“And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet one body” (1 Corinthians 12:19-20). Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we can return to our study of spiritual gifts. Paul is connecting logic to this teaching about spiritual things that are not logical. If each one in the body were all alike, there would be no body where parts work together. But, as anyone can see in reality, the church is one body with many members that should be functioning together.

He is referring back to his main point back in verse 12: “For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”

Herein is a paradox: we are many individuals and yet we are one body. Only through the Spirit of God can these many individual gifts function together like a football team on the field, achieving a common goal. So the rich work together with the poor, the educated with the uneducated, the white with the black, and the old with the young. We’re all one body!

The greater the diversity, the more powerful the unity. This is the working of spiritual gifts in its greatest potential. Let’s stop trying to get everyone to be more uniform, and permit everyone to following their own diversity in unity. And let’s win the game for Jesus!

Tags: church, spiritual gifts, unity