of God in arranging both the parts of the physical human body and the diversity of the body of Christ, the church and its spiritual gifts?

Andy

Wow. I think it's stunning. I really do. I think, I don't want to get off on a tangent here, but evolution. I don't know how you evolve into a complex human body with different systems that each system has its own role to play but depends on the other systems to do their job. So, the circulatory system depends on the pulmonary system to get air into it. The digestive system does its job to give nutrients to every cell in the body just so it stays alive. On and on it goes. How these things evolved, I'll never know. But just even what I'm getting into, those major systems, the neurological systems, the skeletal system, the muscular system, the nervous system, all of these things have a role to play.

Now Paul usually, he's using language of externals. We can see hands, eyes, ears, mouth, but we know that behind that there are systems. It's stunningly complex and it's a marvel, "I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:13a) Well, Paul's taking that analogy and bringing it over to the church. The church also is fearfully and wonderfully made, and Paul talks about it in the coming ages. The powers and principalities may see the wide diversity of the plan of God in the body of Christ, the skillful arranging of the sovereignty of God in building the church of Christ. Some of that's coming home with these spiritual gifts.

Wes

Now though we would not say that the sense of smell is maybe as important as eyesight, we understand how impoverished our experience of the world would be if we never caught the scent of let's say a rose or our Thanksgiving dinner with our family. How does this relate to the varying importance and significance of spiritual gift ministries?

Andy

Some people, I don't know how they do it, but they go through the five senses and say, what percentage of the knowledge of the surrounding physical world do we get through our eyesight, through our ears, through our nose? And it's huge on eyesight, but you're right, our full experience is with the five senses. And God arranged them, and God made the rose to smell sweet and some flowers literally have no aroma. Sometimes you pluck a wildflower and put it to your nose, and it has no aroma, but it's beautiful. Some flowers are not that beautiful. Some of them are very simple, and I don't think most people think of dandelions as a beautiful thing. I think if you brought your wife a bouquet of dandelions, I think she might be offended. It's just kind of how they are, but it's just different.

And so, the world is made up of different physical things that come at our bodies in different ways, and God's given us the five senses to experience them in a beautiful way. And so, he made the tongue with its regions of taste buds to taste sweet and bitter and sour, and those are just simple words, just like colors, like red, blue, green, they're hues. So also, there are different flavors such as papaya or pineapple or banana, different fruits. It's just marvelous, and God did it because he loves us. The diversity of it. And so also with the body of Christ, he's given us different abilities to a different degree. I think different local churches have different arrangements of the gifts and they have different roles to play in the overall plan of God. It's really quite remarkable.

"There are different flavors such as papaya or pineapple or banana, different fruits. It's just marvelous, and God did it because he loves us. The diversity of it. And so also with the body of Christ."

Wes

Now, we've been talking about this kind of false humility that says, well, because I don't have such and such gift, I don't belong to the body. Verse 21 seems to be the exact opposite attitude of what Paul's been addressing or addressed in verses 15 and 16. Why is this sort of arrogance among spiritually gifted members of the body of Christ so repugnant to God?

Andy

Well, first of all, I think most of theologians have zeroed in on pride as the kind of central formative sin of the human race. I don't think every sin can be directly connected to pride, but this is definitely an attitude of pride, "I don't need you." And I think we've heard of some famous preachers that actually say to their support team, "I am the show, and everybody comes on a Sunday morning to hear me." That's the clear display of this attitude, I think. This very attitude Paul's getting at, "I don't need you." But such a person is very short-sighted. How do people even know he's preaching today? How do people have seats to sit in? How do people hear him? Because the AV guys are doing their job. How do guests, how are they made to feel welcome? Where do they put their cars before they ever get in the place? It's just arrogance.

Instead, we ought to be deeply humbled. You ought to realize... Remember those three questions in 1 Corinthians 4:7? Who makes you different than anyone else? That fits into this chapter, doesn't it? God does. It's God that arranges the parts of body as he wills. Who makes you different than anyone else? And what do you have that you didn't receive? That's spiritual gifts, isn't it? Every gift you have was given to you by God. And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? That fits in perfectly with this chapter, isn't it? These people are arrogant. They're saying, "I don't need you." Oh, but they do. Oh, they do. And they need to recognize it.

