You are Christ's body
1 Corinthians 12:14-31 · Vern Peterman · Nov 29, 2009
1 & 2 Corinthians, No. 25
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926148465541

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be stepping into this passage here shortly. I wanted to just have a reminder where, believe it or not, next time we meet it will be the beginning of December. And so we're having electives starting a month from next Sunday. And we would like to have you be aware of those and make your choices and sign up for whichever one of those you'd like to participate in.

Great Doctrines of Salvation by Mike and Courtney will be one of those, and another on the Book of Galatians. I know we've had some people express interest in that. Taught by Roger, Bob, Randy, and Brad Mastin. And then questions and answers from God's Word, just different kinds of questions that people have.

We'll have some that will be kind of on our list of questions to start with, but also an opportunity for you to ask, you know, this verse really puzzles me. What does it mean? Or what about this and this particular issue? So those questions that have been puzzling you, that'll be a chance to surface those and we will address them. So we'd appreciate your helping us all out by signing up as you have the chance to consider which one you'd like to participate in.

Now we're going to be returning to this passage here in chapter 12, talking about spiritual gifts. We bring up this building up the body of Christ from the passage in Ephesians chapter 4 that is in the top of your bulletin on the inside left. Building up the body of Christ is the purpose for this set of spiritual gifts that the Lord has given us. As Paul had begun addressing what we saw in the first 13 verses last week, he continues in this passage to respond to their questions about spiritual gifts.

They had been having problems with the spiritual gifts which God intended for the building up of the body, for the betterment of the body. that the church body would be built up and brought to greater spiritual health and well-being because of it. And so he was responding to their questions by giving them insights into what God intended and also correcting some of their misconceptions. So it appears as we read the passage that the believers in Corinth had been pursuing certain gifts at the expense of others and looking towards and trying to get certain gifts and setting aside as less important and less valuable other gifts. And as a consequence, the spiritual gifts were being used to put forth certain people as important and valuable and significant and setting aside others. And that, of course, needed to be corrected.

And so in this passage, we're going to have some fun because you have body parts talking to other body parts. And Paul's point here is there is a need for the diversity of gifts and the different functions within the body. We need them all, just like we need all our various body parts. So every part is needed, and each member of the body of Christ has a different gift. From verses 14 through 26, which Courtney just read for us, He provides word pictures with the idea being this, each part of the body of Christ is a needed part. Every single one. The Lord has intended that every single one of us have an important part and place and function within the body. No exceptions.

Prestige and prominence, as the Corinthians had been seeking, is not what matters. As with the different parts of the human body, where all the body is not one kind of part, Paul says in verses 27-31 that the body of Christ has a variety of gifts, different gifts, and all do not have one gift. By the way, that's not the signal that Rapture is about to take place. We're going to continue this, I think. The body is not all made of one part, is one of the messages that comes across clearly. Not all one kind of part anyway.

Since the believers in Corinth were all drawn to the gift or gifts that were thought to be more appealing and more impressive, only those few gifts sought by everyone in the church body were getting all the attention. They were all saying, I want the impressive gift. I want to have one that everybody would look to and admire. I want one that will draw everyone's attention to me.

That's the way they were approaching it. Those who didn't have those supposedly impressive gifts, those who didn't display these gifts that were being sought after, were then looked down upon. Oh, you're not as important because you don't have this impressive gift that everyone is trying to get.

So Paul had made it clear that the body of Christ is made up of all these different parts, and certainly not all just of one kind of part. You have on page one of your handout, and I've presented it here because we're past Thanksgiving, it's legal for me to present it with Christmas colors. I've done Christmas color coding, and that's okay. All right, so anyway, what's interesting is he presents things in a kind of a poetic pattern, and we've put things in a structure so that that pattern is apparent.

And it starts off with, for the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, because I'm not a hand, I'm not a part of the body. It is not for this reason any less a part of the body. Notice that the difference here is what is the perception of one part versus the other.

What he's trying to correct is the perception of some, oh, I don't have that impressive gift, therefore I don't even count. And he's saying, oh, whoa, wait a minute. He says, you need to understand. We can't just say, because I don't have the impressive gift, I must not be a part. No. Each one in the body of Christ has been given a gift to be a part, to have a participation in some way. If the ear says, because I'm not an eye, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. One part would look to another part and say, ah, that impressive part, that apparently important part, that high profile part of the body, I don't have that gift, therefore, nah, I must not be a part at all. So he asks a couple of questions, very similar questions, and what we've done here in the text and also in your handout is put in brackets for the meanings that are implied there.

