Divine Appointment

Please take their Bibles, turning
to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, once again. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain that build it. That verse, you might recall,
is the opening sentence of Psalm 127. And in line with Hebrew
poetry, the second sentence parallels the first. Unless the Lord guards
the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. Both of those
statements speak of the absolute necessity of the Lord’s participation
in a matter in order for that undertaking to be successful,
whether it’s the building of a house, or whether it’s the
guarding, the protection of a city. But in both of those sentences,
whether building or guarding, successful completion is spoken
of only as potential. The psalmist is uttering a principle
here. Nothing is actually being accomplished,
only what is necessary in order for it to become so. But the point is clear. In order
for one’s building project to be successful, it is essential
that the Lord do it. There’s another. similar thought
about building, this one in the New Testament, and this one stated
by Jesus, another familiar passage to some of you, Matthew 16, 18.
There, in response to Peter’s testimony of faith, Matthew records
Jesus’ powerful declaration. I will build my church. And here again, just like in
Psalm 127, the theme is building. And in both verses, the Lord
is involved, but there is a difference. In Psalm 127, the action is spoken
of only as potential, unless the Lord builds. But here in
Matthew, the building is promised. I will build my church. And this surely assured Peter,
as it assures the reader, that the eventual building of Christ’s
church is certain. It is no longer just a potential
like Psalm 127. It is promised, guaranteed. But, as assuming we may find
that principle in Psalm 127, or as hopeful as we may be to
find that promise in Matthew 16, nothing could more stir our
hearts than to actually see the Lord in action doing so, with
a brick in one hand and a trowel in the other, building His church,
so to speak. And this is exactly what we find
in the passage we have this morning, the Lord in the act of building
his church. It’s an astounding image. Paul
has taken up the question in chapter 12, which was presented
to him by the church that he planted there in Corinth, which
church he shepherded for 18 months, which church He received a thoroughly
disturbing report about and from which he had also received a
vexing list of questions. This is just one of many questions
that the Corinthians had submitted to Paul for counsel. This question pertained to the
subject of spiritual gifts. And they may as well been looking
for a discussion, especially of the more spectacular gifts,
as well as how to go about acquiring them. That’s really what they
were interested in. How can we get the gift of prophecy? How
can we get the gift of speaking in tongues? How can we acquire
the gift of healing? Like almost everything else in
Corinth, the church had turned even the stupendous reception
of the Holy Spirit and the gifts that the Holy Spirit provided,
they had turned it into a reason to quibble and squabble. They
were concerned about rank and influence. They were concerned
about position and title. They were concerned about being
seen. not the honor and glory of serving the Lord Jesus, their
Savior. And so Paul introduces his intent
to take up their discussion and answer it, he does, three full
chapters. Chapters 12 through 14, whereby
he addresses the subject in full. In that sense, we’re just getting
started. Paul begins by acknowledging that even though they were not
completely ignorant about spiritual things, there were things on
which he might be able to shed light as a pastor, as a shepherd,
as one who cared for them, as one specially gifted himself
by God. He might have a thing or two
to teach them. their current state indwelled
by the Spirit of God was dramatically different than their dabblings
in the spiritual realm as idolatrous pagans. The only reason that
he was able to initiate such a conversation with them at all
was because the Holy Spirit had already converted them to Christ. One of the first things that
Paul informs his very divided church about is that the Holy
Spirit is the single source of whatever spiritual gift was among
them. Whatever gift they had received
in verses four through six, he tells them, they had received
it from one source, the Holy Spirit. But even though there
was only one source for these spiritual gifts, the Holy Spirit
had bestowed a great diversity of gifts on the believers of
that congregation. Their gifts were not all the
same. The sameness, which is a theme
in this entire chapter, the sameness is the source. But as the gifts
themselves, there was great variety, diversity, uniqueness, another
theme that Paul sustains through this section. In the ensuing
paragraph, verses 11 through 17, which we considered last
Lord’s Day, Paul moves to show that these very gifts were all
granted for the body. Christ’s body, the church. They weren’t for individual glory. As we saw last week, Paul makes
a deliberate point of reiterating that term, body. He uses it 10
times in that paragraph. Paul uses and reuses that term
to reinforce the idea that the gifts were for the body. They
weren’t for the individual. They weren’t for the member. There in verses 11 through 17,
Paul’s aim is to show that the Spirit freely grants these gifts. They can’t be bought or purchased.
