A number of years ago, I heard John Piper say that he was interested in Bethlehem Baptist Church, where he pastored at the time, renting some billboard space. He wanted them to do this because he had a plan. First, he wanted to put just a question on the billboard. The billboard would read in large letters, “Why do we go to the Grand Canyon?” Then, after leaving that up for a week or so, he wanted to follow it up with an answer. This time the billboard would read in large letters something like, “Because we’ve been made to marvel at and delight in something greater than ourselves.” When I heard it, I thought that it was an interesting approach, a good point, and no doubt more effective than most church marquees that say something like, “God hears kneemail.”
This week that thought from John Piper came to my mind again because I kept catching myself marveling at the Lord’s handiwork. But it wasn’t the beautiful sunsets we’ve had lately that brought this to mind or even the glory of the stars at night. What captured my attention and caused me to marvel again and again this week was studying 1 Corinthians 12 and realizing what a glorious display of beauty the church is. And when I say “the church” I don’t even mean just in general but even this specific local church, Cornerstone. You see, among the other things that this passage calls us to do and think, I believe one reason the Spirit inspired Paul to write 1 Corinthians 12 is so that we might marvel at one of the most beautiful things we could ever witness, the glorious design of the church, which is made to display God’s glory.
Though I want you to see that, I should note that Paul didn’t write 1 Corinthians 12 because the Corinthians had written him asking some question about beauty. No, it seems that he was writing one more time about division and selfishness in that congregation. Paul begins the chapter, “Now concerning,” which probably shows that he is moving on to yet another topic that the Corinthians had written to him about in a previous letter. And it seems that the topic they’d written about was regarding spiritual things. Now, I say “spiritual things” because the word translated “spiritual gifts” in verse 1 of our pew Bibles could communicate spiritual persons or spiritual things. I think it’s mainly the latter because the topic that follows is mainly concerning spiritual gifts, which is why the ESV translates it spiritual gifts. That is a fine translation, but the topic may well be a bit broader.
It seems that the Corinthians had probably included in their letter to Paul a topic regarding spiritual things. Most likely they’d made statements, depending on which group actually penned the letters, like, “Paul, some fail to realize that the Lord is showing that some of us are truly spiritual because we have extraordinary gifts like the ability to speak in tongues while others simply lack such spirituality” or “Paul, some claim that certain gifts show they’re more spiritual, and you need to correct them and maybe even forbid them from exercising certain gifts.”
So, in chapters 12-14, Paul addresses this topic of spiritual things they’ve brought to his attention, mainly focusing on this issue of spiritual gifts. However, like we already say in chapters 8-10, Paul doesn’t quickly dive into the very issue they want him to address. Remember how in chapter 8 Paul didn’t simply come out and say, “Don’t eat meat sacrificed to idols down at the temple because you’re engaging in idolatry” but rather took a few steps back and tackled the issue by talking first about their need to love and be concerned for the well-being of their brothers? Well, we see something similar here. In chapter 14, Paul will deal with the exercise and practice of spiritual gifts in the church, he takes two chapters before that to frame the discussion and point them to what should characterize their minds and hearts. And he uses what we see in chapter 12, I think, to show them first the intentional and beautiful design of the church by the sovereign Lord, gifting individuals and placing them in specific congregations with specific other individuals so that his glory might be most clearly seen. In fact, if we were to sum up the message of this chapter I think we could summarize it something like – By the working of the Holy Spirit, the Lord has wisely distributed gifts to his people and sovereignly placed them in his church so that we might effectively bring glory to his name. Let me show you each component of that by breaking down the truths revealed in this text in three sections. First, we see in verses 1-3 that:
If indeed the Corinthians were trying to argue that one group was really spiritual because they had certain gifts (perhaps those more extraordinary in nature), then Paul shuts down that argument right out of the gate. Just as we heard earlier from 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Paul begins this section with a familiar line, namely, “I don’t want you to be uninformed.” Concerning this topic of spiritual things, Paul wants them to understand better the reality of how things are. He first notes that when they were pagans, they were led away (by the spirit of this world) to worship idols. That was their natural bend or inclination. They were dead in their sins, following the prince of the power of the air and the spirit that is working in the sons of disobedience (as Paul says in Ephesians 2), so of course they were led astray to the worship of idols. That’s what unbelievers do. And their lives (in not their words as well) pronounced Jesus as unworthy of worship and devotion. They by no means bowed the knee to him but considered him accursed.
So, Paul wants them to understand something. He wants them to recognize what miracle must have happened for them now to be standing in a place where they have walked away from the worship of idols and proclaimed that “Jesus is Lord.” Thus, he writes, “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.”
