(12)  For, as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. (13) For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.  (14)  For, in fact the body is not one member but many. 

(27)  Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually

First Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul – this was an occasional letter – in response to reports he received that there was trouble in the Christian Church established in Corinth.  In the verses we look at today, Paul compares the church of Christ to the human body – one body may have many members; eyes, ears, hand, foot, etc. but many members of the same body make but one body.  “So also is Christ.”  The Christian Church has one head and one body;  all Jews and Gentiles, slave and free become members by baptism but it is by the Spirit –  drinking into the one Spirit – that makes us true members of Christ’s body.  Baptism is the outward rite and baptism by the Spirit is the internal rite.

There is a distinction of members in the body and it is the same with the body of Christ.  Members have different uses and accordingly, different gifts.  God has set the members as it pleases Him.  Paul tells us that there is no cause for envy of others and nothing to quarrel over as to the distribution of gifts for we must keep in mind always the sovereignty of God.   We are in some degree mutually dependent and should therefore be mutually caring for each other.  Just as with the members of our natural body, the pain of one part affects the whole and the pleasure of one part impacts the whole, so should the members of the body of Christ be honored with their fellow Christians and suffer with them also.

In verse 27, the Apostle Paul sums up his argument:  Every Christian is a member of the body of Christ, not the whole body.  Christians have a relationship to each other, a mutual dependence and should have a mutual bond of care and concern.

(34) Then Peter opened his mouth and said:  “In truth I perceive that God Shows no partiality.  (35) But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.  (36) The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ – He is Lord of all – (37) that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached:  (38) how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil,  for God was with Him.

Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke and is a history of the early church.  Jesus commanded his disciples to go and preach the gospel to all of the known world just before he left them.  The Apostles were also told to stay together in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit would come to them and they would be given power and strength to preach the gospel.  When one considers that the Apostles fled the Garden of Gethsemane the night that Jesus was arrested – and that Peter denied Christ three times that terrible night – one can begin to realize just how far these uneducated, terrified men had come since the crucifixion of Jesus.

The Apostles were all Jewish men.  They were raised to believe that Israel was set aside as a monotheistic nation that alone would receive God’s favor.  The Law and the traditions of Israel strictly forbade certain foods and practices to the Jewish nation – indeed, the Gentiles were considered unclean.  Now Peter has a vision in which God tells him that there are no further barriers of food or fellowship to the Jewish man and his neighbor.  Up to this point the Jewish Christians resisted evangelization of the Gentiles or any acceptance of Gentiles as Christians without a relationship to Judaism.  Peter was the chosen instrument in this opening of the door and the Jerusalem church subsequently accepted a Gentile conversion to Jesus as Messiah apart from any allegiance to Judaism.

At the same time Peter had his vision,  a man named Cornelius, a centurion or captain of men in the Italian – read Roman and superior – regiment, had a vision in which he is told to send for Peter and Peter will tell him about Christ.  When Peter arrives and enters the house of Cornelius where he has assembled his household,  Peter begins to teach what they already know – the account of Jesus of Nazareth that has been proclaimed in all Judea and Galilee – and then Peter begins to teach what they did not know.  The importance of this story is God has now clearly shown that Jesus Christ is the Messiah to all men.  There is no more wall between the Jew and the Gentile.  Christianity is both exclusive and inclusive.  Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life – no one shall know God except through Him –  and He is also the Messiah and High Priest for all who believe.  A powerful message indeed and God has made it known that forgiveness and salvation is for all men.

(2) if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, (3) how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery

(5) which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:  (6) that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel

The letter to the Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to encourage and strengthen a congregation and/or planted churches.  The intention was that the audience would understand the underlying concept of “spiritual reality” behind the numerous groups that met all over Asia.  Paul did not deal with particular issues in Ephesians but he taught doctrine in terms of the fellowship of Christians in Christ’s church.  In today’s verses Paul reminds us that he was ordained an apostle by Jesus Christ.  He talks of dispensation or stewardship – God entrusted Paul with great truths and Paul was obliged to communicate these with others.

Paul writes here that the Gentiles are fellow heirs in the kingdom of God with the Jews – fellow members of one body, fellow partakers of the promise of Christ in the gospel – that’s the relationship that did not exist in the Old Testament – that’s the mystery.  In Paul’s writing alone we find this doctrine of the Church.  This was a difficult truth for the Jews to accept.

The Apostle Paul taught that the Jews and the Gentiles are co-heirs solely by the grace of God with the focus on this as an unearned gift.  This new equality of the Gentiles was a bitter pill for the Jews to swallow –  the differences which had seemed so large are reduced to nothing.