They can’t be negotiated. The Holy Spirit freely of his
own will grants these gifts for Christ’s body. And in the flow
of his thought here, it’s easily discernible. Look, if you would,
at verse 11. First of all, individual believers
are themselves gifted by the Holy Spirit. As Paul says, the
Holy Spirit is distributing to each one individually. just as
he wills. It’s the Holy Spirit’s decision
to whom he gives what particular gift. Second, look at verse 12. Those individual believers together
make up Christ’s body. The body, Paul argues, is made
up of many members, individuals, but it’s, at the end of the day,
one body. Third, we saw, out of verse 13,
that individual believers are overwhelmed by and filled with
the Holy Spirit. And here Paul uses two images
to present these ideas. First of all, that we are baptized,
that is, immersed into one body by the Spirit. and that we were
all made to drink, the second illustration that he uses, we
were all made to drink of one spirit. And so we’re not only
immersed into the Holy Spirit, we are filled like a cool drink
of water. Our thirst is assuaged by the
Holy Spirit himself. Fourth, From last week, we noted
in verses 14 through 17 that these variously gifted individual
believers are like the very diverse portions of our human body. They are one. They are together. Diversely gifted people brought
together, functioning as one body. This is how he says it
to begin with, the body is not one member, but many. Just as
the human body is a collection of diverse parts and portions,
so also is the church. That’s Paul’s point. And here,
in our passage this morning, verses 18 through 26, Paul presents
another insightful truth about the spiritual gifts that they
have received. Not only does the Spirit bestow
a vast array of gifts, gifting them for Christ’s body, but here
in the passage this morning, as Paul points out, God himself,
God himself is the one who takes these diversely gifted members
and places them into one body. It’s just an astounding thought. And with that, here we are presented
with the image of God with a brick in one hand and a trowel in the
other. actively building his church. For our purposes this
morning, let’s take this passage in its entirety up to verse 26,
beginning in verse 1 of chapter 12. Now concerning spiritual
gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. You know that
when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols,
however you were led. Therefore, I make known to you
that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord
except by the Holy Spirit. Now, there are varieties of gifts,
but the same Spirit. There are varieties of ministries,
but the same Lord. There are varieties of effects,
but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to
each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common
good. For to one is given the word
of wisdom through the spirit, and to another the word of knowledge
according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same
spirit, to another the gift of healing by the one spirit, to
another the effecting of miracles, to another prophecy, to another
the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues,
and to another the interpretation of tongues, But the one and same
Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually,
just as He wills. For even as the body is one and
yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though
they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we were all
baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves
or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit. For the
body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, because I am
not a hand, I am not part of the body. It is not for this
reason any the less part of the body. And if the ear says, because
I am not an eye, I am not part of the body, it is not, for this
reason, any the less part of the body. If the whole body were
an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing,
where would the sense of smell be? But now, God has placed the
members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member,
where would the body be? But now there are many members
but one body, and the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need
of you. Or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body,
which seem to be weaker, are necessary. And those members
of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow
a more abundant honor. and our less presentable members
become as much more presentable, whereas our more presentable
members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body,
giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so
that there may be no division in the body, but that the members
have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, All
the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all
the members rejoice with it. Paul speaks here in these verses
of a divine appointment. That’s what I would entitle this
entire paragraph. It’s God’s doing. God is building
His church. The occasion in which now the
Father takes up His role in the church, as we will see, And the
Father’s role in the church provides for us three powerful means of
motivating the church to unity. It’s an amazing passage, as I
hope to show. It’s divine appointment. And first and foremost, God places
the diversely gifted members into one body. And the first
thing that he tells us is that individual members are unified,
unified, galvanized by their shared assignment. You look around
and you see that in this body there are others whom God has
placed in this body and that shared assignment of having been
placed by God into this one body has a unifying effect. That’s
what he says in verse 18. But now God has placed the members,
each one of them, in the body just as he desired. Now, the
new thought in this entire section, beginning in verse 18, the new
thought is that which is expressed in verse 18. It’s the first of
three powerful means of unity in this passage. Individual members
are unified by their shared assignment, as I just mentioned, and we’ll
return to that thought momentarily. But in this first grouping of
verses, 18 through 20, let me just point out one or two things
that Paul brings forward in this passage. First, back in verse
12, he said that the body and its, he referred to the body
and its many members. And then further in verses 19
and 20, Paul doesn’t say anything remarkably new here, The thought
expressed here is effectively a summary of what he has already
said. Look at verse 19. If they were
all one member, where would the body be? That’s not a new thought
for this section. In the body there is diversity.