So, I think a local church and the elders, for me as a senior pastor, that you can say from your heart to a brother or sister in Christ, "I need you. I'm grateful for you. Your ministry means something to me. I cherish you." And people really believe it because it's coming from the heart. That's unifying, that's not divisive, that doesn't create bitterness. That creates a feeling of, "Hey, I want to do even better. I want to use my gift all the more." So, this humility that says, "I need you, we need each other, I'm thankful for what you do," that is a Christ-like attitude.

Wes

In verses 22-26, Paul starts to address less presentable or more presentable parts. How does the fact that the physical body's less presentable parts are treated with special modesty? How is that an illustration of the way we honor weaker members of the body of Christ?

Andy

I think at least we can say... It's obviously a bit of an awkward image. He's talking about undergarments and clothing, unpresentable parts so that they're not seen. But I think the idea here is this, there is no member of the body of Christ that's superfluous or not needed or can be discarded with no concern. Jesus dealt with everyone with tremendous seriousness. You think about the 12-year-old daughter of Jairus and how he went and raised her from the dead, Talitha cumi, and he loved her. He treated her gently (Mark 5:35-43). Think about lepers, think about old people, men, women didn't matter. If you're human, you have value, you have worth. If you're redeemed, you've been given immense worth by the blood of Christ.

And so, the idea is that we're going to treat everyone with special honor and there's going to be some people that really honestly can't contribute much. I mean, maybe it's end-of-life issues. Maybe they're in a nursing home and they really aren't going to be able to do much. Maybe they have Alzheimer's. They're going to be given a kind of special honor and a special care and special physical provisions and cherished and spoken of well. They're going to get special treatment. Their needs are going to be covered in ways that the rest of us we're expecting them to care for their own needs. We're expecting them to raise the spoon to their own mouth, but there are going to be people that literally can't, and so we're going to give them a special consideration. So that's the way I read it. The idea here is there is no superfluous member of the body of Christ and there's some that are going to need special treatment, some special honor given to them, and that's what Paul's talking about here.

"There is no member of the body of Christ that's superfluous or not needed or can be discarded with no concern. Jesus dealt with everyone with tremendous seriousness."

Wes

Why is the idea of unity and humility and mutual honoring that's expressed in verses 25 and 26, so vital to a proper understanding of spiritual gift ministries?

Andy

Well, I alluded to this earlier in the podcast, but it was a beautiful insight that I had on the issue of rewards and heavenly experience of rewards. Rewards are about heaven. That's where we get them. We don't want them here on earth. You don't want to be rewarded now. That's the whole point of the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew 6. He didn't want you to be rewarded in full now. And so, in heaven, we're going to receive our rewards. Well, how are other people going to feel about my rewards? Well in heaven, you're going to be thrilled at my rewards and I am going to be thrilled in yours. And I will not be jealous of you because I'll be done being jealous forever. I'll not be arrogant because I'll be done being arrogant forever. There will be no jealousy and no arrogance. Instead, as one body of Christ, we are all going to rejoice in the honors given to brothers and sisters in Christ. The more we think about that now, the better it will be. We will not be in competition with each other.

My job toward you, Wes, is to make you as rich as possible however I can do that on Judgment Day. I do it by teaching the word and pointing the way from the word of God. You do the same for me by inspiring me, the way you lead worship, the way you help me, and encourage me, and lift up my flagging spirits by your gifts. Help me want to keep going. You're helping me store up treasure in heaven. So, we're not in competition with each other. Same thing with other churches, other pastors. I want them to do well. I want them to preach right doctrine. I want them to be healthy. I want them to be flourishing. I want them to lead lots of people to Christ. And so, I think 1 Corinthians 12:26 is a powerful image and a powerful remedy to the competition and divisiveness and arrogance that we see sometimes among people.

Wes

What point does Paul return to in verse 27?

Andy

He goes back to the body of Christ and says we're all members of it. If you're a Christian, you're part of the body of Christ. So, let's go back. Let's center on this and let's sum this whole thing up. If you are a member of the body of Christ, you have a role to play. You need to play it. Don't think too highly of yourself and don't think too lowly of yourself. Play the role God has given you to play.

Wes

Now, verse 28 is a bit interesting as we get a listing of gifts. What should we make of this listing of gifted roles and the order of them in verse 28?

