WWUTT 1592 Not Everyone Can Be a Foot (1 Corinthians 12:15-25)

We've been talking this week, out of 1 Corinthians 12, about how we're one body but many parts. And there's no one part of the body that's more important with another. The body needs all the parts in order to work, when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians 12, picking up where we left off yesterday. I'm going to start reading in verse 15 and go through verse 25. This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

If the foot says, because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a 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 appointed the members, each one of them, in the body just as He desired.

And 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, how much more is it that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those members of the body which we think as 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 such need.

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. Alright, so we come back to verse 15 here, where Paul uses this illustration.

Now he gets to, he's going to mention actual parts of the body here, to go along with this illustration of us being one body, but many members. We are one in Christ, but we're made up of different parts, each person receiving a different gifting for the purpose of building up the body.

And again, what is the body? The body of Christ is the church. So we are one body, we're one church, we're filled with one spirit, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, but we are made up of different parts for different purposes in the body of Christ.

So Paul is going to go further with his illustration here by actually mentioning parts of the body in the illustration. Okay, so verse 15, if the foot says, because I'm not a hand, I'm not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.

Now what Paul is addressing here is there was envy going on in the church in Corinth because somebody had a gifting that someone else wanted. I don't want to be a hand, I want to be a foot, and because I'm not a foot, then I'm not part of the body.

Something else that was going on in the church in Corinth was that some were priding themselves on their gifts, and because somebody did not have the gift that they had, then they were convincing them, see, they're not as instrumental, they're not as important to the church as I am.

And so then that also feeds this idea of because I'm not this part, then I cannot be a part of the body. So Paul says in his illustration, referring to actual anatomy, he says, if the foot says, because I'm not a hand, I'm not a part of the body, it's not for this reason any less a part of the body.

Just because the foot doesn't serve the function of the hand doesn't mean that the foot is not part of the body. Now how might we characterize hands and feet in the church? This isn't so much Paul's point here, but what do we typically refer to as hands and feet?

People in the body of Christ who are feet are those people who go, right? They go and do things. People who are the hands, they tend to have that gifting of service. They know how to work and to labor and to benefit others who do not have or cannot do for themselves, right?

So the feet go, the hands do. And the hands can't go if there's no feet to take them there, right? And the feet can't do if there are not hands that are doing. So this is kind of an illustration of how different parts of the body are gifted in different ways.

And just because a person does not have the ability to do what the hand does doesn't mean that they are any less a part of the body. So verse 16, if the ear says, because I am not an eye, I'm not a part of the body.

It is not for this reason any less a part of the body. What might we say a person has a gifting in if they're an eye? Well, they know how to see a problem, right? Or they see something going on with a particular person.

They see an area of ministry. They see somebody who needs the gospel. This is someone who might be gifted with eyes. What about a person who has an ear? Or we might characterize them as an ear because these are the two body parts in verse 16.

An ear says, because I'm not an eye, I'm not a part of the body. So what might an ear do? Well, an ear is a person who listens. They have an ability to listen to others. Now I think that we all need to be hearers to some degree, right?

James says to be slow to speak and quick to listen. So we all need to hear. But there are some that just have that ability to pick up certain things from other people that not everybody has that gift.

Do you know what I mean? They can hear in a certain person pain, or they hear in a certain person a specific thing that they need. So a person just has that gift, and they become a benefit to the rest of the body, especially those who need to be listened to or who need to be heard.

Such a person may not have a personality that they're willing to step out and say, hey, I have this need. I need some help. But a person who is gifted in that way to be able to hear the need or see the need, whether it's eye or an ear, they have that gifting that spots those needs.

Well, then they're able to tell the church, hey, this person over here has a need, and we need to be able to attend to that. And then the hands and the feet get involved, right? As a pastor, I cannot know every single person's need all the time.

I rely on other people in the church that have those giftings that then come to me and say, hey, have you heard about so and so who has this particular need? I think that we can help them out there. And then we mobilize other people in the church that have other giftings that are able to help that particular person.

Like, for example, we've had occasions in the past where somebody's house is falling apart. There's a leak in the roof or something. You know, they've heard about a so and so has a problem at their house.

Well, let's get this person over here who has that gift with their hands to be able to go and help that person. And so in this way, we have love gifts of service that are being done for other people. Sometimes that that service done for somebody else is just to sit and talk and pray with them.

But you still need to be able to spot the need, right? You still need to know that specific need is there in order to help meet that need. And so you have different persons in the body of Christ with those different giftings that we may show love to one another and we're helping to build the body up.

