コリントの信徒への手紙一12:12-27 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Last week and this week I have been preaching about a letter that Paul wrote to the church in the city of Corinth in Greece. The church in Corinth had various problems. As I explained last week, the believers were quarrelling, saying things like “I follow Paul” and “I follow Apollos.” Also, in the worship services, only those who could speak in tongues were valued. Speaking in tongues means speaking a language that is different from ordinary human language, guided by the Holy Spirit. In our church, this is rarely done, but in churches in various denominations of the world, speaking in tongues is not uncommon.

In today’s Bible passage, in verse 12, Paul says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”  Just as in the human body, the church, which is the body of Christ, is one body, but it has many members. That is, it is made up of members with different gifts. In verse 13, Paul says, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” People who have believed in Jesus and been baptised are all members of the one body of Christ, no matter what country they are from or what their social statuses are. And they are all being nourished and living by the same Holy Spirit that God sends.

Although we are all being nourished by the same Holy Spirit, the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives are different. And people use their different gifts to do different things. This is very similar to the human body. In verse 14, Paul says, “For the body does not consist of one member but of many.” In verses 15 and 16 that follow, he says, “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.” Of course, that’s right. It’s only natural that the foot is different from the hand. The foot has the function of walking, and the hand has the function of grasping things. The ears have the function of hearing, and the eyes have the function of seeing. All of them are essential functions of the body.

Paul says something even more interesting in verses 17 and 18. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” If the whole body were an eye, that body would only be able to see. If the whole body were an ear, that body would only be able to hear. In the first place, something that is all eye or all ear cannot be called a body. The body is made up of various members that perform different functions. And just like the human body, the church, which is the body of Christ, is made up of different members that work in different ways.

Let’s think about our church, Shiki Kita Presbyterian Church. There is a pastor who preaches sermons. There are elders who decide important things about the church together with the pastor. There is someone who plays the organ and accompanies the hymns. There is someone who sends out weekly and monthly bulletins to the members who don’t come to church. There are people who clean the church building. There are people who support the church by making offerings. And even if they don’t do anything else, the act of attending worship services itself is a very important “service.” God has gathered together all these people who do these various services, and this church has become the body of Christ, testifying about Jesus to people.