Audio recording Sermon manuscript: Our epistle reading today picks up where our epistle reading from last week left off. Last week, if you remember, Paul was talking about spiritual gifts. One and the same Spirit gives different gifts to Christians. Among the gifts that he mentioned were the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Faith is given by the same Spirit. Then he talked about gifts that were more common at apostolic times like miracles, prophesy, and speaking in tongues. In my sermon last week I mainly spoke about how we should understand these unusual gifts and not be led to false conclusions about them.  If you missed that sermon, you can look it up at the website listed in the bulletin. The reading today picks up where we left off last week. The final verse in last week’s reading was that the Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts to each and every Christian, howsoever the Holy Spirit might wish. One Christian is given certain gifts that are not given to another. The gifts that are given to another may not be given to one’s self. This is like the different parts of our body. The eye is a part of the body that has been equipped to do certain things that a hand cannot do. Likewise there are things that the hand is able to do that the eye could never do. With this discussion of how the different members of the body of Christ are necessarily different from one another, and yet members of one body, Paul is addressing a problem in the Corinthian congregation. The church at Corinth was very vibrant and energetic. God gave them many gifts. They were excited to use the gifts that God gave them. But it also appears that they were seeking after glory for themselves with the gifts that had been given to them. Thus they were especially coveting the flashy, unusual gifts that would bring them glory. With Paul’s discussion of how the members of the body are necessarily different from one another, and yet members of one and the same body, he would have the Corinthians understand that Christians are not meant to be in competition with one another. A body works together. A body cannot be made up of members that are all the same, otherwise that is not going to be much of a body at all. As Paul says, “If we were all an ear, where would our sense of smelling be?” Ears should not wish to be noses; noses should not wish to be eyes. The different members of the body are essential for the body to function because of the different abilities that are given to each member. Whether a member of the body is an ear or an eye is something that God determines. Paul says, “God has arranged the members in the body, each and every one of them, as he desired.” No matter how much an ear might wish to be an eye, there’s nothing that an ear can do to make itself into an eye. In a sense, this is what the Corinthians were trying to do. The ones who had not been given the gifts that had been given to others really wished that they had those gifts. They wanted the glory that would come along with that. But whatever gifts there might be, if they are genuine, are from God. His intention is that the gifts should be beneficial to the body of Christ, to the fellow members of the body. There are also parts of the body that God has put together that are thought to be weaker. Paul doesn’t specifically say which members of the body he is talking about, but he does contrast these so-called weaker members with the eye, the ear, and the nose. They eye, the ear, and the nose are sensitive members. They are very special. The eye, especially, is not only very useful, but it is also very beautiful to look at. What is some other slab of flesh compared to the eye? “But,” Paul says, “the members that are thought to be weaker are necessary.” Why? Because God made it so. He is the one who has put the body together the way he wants. Here I’d like to pause in my explanation of Paul’s words to point out something that I think is important. Paul is speaking here in a