Rejecting Divisive Woke Identity Politics in the Church

Now, there's a certain thing that's going on within American evangelicalism right now where it's like this thing is being imposed upon the church that everybody needs to become ears. We all need to listen.

And this is happening in the woke movement. It's that thing of where, like, white people need to shut up and we all need to listen to the minorities in the church. Right. The white people have had their time to talk, and now it's time to shut up and listen to minorities.

Well, this is this is very divisive because, first of all, it's separating everybody out into ethnicities once again. And Paul has already confronted this before. We're one body in Christ, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, we're all made to drink of one spirit back in verse 13.

So once you get to this thing where it's like, hey, this group of people needs to shut up. And now it's this other group of people that they it's their turn to talk that divides the body up into ethnicities.

Now we're a divided body of Christ again. In addition to that, what the culture is imposing upon the church is it's a cultural Marxism. So it's not actually trying to help anybody. It's trying to say the white people are privileged and the minorities are less privileged.

So if you want to truly be a good functioning biblical church, then the white people who are privileged need to shut up while the the people who are minorities need to have this opportunity to be able to talk.

And whatever they say is right. And whatever white people say is wrong. This is the the Marxism, the cultural Marxism that's being imposed upon the church. And it assumes that everybody of a certain skin color, all of their experiences are exactly the same.

All white people's experiences are the same. All black people's experiences are the same. All Hispanics, all indigenous persons, so on and so forth. My friends, I've been a pastor in a couple of different churches and I have pastored in some very diverse churches.

And I can tell you this from experience, not everybody's experiences are the same. And even when two people go through the same experience, they both react to it differently. It affects them in different ways because no two people are alike.

And so we cannot listen to the culture, tell us this is what this group of people is going through. And so therefore you need to help them in this way. No, we actually need to listen to that person regardless of skin color.

Do not discriminate against anybody in the church, for we are told in James 2, one to show no partiality. And even when it comes to different giftings that we have in the church, a person who is gifted in such a way as to be a hand or a person that's gifted in another way as to be a foot, we don't discriminate against one another for those things either.

And when I say discriminate, I mean, we're not in a prejudiced way, right? We do discriminate in the sense that, hey, this person's a man and this person's a woman. There's good discrimination and there's bad discrimination.

James 2, one specifically says show no partiality. So we don't show favor to one and tear down another. And Paul is confronting that here exactly as well. The culture wants you to be partial. The culture wants you to discriminate, to to show prejudice to one another.

To separate groups out into blacks over here and whites over here, we're going towards segregation again in the United States of America. Of course, we had desegregation decades ago. Well, now we're going back towards segregation.

People need to be divided up and you need to treat this group of people this way and treat that group of people another way. No, once again, my brothers do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus with an attitude of personal favoritism.

That's the legacy standard version of of James to one show no partiality as you hold on to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody is different. Everybody goes through different experiences. Everybody's going to need different things.

And so we need to be humble toward one another. Listen to each other, allow each person who is gifted in different ways to use those gifts for the benefit of the growing of the body of Christ. And our differences are not going to be on the outside.

It is not going to be because we have a certain amount of melanin in our skin. There are going to be ways in which a person who is white is going through a difficult circumstance that a person who has more melanin in their skin is going to be able to help that person and build them up.

So don't listen to the culture and what they're saying about us. Listen to one another. Listen to Christ, according to his word, and then serve each other according to the need that needs to be met. We are different, but we're one body in Christ.

God Appoints the Members of the Body

Verse 17, 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 appointed the members, each one of them in the body, just as he desired.

And we were talking about that from the very beginning of this chapter on spiritual gifts. It is the Holy Spirit who has given to each person as he wills. God has appointed the members, each one of them in the body, as he has desired.

It's not what you want to be or it's not what you want to make another person into. It's what God has designated according to the gifts that he's distributed. Verse 19, if they were all one member, where would the body be?

We can't all be groupthink. We can't all think exactly the same way or else we would not be a functioning body of Christ. Now, as I talked about feet earlier, if feet are the parts of the body that go right, you might even also think of in Romans chapter 11, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of the gospel?

Those who are missionaries, they go out with the gospel to other parts of the world. We may also think of them as feet. Let's say that you're a person who's gifted in such a way. You have a heart for mission.

So you might be designated a foot in the body of Christ. If you want to go find a church, that's a bunch of other feet. Like I need to find a church that's just as passionate about missions as I am. So I'm going to go to a church full of other missions minded people.

These are people that they they can't sit still, they can't just remain there in the church, they have to go out and do. And so I'm going to go to a church that's full of a bunch of other feet. If that church was only feet.

