Written ~ 11-15-2023
- For today’s Bible Study I didn’t originally have 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 as the passage for our reading, I only had verses 12:23-26. But as I was reading this portion of Scripture, I felt it was missing the entire context of what Paul was talking about, so, I included verses 12:12-22. Using The Message Version for verses 12:14-26 gave me a much better understanding to the point of this entire passage. Oh, and… head’s up, in our next Bible Study we will finish up chapter 12 with verses 27-31.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (The New Living Translation)
13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:14-26 (The Message Version)
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?
God has made each and every one of us to His specification. Each part of our bodies has special purpose and is necessary for healthy living. Even though there are parts of the body, if missing, a human being can still remain alive, but it is still better to have a fully functioning body. The importance of these verses is to realize how loved and adored you are by the very Creator Himself. He placed everything on your body exactly where it needs to be, size and shape, etc. and look what it says in Genesis 1:27 and 31, “So God created human beings in His own image…Then God looked over everything He had made, and He saw that it was very good!”
We can have a detrimental thought process sometimes that causes us to over analyze how we think we should look. We want to rearrange what God has placed in His sight as perfection. God made us exactly the way He wanted us to look. When we begin to tear apart maybe one part or several parts of our bodies and begin to think everything is wrong because of the world’s standard of perfection, we are telling God that His creation is not good enough.
Our bodies are compared to the church. In the New Living Translation 1 Corinthians 12:12 says,
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.
So it is with the body of Christ.”
Every part of the human body is placed specifically where it needs to be. Each personality has its place, each talent used for its purpose. Same with the members of the church, which is called the body of Christ. We each fit into that body as individual parts to a whole. Each of us is important, we all have a role. We cannot discard someone who doesn’t have a higher purpose than the pastor for example. For the body to run smoothly, we need the volunteers, we need the members who are on the sidelines in constant prayer, we need the operations behind the scenes for everything to work with ease.
What if we were to start picking apart the members of Christ’s body, the church, as we tend to do with our own bodies. He’s not tall enough, she’s not skinny enough. Her hair isn’t blond enough, his muscles aren’t big enough. Their eyes need to be bluer, and their lips fuller. She talks too much, he doesn’t sing loud enough, their talent isn’t useful. What if we were to cast members out of the church because of that kind of criteria? Sounds a little ridiculous, right? Well, we tend do it to our own bodies, the creation of the Almighty God, so what’s the difference? We are putting pressure on what we see as important, when as a whole, we are perfect exactly the way we are. Same goes for each and every member of the body of Christ.
Now there is one warning, that if one individual says they are more important than anyone else and they are what matters the most… what does it say in verses 12:19-20?
“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.”
Everything works together. Every part functions separately and together all at the same time! Same with the church. That’s why verses 12:25-26 need to be understood…
“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.”
The body of Christ is one. We hurt and celebrate as one. Same with our own bodies. If we were to break a leg, it’s not just the leg that is affected, no, the whole body feels the pain and brokenness. When healing takes place, the entire body is strengthened. When laughter and celebration happen, it’s not just the mouth that smiles, the whole body is filled with joy!
So, let’s keep in mind what verse 12:12b says,
“But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.”
We have been united, as one, by the Holy Spirit. What grieves the Holy Spirit should grieve us all. What delights the Holy Spirit should delight us all.
The next time we stand in front of the mirror and begin knit picking everything we see as an imperfection. We are also knit picking the body of Christ. It’s time to stand in front of that mirror and build ourselves up and see ourselves how God sees us and be pleased, begin to understand how He made each of us with individual purpose. He loves us so much and is so pleased with His creation, that He said, “It is GOOD!”
So, the next time you’re standing in front of that dreaded mirror, just say, “It is GOOD!”
~AMEN~