We’ve got it. Just as Paul has already told
us. Look at verse 4. Varieties of gifts. Verse 12,
all the members, many members, one body. There is diversity,
that’s Paul’s point. And verse 20 is no different.
Verse 20 is a summary statement as well. Glance at verse 20,
but now there are many members, one body. In Christ’s body, there
is not only diversity, there is unity. As he’s told us in
verse 12, the body is one, one body. Verse 13, one body. And this calls our attention
to the fact that God’s plan for the church is unity, not uniformity. Uniformity is that everybody
is gifted exactly the same and we function like a bunch of robots.
That’s not God’s plan. God’s plan is unity in our diversity. And so this grand section, chapters
12 through 14, is indeed, as we’ve seen, centered around the
Holy Spirit and His gifts, gifts that are given to individuals,
gifts that vary. But it’s not exclusively about
the Holy Spirit. After all, the Lord Jesus Christ,
whose church it is, for which church he died, obviously Jesus
is prominent in these sections, even if he’s somewhat in the
background. Likewise, with God the Father,
it’s not as if God the Father is uninvolved, a disinterested
party in the matter of the church. So it is in the subject of spiritual
gifts. The Heavenly Father is deeply
involved. He is building his church. The
Trinity cannot be so divided. And Paul reinforces that thought
with his reiterations in chapters four through six. Glance back
at those verses if you would, where he showed us all the members
of the Godhead functioning as one. Varieties of gifts, but
the same spirit, verse four. Obviously the spirit is involved
in these matters. Verse five, there are varieties
of ministries in the same Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s equally
plain that Jesus is involved in these matters. But in verse
six, Paul insists that God the Father likewise is involved in
the spiritual well-being in the church and her ministries. There
are varieties of effects but the same God who works all things
in all persons. God is deeply involved in his
church. Paul has outlined the Spirit’s
activity in the church and Christ’s activity in the church. After
all, the church is Christ’s body, but Paul alludes to that point
in verse 12, as the body is one, so also is Christ. So it cannot
be surprising here here in verse 18, that Paul now should suddenly
turn to God the Father’s role in his activity in building the
church. All the members of the Trinity
are actively involved in the spiritual activity of the church,
just as they are in the greater plan of redemption. But look
again at verse 18, if you would. Because when I began to study
this several months ago, I was thrilled. I had been waiting
and waiting and eagerly anticipating preaching, if nothing else, this
one verse. I was thrilled to see this when
I saw this anew. But now, God has placed the members,
each one of them, in the body just as he desired. Now it will take us some time
even to begin to digest the immensity of some of the thoughts expressed
in this verse. But even in the face of it, we
have to pause in awe. Just note the beginning of the
statement. But now, this stands in mild contrast to that which
has already been stated, that as Paul said in verse 14, the
body is not one member, but many. that the Holy Spirit has granted
this diverse array of gifts, and he has freely, that is, sovereignly
distributed those gifts to individuals. Amazing thought. But here, but
now, as Paul says, God takes these diversely gifted individuals
and does something that is just stunning. He takes them individually,
as Paul says, each one of them, and he places these individual
members in the body. Let’s pause right there. Do we
begin to grasp that truth? This is God actively building
his church right down to the individual. taking them and placing them,
that is, putting them in a church. This is the image that comes
to my head as I read these verses. It’s as if God himself is in
a workshop, operating out of a great warehouse, and he’s busy
building some kind of contraption, some thing. And he has at his disposal every
conceivable part available. And they’re available on the
shelves that surround his work table. And he has at his disposal all
of these parts, and at any one moment he may go and retrieve
one of these parts. One of these. I’ll take one of
these. That’s the image in my head.