Andy

Okay, this is one of my times to say I don't know, but I think just like Ephesians 4:11, "he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers." Those five all have clearly the delivery of the word of God. Apostles and prophets deliver the word of God, and evangelists take the word of God to distant regions and pastor-teachers apply it to local churches. So that's a delivery system of the word of God. I think we get the same ordering here.

Now, the prophets listed here after apostles in redemptive history then must be New Testament prophets that come along based on apostolic testimony. Realize they didn't have Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John yet. They had a collection of stories that were told by eyewitnesses. Luke went around and collected those stories to write his gospel. But you have those, those apostles were eyewitnesses of the Lord's majesty. Then second-generation people came along who were prophets, and they added some doctrines. They added some information. If they're good prophets, right prophets, not false prophets, they added doctrinal insights. And so therefore, the apostles and prophets are developing the New Testament theology. As long as they're doing the right thing, the New Testament theology is being built in the days before the New Testament itself was written.

And so, apostles and prophets are the first two, and then teachers come along, and they unfold the ramifications logically of the word of God that has been delivered by apostles and prophets. So that's how I understand the first three. Then after that comes a bunch of other things, and that's basically how I read the ordering here.

Wes

How are verses 29 and 30 a renewal of earlier themes in this chapter? And what is Paul's point here as he nears the end of chapter 12?

Andy

Well, he's saying, look, we don't all have the same gifts. So, he's expecting the answer, "No." These are rhetorical questions. Are all apostles? No. Are all prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Do all work miracles? No. Now here's an important statement. Do all speak in tongues? Now, the charismatic movement sometimes said, if you don't speak in tongues, you haven't received the gift of the Holy Spirit yet. I understand why they say that from some specific passages in the Book of Acts, but it's just not true. "If you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you don't belong to Christ" (Romans 8:9b). So, it is not true that everyone speaks in tongues. Paul will say in chapter 14:18, "I speak in tongues more than any of you." So, he spoke in tongues, but here he is saying, but not everyone does, and yet they're Christians. So, you can not speak in tongues and still be a fruitful, Spirit-filled Christian. So, I think that's an important statement, but the big picture, what he's saying is we don't all have the same gifts and yet we're all part of the same body.

Wes

Andy, what should we make of Paul's final word in verse 31, and what final thoughts do you have for us on this chapter?

Andy

Well, it comes down sometimes to a translation. One translation says you should, or he's commanding them to eagerly desire the greater gifts. And others, he says, "But you, you are desiring the greater gifts," which is the problem. People are wishing they had the upfront gifts, and if they don't get them, they don't feel like they're part of the body. So, it does make a difference how you translate it, and either of those fits in here well. If he's saying you should desire gifts you don't have yet, that's a pretty significant insight. What that teaches me is it is at least possible that you don't get all your spiritual gifts at conversion. It's not just a matter of discovering a package that was originally given to you.

Sometimes I think God equips people when they step out in faith to do a mission trip or do something, and he gives them a gift that they didn't have up to that point. There's no verse that tells me that you get all your gifts all at once. He doesn't say anything about the timeframe. Just says every Christian has gifts, but he doesn't say that you can't get more gifts or new gifts. If you take on a role he may gift you for that. So, at that point then you would say, "I would desire greater gifts." Now, what are the greater gifts? I think what is greater gift?

I think not all gifts have equal impact. I think the most impactful thing in the life of the church is the preaching of the word. The public preaching of the word is the most influential thing in a local church. I think most people, thoughtful people would say that, and I'm not saying it because I'm a preacher. It's just because its true. It primes the pump for everything. And so that's a greater or more impactful gift than let's say, the gift of hospitality or administration. Now, all of them are important, but it could be you should earnestly desire gifts that will have the maximum impact. Or within your gift set, you should earnestly desire to be greater and greater at that gift. That could be it as well. And he's going to go from this into the most important aspect of all, which is love, and we'll get to that next time.

Wes

Andy, what final thoughts do you have for us on this passage that we've looked at today?

Andy

Well, like we said in the last podcast, this whole teaching here is fundamentally that you should discover your spiritual gifts, develop them and deploy them, use them. But in this section, it's like do it with humility and don't think too highly or too lowly of yourself. Get in there and use your gift and esteem the body of Christ, esteem others. Be genuinely thankful for the people around you and for their spiritual gifts.

Wes

This has been episode 17 in our 1 Corinthians Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 18 entitled The Excellence of Love Part 1, where we'll discuss 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.