There'd be two problems there. Number one, that would be a very smelly church. Second problem, it's not a body of Christ because it doesn't have different parts. It's one part. Then it's not a truly functioning body of Christ.

There's there's a problem there that needs to be fixed. There needs to be more diversity in giftings. Not everybody in the church can be a missionary. Only some in the church are going to be called to that.

But the rest of the body has a heart for missions in the way that they build that person up or supply for them that they may be able to go out and do that gift that they know that Christ has given to them.

And just because a person has a heart for missions does not immediately mean they're ready, nor does it mean that they might actually end up being the person to go. Their heart for missions means they might serve on the missions team, but they're not the person that actually goes out and does.

Right. You see how how an affection for this thing might be to help advance it, but doesn't necessarily mean that the person is the one that's going to end up going or doing. The missionary is the one that's seen by people in the church going out and sharing the gospel.

The person that works on the missions team is not as visible, but they're still just as important to the church for the purpose of missions. And that's where Paul goes with this next, talking about presentable members and the and the less presentable members.

The Weaker and Less Honorable Members Deserve Greater Honor

Verse 20. 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. And I've mentioned this already. We we need the varying parts of the body for the purpose of being a functioning body.

On the contrary. Verse 22. How much more is it that the members of the body, which seem to be weaker, are necessary and those members of the body, which we think as less honorable on these, we bestow more abundant honor and are less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no such need.

But God is so composed, the body giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked. Jesus said that it is the least who will be the greatest in the kingdom of God. So those who may not be the ones who are out front, right, they may not be the pastor at the podium, but they're working sound to make sure the pastor is heard.

They may not be an elder, but he works as a deacon to make sure the elder is able to do that task that an elder is called to do, that he is he is teaching the church, making sure that they're committed to the preaching and the teaching.

So the deacons serve in such a way that the elders may continue to do that. A person may not be the musician. He may not be leading the worship, but they can work back in the kitchen and make sure that the church kitchen is being taken care of.

And members in the body of Christ are fed in another way. They're literally being fed, though they're not serving in such a way to spiritually feed. They're the less presentable members, but greater honor is going to be poured out upon them.

You know, I remember a pastor years ago saying mothers who are committed to staying at home and raising children and changing diapers, they are going to be recipients of the kingdom of God. They will be great in God's kingdom.

They already are great in God's kingdom, though this kind of work that a mom does at home, changing diapers for their babies, though it may not be seen as glorious work, it's not even thrown before the world is look at how wonderful this work is.

Right. Nobody even knows about how many diapers that mom has changed today. God knows. And he knows this work that is being done is for his kingdom. What a great job that a mom has been given to raise up eternal souls for the kingdom of God.

That's no small thing. And while it may not be a praiseworthy job in the eyes of the world, it is nonetheless great in the kingdom of God and great will be that mom's reward on the day that we stand before God in glory.

Well done, good and faithful servant for great is your reward is what the king is going to say to such a subject as this. So it is God who has given such honor to those members of the body that we might think of as less honorable or what the what the world would even call as less honorable.

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. We have different parts, different jobs, different tasks that we are called to, but the same care for each other because we have the same love that has been poured in our hearts.

God does not love different members of the body more or less than the others. God loves us all the same. And the most amazing thing about this, God loves us with the same love and affection that he has for his own son.

The righteousness of God that we've been given by faith in Jesus Christ, we've been clothed in his righteousness. The father looks at us as sons and daughters of God adopted through faith in Jesus Christ.

And we are just as loved by God as the son is loved. That's astonishing. I remember my father teaching me that when I was really young and just how much that floored me that that God had the same love for me that he had for Jesus Christ, the son.

And indeed, we are all being built up in the body of Christ who is the head. The rest of us are our parts of that body, but we are one body in Christ and loved by the father who made us heavenly father.

We thank you for what we've read here today. And I pray it humbles us. We think of how we might help build one another up in this body that we're a part of. But it also encourages us. We are built up in hearing this, that we're loved by the father and that we have actually been called to something, though it is it's not one of the more honorable tasks.

It's not the job that everybody else sees us do, but nonetheless, it's a job that's important. And for building up the body that we may be sanctified and built up in love. If we don't know what our gifting is, if we're still kind of wondering what job is it that God has for me to do in the body of Christ, may we be humble to to meet with other members in the churches that we're a part of so that they may help advise us and give us counsel.

I think your gifting is here that we may work and serve one another in the body of Christ for building it up until the day that we are presented before Christ in glory as that spotless bride that is being prepared for him for that day when Christ returns.

It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.