Serving the Body
Sunday 22nd October 2022
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
I’ve been enjoying thinking more about ‘The Church’ as part of our sermon series at St Wulstan’s on Sunday evenings. Last week we looked at ‘Serving the Body’ – what it means to be part of the body of Christ. We looked at 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and how Jesus gives gifts to his church. In the passage Paul helps the believers in Corinth guard against two wrong attitudes:
- “I’m not needed” (1 Corinthians 12:15-20) – feeling inferior in our gifts
- “I don’t need you (1 Corinthians 12:21-26) – feeling superior in our gifts
One verse that I love is this one in 1 Corinthians 12:
18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
God in his sovereignty has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. I think this verse is really freeing. Because it saves us from an ‘I’m not needed’ attitude. Or even to resent the gifts we’ve been given compared to others.
No. God has placed the different gifts in his church, exactly where he wanted them to be. So if I am an ‘ear’, I don’t need to spend all of my time trying desperately to be an ‘eye’, or a ‘hand’ (as Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 12).
No, I can trust that God has placed me where he wants me to be. With all of my gifts and abilities. I can rest in the fact that I don’t need to be a Tim Hughes or a Tim Keller or whoever it might be. Because God has given me, Ben, the gifts and personality that are unique to me. I have something to offer God’s church. And it’s the same for you too!
Tony Merida’s chapter on serving in our book of the term, ‘Love your Church’, puts it this way:
“use your gifts passionately for the good of the body. You need to be in a local church to be strengthened by the gifts of others, and you need to be in a local church because others need to be built up by your gifts! Gifts are not given for your own self-enjoyment or self-exaltation, or to build your platform. A Christian has no right to withhold his or her gifts from the church. God gave us these gifts because he loves the church, and we are to use our gifts for the good of our brothers and sisters.” (p.101, Love your Church).
What might it look like for you, with the gifts God has given you, to use them for the good of the church and the glory of God?
Father, please show me the particular gifts you have given me, and how I can best use them, not for my good and my glory, but for the building of the church and the glory of your Name, Amen.
With love in Christ,
Ben Wells (Associate Minister)