If the whole body were an eye for seeing, where would the sense of hearing be? Obviously not there, right? So this all the body is all one part message does not work. If the whole body were an ear for hearing, where would the sense of smell be? We need all the various body parts that we have. So if the foot says to the hand, as Paul put it in terms of these body parts talking to one another, he's trying to get across the idea it doesn't make it any less real.

Our perceptions of importance are not what matters. God has made every part important. Is it possible that we could feel like, oh, I'm not very important. The part God has given me is not that valuable at all. And what he's trying to say is that is not the case. That is not the case.

Every part is important. Every part matters. One of the points that Paul makes here, it's important that we don't go carrying about misconceptions or operating just on the basis of feelings. Is it possible, could it happen, could it be that someone in the body would behave or speak offensively? I'm afraid so. Could happen.

But one of the things he's trying to correct, he says, it matters what God did. more so than that person who offended. It matters what God says you are, more so than that person who does not understand and expresses that misunderstanding. So he's saying we should not respond and react on the basis of misunderstandings and even hurt feelings. An analogy or word picture that I would get Our emotions are like the indicators and gauges on a car. You do not want to ignore them. I once had a roommate, I think I may have last seen him at our wedding reception, but I had a roommate sometime back.

He was a great guy and I really enjoyed being with him, but one of his strong points was not an understanding of auto mechanics. One time he was making a fairly long trip in a Volkswagen Bug and this light came on in the dashboard and he said, oh that's interesting and kept driving. Well, it was the oil light. He completely froze up the engine.

You do not want to ignore the indicators. If you have emotions, I'm not saying ignore them at all. While they have an important place, they're not to steer us around. He should have thought, okay, now I need to respond to that and he will use the steering wheel. But the brain needs to be engaged regarding the steering wheel. The oil light does not steer the car. So if the ear says to the eye, and Paul again used this illustration of one body part speaking to another, than viewing itself not even as a part. I'm not even a part because I'm not that. That's a problem.

Now if you look at it, the pictures that he uses, the foot and the hand, those are parts that have to do with accomplishment. At a minimum, the foot helps us stand. And hopefully both of mine will work here while I'm talking to you. At a minimum, the hands will hold something. But they're also capable of accomplishing things. The feet can get us places. And the hand can make things and do things and move things around and create things.

The ear and the eye are each parts that perceive. We need those parts so as to provide the senses of sound and light. And we would fell ourselves at loss not to have those. We prefer, in fact, to have all of our body parts because we recognize the value. One of the things he's trying to do is to get each part of the body of Christ to recognize their value and their place. Every single one.

In verse 17, he refers to the ears here. And our expression, I'm all ears, kind of gets the point across. We use the expression to say that we're listening intently, that what we're wanting to do is to listen very carefully to what somebody has to say. The truth is, none of us would do very well with our body consisting of just one ear. We use the expression, but we really wouldn't want to be all ears.

Paul makes that comparison then of the human body and the parts and the spiritual gifts. God intended the variety. God intended that we different kinds of people in the body gifted differently and carrying on different ministries. That's exactly what he had in mind. Because that's what's best for the health and the function of the church body.

Let me suggest something else too. Is it possible that the Lord would have you having different ministries at different points in your life? Yes, most certainly. The Lord may very well change the ministry that he has you in at different stages in life, and that's fine.

That's good. That is also by the Lord's appointment. It's important for us to recognize that. We may be at a place where we cannot carry out a ministry we once carried out. That's alright. The Lord still has an important place for us in the body of Christ.

The thing to recognize, and it comes out in verses 18 through 20, it's what God does. It's not the gift that we pursue. It's not, hey, I think I'll pick this one. I think I'd like that one now. But it's what God accomplishes. He distributes the gifts as He sees fit. It's the work of the Holy Spirit, as we saw in last week's passage. The Holy Spirit distributes the gifts as He wills. It's God's accomplishment. The body of Christ needs that diversity of gifts that God has distributed. Just as our human bodies need a variety of body parts in order for us to function properly. So God intended the church here at Holly Hills to have a variety of gifts. In verse 21 there is also a poetic pattern, which again I've gotten permission, license, to put in Christmas colors in order to code it.

