“A father asked his young son to break a bundle of sticks. He returned a little later to find the boy frustrated in the task. He had raised the bundle high and smashed it on his knee, but he only bruised his knee. He had set the bundle against a wall and stomped real hard with his foot, but the bundle barely bent. The father took the bundle from the child and untied it. Then he began to break the sticks easily; one at a time. So it is with the church: united we are strong, divided we can fail or be broken.”(1)
The Kentucky state motto reads: “United We Stand, Divided We Fall,” and this is a statement that any church could readily adopt. If a congregation desires to stand against Satan, and wants to see him bruised and wounded like that little boy’s knee, then it needs to be united; so that the devil will only hurt himself in trying to break the church. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
There is strength in numbers; and if we desire to impact our community for Jesus Christ, then we need to take this information to heart. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the apostle Paul provided us with a message on church unity, and he emphasized that a church which is divided will fail to function properly; or perhaps, even fail to survive. If we desire to be useful to the Lord in the task of winning souls to Christ, then we need to listen carefully to Paul’s words and heed his advice.
Paul’s Imagery of the Body (vv. 12-14)
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
In this passage Paul was speaking to the church at Corinth. The city of Corinth was a difficult place for ministry; so much so, that Paul spent his longest stay there after having left the company of Barnabas. He remained in Corinth eighteen months working through the numerous problems dividing the church.(2)
Corinth was a seaport, making it a cultural melting pot of various philosophies and ideas. If you are familiar with the reputation that precedes sailors, then you can understand what Paul was dealing with. Paul confronted the problem of sexual laxity, being that there were nearly one thousand prostitutes in the temple of the goddess Aphrodite; and he dealt with the clash of multiple cultures, such as the Jews and Greeks, expressing their prejudices against one another.(3)
Paul sought unity, so he used the illustration of the church as a human body. Corinth was an ancient Greek city; therefore, Paul used language that was familiar to the Greeks. In Acts chapter seventeen we can observe how when Paul addressed the Athenians on the hill called Aeropagus that he used quotes from their own philosophers in order to gain their attention. He used the same technique in this situation. We need to understand that the use of the body as a teaching illustration on unity was not originally Paul’s idea, because it was first utilized by the Greeks.
Two Stoic philosophers, Seneca and Epictetus, spoke of the unity of the body. Seneca stated, “All this you see, in which things divine and things human are included, is one; we are members of a great body.” Epictetus said, “You are a citizen of the world and a part of it . . . [one should act] as the hand or the foot would do if they had reason and understood the natural order.”(4) The Stoic philosophers tried to express to their fellow countrymen that we are not alone in this world, but we are each accountable to one another, and our actions affect each other as well.
In the human body there are many different body parts, but there is an underlying personality that unifies them all. The same is true in the church. There are many different church members, but the underlying personality that unifies the members is Christ.(5) The church is, therefore, called the body of Christ.
Each Member Is Important (vv. 15-19)
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
How many times have you heard someone say something like, “I’m not welcome at that church, because I wasn’t born a member of the Jones family,” or perhaps, “Since I’m not a deacon no one will listen to what I have to say?” This type of thinking was what Paul was addressing right here. Whoever it was that said, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” likely meant to say, “Because people don’t like me at that church, I’m going to leave there and never come back.” When someone says such a thing, then it is often an excuse for some spiritual problem that the individual needs to confront and give over to the Lord.
If you are someone who has ever said such a thing, then maybe you are dealing with an issue of transference. Perhaps you were raised hearing criticism and feeling as though you were worthless and unwanted. When you come to church you then transfer these negative feelings on the people around you, and imagine that they don’t care for you. Even when they try to reach out and love you, you distance yourself from them and refuse to allow yourself to be accepted. You eventually reason that church people are like everyone else, and then you run away.
Sometimes when a church member uses others as an excuse to leave the church, it’s because he or she is unwilling to give their life totally to Christ. If you are such an individual, then maybe you want more time to do what you desire on the weekends, or perhaps you have fallen into a particular sin and you wish to escape the accountability of fellow church members. I encourage you to confess your sins to the Lord and stop making excuses, and do not be afraid to ask another church member for help. God’s people care for you and are willing to help you with what you’re dealing with, whether it’s your feelings of rejection or your deepest spiritual struggles.
Paul said, “God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one [particular] member, where would the body be?” You are not a part of the Jones family, and you are not a deacon, because you have a totally different function to perform in the body. Your function is not less important, for you are needed just as much as the deacons are needed. God loves you just as much as He does the Jones family; so do not use these things as an excuse to separate yourself from the church and those who truly care for you.
The Jones family and the deacons would be hurting without your function in the church. Maybe what you do is something as little as helping with the dishes at a potluck meal. If you didn’t do that, then those who have positions that involve teaching wouldn’t be able to teach, because they would have to wash the dishes instead; and maybe the dishes would never get done! You are important to the church. You may not receive much deserved recognition, but you will receive praise from God; and your desire should be to please God and not the people around you.
