After learning that the primary purpose of the church isn’t about placating you or me (although there are great blessings to be received as a member of the Body of Christ), we might be a little discouraged. However, the fact that the church is not about you doesn’t mean that you aren’t a valuable part of it. (It also means that other members of the body are also important, even if we don’t like them or agree with them.)
You may have heard lessons on 1 Corinthians 12:14-20 before, and it’s a fun one, because Paul’s image makes the idea of a divided body of Christ look silly. Along the way, he points out how – just like the human body has many parts – the body of Christ (i.e., the church) has many parts (i.e., individual followers of Jesus).
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. 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.
1 Corinthians 12:15-16 NIV
So, what does it look like for a Christian to say “I do not belong to the body” [see v.15-16], or (looking ahead to v.21) “I don’t need you!”? Let me offer some possibilities:
- When we attack those who profess faith in Jesus, but go to another church. Remember that the Bible offers private, loving solutions for how to handle when someone offends us, and practical ways of addressing doctrinal problems. Calling another denomination’s members “unsaved” or refusing to associate with them just because of a minor doctrinal difference from their leadership implies that we don’t believe that we are part of the same body as they are. And, even when there is a major issue in “official” church doctrine, 1) it is not always a matter of salvation, and 2) we cannot know the hearts of individual members.
- When we attack others in our own congregation, whether through inappropriate judgment, trying to impose our own preferences on church leadership, or in separating ourselves from others who need our help. God doesn’t call each of us to do everything – that’s His role to coordinate and implement – but when He calls one of us to do something specific for a fellow believer, yet we refuse, we’re implying that we’re not part of the same “body” as that person. I think that the same can be true when we don’t allow another member of the congregation to serve us, or when we choose to not yield our will to the direction that God has given leaders in the church.
- When we decide that we are going to take on the Christian walk “solo”, and not join with a body of believers when we can, in order to work together with them for God’s purposes. The individual who says that they don’t need a church to follow Jesus has apparently not read – or not accepted – what Paul wrote here.
However, there’s a key point here in Paul’s illustration: The foot and the ear aren’t separated from the body. The foot is still attached to the leg, and the ear is still attached to the head. The problem isn’t that they aren’t part of the body, it’s that they are saying they aren’t part of the body.
For a genuine Christian, no amount of protest about other Christians actually separates them from Christ. Now, doing so will probably hurt our prayer life, create friction with other followers of Jesus, and present a corrupted image of the body of Christ to a lost world. However, even the so-called “lone wolf” Christian is still part of the body.
The question isn’t whether or not all Christians are part of the same body. Perhaps the problem is that not all of us think that we are part of the same body. Then, things get worse if we – as Christians – have the gall to advertise our ignorance of this fact to others, through our words and actions. Remember the saying, “Better to have people think you a fool, than open your mouth and prove it”?
So, I guess the first question for you is whether or not, in light of what the Bible says (both in 1 Corinthians 12 and elsewhere), you agree with my statement, “If you follow Jesus, you are part of the same body of Christ as every other follower of Jesus.” If you agree, then the next question for us is perhaps, “Do we know and accept that?”
From Sunday School lesson prepared for March 3, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, March 3, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 Corinthians, by Richard E. Oster, Jr. © 1995 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 