So the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or again, the head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of you. One part cannot say, I don't need the other body part. And believe me, you don't want your body telling other body parts that they don't need each other, right?

You want your body to all be in cooperation and connected. Matter of fact, If something goes wrong with our bodies, we say that's not right. One of the things that happened 17 years ago or something like that when I got Lyme disease is various body parts didn't function the way they used to.

I had one part that was completely disconnected in terms of feeling it or sensing it. I had a problem at one point in time where someone asked me a question and I was holding a blowtorch. I turned like this and was burning my forearm. I didn't even know it.

We need all the body parts. Everything needs to be connected. That's the way God designed it. We need everything to be in cooperation with one another. So in verses 15 and 16, the parts don't feel that they're a part of the body. That's what we saw earlier. Now, he's correcting the other misperception where one part of the body speaks to the other and says, I don't need you. And he's saying, that's not right. That's something that needs to be corrected. Here in verse 21, the parts cannot say that they don't need the other parts.

They most certainly do. One of the things that's clear is we need. Not this kind of need. But we need, and this is for April. God has designed the body of Christ so that we need one another. That is exactly what he has in mind. All the body parts of the human body need all the other parts. And if something isn't quite right with all the parts cooperating, that's when we say, hey, I need to go see the doctor or do something. There are spiritual gifts that vary and some are a higher profile than others, certainly. That's in the same situation here with the human body. There are certain parts that we profile more than other parts, right? More visible.

And that's probably a good thing. But, in the church body, even right now, here we are sitting here in this room, do you know that there are people who are serving in this body who are not in this room and we can't see? And I'm very, very glad that they're doing so. Thank you out there. Okay? I'm very glad that they're doing so. And we all ought to be. They are parts of the body who are not in this room, but a very necessary and important part of the body. And I am very thankful for the function that they carry out. It's a good thing. God designed the body of Christ to have the varying gifts for optimal health and function. We need all the parts of the body just like our human body needs all those parts and needs them all working.

Verses 23 through 24 have this message, things are not quite as they seem. And so I'll give you a second or two with this illustration here to get the idea. One part may seem to be weaker, but that part, even if it seems to be weaker, is still needed just the same.

I have the example of the little pinky. When I was in high school, I played football and my senior year, about a week before the first game, I was in practice and just in the middle of practice, you know, this little pinky here, all of a sudden it was pointing out this way. And it was amazing how that little pinky all of a sudden grabbed all my attention. I was astounded at how much attention it grabbed.

And the rest of the season, all I could do was wrap it up. Because I went to the doctor, he says, you're done with football. And my thought was, well, I'm done going to the doctor. So what I did instead is I wrapped it up, played football, and then went back to the doctor and said, fix it.

But every little part, however weak, however apparently inconsequential, is exactly what the Lord put into the body. We have parts of our own body you might say, well this part's prominent, this part's impressive, this part is strong, but you know the Lord intended that these other parts that may seem weaker be there with us and among us and to be a part of the body. We need everyone who is in the body. All are needed. What looks good or impressive from a human viewpoint is not the measure of value in the body.

God, the one who brought about us here in the body of Christ, and who knows each one of us. That's one of the things the New Testament makes clear, is God knows you. Are we intended to know God? Most certainly. But the New Testament makes it very clear, God knows you. I was looking this last week and I found an instance where the Father, in one case, the Son, in another case, and the Holy Spirit, in another case, searches your heart. The whole of the Trinity is involved in knowing you. God knows you. He knows all of us. And he knows what we need as a church body. He is the one who has composed the body and put the body together as it is.

Now, one of the things that we're going to see as we step into the next part of this here, he returns to a message that he gave much earlier. in the book of Corinthians. As a matter of fact, it is one we looked at in about the second week. And he says, the body is given all these gifts, not so that we can be divided up by them, but so that there be no division in the body, that all the members may have the same care for one another. There is no basis for division in the body on the basis of the spiritual gifts, nor for us to stop mutual care for one another because of the differences in the spiritual gifts.

