If you have ever coached or watched the early years of Little League baseball, you know that the kids who can catch the best and aren’t afraid of the ball usually end up in the infield. During the first few months or years of playing baseball, the ball usually only gets to the outfield if an infielder doesn’t catch it. And for reasons I won’t take time to explain, the right fielder often has the least defensive ability. But when the ball does go to the right fielder, you soon realize that this position is, in fact, important. It takes all nine fielders to make a baseball team.
Maybe it’s a poor analogy, but in a way, this is what Paul was trying to help us understand in 1 Corinthians 12. Not only has the Holy Spirit given us different gifts and abilities, according to Paul’s teaching, but every one of us must exercise and use those gifts for the church to work effectively.
Even at creation, we see how God demonstrated the importance of variety, not only because variety creates beauty but also because it allows for maximum effectiveness. When every cell is healthy and functioning, we are able to flourish. We are unique from birth, and when we experience new birth, the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts that are used to help the body of Christ flourish as well.
Paul wrote to a culture where Greek and Roman gods were celebrated. While not all pagan worship was chaotic, some religious practices involved uncontrolled behavior and ecstatic experiences that were viewed as evidence of spiritual encounters. Contrast that with Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians. Rather than being out of one’s mind, believers are to exercise their spiritual gifts within the beautiful order established by the Holy Spirit, as they are led by Christ, the head of the body, which is the church.
According to Paul, it is God’s wonderful design that we all have a role to play in the body of Christ. While some people play roles that are more visible than others, even those roles that people seldom notice are critical to the design and order of how the body of Christ works in the world today.
Paul used human anatomy to make his point. And it sounds like Paul had a good sense of humor as well, imagining various parts of the human body speaking about their roles and value:
“But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’”
Paul makes it clear that no one plays all the parts in the church. He wants the church to understand that there is no elite class of people who make the church effective. In some ways, I wonder if Paul’s thoughts here echo back to the beginning of 1 Corinthians, where he spoke against divisions in the church caused by some claiming to follow Apollos, Paul, Cephas, and others. The church is effective not because of a celebrity leader but because everyone is on mission and using the gifts God has given them to do His work.
In my quasi-retirement phase, I am active in pastoring a local church. More than ever in my life, I see the power of members serving within their gifts and valuing the work that other church members do every day. The more churches demonstrate unity within the body of Christ and use their gifts to serve others, the more Christ’s kingdom will expand.
Father, thank you for the practical teachings of Paul in this passage. Search our hearts so that we might see where and how you want us to join Your kingdom work in our local church and in the greater community of the church throughout the world. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your time with God’s Word
1 Corinthians 12:4–31 ESV
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