You Matter to This Body

Day 231: 1 Corinthians 12:1-26

“Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.” - 1 Corinthians‬ ‭12:13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Our culture is obsessed with rankings and comparisons. LeBron or Jordan? IU or Purdue? Chocolate or vanilla? Country or rock? So this naturally leads us to ask, “Who is the most important member of the local church I attend?” Definitely not a good question to answer.

Paul lays waste to this kind of thinking. There is, in fact, no ranking system in the body of Christ. This was as revolutionary in the first century as it is today. For the first time in human history, a slave could be counted as equal in standing among the elite.

Today, our culture may say that all are created equal, but most don’t live and work that way.

The Church is a body. If you are a Christian, you are a member of that body, and you matter as much as anyone else. Actually, Paul says that if you think yourself insignificant (the weakest), you may be the most necessary.

The truth is that God doesn’t need us to be a part of His church — He wants us. Still, we do need each other. We need everyone to exercise their gifts.

"Individual members cannot contract out. The disputes at Corinth seem to have depressed some of the less gifted members of the church. They wondered whether they had any right to belong to so august a body, including as it did people with such wonderful and spectacular gifts. Paul gives encouragement to the lowly."
- Morris, L. (1985). 1 Corinthians (Vol. 7, p. 169)