One Body, Many Members

In one paragraph

This was a communion Sunday message from the middle of a series on 1 Corinthians 12. Pastor worked through verses 12 through 31, tracing Paul's argument that the church is one body made of many distinct members, each gifted by God for the common good. The central concern throughout was unity, and why a passage Paul wrote to pull a divided church together has so often had the opposite effect....

Read together

1. 1 Corinthians 12:7 the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the common good
2. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 main text for the sermon, the body of Christ with many members
3. Acts 9 Paul's conversion, Jesus asks why are you persecuting me, connecting Christ with the church
4. John 17 Christ prays in the garden that believers would be one as he and the Father are one
5. 1 Corinthians 14:1 cited as closest context supporting the imperative reading of earnestly desire the higher gifts
6. 1 Corinthians 14:39 cited alongside 14:1 as supporting the imperative translation of earnestly desire

Talk about it

1. The pastor talked about spiritual gifts being given 'to each one for the common good.' What does it change about how you think of your own gifts when you consider that they were given, not earned, and that they belong to the whole body rather than to you personally?
2. When Jesus stopped Paul on the road to Damascus and asked 'why are you persecuting me,' he was referring to the church. What does it mean to you that Christ identifies himself so closely with his people that to hurt one is to hurt the other?
3. The pastor described those clay body parts hanging disconnected on church walls as a picture of what it looks like when a member of the body tries to go it alone. Where have you seen that play out in a real church community, and what was the cost?
4. The sermon raised two possible readings of 'earnestly desire the higher gifts': a command to pursue them, or a sarcastic observation that the Corinthians were already chasing the flashier ones. Which reading sits better with you, and why does it matter which one Paul meant?
5. The pastor put four approaches to Scripture on a crosshair, naturalistic, supernaturalistic, existential, and dogmatic, and said we tend to land in one quadrant while needing what the opposite quadrant offers. Which one do you lean toward most, and what would it cost you to genuinely engage the person across from you on that diagram?