We All Hold a Piece of the Puzzle
1 CORINTHIANS 12: 1-26
(August 19)
My family loves to put puzzles together as a family activity. We will sit for hours together, trying to beat each other in how many pieces we can assemble. Of course, the outside edge goes a lot quicker, but when you get to the inner parts, it can get tough. Especially those 1500-piece puzzles. Oh, they make me crazy!
A few years back, we were working on a puzzle that size. It was intricate and really hard to piece together. Days turned into weeks, turned into months that we worked on that thing.
We finally got close to the finish line. There were just a few empty spots in the picture. You can imagine how we felt when we realized there was a piece missing. We looked everywhere, but never could find that piece.
The puzzle was as finished as we could get it, but it just didn't work. A picture is not good with a gaping hole in it. It doesn't serve its purpose well.
That is how we are as believers. Each of us who have been baptized in the name of Jesus have received the Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit gives us all spiritual gifts. Our gifts are not all the same. They are different according to the purpose God has placed on our lives.
While they are all different, when they come together in unity, they make a beautiful picture. But when a gift is missing, the picture is ruined.
Paul likens it to a body. Our gifts are the "body parts". Don't we notice if a part of our body is missing? Or what if our foot wanted to be a hand, and our hand wanted to be an ear? It would all be mass confusion. That is why our gifts come from the Holy Spirit, decided before we are born, to be used for his purpose, and to be used in unity as one body.
In verse 13, Paul says, "Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit."
What he is trying to say is that the church is made up of many different types of people from different backgrounds, with many various gifts.
In Corinth, the believers were letting these differences divide them, which is the opposite of God's plan. Despite our differences, we all have one thing in common ... we all have the Holy Spirit living within us, which is the supplier of our gifts. This is where unity in the church is found.
When someone in the church has a special gift, there may be someone else who doesn't recognize or care for their own gift but wants the one that person has. They resent the person for having what they want, and strife and dissention begin. Instead of focusing on what God has given them, their focus goes toward that which they do not have. Discontent rears its ugly head and unity is broken.
It is important to remember that we are all individuals with different origins and unique gifts. But because of our baptism and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are on in Christ. When we become a Christian, the Holy Spirit takes up residence and we are born into the family of God.
We all know there is nothing worse than a family full of dissension and strife. So, our goal should be to know and utilize the gifts we have received, working together as one to accomplish what God has planned.
Knowing we all hold a piece of the puzzle is the first step to completing that puzzle, with no missing pieces.