Verse for the week of January 24th:
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.
(I Corinthians 12:12)
With this verse, St. Paul is continuing a discussion about understanding the church in the same way that we understand a body.
A body is made up of many members—ears, eyes, head, hands, etc. Each member is not a body, but contributes to the makeup of an entire body. Thus, St. Paul concludes that the church is made up of many members—individual Christians—and it is the total of all these individual Christians that makes up the entire church.
The difficulty of the church can be that some think that they are more important than others. This is almost certainly what was occurring at the church in Corinth. Paul continues the image of the body by helping people image that the eye might says to the hand—I do not need you. Or the head saying to the foot—I do not need you. This is not helpful—for the body can not be only one part. If the body were just an eye, where would the sense of smell be.
Rather, Paul is declaring to the church of Corinth that it takes all the parts to comprise the overall body—just as it takes each member with their individual gifts to be the church. The church needs people with all the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives so that the Will of God can be accomplished. And even if some think that a couple of the gifts are more important or better than others—St. Paul flat out tells them that they are wrong. One gift is not better than another; it is just that each gift is different. And each gift has a role to play in the overall mission of God.
All gifts (even those that some might not think as important) can be instrumental in God’s will being done.
How can you use your gifts, no matter what they are, for the Kingdom of God?
what a wonderful visual using the Cootie game to explain this passage in the children’s lesson. i like to read this section of the bible, it always makes me feel i have a part in the church, a gift to offer, no matter how large or small. i will always think of this when i play cootie from now on