But let’s come back to reality for a moment and consider and
remember what Paul is actually discussing here. He’s discussing
the church, the body of Christ, which is comprised of this great
diversity and greatly diverse numbers of individual members. This is God’s doing. God is the
one who does this. God is the one who places the
individual members, each one of them, in the body. That’s
an amazing thought in itself. Paul makes the point unmistakably
here. It’s unmistakably emphatic here. God places each one of them in
the body of Christ. And this is the truth. The Spirit
imparts the gifts to these various individuals, but God the Father
takes them and places them into the body. And the implication
of this is that God desires to use you right where you are.
Every individual of the church is crucial because God put them
here. You are essential to the church. Every individual in the church
is crucial because God is the one who put them there. And that just is a recognition
that the church has a need and in you God has supplied that
need with whatever gift the Spirit has given you. Jim Elliot, a
great missionary, came very close to echoing this exact thought
when he said, the Lord’s work done in the Lord’s way will never
lack the Lord’s provision. If we are busy doing ministry
and doing it in a God-honoring way, then God will give us everything
we need for that task. If we don’t have it, Perhaps
we are not about the Lord’s work. A good place to start, examining. Or maybe there’s something about
our work that we need to adjust. Otherwise, God has given us everything
that we need to function and to function well. And so likewise,
Paul says of the church, God places the members into the body.
He gives the church everything that she needs in order to function
and to glorify Christ. And he does so, again, in his
sovereignty, because it says, just as he desired. And that’s
where that image of walking the aisles of parts of all kinds
of different nature and style and color and giftedness. God walks the aisle and he selects
and he places the individual members into the body. Astounding
thought. Now, according to his own sovereign
will, God takes these diversely gifted individuals, places them
into one body, the body of Christ, And if we are Christians, the
Holy Spirit has gifted us just as he wills, as Paul told us
in verse 11, and if we are gifted believers, God has placed us
in the body as he desires. What more encouragement could
we possibly need to exercise and utilize whatever gift we’ve
been granted for God’s glory in the church? But this also
means that we can’t justly cry or complain about the divine
distribution of the gifts. Who has what gift? Why didn’t
I get that gift? This is what the Corinthians
were doing. Last week, we considered those who were blessed with high-profile
gifts. But they carried themselves with
pride and arrogance. But if that was wrong, if pride
and arrogance over the gift that you have received is wrong, so
also is the opposite. In Corinth, some people were
not only dissatisfied with their gift, some people, in their dissatisfaction,
refused to exercise their gift in protest. If I can’t preach,
I’m not gonna do anything. That was kind of their attitude.
If they didn’t have one of the more spectacular gifts, why they
wouldn’t serve at all. Either way, it was sin. Discontent over the gifts we
have is completely out of place since it is effectively contention
with God himself. As if God didn’t know what he
was doing when he so gifted us. In Romans 9, Paul challenges
this attitude about God’s exercise of his prerogative as God. Romans 9, who are you, old man? I love that. Who are you, old
man, who answers back to God? The thing molded? The lump of
clay that was formed into a particular shape? The thing molded will
not say to the molder, why did you make me like this? Or does not the potter have a
right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for
honorable use and another vessel for common use? That’s just God
being God. God has the prerogative to act
as God. He has no cause or need to answer
to anyone. And so the first point that Paul
makes here in this section is that individual members are unified
by their shared assignment. We’ve all been placed into the
body of Christ. And we’re variously gifted. And
that’s by God’s design. God has placed these diversely
gifted members into one body, but there’s more here in this
passage that encourages and contributes to the church’s unity. The father’s
role in the church provides, as I said, three powerful means
of motivating the church to unity. Not only are they unified by
a shared assignment, they are unified by their mutual dependence. We need one another. And Paul
makes this point in verses 21 through 25, if you would glance
there. Individual members are unified
by their mutual dependence. Verse 21, and the eye cannot
say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or again, the head to
the feet, I have no need of you. Sounds like a playground, right? On the contrary, it is much truer
that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary,
and those members of the body which we deem less honorable,
on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable
members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable
members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body,
giving more abundant honor to that member which lacks, so that
there may be no division in the body. but that the members have
the same care for one another. There’s a mutual dependence that
God has worked into the church. We cannot function independently
of one another, just as the eye cannot function apart from the
body, or the hand, or any other part of the body. If it is removed,
it becomes a dead part. Now, in a sense, Paul plays off
the illustration, a somewhat humorous section that we considered
last week. He presented this illustration
in verses 15 through 17, remember? The foot rebelliously suggesting
that it was not part of the body simply because it was not a hand.
