We all do it.  We are enjoying our road trip, listening to the radio, and joyfully singing along.  But then suddenly we are forced to take a detour.  We must now watch closely,  seeking the right way to go.  We lean forward into the steering wheel as we turn down the radio so we can see better!  Wait, what?!  Why do we instinctively turn down the radio?  We hear with our ears and see with our eyes! 

It’s all about focus and attention!  When we are challenged with the unfamiliar and unknown on our journey we need ALL our senses functioning properly and working together in our body so that we can maneuver the obstacles of life.  When all the parts of our body are working in sync; life is doable and better. Our mere intelligence is not enough, hearing is not enough, seeking is not enough, walking and talking still not enough.  But when all the parts work together for one purpose, we thrive.

Paul teaches us that it is the same with God’s church lead by God’s Holy Spirit.  We are all parts of one Body—the Body of Christ—working together for His glory and our growth in His character.

1 Corinthians 12, The Message

Spiritual Gifts

^1-3 What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say “Jesus be damned!” Nor would anyone be inclined to say “Jesus is Master!” without the insight of the Holy Spirit.

^4-11 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:

wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues.

All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

^12-13 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

^14-18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, transparent and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

^19-24 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

^25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

^27-31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”:

Apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, helpers, organizers, those who pray in tongues.

But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts.

But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

This “part” of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth is a precursor to the next passage that will follow about God’s love in us being the “far better way” for us to live and thrive together.  But this passage is no less important that the “love chapter” that will follow. 

We learn that all the gifted parts of His Holy Spirit come directly from God.  God assigns what we do as part of the Body of Christ.  We trust and obey as the parts.

No part is more important than another part.  No competitions for the parts!  No comparisons between the parts.  No rank and file.  Each part is significant with a specific purpose from God.

“You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this.”

Nothing significant happens until God’s Holy Spirit leads us. 

Sometimes we need to turn down the noise of the world so we can see Jesus more clearly!  Each part needs to focus on the significance of our contribution to the Body.  We must work in tandem with the others parts of Christ’s Body to remain focused and attentive the will of God! 

The Body of Christ must always seek God’s will.  All comes from God.  All is about God.  The Body, knowing this, pulls all the parts together so that our prayer of Your Kingdom come, Your will be done is accomplished! The Body comes together with unity of purpose to achieve His plan.  When this happens, we grow in all ways in the Body. A healthy, growing Body gives all glory and honor to God through Jesus, His Son. 

“For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever!” (Romans11:36). The breath you just took? God gave that. The blood that just pulsed through your heart? Credit God. The light by which you read and the brain with which you process? He gave both.  The instinct to turn down the radio so you can concentrate on what lies ahead—all from God!  (Smiling gratefully)

Everything comes from God and exists for Him. We exist to show who God is as He displays His glory working in and through us as parts of His Body! We serve as canvases for his brush stroke, papers for his pen, soil for his seeds, glimpses of his image as He creates masterpieces of all His creation.

Each one of us is unique. God created us to show His glory.  May we never forget what Jesus did so that this relationship with God is possible.

Lord,

Thank you for the opportunities you give to serve you and others with the parts of the Body of Christ!  It is you who guides us with your specific plan for the Body who is made up of many parts.  Help each one of us to do our part well, in the most excellent way—by Your Spirit with Your love in our hearts.

In Jesus Name, Amen