gifting
Each is Necessary
By Linda Rex
January 26, 2025, 3rd Sunday in Epiphany—In my last sermon blog, we tackled the first part of 1 Corinthians 12 and saw how all of the gifts the Spirit pours out are meant for the common good. As the body of Christ in the world, the Church best reflects our Lord Jesus as we serve one another and those around us with compassionate care and concern. When we serve and care for those around us as a unified whole, we more truly reveal Jesus Christ to the world in which we live.
As we read on into the next section, 1 Corinthians 12:12–31a, the apostle Paul continues to address the issues which were causing division in the church at Corinth. Paul reminds them that their unity is found in Jesus Christ. They were baptized into Christ, having been given the one Holy Spirit. Our value is not lessened or increased by the spiritual gifts we are given. Nor is it changed by whatever role we have in this life, our culture, or our gender. Rather, we are defined solely by our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus elevates us to a place of unity within the body of Christ.
And God himself determines the place we have in his Body, the Church. Just because the way God has made us or gifted us isn’t obvious to others and doesn’t play a dramatic or significant role, does not mean we are less important. In God’s view, each person and their gifting are an essential part of the whole.
Speaking from personal experience, I found that it was next to impossible to effectively lead a church without people who were specifically gifted to do such things as pay attention to whether there is plenty of toilet tissue and paper towels on hand, ensure there is proper drainage around the building, or help clean people’s houses. Some tasks are just not very “spiritual” in nature, but are very essential to the proper working of a fellowship and its service within a community.
People may expect a pastor to do all of these things him or herself. And that may be how it works out at times, but this is actually why God brings a lot of people together into a group and gives each of them different gifts. It’s a good thing for a pastor to serve others by keeping track of inventory, digging ditches, and cleaning houses. But if a pastor spends all of his or her time doing these things, he or she will struggle to complete the specific tasks he or she was called and gifted by God to do such as preaching, teaching, and evangelizing.
This is why we see the example in Acts 6 where the apostles selected certain people to help the Hellenistic widows so that the apostles could focus on the ministry of the Word of God and prayer. Over the years, there were some very beautiful people I met along the way in my ministry who took on these challenging tasks I didn’t have time for (and wasn’t gifted for) and did a marvelous job of keeping up with them, thereby easing my burdens. Because of their service, I was freed up so I could preach and teach, and serve in music ministry at the church. And I’m so grateful for each person who did this, and for the gifting the Spirit gave them, and how they generously and faithfully offered their gifts to God and to the church.
Going back to our passage for this Sunday, we are reminded that the apostle Paul sought to help the members in Corinth quit placing so much emphasis on speaking in tongues and on having greater status in the church, depending on which gift the Spirit had given them. What Paul continued to emphasis in this chapter is how each and every person is specially gifted by God’s Spirit to play an important role within the body of Christ. Because God values each person, each person should respect and value the other members of Christ’s body. And they should respect and value themselves, for God has chosen and gifted them, “for the common good.” We each have an important role to play, even if nobody seems to notice or care that we carefully do our part in any way that we can.
And what we can sometimes fail to realize is that the Spirit is continually at work within us, growing us up in Christ. What this means is that, as we offer our gifts and service to God and his Church, we may discover new gifts and abilities we did not realize we had. We may begin to reflect Jesus in new ways, and feel a call to contribute in new ways to what God is doing in and through his Church in this world. The Lord is always up to something new, and wants us to be a part of it. And fundamentally, as we look ahead to 1 Corinthians 13, his main objective is always self-giving, sacrificial love. This is what should be the central focus of our life and ministry.
Dear Father, thank you for all the wonderful people you have gifted and joined together into the body of Christ. Thank you for the blessed gifts you have given and continue to give. Open our eyes, our minds and hearts, to see and receive all you offer us, and to generously and faithfully serve you and those around us, as you have gifted and called us to, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
“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. 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. For the body is not one member, but many. 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. 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. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. 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.’ On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; 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, 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, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. 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. 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? All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts.” 1 Corinthians 12:12–31a NASB
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Because of Christ
By Linda Rex
August 4, 2024, Proper 13 | After Pentecost—As I was reflecting upon the New Testament passage for this Sunday, Ephesians 4:1–16, it occurred to me that many people today do not see or understand the value and significance of participating in a spiritual fellowship such as a church. Churches, and their accompanying denominations, have received a lot of criticism and ridicule in recent years. And many of us are too busy with life elsewhere to be actively involved in a church, or we have no interest in anything having to do with matters of faith.