This is the passage where he introduced this idea of no divisions, 1 Corinthians 1.10. It's on the top of the same slide there. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete.

And by the way, that word made complete is a word that indicates healing up, that you be healed up in the same mind and in the same judgment. The healing up of being one body in order to function and be as one body is not because we give up trying to resolve any differences. It is because we pursue the same mind and the same judgment which comes from the Lord.

Here we have in verse 26 another poetic pattern, and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Remember, Paul put this a little bit more briefly in the book of Romans, where he said, weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice. There is a together experiencing of things. One member of the body goes through a tragedy.

And what do we do? We do not ignore it. We instead, how can I pray for you? Let's get together and help one another with that. We'll send something out on the needs and opportunities sheet and say, hey, somebody has this to share. Someone has this need. We will announce things that we can rejoice together about here when we gather together. This principle applies in a great many ways. There is a mutual sympathy between one another.

So God does not intend that we live as independent Christians who incidentally happen to get together once in a while for some strange and unknown reason. He does intend that we are interdependent as we depend upon the Lord. This isn't codependency. This is interdependent, as parts of the body, while we all depend upon the Lord.

That's God's intent. That's exactly what He has in mind. In verses 27 through 30, He has this message, You are Christ's body, and individually members of it. Paul goes on then to give a list, and as we went through last week, and as also repeated on page 4 of your handout, is the list of spiritual gifts This is Paul's second list here in this chapter of spiritual gifts. Neither one of them is exhaustive. We'll step quickly through it.

The apostles are ones that he speaks of, and those are ones who are appointed by Jesus Christ to found churches, to write and sponsor scripture. Not all the New Testament was written directly by the apostles, but each one that was not written by an apostle had an apostle as a sponsor. The apostles were ones who were appointed by Christ to go out and establish churches, to preach the gospel, to have churches be in place, and to found the church with Scripture. Prophets, in Ephesians 2, 19 and 20, puts it this way, of God's household, that is the church, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Those are two gifts that are foundational gifts. They were given at the beginning in order to found the church solidly. Teachers is another gift. It is a gift that is present in our own church and continues up until this time. One that began in New Testament times and is intended by God to continue until the Lord brings us all together to see Him face to face. One of miracles was one that was carried out during the New Testament times. Your handout on page four has kind of examples of each one of these gifts, but it was one of the things that was used to testify to the truth and veracity, the validity of the gospel as the apostles went out and others went out. Now, by my making that distinction, let's ask this question.

Do I mean to say that God cannot perform miracles now? Is that what I mean? No. That's not what I mean. There are those who were gifted with miracles during the apostolic age, but the Lord is certainly capable and has and does and will perform miracles even now, just not according to a particular spiritual gift that had a place of validity in Apostolic times. Gifts of healings is another one of that sort.

When I was here, what was that, eight and a half years ago now? When I was here eight and a half years ago to candidate, I told of one account, Nancy and I were both having a very persistent physical illness. In my case, it had to do with things related to Lyme disease. In Nancy's case, she had this whole body itching. And it was even to the point where she would be scratching at night and drawing blood. So it was really serious.

And I said, you know, the Lord doesn't have to heal us, but he can. And so here at my suggestion, we prayed. In the middle of the prayer, the Lord healed Nancy. The Lord decided, no Vern, you need to keep this. So very interesting how the Lord works things out. Can he heal? Yes, he can.

The gift of healings, though, is a particular gift for apostolic times. Helps is one sometimes also called service. People serve around this church body in all kinds of wonderful ways. Some of them you don't even know about it, but the Lord does. And I'm thankful for everyone who does that, whether it's something we see and know about or not. It's a wonderful thing. It is God's working among us here in this church body.

One of the passages I quote here is from Galatians 5-13, through love serve one another. That's how this gift gets carried out. Administrations, those who go about directing different things, whether it's something short-term or something longer term and we have people who carry out both of those functions here in this church body. The gift of tongues is one that was for apostolic times and it had a particular unique function that we'll look at in about two weeks and following.

It first started out in Acts 2.11 and it was a gift of, you could actually call it a gift of languages because they heard specific earthly languages regardless of where the people were gathered there from. That was the day of Pentecost.