If any of us leave the church then we will suffer. If we are a hand – or rather, a servant for instance – then we function and are alive while we remain connected to the body of Christ. If we choose to amputate ourselves from the body then we will no longer receive life-giving sustenance, and we will wither away and die. The church provides us with much needed spiritual nourishment. If you believe that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible Word of God then you must heed the biblical truth about the church. The church is Christ’s presence here on earth, and if you wish to remain alive in Christ then you have to be connected to the body of Christ.
None Greater Than Another (vv. 20-24a)
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And 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.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need.
Sometimes the eye, which has the function of acquiring vision and directing the members concerning which direction they should proceed, will say to the hand, or the servant, “I have no need of you.” Henry Blackaby, in his book Experiencing God, provides us with an excellent illustration of how the eye can lead the entire body in the wrong direction, even though the hand or foot knows better and tries to warn the eye. In what he calls “The Parable of the Train Tracks” Blackaby says,
Suppose your eye could say to your body, “Let us walk down these train tracks. The way is all clear. Not a train is in sight.” So you begin to walk down the tracks. Then suppose your ear says to the body, “I hear a whistle coming from the other direction.” Your eye argues, “But nothing is on the track as far as I can see. Let’s keep on walking.” So your body listens only to your eye and keeps on walking. Soon your ear says, “That whistle is getting louder and closer!” Then your feet say, “I can feel the rumbling motion of a train coming. We better get our body off these tracks!”
If this were your physical body, what would you do? . . . Get off the train tracks as soon as possible? Take a vote of all my body members and let the majority rule? Try to ignore the conflict and hope it passed away? Or, trust my eye and keep on walking – my eye has never let me down yet?
That may have seemed like a silly question. God gave our bodies many different senses and parts. When each part does its job, the whole body works the way it should. In our physical bodies we do not take votes based on majority rule, ignore conflicting senses, or choose to listen only to one sense and ignore the others. To live that way would be very dangerous.(6)
Sometimes the eye will ignore the hand. If you happen to be a hand, then please realize this is not a reason for you to leave the church. No one is perfect, and each of us can fall into sin, whether we are leaders or servants. Instead of running away from our problems we need to remain and try to help those who are mistaken to understand where they are going wrong. However, sometimes when the servant, or hand, tries to help a person in a different position realize when he has made a mistake, he won’t listen. All we can do then is pray that God will somehow convict that individual of his wrong actions, and hopefully he doesn’t have to get hit by a train before he wakes up.
We Suffer and Rejoice Together (vv. 24b-27)
But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism [or division] in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
“When a speck of dust blows into an eye, instinctively the eye is rubbed with a finger. There is no debate with the finger about whether to help the eye. Later, after pulling down the eyelid, causing the eye to water, the speck is washed out. In a short time the eye is back to normal. But without the hand, including its specifically functioning fingers, the irritant would have remained.”(7) Because the eye suffered, the hand was needed to fix the issue; and therefore, the hand had to suffer as well. The hand suffered the effort of correcting the problem; but because it suffered to assist the eye, the entire body honored it and was grateful to the hand.
If the eye or any other part of the body had failed to honor the hand, then the finger may have felt unwanted and decided that it didn’t want to help out. If this had happened and the speck had remained in the eye, then the entire body may have stumbled and fallen down on the train tracks and been cut in two. The body of Christ is so interconnected that if we fail to suffer together in the little problems, or even rejoice together when things are going well, then we will be wounded and possibly be divided.
Greater honor should be given to the part that lacks honor, because without that part the entire body would be hurting. Paul warned against division, and he made reference to the human body. He didn’t say we are the earthworm of Christ, and that if we are cut in half we will grow a new head or tail. He said that we are the body, and if we are divided, or cut in half, then we will die.
Time of Reflection
If there is someone here this morning who has ever had ill feelings toward someone else in the church, then you need to ask God’s forgiveness; and you also need go to that person privately and ask his or her forgiveness as well. Only then will healing take place in your heart, and only then will the lifeblood of the body surge in your spiritual life once again. Also, if you are someone here who has ever looked down on another church member, then ask the Lord to soften your heart and allow you to start valuing the input and opinion of others when it comes to church matters and spiritual issues.
If you are not a believer in Jesus, then you are disconnected from the body of Christ; and thus, disconnected from the life-giving flow. The hymn “Nothing but the Blood” says, “Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know; nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Jesus shed His blood on the cross to pay for our sins. If you have not confessed Him as Savior and Lord, and had your sins forgiven covered by His blood, then you are lost and dying in your sins. But if you wish to be saved, Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
NOTES
(1) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 66.
(2) F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 248.
(3) Ibid., 248-250.
(4) C. K. Barrett, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), 287.
(5) William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), 113.
(6) Henry Blackaby, Experiencing God (Nashville: Lifeway), 165.
(7) Green, 353.
