Notes of Faith July 18, 2025
Unity and Diversity
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:12, NIV
Most authorities on human anatomy recognize 78 organs in the human body. The apostle Paul used the human body to illustrate the diversity and unity of all Christians in the Body of Christ. Organs are diverse, yet the human body is a unit.
Paul used the human body and its parts to illustrate his teaching on spiritual gifts which God “[distributes] to each one individually as He wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11). Just as God arranged the human body and its parts “just as He pleased” (1 Corinthians 12:18), so He has distributed spiritual gifts in the Body of Christ the same way. And just as every organ in the human body has a part to play in function and in health, so every Christian has a part to play in the function and health of the Body of Christ. Paul identifies the spiritual gifts God has given to the Church in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12–14.
What spiritual gift(s) has God given you? How are you using it to build up the Body of Christ?
Pride of gifts robs us of God’s blessing in the use of them.
William Gurnall
1 Cor 12:12-13:13
12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are 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 we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 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 the less a part of the body. 16 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 the less a part of the body. 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? 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body. 21 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." 22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; 23 and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, 24 whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. 29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? 30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? 31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts.
And I show you a still more excellent way.
The Excellence of Love
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
God is love! God give us the gift of faith according to Ephesians 2. His gift of hope is a sure and secure hope. Is not love, being what God is, also a gift for the one who believes in Him? His spiritual gifting to us must be used in love or the Scriptures say they are nothing more than noise. We must use our gifts humbly, generously, as God provides, for the needs of the body of Christ. Our gifting will overflow toward those around us who are not believers that we might bring them to the throne of grace to find mercy, just as we have! Love enveloping all our gifting to be the best of God’s blessing toward all He puts around us.
Don’t be as concerned about what gift you have or how many you have as opposed to being the person God has created you to be, becoming more like Christ through being in the Word and prayer daily and giving of yourself sacrificially to serve others. The truth of your gifting will bear itself out!
Pastor Dale