Aug 30, 2026 · 27 min · 10 segments
What happens when we stop seeing people with disabilities only as people who need help and start recognizing everything they bring to the church? In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul reminds us that the body of…
Clayton BellHostThe passage my friend Nate read to us today comes from a letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.
And if you don't know about Corinth, well, it had a lot going on.
First, it was this large, influential city in the Roman Empire which controlled trade routes, both by land and by sea, which meant that people were constantly coming and going.
This early church that Paul was writing to in order to bring both correction and encouragement was full of folks with different views on work, politics, ethics, and religion, and then combining that with their own personal history, baggage, culture, status or no status, traditions, egos.
And even though one person to the next looked very different from each other, they were still supposed to be learning, teaching,
Just because the next chapter in Corinthians is that famous love chapter that we all know, it does not mean that this church was lovey.
In fact, sometimes it seems like they really weren't doing this church thing well at all.
If you flip to the chapter before, there's one particularly spicy Paul that's correcting them on another matter.
And it's one of my favorite versions of Paul because he's pretty fed up.
And he says, I cannot praise you for it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together.
That's not something any church wants to be known for.
See, the society at the time had this way of determining who mattered.
And if we're honest, we do too.
He wants to, and he still wants to, give us a picture of what the church under Christ, not Corinth, not Trinity Odessa, not the United States, what the church under Christ is supposed to look like.
Remember, he says the church is a body, starting in verse 14.
Even so, the body is not made up of one part but many.
Now if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being a part of the body.
And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, stop being a part of the body.
The passage my friend Nate read to us today comes from a letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.
And if you don't know about Corinth, well, it had a lot going on.
First, it was this large, influential city in the Roman Empire which controlled trade routes, both by land and by sea, which meant that people were constantly coming and going.
This early church that Paul was writing to in order to bring both correction and encouragement was full of folks with different views on work, politics, ethics, and religion, and then combining that with their own personal history, baggage, culture, status or no status, traditions, egos.
And even though one person to the next looked very different from each other, they were still supposed to be learning, teaching,
Just because the next chapter in Corinthians is that famous love chapter that we all know, it does not mean that this church was lovey.
In fact, sometimes it seems like they really weren't doing this church thing well at all.
If you flip to the chapter before, there's one particularly spicy Paul that's correcting them on another matter.
And it's one of my favorite versions of Paul because he's pretty fed up.
And he says, I cannot praise you for it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together.
That's not something any church wants to be known for.
See, the society at the time had this way of determining who mattered.
And if we're honest, we do too.
He wants to, and he still wants to, give us a picture of what the church under Christ, not Corinth, not Trinity Odessa, not the United States, what the church under Christ is supposed to look like.
Remember, he says the church is a body, starting in verse 14.
Even so, the body is not made up of one part but many.
Now if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being a part of the body.
And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, stop being a part of the body.
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