Now, Paul then goes on to ask questions, and as he asks those questions, he asks questions of either this form, all are not of this gift, are they? Or, all do not, and then he talks about the action of the gift, one of those two forms, In either case, and this is implied in the original language and it's carried off in many of our English translations, in each case a no answer is intended. Do all have the gift of apostleship? Are all apostles? No. Are all prophets? No. No, that's not the way it works either. Why?

He's already made the point there's a variety of gifts. He's made that really clear. So this passage addresses the claim by some believers in churches that everyone in the church body is intended to have one specific gift. I bring this example here. This guy who's in this animated graphic is pounding home the word.

Nancy and I recall having read a description of all these spiritual gifts. And as Nancy and I read it, and it's interesting, we both read it, I said, Nancy, look at this. This fellow had written every single one of the spiritual gifts as if it was teaching. That was all he could see. He didn't understand that no, there is a variety, God intended a variety, and not all are intended to be teachers. That's not God's intent.

Another one that is claimed, particularly among the, I'll call them old-line Pentecostal denominations, that would be like Assemblies of God, Foursquare, and some others, have taught that the gift of tongues is the singular evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If you don't speak in tongues, and you ought to, then the claim is that you don't have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That, again, is the answer to the question, do all have tongues? The answer, no. There isn't any one passage where believers are urged to seek some experience.

You need to go to the Lord and get this gift or that gift. There isn't any passage that really says that. As a matter of fact, this particular passage contradicts that. There isn't any one special gift that everybody ought to have, and there isn't some second blessing that people ought to seek. in Christ. If you're a believer, you're in Christ. In Christ you have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Now here's one I've got to give a little bit of a preface because what I'm going to do is to ask you to look at your Bibles and actually this is one instance where I would suggest a different understanding than what typically comes across in your translation. I am very reluctant to do that because I don't want to be in a place of challenging what's in our Bibles. I want to provide insights from the Greek, but not to undermine anybody's confidence. This is one, however, where I think you can look at it and begin to see what I'm about to say.

Most translators have verse 31 saying something to the effect that church believers must do something. They must earnestly desire the greater gifts. You see that? Desire or covet the greater gifts is what some of the translations will put it as. And it is translated as something that they ought to do.

But I would suggest, and you have this slide on page three of your handout, as you look through the passage in the bigger picture, This is the first instance of the use of the particular word that shows up several times into chapter 13 and into the beginning and end of chapter 14.

Notice that in 1 Corinthians 13 where this is the love chapter, right? He says love is patient, love is kind, love is not, and it's that Greek word. Love is not jealous. And so I think what he is doing is actually trying to correct the jealous problem, the seeking problem that they had. Not tell them to seek, but actually to try to correct the problem. There's one other thing to take note of, that in each case, each one of those verses in there, he is correcting something about their current seeking and jealousy. Every single one. Love is not of this seeking and jealousy. Or he has in the very verse we're just looking at, and I will show you a more excellent way.

So the underlying words here are all the same word in the original Greek text there. So in this one rare instance, and usually the Greek is very specific, in this one instance that's translated in such a way that they ought to see this gift, I would suggest to you that you think about, could it be that they're just a statement of what is going on now? It's a rare instance. The Greek actually allows it, in this case, to be a statement rather than, you must do this.

It's more likely that he was wanting them rather than desiring certain gifts, but to love. You guys keep looking for this special gift. You guys keep going after these gifts, but I'm telling you, what you guys need to do is love. That's the correction that's needed.

So we see this example here, this word repeated, and then in chapter 13 where he says, I'll show you a more excellent way, he says, love is not like the gifts-seeking that you're doing. Love is not that way. If the jealousy among them was that evident, and that's the picture we get from chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, It was all the more reason for Paul to talk about love for a whole chapter, including saying, love is not jealous. Before going on in chapter 14, as we'll see, and then explaining more about the spiritual gifts. Remember, he said, I don't want there to be any division and jealousy is going to feed the division. And by the way, no division in the church. You'll be relieved. Okay.

So here, this is the way, and you have this as a slide on page three, this is the way I believe that these verses are meant to be understood. And again, I am reluctant to tell you the translation is wrong. I only would very reluctantly do that, but I think in this case it's helpful to understand it. I think it instead is saying this, but you jealously long for the greater gifts, though I show you a still more excellent way.