Do you see what Paul is saying here? He’s saying, “Look, in your past, you were led away to mute idols, even cursing the Lord Jesus perhaps. Now, you’re confessing him as Lord. You want to know why? It’s because you have the Holy Spirit in you working to open your eyes and show you the glory of Christ.” That is, he’s saying, “If you want to measure who really has the Holy Spirit working in them and are therefore ‘spiritual,’ then you need to realize that the answer is ‘all of you.’ After all, none of you would even be truly confessing Chris as Lord if it weren’t for the work of the Holy Spirit in you.”
Now, some have read these verses and loaded them with things that aren’t there. They know that Paul is going to talk about speaking in tongues later, and it seems that some of the Corinthians have elevated this specific gift, so Paul is warning them of the danger of this, suggesting that they may actually be under demonic influence when uttering words they don’t understand, even cursing Jesus. But that’s not at all what Paul is saying here. He’s simply helping them to see that all of them have the Holy Spirit at work within them, however ordinarily or extraordinarily gifted they may be simply because you can’t truly confess Christ as Lord except by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, that’s the first foundational truth Paul wants them to see. Second, in verses 4-11 we see that:
In verses 4-11, Paul notes that individuals in the church are indeed gifted differently. He notes in verses 4-6, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empower them all in everyone.” That is, even though Paul levels the playing field as he addresses this divided church by telling them that all of them have the Spirit at work within them, he doesn’t want to suggest that everyone is the same. Rather, there are all kinds of distributions (or varieties) of gifts in the church.
Now, there are a few things to note in these verses. First, I don’t think Paul is suggesting by his mention of the Spirit, the Lord, and God that each person of the Trinity each gifts us so that we are the recipients of different gifts from each of them. After all, he sums up what he says in verses 4-6 by calling all of them “the manifestation of the Spirit,” and he will hereafter refer to these as given and apportioned by the Spirit. So, I don’t think we should read that into these verses.
Second, Paul doesn’t seem to want to make a sharp divide, as we often do, between more natural and more supernatural seeming gifts. Rather, he simply notes that there are a variety of gifts, services, and activities, some seeming quite natural and others supernatural, but both being given by the Lord.
And finally, he wants us to see that every person in the body has indeed been given “the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (v. 7). So, he’s saying, “Don’t divide over this or think you’re more special because you have one certain gift.” The reality is that every gift we have (whether more natural-seeming or supernatural-seeming is from the Spirit), and we have them as a manifestation of the Spirit in our lives for the good of the church as a whole. So, as he tells us in verses 8-10, the Spirit may give one wisdom, another knowledge, another faith, another gifts of healing, another workings of miracles, another prophecy, another the ability to distinguish spirits, another tongues, and another the interpretation of tongues, but in the end, it’s “the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (v. 11).
Now, I could talk a bit about what the nature of each of these gifts may be. In part, I’d have to guess because Paul doesn’t elaborate. I have spoken of the nature of the gift of faith, prophecy, and healing in Sunday school this past semester. And I’ll look at the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues more in chapter 14. But I don’t think Paul elaborates on each gift here because the point isn’t to dive into each gift. The point is this. Yes, there are a variety of gifts across the congregation. Some may be more spectacular or supernatural in appearance and some less so. But the reality is that they’re all given by the same Spirit, for the same end (i.e. building up the church), according to his divine wisdom and will. And that leads me to the last point I want to note this morning. In verses 12-31a, we see:
That is to say, the Lord didn’t give one person every gift or one certain gift to every member. And the reason he did this is because he wanted every one of us to have what we need, but he wanted all of us to have what we need only collectively. He made us to be interdependent. That is, he wants us to feel the need to supply and to be dependent. He wants us to realize we’re necessary and needy within the body.
In verses 12-14, he reminds us that we’re one body made up of many members. Just as the physical human body is this way, so is the body of Christ. We’ve all received the Spirit (v. 13), and we’re all brought into the church, the body of Christ (v. 14). And, God put each of us in this body, gifted in such a way, so that only collectively do we have a fully-functioning, healthy body. There’s no room for any of us to think, “Well, because I don’t have that specific gift, I’m not really part of the body.” Paul tells us just because the ear says, “Well, I’m not the eye, I must not really be part of the body” doesn’t make it less a part of the body (v. 15-16). The body needs seeing and hearing. And it may be that numerous people say, “Well, don’t you have beautiful eyes” and no one ever says, “Well, don’t you have beautiful ears,” but that doesn’t make the ears somehow not a part of the body. So, there’s no room for self-pity, simply because we don’t think our gifts are as spectacular as another.
And if everyone had the same spectacular gift, that wouldn’t be helpful either. That’d be like the whole body being an eye or an ear. You’d then have no sense or small and be unable to walk (vv. 17-18). “But as it is,” Paul tells us, “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” (v. 18). God gifted and placed each one of you in this specific church body because you supply something that this body needs. Without you, we would be lacking.
Because of that truth, just as there’s no room for self-pitying your gift or envying another’s gift, so there is no room for being prideful about our gifts or looking down on another for his or her gifting. Paul says, “The eyes 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” (vv. 21-24a).
