1 Corinthians 12:12-19 - ”Members of One Another - The Gifts, Part 3” - Brent Stephens / September 24, 2023

It’s not very hard to snap a single pencil in half. But have you ever tried breaking 15 pencils at one time? It’s a much different scenario. Pencils are not very strong alone, but when you have a bunch of them together, they become virtually unbreakable with human hands. This is God’s design for His Church. The Old Testament teaches us that “two are better than one” and “a threefold cord is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). There is strength in numbers. It is why wolves travel in packs and zebras in herds. Christians working

together can do more than one person by himself. Christians working together are stronger than one person by himself. The metaphor Paul uses to teach this truth to the Corinthians is that of a human body. The body has many members. A foot is not a hand, but the body needs both to be healthy and complete. God does not save us to be islands unto ourselves. The gifts He empowers us with would not be effective if we were alone. Rather, He places us, saved and gifted, as one member among many other members that make up one body, with Christ Himself being our head. Our dependence on Jesus is paired with our interdependence on one another. Paul’s rhetorical question in verse 19 proves the point, “If all were a single member, where would the body be?”