I don’t want to have to wear socks anymore or shoes. And it’s dark down here. And
the parallel illustration about the ear and the eye, those two
illustrations presented the absurdity of grumbling about the gift we
possess and longing for what another does possess. It’s absurd. The latter two illustrations
in verse 17, the whole body being an eye or an ear, that’s an even
more astounding image. You know, an eye sitting on a
table, Those present the absurdity of longing for unity, or rather
uniformity, as if any one part could function. That everyone in the church needs
to have the same exact gift. Likewise, that one gift does
not, cannot constitute the church. The illustration in verse 21
picks up where that leaves off. Would you glance at it? The eye
cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. And as absurd
as that sounds, it does happen. It happens all the time. Because
someone doesn’t seem to be a really significant or a significantly
contributing member of the church, we consider them dispensable,
unneeded. The point of this illustration
is only slightly different from the ones already mentioned. Those
two previous illustrations were issued from a position of inferiority. The hand or the eye wanting to
withdraw from the body in protest. This illustration takes a position
of one possessing these so-called superior gifts. And it’s equally
irrational, Paul says, to think that an eye would think to think
less of the hand or that the head to the feet. We made this point last week
that if the eye sees something that it really desires for the
body, it’s going to need the hand to take up that delectable
treat in order to partake. And if there’s fire and the head
barks out an order, it’s going to need the feet to kick into
high gear and get out of the house. As we’ve already seen,
the Holy Spirit is the one who dispenses these gifts. And once
gifted, God is the one who places all of these variously gifted
members into the body. God has a purpose for doing so. And the purpose is this, no one
can function at all outside of the body. He’s made that point
abundantly clear. Everyone, every part of the church
is completely dependent upon others in the exercise of their
diverse gift. So the focus on the gifts that
others have, whether it results in some kind of aloofness, pride,
or whether it results in bitterness of jealousy, both are unjust
and completely inappropriate. Paul’s point in the lengthy explanation
that follows, verses 22 through 25, is that the idea of a lesser
or greater gifts is just as unreasonable as the other illustrations. Verse
22, on the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the
body, which seem to be weaker, are necessary. And those members
of the body which we deem less honorable, of these we bestow
more abundant honor. And our less presentable members
have become much more presentable, whereas our presentable members
have no need of it. In verse 22, Paul basically says
here that there are no unimportant members. There are no unnecessary
members. Nevertheless, that’s how some
people in the church think of those with less flashy gifts. But they’re not as described
in all reality. And Paul is careful to point
this out. I want you to notice this. Look at how these believers
are described. Look at verse 22, the members
which seem to be weaker. They seem to be almost irrelevant. Like the tonsils, right? Or the
spleen. They seem to be weaker. We never see them. We never see
the lungs. We never see the heart. We never
see some of those internal parts and organs. We never pay much
attention to the pituitary. They seem to be weaker, more
dependent on others. Verse 23, look at Paul’s description
there. The members which we deem less
honorable. They’re not actually less honorable,
they’re not actually weaker, they’re not actually unimportant.
