Danger of self-importance

But then there is the opposite danger: the danger of self importance. Self contempt says, I am no good. You do not need me. Self importance says, You are no good. I do not need you. There are self important people in churches as well as people with an inferiority complex.

Look what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:21: The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. The eye cannot say, Look at all my abilities. I do not need the hand; I do not need that lump of flesh. The eye says, There is a lovely plate of food. I would enjoy that food, and the eye sets itself on that plate of food. But it can look at that food for as long as it likes, but if there is no hand, the food is going to sit there on the plate. The head can say to the feet, I have no need of you. How complex I am! I am attractive. How many parts I have! But if the feet do not move, the head is going to sit there and the head is not going to be able to go anywhere or do anything. Paul says we are dependent on each other. We are incompetent without each other. We are essential for each other; we need each other.

It says in 1 Corinthians 12:22, The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. We all know that, don’t we? How often do we think of the liver in the human body? Yet if something goes wrong with the liver, you soon realise it. You never think about it. It is just there. Months could pass, years could pass, and you might not even give it a single thought or remember that it was in your body. But if something happens to it, you will soon realise. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker and that have less honour are indispensable.

That is a tremendously helpful teaching about the body of Christ. All the parts—every single part—has a role and a place. There are no vestigial remains in the body of Christ. No one need feel: you do not need me. No one need feel: I do not need you. This being part of the body gives the gifts a profound, permanent unity. All the gifts come from the same source. All the gifts are exercised in the same body.¹

Edward Donnelly