Check your body parts … are there some missing?
/In Sydney, where I live, homogeneous services in Anglican churches are the norm.
We have an early morning service for retired members who like hymns and a more formal Anglican prayer book service.
Next comes the more contemporary family service with great kids’ ministries.
Then, in the evening (because young people like to sleep in), we run a youth and young adults service.
As Sydney becomes more and more multicultural, our churches are also recruiting pastors to start services for the different ethnic groups in our city – so we have Chinese congregations, Arabic congregations, Sudanese congregations … and so on.
This model of church is certainly very attractive and can be effective. Like attracts like, and services can be tailored to the various needs and preferences of the different groups.
So … what’s the problem?
If a homogeneous model is effective, perhaps an argument could be made for establishing specific congregations to reach and disciple everyday people.
But is this model biblical? Is this God’s plan for the local church?
To answer that question, let’s look at 1 Corinthians 12:12–27.
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
It seems that being one – being unified – was not well expressed in Corinth. As a result, Paul describes the Corinthian Christians earlier in this letter as ‘still worldly – mere infants in Christ’ (3:1).
Chapter 12 of Paul’s letter implies that some in the church despised or dismissed people who were different to them – resulting in Paul’s reminder, in verse 21, that ‘the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” nor the head to the feet, “I don’t need you!”’
And there was another problem undermining unity in the church at Corinth. Some felt they did not belong to the church because of their differences. As a result, Paul had to remind the Corinthians in verse 15, ‘Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.’
How do we react to difference?
Our differences can stop us from valuing others. Alternatively, they can prevent us from feeling that we belong.
Both of these reactions to difference breed disunity.
Both are contrary to God’s purpose for his church and ultimately the entire universe.
And the irony and tragedy of this is that our differences are God-given. God, in his genius, has made us all different. Our differences make us essential to one another, and our unity in diversity allows us to be very effective, just as a head needs arms and feet to be able to do what a body does.
What kinds of diversity must we value and not dismiss?
The very important question, then, is this: What sort of diversity was Paul referring to?
In the past, I have preached (and I have heard others preach) that he was referring to the different spiritual gifts given to God’s people by God’s Spirit. This is certainly in Paul’s mind, as is confirmed by the surrounding verses (1 Corinthians 12:1–11, 28).
However, looking more closely at our text, I am convinced that Paul primarily had in mind ethnic and social differences.
Why do I say that? Let’s look again at what Paul says:
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. (1 Corinthians 12:12–14, emphasis mine)
Paul is describing a unified group of people, baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body, ‘whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free’.
He’s saying that the free Christian in Corinth cannot say to the slave Christian, ‘I don’t need the service of your spiritual gifts’; neither can a slave say ‘I don’t belong here’. Whether slave or free, they have God-appointed spiritual gifts for strengthening and serving the church.
It’s worth repeating: the major causes of division in the church at Corinth were ethnic differences (whether they were Jew or Gentile) and social differences (whether they were a free person or a slave).
Social differences. We have them in our society, too. How should we view them? And what should our attitude to diversity in our churches be?
This article is one of a series that I’ve written about making disciples of ‘everyday people’.
It can be read on its own, but if you’d like to gain a greater understanding of how my thoughts around this important topic have developed, you may wish to read the full series of articles in order.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™