1 Corinthians 12:14-25
Struggle with a sense of ‘belonging’ in the local church is an all too common and distressing experience for many people. This is a serious issue as it can have a very unsettling, isolating affect. Church should be ‘game day’ for Christians, a time when the family of God experiences relief from its presence ‘in the world’ to gather as ‘one people’ in joyful assembly, to worship our Great God and King Jesus. By the end of a worship gathering, the family of God should leave church renewed, encouraged, built up with hope and joy restored as we prepare for the adventure, and often battle of another week.
When people feel they don’t belong, the whole church experience becomes negative, depressing and isolating. Far from ‘game day’, people leave the church feeling relieved to get out of the place! This is serious as it often results in believers concluding, ‘I don’t belong here so I will leave’. Sometimes they will move on to other churches, worse, they give up on church altogether.
Making sense of it all
The Apostle Paul uses various metaphors for the church such as a building or a body. We can be sure, God never leaves the ‘living stones’ of His precious building laying around like excess debris. He never amputates limbs as though they are not needed. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul addresses the very issue of ‘belonging’ and as ever, we find ourselves having to re-think our whole approach to the subject.
1 Corinth 12:13 "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". (ESV)
Here is our basis for ‘belonging’. We belong to the church by virtue of our being born again of the Spirit. ‘Belonging’ to God’s Church is a spiritual thing.
‘In one Spirit we were all baptised into one body’.
That is a strange statement and needs a little theological unpacking - or you can skip to ‘so we can understand the text like this’.
Unpacking the text
Many versions of the Bible translate the Greek word ‘en’ as ‘by’ so the text reads, ‘By one Spirit we were all baptised into one body’.
However, in Greek the word ‘en’ is correctly translated ‘in’. The problem is, the text then seems to make little sense to us. The answer to the dilemma is to realise the word ‘in’ had a much broader semantic range than it does today, so that it was used in the way we use the word ‘by’, hence the reason for many translators translating it so.
However, Paul has chosen his words carefully, he could have easily used the designated Greek word for ‘by’ as he often does elsewhere, but he decided to plonk for ‘en’. Now we should ask ‘why?’
The answer is, I believe (as do others such as ‘Fee’) that ‘en’ though more difficult and thoughtful , it also gives a richer meaning. We should understand ‘en’ to mean both ‘in’ and ‘by’ because both are true.
So we can understand the text like this…
We are spirit creatures since we have been born again. We are no longer just ‘physical' beings. It is the ‘one Spirit’ that ultimately sets God’s children apart from all others. Not theology, nationality, denomination, feelings etc. If a person is born of the Holy Spirit, then regardless of their theology, habits, life etc – they are a child of God. I imagine the thief on the cross did not have great theology!
So we are Spirit creatures and it is ‘In the one Spirit’ and ‘by the one spirit’ we were ‘baptised’ or ‘plunged’ completely and totally into one body – that is the body of Christ. It is not our ‘blood’ we have in common that makes us one people, but it is ‘the Spirit’! Now that, and that alone is the basis of our belonging.
The flesh is divided
It was not in the flesh or by the flesh we were plunged into one body. That which is of the flesh will be divided.
That means, the more worldly minded we are, the more we will have problems fitting together as the body of Christ, the more spiritually minded we are, the more spirit-filled we are, the more we will be at ease in the body.
When we feel like we don’t fit in, we often reason to ourselves, “I’m not really ‘one of them’, if I was more like ‘one of them’, I would fit in with them and be a part of it”.
This is exactly what Paul addresses in verses 14 - 20.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
Paul is arguing here that we are not meant to all be the same! We are not meant to be ‘more like them’. That is worldly thinking. It is of the flesh. In the world you can fit in at the golf club, if you are middle classed, good at golf and have a slick set of clubs. You can fit in at the local youth club if you’re a youth, into their kind of music and clothes. But it is not meant to be that way in the body of Christ. All who have been born of the Spirit belong!
It is the fact that , in the body of Christ, you will find a diverse bunch of people you would never find together anywhere else, that makes the church so amazing and pleasing to the Lord.
Eyes are not like ears – and are not meant to be. Feet are not like hands and are not meant to be. You are not like others, and you are not meant to be! Just as body parts are different with different purposes, so to the church. In fact, Paul tells us that if we were all the same, we would be a monstrosity, imagine a whole body was just one big eye! Just because you are not ‘like’ others you see in the church, you are no less a part of the body of Christ. That is the truth of God’s word.
When we feel like we don't fit in, our starting point must be God's word. However I feel, I am a legitimate member of the body! We work from that basis.
Everyone needed
In the same line of thought Paul comes at it from another angle. To those who would say, “so and so is a bit odd – we don’t need him”, Paul has a clear message.
21 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.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
There is one word that perfectly describes anyone who would say, “We don’t need so and so”, that word is ‘WRONG!’ In fact Paul tells us, the seemingly less significant parts are often the most important! (verse 22).
Just as it is worldly to think, “because I am not like so and so, I do not belong”, so it is worldly to think “We have no need of so and so”. Sometimes it is out of prideful superiority that people think such things. Sometimes it is because of jealousy. Sometimes it is because we think life would be easier without them. None of those reasons count.
It is because of the flesh, because of worldliness the church and individuals within the church struggle in these ways. That is not necessarily bad, we are at wherever we’re at. No baby is born mature! We all have to grow.
As a church matures and as individuals in the church mature, so we grow in love and appreciation of one another, appreciating the diversity, gifting and success of one another, giving honour and dignity to each and every member – it is a godly and mature believer who does such things!
Conclusion
So, just because you feel you do not fit, you are no less a part of the body for that reason. Just because you cannot see the good in another believer and you feel they are not needed, well then you know from Paul, you have simply got it wrong! You and the church need them.
In one sense it is true to say, no-one is indispensable’, but on the other hand it is also true to say, ‘everyone is needed for the body to function as God intends’. A bird can live without wings, but it cannot fly!
However, there is more to consider on the subject, which we will consider in a future blogg.