He says the same thing again in verse 23, less presentable. Do we have to bring him? Do we
have to take our socks off and let people see our feet? There’s
this tendency to think of those without some spectacular gift
as second class, even unneeded in the church. And that’s exactly
what was going on in Corinth. Paul’s whole point here in this
paragraph is that not only are there not any unimportant members,
those who seem so ought actually to be afforded greater honor
because they operate very faithfully, less visibly, without fanfare,
without the limelight, without seeking praise, without titles,
without positions, without recognition, without accolades. There they
are, day after day, week after week, functioning according to
their God-given gift. Just as every portion of the
human body is crucial to the overall functioning of the human
body, so also in the church. We can no more think to function
optimally without, say, our elbows or our thumbs or our pituitary
or our lungs as we can with some of the less visible gifts in
the church. In the city, if the very prominent
lawyer needs to get to court quickly, he’s going to need a
bus driver. or Uber or whatever. If a person
is in an accident and urgently needs to get to the hospital
to see a surgeon, he’s going to first have to interface with
the run-of-the-mill EMTs. And everyone in the city is completely
dependent on the sanitation workers who keep the city carted off
of all of our garbage. And so it is in the church. Unseen,
less prominent, less fancy, less stupendous, less noticeable gifts
are not unimportant. Gifts that are not so impressive
are not themselves dispensable. You come to this church, there’s
some days, it’s not just about a preached
message. There are some days where you won’t even get into
this church without someone shoveling the sidewalk. And once you’re
in, you’re gonna be quite delighted because one of the first things
that people do is grab their coffee or their tea, which just
happens to be made. Somehow those kitchen supplies
magically just show up to our church. And I don’t know if you
know this, but our church has a self-cleaning button, just
like your oven. Poof. Many would never hear the
message at all if it weren’t for the sound system. Children
would have a real challenge in our pews if someone didn’t come
early and fill the tote bags. I think you get my point. The
church needs every gifted saint. Instead, verses 24 and 25 in
God’s plan, all members, regardless of their particular gifts, are
equally esteemed and considered to be vital to the life and effectiveness
of the church. Look at how Paul says it. But
God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to
that member which lacked, so that there may be no division.
in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one
another. As we saw above in verse 18, God is the one who places
the members in the body. It’s interesting that the word
used here in verse 24, translated as composed. It refers to a mixing,
a blending together. God is the one who blends the
church. Adding this one and now that one, And God, the creator
of all, including the institution of the church, honors all gifts
equally. They’re all important in God’s
eyes. So that any thought of division
is all the more unreasonable. And Paul presents a second reason
at the end of verse 25, that the members may have the same
care for one another. It’s a beautiful image. The word
here, care, literally means anxiousness. We’re worried, concerned, genuine
care for one another. In a sense, we should be troubled
when others are troubled. Not only does God not foster
division, quite the opposite, the balance of gifts in the church
promotes genuine care and concern for one another. And this leads to the third means
of promoting unity in the church. Not only does the father’s role
unify the members of the church by their shared assignment and
their mutual dependence, but verse 26 tells us they’re unified
by their common care. Would you just look at that very
short verse? Individual members are unified by their common care.
Paul says it this way, if one member suffers, all the members
suffer with it. If one member is honored, all
the members rejoice with it. Verse 26 is essentially an application
of that concluding sentence of verse 25, that the members may
have the same care for one another. You see, life in Christ, life
in the church, is not supposed to be every man for himself.
It’s not. The church, by God’s design,
is supposed to be a caring, loving, other-oriented, most excellent
of all institutions on the face of the earth. Paul would later
issue a great principle to the Philippians. Philippians 2.4. Do not merely
look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests
of others. Paul doesn’t tell us not to watch
out for our own interests. He just says at the end, if that’s
all we do, then we’ve left the greater part undone in watching
out for our brother or our sister in Christ. we should watch out
for the interests of others as well. And just as in the human
physical body, if we bang our head, or we hit our thumb with
a hammer, or we drop some heavy thing on our toe, every portion
of our body does not feel that pain, but every portion of our
body reacts. The whole body does react to
the pain of one small member. We’ve all experienced this. The
point is that even if the entire body is not affected by the negative
sensation of even one tiny little part, take for instance a headache.
Headache is just part of the brain, and yet it is absolutely
debilitating at times, right? And so it is or so it should
be for the church. That if one member suffers physically,
spiritually, however, the rest of the church ought to rally
in care for that hurting member. What is true of suffering is
also true of honor, Paul closes. In the physical realm, if the
head is adorned with a garland or a crown for some great achievement, It can justly be said that the
whole person is honored, right? Not just the head. Likewise,
if one member receives some kind of honor, the whole body, the
whole church can rejoice. And the word here literally is
glory, just as if we’re called to glorify God. We rejoice. We glory in the privilege. that
another enjoys. Paul would not much later write
the same thought to the Romans. Romans 12, 15, rejoice with those
who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. No one part of the body can be
honored without the entire body enjoying a share of that glory. Would you humble yourself as
we go?