12-13. You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, The Message)
Paul is answering questions he has received from the fellowship in Corinth about spiritual gifts. He started his explanation that he has given for each question raised so far. Our foundation is God. Likewise our gifts come from God to glorify God. Spiritual gifts are not about our talents and who wins an Oscar. Spiritual gifts are gifts given to every one of us because we are each a worker in his field, a stone in his temple, a living example of the character of God. In today’s text he uses the image of the human body. We each have one body but that one body that has many parts working together. When each part is healthy, the body is healthy and if one part is sick then the whole body suffers. A hand cannot live independently from the body for long and the hand cannot do the function or gift of the ear. The hand is designed for touch, for holding and for reaching out to discover, not for listening.
The last sentence is significant. Labels we use in the kingdom of this world to differentiate us, no longer are significant. Ethnic labels that divide people by color and language don’t work spiritually. Gender titles are not useful spiritually. Levels of wealth that are so important to the IRS mean nothing to the Holy Spirit and should mean nothing in our churches. We are deeply ingrained with these distinctions and it is hard to forget them when we walk through the church doors!
So let’s think of five labels we use to describe ourselves. Then next to the label write how that might translate into spiritual language. For example we might see ourselves as “old”, a chronological word, but God’s people might see us as “mature,” “a graduate of the school of hard knocks,” or hopefully “wise.” Now spend some time thanking God for how he is using each of these labels in your life. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 