There are parts of the human body that aren’t seen and honored. No one ever says, “What a nice pair of lungs you have.” But get rid of my lungs, and I die. People may praise our eyes, but we can live without eyes. We can’t live without lungs. So, the Lord has designed the physical body that we protest, cover, and honor parts of the body which are not naturally honored externally. In the same way, because we recognize that every member of the body is gifted in such a way that he or she is necessary, we must work to honor every member because we desperately need every member.
As Paul says in 24b-26, “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, notice the wisdom here in the Lord’s design. He could have given one or even a few of us every gift needed. But he didn’t. Instead, he distributed the gifts around the body, giving one this gift and one that gift. And one reason he did that is so that we might see our need for every member. He also did that so that we might honor every member. We might naturally want to dismiss this person or that in the world, but the Lord has made us as a church so that even the members that might be easier to overlook are like your lungs – something that doesn’t get a lot of talk when someone’s complimenting you, but something you desperately need. And if someone says your lungs are hurt and need attention to get better, you stop everything and address them, don’t you? Of course you do. You suffer if they suffer, and you rejoice when they get better.
Now, there may be occasions when you say to the one preaching on a Sunday morning that he preached a really helpful sermon or to the one singing that he or she really led well. They’re using their gifts and blessing the body. But we also need the person working in the nursery. In fact, without the nursery workers, it might not matter who’s preaching or who’s singing. We couldn’t hear, could we? So, we must make sure this other necessary, gifted person in the body is honored as well. Every time you’re blessed by the sermon, maybe you should think, “Let me go thank a nursery worker for keeping a crying baby.” We honor all because all are gifted and all are necessary. Each gifted and each necessary, just like the parts of the human body.
That’s how the Spirit apportioned gifts in the church. He gave certain gifts to each one as he say fit (some gifts he lists in verse 28). But, as he notes in verses 29-30, not any one of us has every gift, and that was intentional.
Imagine that that you had a bunch of kids, and you charged them to build a little Lego house out of blocks, but you first gave each one of them different, necessary parts of the house. No one person had everything necessary to build the house. Some might have more spectacular pieces than another, but everyone had some piece, and every piece was necessary. That would mean that nobody could be left out or dismissed if you wanted to build this Lego house. No one could be at odds and ignore another if you wanted to accomplish your goal. Well, that’s what the Lord did with the church. He made us all individually, gifted members of the church. And he gave us gifts for the common good. You and I are both needed.
So, here are a few things for us to do in light of these truths:
I mean, we might all be tempted to be lone ranger Christians or try to only congregate with people gifted like us if not for this glorious design that calls us to see people much different from us as necessary to our spiritual growth.
Some of you might not really pour yourself into ministering to others because you think you’re just not that gifted and not that much. That’s like the eye saying, “Because I am not the nose and don’t smell, I’m not needed in this body.” That is foolish. You’re needed, and the rest of us are hindered in our spiritual growth by your pulling away from this body.
Others might not get to know others because you think you have all you need. Stop it. Get to know others, even those who might be easily overlooked because you need them. The Lord has put us together because we need each other.
If the Spirit hadn’t put us together as we had, we might feel it easy and painless just to let a divide in the body remain. But as it is, we can’t. The hand can’t say, “I’m going to ignore the eye and what it sees when I go to do something.” The hand would be ignoring the benefit the eye gives to the body to its own detriment, wouldn’t it? The hand might reach toward a fire, ignoring that the eye has detected danger ahead. The same is true of the church. We divide with one another and write off one another only at our own hurt. We can’t love ourselves without loving one another. We can’t even seek our own good without seeking the good of others.
Now, you could read this text thinking that Paul is talking about the church that is made up of all the saints in all the world throughout all the ages. He’s not. He’s talking to a local church in Corinth. Therefore, what he says is true of local churches everywhere. That is, what I’ve said today is true of Cornerstone Community Church. So, if you’re not a member of a local church, you’re not part of a body that needs you and you’re not part of a body that you need. Therefore, join a local church and begin fulfilling the beautiful vision and design given to us in 1 Corinthians 12.
I guess I could say, “So, get to it. You’re needed. Stop being lazy. Pour yourself into others. Invest your time, labors, prayers, and money into building up others.” But I don’t know that that exhortation would have a lasting effect. So, what I want to say is this: realize that God has done everything necessary through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son so that you can live the rest of your life being accepted by God. That means that right now, if your faith is in Christ, you are forgiven of your sins and clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Let that overwhelm you.
Now, in light of that reality, let me say to you that the God who has done that for you through the redeeming work of his Son has gifted you and put you in a local church body that needs you and that has what you need. He’s done this to show his kindness to you and to those into whose lives he has brought you. So, how can we not throw our lives into loving and building up others with the gifts that the Spirit has given us for that very purpose? In fact, let us take the opportunity now to remind each other of the rich grace of God as we come to the table and proclaim Christ’s death as our victory and hope. Amen.