By Karin Peter, senior president of seventy

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

[From Sermon and Class Helps, Year C: New Testament (with focus on the Letters), Herald House, 2024, p. 33]

The church in Corinth was struggling to live into oneness in Christ. Conflicts and division occurred as members competed for status and wielded power over others. Members promoted their worth by claiming some expressions of spiritual giftedness to have more value than less-charismatic gifts.

Corinth was known as a hub of unfettered excess and immorality. All this was part of the environment that surrounded this group of disciples. Hierarchical social and political systems governed everyday lives. These ways of defining people by riches, status, and power had found their way into the church community.

Paul reminds the people they became members of one body when they were baptized in Christ. He reaffirms the need for unity and mutual concern in a Christ-like community. Paul makes clear there are no divisions in Christ’s body. Class structures that uplift some while oppressing others have no place in the faith community. He especially lifts those who have been considered weaker or treated as less important than others. To make his point, he uses a familiar metaphor for the people of Corinth. The idea of one body with many parts often was used to promote social hierarchy and political power. Those with greater status and power would be at the head of the body, and their giftedness would be more important than the gifts or yearnings of others. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul turns that way of thinking upside down by using the same metaphor to describe the body of Christ.

In Christ’s body, the giftedness of all members is valued, and those without status or money are honored. In Christ, all gifts are expressed for God’s purposes, and all members work together for the good of the entire body.

Paul wants the Corinth church members to set aside the cultural remnants of competition and class divisions. He hopes they will embrace oneness in Christ and live as an interdependent body of believers.

Community of Christ seeks this same interdependence as congregations and groups live the Enduring Principle of Unity in Diversity. Christ’s disciples are called to celebrate the diverse giftedness of the body without valuing one ministry or giftedness over another.

Disciples today still struggle with divisions and conflicts in Christian community. It is helpful to look anew at how Paul turns cultural norms upside down. What does his description of the body of Christ say to those swayed by cultural trends that devalue the foreigner, the immigrant, the poor, or the different?

Prayer Phrase

“…he has given us a new birth into a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3).

Spiritual Practice

Weaving a Life

Hold, or imagine yourself holding, a piece of patterned cloth. Examine it carefully. Notice overlapping threads mingling colors that form the design. Write a journal entry or meditate about the threads and patterns of your life. What design do you see? How does the life pattern you are weaving create justice and wholeness in God’s world? What new pattern is God calling you to weave in 2025?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.