And then in 1 Corinthians 13.4, love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous. And then as he starts chapter 14, pursue love, but you jealously long for spiritual gifts, and especially that you prophesy.

Therefore, he has to begin explaining them and correcting them on it. Finally, he finishes out that chapter. He says, therefore, my brethren, you jealously long for prophecy, but don't forbid to speak in tongues, because after all, These people were prone to react extremely. But all things must be done properly in an orderly manner. In every use of that particular word, there's always a correction. You're doing this, but you need to do this instead.

So rather than jealousy, Paul is going to show them God's love. God gave his spiritual gifts as he wished so that we need not personally long for or seek one gift or another. But the gifts were given in variety in order to build up the body of Christ. The gifts were given in order to have certain people get all the attention? No. The gifts were given in order to make certain people look really good? No. The gifts were given in order that people would put others aside? Not at all. The gifts were given in order to build up the body of Christ.

He's going to correct their jealousy problem. He's going to correct their problem of seeking this or that impressive, high-profile, or supposedly valuable gift at the expense of another. He's going to correct that by telling them this is what love isn't and what love is. He's going to spell that out as we look into this next chapter. So he's turning this corner and I will still show you what a more excellent way.

Instead of the jealousy that you're carrying out, instead of the squabbling that the spiritual gifts is creating, instead of dividing up, love, love. Paul can instruct them here about love that comes from God himself. Where do the gifts come from? God. Where does the love come from? God himself. That's where it begins.

That's exactly what they needed to heal up their divisions. This thing of spiritual gifts has very often divided up the church. And even if it hasn't been over some issue of a charismatic gift or another, it will even divide up churches because people tend to exalt one gift or another. A number of you may be aware of, for example, churches where the pastor is high-profile.

Oh, that's the guy, he writes the books. That's the guy that has the radio spot. That's the guy that you see on the television program. That's the guy we get the mailings from, right? And what he's saying is, wait a minute, all this attention to people is not the point.

We're to be building up the body of Christ. This shouldn't be something that exalts a person, it should be something that exalts the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to be moving next week into this, what's oftentimes called the love chapter, and it's appropriate. Remember, as we begin to study this chapter, that Paul's point is certainly love, but he also, in the midst of this, is doing this to correct the problem related to spiritual gifts. As we read through it, keep in mind, and as we study through it, Keep in your perspective that he is correcting this issue by laying out love in order to resolve the division problem in the church that was centered around the pursuit of spiritual gifts.

I presented last week my own grandparents. My grandmother and grandfather were Assembly of God pastors, both of them. This is a picture from before I was born. And they're home with the Lord now. But it was an instance, they had a perspective on tongues and healing and things like that. Being old line assembly of God to them, it was, if you haven't had this baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by tongues, then you've fallen short. You don't have all of what God wants for you. This was something that we were able to kind of set aside within the family and to look at and for us to have a relationship of love even though we differed on this issue.

My grandfather, that you see there, did our wedding ceremony. He was the one that married Nancy and myself. Nancy knew. Nancy knew that I cared about her very specially when I took her over to see my grandparents. And we continued to go over and visit them for quite some time after we were married.

And there was a love relationship there, even though there was a difference of perspective on those gifts. So I would appeal to you here as we step into this passage that this has got some powerful things to tell us and that this issue of spiritual gifts, and you may have family and friends who have other views on these things, this is not a place to get hateful. This is not a place to get nasty and vindictive.

That's the very reason that Paul put this chapter in where he put it. And so as we step into it, it is a wonderful chapter. It's used in poetry. I've seen it on posters. I've seen people use it in weddings. That's all really wonderful. What he gives as a definition here is something we most certainly ought to consider, but especially look at it in terms of its impact on the body of Christ. That was his intent here. And that's our intent as we step into it.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at what you've revealed here in this chapter and pray that we would learn as Paul that there is a more excellent way. And as we step into this love chapter this next Sunday, we thank you for that more excellent way that is love that comes from yourself. And we just give you praise and we ask that you would be teaching us as we step into a holiday season in which you expressed the kind of love by the giving of your son, by the birth of your son into this world. And we thank you for that. We give you praise. In Jesus' name, Amen.