I Corinthians 12: 25-27 25so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same care for one another. 26And if one part of the body suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if a part is honored, all the parts rejoice with it.
27Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.
I love the passion of Paul. The letters to the Corinthians show this passion in his frustration with this church but also his attempts to get them on the right track. This church has all sorts of trouble from how women and men should wear their hair to what do if they find out meat being served has been sacrificed to the Roman gods to who had the best spiritual gifts. It starts with Paul’s frustration that this person and that person saying they are from Paul or Apollos teaching. There is jealousy, greed, selfishness, in fighting and outfighting. But yet in this letter is one of the most beautiful descriptions of love ever written. Paul ends Chapter 12 in which you can almost feel that he stepped back at his fussing because he does plenty of that to the Corinthians- he stops and thinks what God would want him to tell the people of Corinthian church, and simply says in that last verse “Let me tell you a better way.” Then he writes this jewel of writing about love…
But why were the Corinthians in such a mess? Corinth was not as easy city for Christians to live. There was an ancient saying which goes something like this, “He is from Corinth.” This saying displayed contempt for the Corinthian because they were of loose morals even compared to Roman standards. Corinth was known to have as many as 10.000 thousand prostitutes, many of which were slaves. Any type of sex was available. There was a temple on a mountain in which Aphrodite/Venus was worshipped. There was also a temple to Apollo. There were three other temples in town. It was also an important and busy sea port in Greece.
A side note: The Romans captured and completely destroyed Corinth in 146 BC. They rebuilt it in 44 BC. In 856, the city was destroyed by an earthquake that killed approximately 45,000 people. It was never rebuilt at that same location after that earthquake. It was rebuilt slightly north of the old city, but in 1928, it was again destroyed by an earthquake in its new location. They rebuilt it. In 1933, a great fire destroyed the town, and again they rebuilt it. During WWII Germany used the town as a prisoner of war camp.
The Corinthian church members lived in a town filled with distractions. It is also a fairly new city when this church was founded. Paul is dealing with their jealousy concerning who had the most spiritual gifts. In many ways the Corinthians were like children fussing about whose was best. Paul is trying to get them to understand the need for all of them to work together and not have that constant infighting and bickering.
He is trying to get them to see that they are all part of one church, and he uses the body of Christ as a way to explain it to them. He points out that the body has many parts, and each part is important and needed. He wants there to be no divisions in the body. He wants the people in Corinth to support each other in their needs. He wants them to rejoice over each other’s successes. He finishes with saying they are all parts of Christ’s body, and each one is an individual part of Christ’s body. Each one them has an important purpose in the body of Christ.
What does this mean to us? People often have disagreements. This is true for all of us. Churches are made up of people. Thus, because those people still have their own individual way of looking at things there will be disagreements. Those disagreements often lead to people leaving the church and sometimes leaving Christ completely. What is important for us to remember is that no one in a church family is more important than anyone else in that particular church family. Each person will have their own gifts to give, and those gifts need to be honored. It is also up to each individual person in that church family to guard their hearts, their will, and their behavior so that they do not cause discord in that church family. There are ways to handle individual differences, but those should not be used to tear another person down. Being people we are all at fault with this one at some time or another. I know I have been. Just learn to grow from those mistakes.
And just as Paul said to the Corinthians, there is a more perfect way to behave with each other and that is love. This love should be kind and patient in all that we do. Patience is not easy to obtain because you have to be tested handling anger, frustration, and waiting.
The question to ask yourself:
Do you support others in your church?
Ever in Christ’s love,
Mary Elizabeth Todd
February 9, 2024 & May 18, 2024
P. S. This is a wee bit late since I was tired much of yesterday.
Ruhamah United Methodist Church Bible Verses 