2 Corinthians 13: 11 One mind – many parts!

“Finally, brothers and sisters…be of one mind”

One of Paul’s main concerns with the Corinthian church was division, “One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided?” (1 Corinthians 1: 11-13a). Christ’s body should certainly not be divided, “As it is, there are many parts, but one body” (1 Corinthians 12: 20)

Does that mean we all need to be the same and any difference should not be tolerated? Let’s look at Paul’s analogy of the Church being a body. Is there room for differences in the body of Christ? “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” (1 Corinthians 12: 17-18)

We can’t have a body if every part is the same. The body of Christ is a body because it has many parts, but each part must joined to the head or it is not part of the body. And all the part of the body need to listen to the head so that they can do what they are supposed to do at the right time. Only then will they be helpful to the whole body.

If any part tried to operate independently the body would be a mess. The heart need the head to tell it how often and how much blood to pump. A muscle need to head to tell it when to contract and when to expand. An eye needs the head to interpret what it sees. Without and intimate, unbroken, working relationship with the head all the parts are useless and the body simply will not function.

If any part behaved like the other parts of the body, the body would also not function properly. When Paul asks the Corinthians to be of one mind he is definitely not saying that we should all be the same. What he is saying is that we all need to take our instructions from the head (that is Christ). Only then can we work together as a body, each person doing the things that God has uniquely gifted them to do.

How should we deal with those in the body who are radically different to us? Should we be critical if they have different (or even wrong) ideas but still have a working relationship with Jesus? “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty”

This verse has always challenged me every time I struggle with a brother or sister in Christ who is difficult to get along with, or who does things differently to me. When I find myself saying “That’s not the way to do it!” I have to remember that I am a hand and they are a foot and none of us are designed to work in the same way.

The key to being of one mind is that we are under the guidance of the head and not living independently. Paul says of false prophets “They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body…grows as God causes it to grow.” (1 Colossians 2:18) It wasn’t so much that they where different as that they didn’t place themselves under the authority and guidance of Jesus Christ.

Unity in mind comes about despite our differences, not because we don’t have any. And if we learn to live with Christ as our head our diversity will actually be an asset not a problem.

God Bless,

Matt.

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