Summary:
How can we become a united and loving body (based on 1 Cor 12)?

1. Recognise everyone in the body of Christ is very different. Nevertheless, we are joined together by the Spirit of Christ.
2. No one is indispensable, but we should view everyone as necessary. Just like how important you realise one little finger is only after you injure it!
3. Put in more effort on the parts of the body/people that are “less presentable”. That’s what we do for our own bodies (e.g. if our hair is not so nice, we would put in more effort to style it). The same goes for the body of Christ.
4. If one suffers, all suffer. If one is honoured, all rejoice. Do we also suffer when another suffers? If another person is honoured, do we feel envious or do we rejoice with them?

1 Cor 12
v12-14
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.

Paul tells us of the diversity of members in the body of Christ. We’re all different, we all know we’re different. We’re all brought up differently; our likes and dislikes, the things we like and dislike to do are different.

Sometimes human beings have the tendency to only like people who are like us. We tend to draw closer to people who are like us. The first thing here we have to recognise is that in the body of Christ, everyone is very different just like how a body has different members. But even though we are all different, we are joined together by the Spirit of Christ.

v15-16
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?

Everyone plays a different function in the body of Christ. We all have different roles to play. If everyone plays the role of the brain, who’s going to do the work of the hands and the feet? The important thing is to play the role God has given us to do well. Sometimes we tend to think: “Just because I’m doing the work, MY work is the most important. Whatever others do is not that important.” It’s a very self-centred kind of idea. “I do it, so it’s important.”

But here says we must recognise that everyone plays a different role in the body. We have to understand and recognise the role of everyone.

v20-22
But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

These verses raise an important point: members of the body who seem to be weaker are actually necessary! Of course, no one is indispensable. Even if you cut off a finger, your body can still survive but it’ll be very very terrible for you.

Half a year ago, the speaker broke a finger. He was sleeping on the floor at night outside. His daughter was sleeping next to him. She cried so his mother came out to carry her. His mother didn’t see his finger on the floor so she jumped over him and landed on his finger. At that time he was still having a nice dream and wondered why it was suddenly so painful. He thought he had sprained his finger and didn’t see a doctor for a few weeks. Then he realised that maybe the finger was broken. He had to go for operation and physiotherapy - a very long process. The finger doesn’t seem that important but once you lose its function, you suddenly realise how important it is! Especially since he typed a lot. The doctor was telling him, “Depends on whether you’re Lin Dan (badminton sportsman) who needs their hand to grab/hold something. If you’re not, you can function one la!” But he realised it was so difficult to type! Even after removing the cast, he didn’t know how to use his finger anymore because he’d been using another finger to bypass it.

You realise how important every part of your body is once you lose its function.

That goes for the body of Christ too. No one is indispensable, but we should view everyone as necessary! Everyone is necessary. Even when you lose one small portion, even the weakest portion, you should feel uncomfortable because part of your body is gone!

v23-26
And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

These verses list down the principle of one body - how to be united and loving. In our body, we tend to put more effort in making the parts that are less presentable to become more presentable. That’s how we treat our own body. For example if our hair is not so nice, we would put in more effort to style it. But if our hair is naturally nice, we wouldn’t put in so much effort on it, we’ll spend more effort on other parts. But in the body of Christ, we tend to put less effort on people who are less presentable. But the right mentality is to put in more effort to make them more presentable.

v26 is really the crux of it on how to measure whether we are a united and living body.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

If one member suffers, all members suffer with it. There’s no such thing as: “I’ve a broken finger but the rest of my body feels good.” If we have a broken finger, the rest of the body would feel bad! In the speaker’s dream, he wondered why he was suddenly in so much pain.

How do we treat other members in this body? One suffers, all suffer.

When the speaker was young, his mother liked to impress this on them: one suffers, all suffer. His second brother was born with haemophilia. He suffered much when he was young. In primary school, out of 200 days, he wasn’t in school for 100 days. There was one time this happened: His cousin was staying a few blocks away.
His eldest brother asked his mother, “Can youngest brother [i.e. the speaker] and I [the oldest brother] go over to play?” Mother said, “Ok, you can go later.”
His second brother said, “I also want to go!”
Mother replied, “Eh how can you go? Okay, since you can’t go, all don’t go.”

The speaker was 3 years old at that time and was really excited to go. He said to his brother, “Why you want to jeopardise our happy trip?”
But his mother said, “If your brother can’t enjoy himself, you all also don’t go.”

If one of them did well for exams, it doesn’t mean they could enjoy life. Because his mother would say, “Somebody didn’t do well for exams, so all of you stay behind.”
“But I did very well!”
“But your brother didn’t do well, you don’t go and distract him.”

One suffers, all suffer.

But if one member is honoured, all members are honoured with him! They were very happy if all the brothers did well because they’d all lead a very happy life. No sibling rivalry. They were rooting for each other all long. If you rejoice, I’ll rejoice with you. If you suffer, I’ll suffer with you.

What about in the body of Christ? Do we also suffer when another suffers? If another person is honoured, do we feel envious or do we rejoice in another person?

As we pray, let us keep 2 types of persons in mind.

1. Those who are suffering
2. Those who might have done well in things, we give thanks. For example, some people did well in their exams. We thank God for that. Or someone found a job after looking for a long time! We also thank God for that.

Let’s make this prayer for other people. Not about us, for one time. Let this prayer be about praying for other youths in the youth group.

Let’s remember: if one member suffers, all members suffers. If one member is honoured, all members rejoice.

We think about these 2 groups of people in our prayer. Who will we suffer with and who will we thank God for?