October 13, 2019 · 1 Corinthians 12:17–20

The Nature of Community

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.

“You are part of the body! If you follow Jesus, you are de facto part of a community of Christians across this globe, if you like it or not. You can't escape it! It's like the mob — you can never leave. But in a good way. Now notice what Paul is trying to say here. The nature of community is that it is something we are part of whether we relish it or not. We are part of a community if we realize it or not. We are part of a community even if we fight against it. You are part of the body of Christ — a worldwide community. The question is whether you try to avoid it or not. Why do we try to avoid community? Here Paul is saying it's because we tell ourselves, "I don't belong." And why do we say we don't belong? We look around and we decide we aren't like everyone else. "I'm not a hand." "I'm not an ear." This is important, because we may know objectively it doesn't matter what ethnicity or economic demographic I am part of, but we will still self-select out of a community by saying, "I'm too different!" The Christian church can never be a place where someone feels too different to belong. They have the same Spirit. This means two things: 1) each person needs to get over themselves and realize how they do and must belong to any local church; 2) each local church has to get over itself and not be trying to find who is "a good fit" in this church.”