One Body with Many Members
7/18/25 Bible Thought (1 Corinthians 12)
The Corinthian church was a divided church.
We’ve seen this in chapter after chapter and truly right from the beginning Paul was writing so that there would be no divisions among them (1 Cor. 1:10). They were divided regarding their preferred leader—whether it was Paul, Apollos, or Peter (1 Cor. 1:12). They likewise were divided at the Lord’s Table as the wealthier members mistreated others (1 Cor. 11:17-22).
Now, in 1 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul transitions to addressing the topic of spiritual gifts and their functioning in the church. This is an area that certainly could have divided the church further.
One of the main things that we need to see is that the gifts were given by God for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7) and that they were given, “as he [the Spirit] wills” (1 Cor. 12:11).
Now, Christians disagree as to whether or not the miraculous gifts in this chapter are still in place today and I won’t be making a case in today’s reading for or against continuationism versus cessationism.
Rather, what I’d like us to see is that the Spirit liberally gave gifts of varying kinds to the Corinthian church and certainly He’s at work in our church(es) today through His people. With this, each and every part of the body is essential.
Paul concluded, “For the body does not consist of one member but of many (1 Cor. 12:14).
Our physical bodies are composed of countless parts that are instrumental to our proper functioning that we aren’t even aware of.
When I made my first (and only at this point) marathon attempt and failed, I ended up finishing my attempt with a GI nurse. Stomach issues were my most besetting problem of the day. He encouraged me that it was probably a combination of stress and anxiety that I had experienced the previous few weeks.
He explained that we all have within us a “vagus nerve” that has over 100,000 nerve connections between our heads and other organs. One of the major ones is the stomach.
We can have stomach problems that don’t actually originate or even exist in our stomachs! What an amazing, fascinatingly designed feature that God has given! I found out that day that this aspect of my body, which I knew nothing about, was more important than many of the things I did know about.
So it is with the body of Christ.
Each and every member of the body today has a Spirit-given contribution to make for the common good.
When a lot of people think of “spiritual gifts” they only think of the more miraculous ones in 1 Corinthians 12. Yet, this isn’t the only list of gifts in the New Testament and certainly it was never intended to be exhaustive!
In Romans 12, the apostle Paul also mentions: prophecy, serving, teaching, exhorting (encouraging), giving, leading, and one who does acts of mercy (Rom. 12:6-8).
Some people are simply God’s messengers of encouragement in the body! I can say as one whose personality tends towards being more melancholy, you are an absolutely essential part of the church!
You might not feel like your contribution is as important as another’s, and yet every piece has their part to play. Christ alone is the head of the body and after that we’re all equals.
Our goal then, should be to find where we fit in the body, find what gifts God has given to us, and use those for the glory of God and the service of others (see 1 Pet. 4:10-11).