This is understandable, considering our human history and how often we as human beings within the body of Christ have fallen so short of what Christ called us to be. The reality is that when the Spirit brings people together and unites them in Christ, these people are still learning and growing, and are in the process of maturing into Christ. Our purpose in joining in fellowship with others of like mind and heart is not to be or become perfect people, but to grow up in Christ and to serve God and others, in love and unity.
The apostle Paul stressed the importance of unity within the body of Christ, a unity which is only possible in and through the work of Jesus by his Spirit. Jesus led the way and brought us up into his own union and communion with his Father in the Spirit, and he is the head of his body, the Church (speaking of the universal, all-encompassing, cross-denominational and cross-distinctives body of Christ). God brings together in Christ by his Spirit people from all walks of life, all different sorts of people who may or may not like one another or understand one another.
I thought I would share some bullet points on this passage. I think they say well what we need to learn from Paul about being the body of Christ, the Church:
- Because Christ has given us his fullness in the Spirit and made us one with God—we are to maintain our unity in Christ. We are to beware of any attempt to cause division within the body of Christ. We are all one in Christ Jesus. We may worship differently, we may have a relationship with God that is different than someone else, but we are all one in Christ Jesus. We are to keep Christ at the center and we will have room for one another.1
- Because Christ has given us his fullness in the Spirit and made us one with God—we offer ourselves in works of service. How has he uniquely gifted each of us? In what way can we serve others the way Christ serves us? No one is left out of Jesus’ generous gift of grace or of his calling to serve others. What would Christ have us do to participate with him in building up his body?
- Because Christ has given us his fullness in the Spirit and made us one with God—we participate in equipping or being equipped. Has God called us and gifted us uniquely to act as a ligament or joint in his body, to hold it together by serving as an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher? Then we are to do the work of service Christ has given us and diligently equip others for service. If we were not called to be a joint or ligament, then God called us and gifted us to do works of service in some other part of the body.2 We are to allow the Spirit to empower us to serve with Christ’s heart of service. We are to allow ourselves to be equipped by those God has gifted to equip us. We are to stay grounded in Christ and grow in our knowledge of the Son of God.
- Because Christ has given us his fullness in the Spirit and made us one with God—we are to speak the truth in love. Christ is the fullest expression of love and is the truth of our human existence, having lived our life, died our death, and risen for our salvation. He himself is the fullness we all are to grow up in until we reach maturity. He is the truth we speak in love.3 4
- Because Christ has given us his fullness in the Spirit and made us one with God—we are to grow up in Christ. We are to stop being childish, easily swayed and distracted by every new spiritual fad that comes our way. We are to turn from anything that distracts us from Christ or from being busy doing the works of service he has called us to do. We are to participate with him in building up his church and maintaining its unity as members of his body.
As you read these bullet points, what stood out to you? Is there some way in which the Lord is wanting you to reframe your view of the body of Christ, the Church? How is the Lord is calling you to join with others in service to him and his people? Take the time to be still before God and to invite Jesus to speak to you about this. What does he have to say to you? Are you listening?
[1] Sproul, RC, The Purpose of God, An exposition of Ephesians. Scotland (Christian Focus Publications via Logos Software, 1994), Eph 4:7-16.
[2] Wiersbe, Warren W., Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament. USA (SP Publications, Inc. via Logos Software), Eph. 4, section I.
[3] John 14:6.
[4] Stone, Sam E., ed., Sermon Outlines on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Cincinnati, Ohio (The Standard Publishing Company, 1995), The Unity of the Spirit—Ephesians 4:1–16.
Dear Father, Jesus, Spirit, you draw us together into union and communion with you and others, growing us up into the full maturity of Christ. Grant us the grace to hear your call and to respond obediently, by participating fully within your body of believers, the Church, through Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.
“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.’ (Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:1–16 NASB
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