15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” – 1 Corinthians 12:21
I’ve been thinking about the Church. Big C Church. All the believers everywhere who follow and worship Jesus. The sign on their building may say Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Evangelical Free, Lutheran, Episcopal, Pentecostal, Non-Denominational, Eastern Orthodox, Vineyard, Assembly of God, or any number of variations along with those who don’t belong to a specific church label but worship in their living room or a friend’s. We who are the Body of Christ. One body.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking. Are we doing this as a Church? Are the eyes telling the hand, “I don’t need you!” And pushing all the hands out of their gatherings? Are the ears leaving to go find other ears because they don’t feel needed or welcome at the church they grew up in? Are we left with groups and buildings and labels that have no hands or no ears?
Hands and eyes look incredibly different! They act incredibly different! These body parts are symbolic of what the passage is truly about. Spiritual gifts that come from One Spirit even though they look so different from the outside.
I think Paul was warning the church in Corinth about the exact thing we see in the church today. What would happen in the Church if we decided which gifts were important and divided into individual groups based on those spiritual gifts. Teachers rejecting apostles. Prophets who won’t allow any pastors around to shepherd them. Evangelists who don’t know anyone with the gift of miracles, so they don’t believe that miracles still happen.
I have been to plenty of churches where those that use their gifts in the nursery, clean, and set up for Sunday morning are ignored and overworked then they burn out. The gifts aren’t honored or discipled and the next generation doesn’t steward and grow these gifts. No surprise.
Churches that preach this passage about the body but have pushed out all of those with gifts of healing, tongues, and discerning of spirits and don’t even believe what the Bible says about them anymore. Churches that focus almost solely on serving in the community but don’t have evangelists who help them remember that Christ is the only way to God. Churches that only value the miraculous gifts and abandon pastoral authority and good teaching to restrain and stay humble.
Not every church has an imbalance like this but man, I would say that I have seen many with an integral part of the body missing. It is much rarer to walk into an individual church building and find a healthy balance of spiritual gifts at least in America.
Christians will even counsel each other to find the church that best suits them without encouraging them to ask God where to go. I wonder how often we are actually shopping around for the body that has obvious feet because we are a foot, or a body where the eye is missing because we don’t believe in eyes. It sounds ridiculous but it’s the exact metaphor used here in scripture.
It took me a decade of following Jesus to realize why I feel comfortable in certain churches and not in others. I have always wondered why God asks me to attend churches where my gifts are discouraged and downright demonized. Here I was thinking that He was shaping me through discomfort but really, He just keeps assigning me to the body while I keep saying, “but I’m the only belly button!” and He says, “Yep, and the body needs a belly button!”
I think it helps that our house has quite a few spiritual gifts. My husband and I always fall so hilariously opposite on the spiritual gifts inventory. If he has a high number in a particular spiritual gift, then I have a low number and vice versa. We came from different families with different gifts, grew up in different church traditions, and approach God in very different ways. We get to chuckle at each other and discover what God is doing in the other and learn to honor it.
Our kids have their own unique gifts, but it’s still all just One Spirit. We can’t reject their gifts or undervalue them even if we don’t know how to help them steward something we have never learned to steward! We get on our knees before the Most High God and ask for help in training them in gifts outside of our experience.
Can we learn to trust God to distribute gifts and build His Body? We must honor and protect the body made up of many parts. The Bible lists many gifts, and you know there are more. There are so many beautiful facets to the Holy Spirit and so many ways that He shows His power and goodness in His people. Mercy, serving, leadership, healing, miracles, encouragement, evangelism, word of knowledge, faith, prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, pastoring, teaching, helps, and discerning between spirits are just a few.
The idea that God wants to heal His Church Body is very exciting and overwhelming to me. What a fiercely beautiful and effective group Christians will be when we stop rejecting each other and work together for The Kingdom of God. There wouldn’t be anything lacking if we honored the Holy Spirit in each believer not just the ones who move like us.
All I can do is attend whatever church God asks me to even if my gifts are rejected there and learn not to grumble. I will need to accept and honor those with gifts that I don’t have and learn to encourage and make space for them. I must rely on God to disciple those who have gifts that make me uncomfortable.
And I will pray and wait expectantly for a time when we are all together and sharing in one marriage feast together. Worshiping and living together with Jesus for all eternity. It’s where we are heading so we might as well get comfortable with each other.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. – John17:20-23
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