Friday, January 26, 2018

BOOK BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
larrydalexanderbiblestudies.blogspot.com

BIBLE STUDY LESSON
For the week beginning Sunday January 28, 2018

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
1 Corinthians 15:1-11

   In the biblical Greek the word used for “resurrection” is “anastasis”, and it is “a moral recovery of spirit truth”, and in the physical sense, it means, “to stand up again”. The sins of Adam and Eve ushered physical death into the world, and by contrast, the resurrection of CHRIST JESUS brought spiritual life. Adam, the first man, came from the dust of the earth, while JESUS, the second man, came from Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:47).
    It was William Barclay who wrote, “Cleverness can never be the basis of true religion, and true religion can never be the product of a man’s mind”. The resurrection of CHRIST is the essence of the Christian Faith, and is the core of all of the apostle’s teachings, and mine.
    No man is capable of producing or concocting a “True Religion”, or Faith. Only GOD, the CREATOR of Heaven and Earth is capable of meeting the qualifications necessary, and setting the examples, that every man can benefit from, 100% of the time. Man, through his imperfections, will never be able to spiritually rule over another man, and so, “Christianity” remains as the only true religion, simply because, it is the only religion that is a product of GOD’s mind. 
    In 1 Corinthians 15 the Apostle Paul offers us an indebt understanding of the subject of the resurrection of CHRIST JESUS, and the powerful impact that that resurrection has on those who choose to believe on HIM in this world. The resurrection is guaranteed through the sacrifice of CHRIST JESUS, the author and finisher of the only true faith, Christianity.
    He begins by reminding the Corinthians, in particular, and the world in general, of the important teaching that he had passed on to them in a previous time, regarding the resurrection of CHRIST. He then tells them of the many witnesses to that resurrection, which included himself, Peter, James, and many more, including all of the other apostles.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
1 Corinthians 15:12-33

    In verses 12-19 Paul embarks upon a logical argument explaining the centrality of the resurrection of CHRIST to the Christian Faith, and the belief that because of that resurrection, all who die believing in HIM will also be raised from the dead, and into eternal life with GOD, just as HE was.
    Our hope in CHRIST, “the Christian Hope”, is not just for this life, but rather, it is for the eternal life yet to come in Heaven. That is why true Christians are not “miserable people”, but rather, to the contrary, we are people who retain unshakable joy while still living here on earth.
    It is a true fact that JESUS has been raised from the dead, and HE became the first fruit of a great harvest of believers who will be raised to life again, after HIM. And just as death came into the world through Adam, resurrection from the dead into eternal life with GOD has been ushered in by JESUS CHRIST.
    Everyone dies because of their relationship to Adam, but everyone can live again, eternally, through their relationship with CHRIST JESUS. Death will be the last enemy of man to be destroyed, or nullified, and so, we must not be fooled by unbelievers. Remember, bad company corrupts good character, and so we have to come to our senses and quit living in sin, by coming to know GOD on a personal and experiential, “life saving” level (Vs.20-34).

THE RESURRECTION BODY
1 Corinthians 15:35-56

    Paul concludes this chapter with the analogy of the “dead seed” that is planted and then, through nourishments from GOD, once again becomes “a living thing”, full of life and growth, producing life-giving food, and even more seeds for future growth. However, the dead seed (lost person) had to first fall into the hands of a sewer (a witness) who could introduce it to “new life” (JESUS) by planting it firmly into the nourishment of GOD (The Word). Death is then swallowed up by victory, and its sting (sin) is taken away (Vs.35-58).   
    The person who has met and accepted the “Risen LORD” will be able to live forever in the joy of HIS presence. They will be able to come to rest in the knowledge that nothing can ever again separate them from HIS saving grace. And so, we should be able to see quite clearly now how no man can give another man that kind of religion. It is something that only GOD is capable of doing. That is why the Christian can “believe”, “share”, and “rejoice” in the saving power of GOD.
    Through the birth, ministry, passion, death, and resurrection of JESUS CHRIST, GOD is saying to us, as only HE can, that HE loves us with an everlasting love that can withstand all of the suffering that this world has to offer. With GOD, it is possible for us to make “a moral recovery of a spiritual truth” found only in HIM, and when we accept that TRUTH, we become fully able “to stand up again” and live forever in the presence of the ALMIGHTY GOD in Heaven.

A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander 





                                 
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website







Friday, January 19, 2018

BOOK BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
larrydalexanderbiblestudies.blogspot.com

BIBLE STUDY LESSON
For the week beginning Sunday January 21, 2018

1 Corinthians 14

   Strangely, it has always been a matter of considerable debate, just what the Apostle Paul means by “speaking in tongues”. In chapters 12-14 of his first letter to the Corinthians, he uses the Greek expression “glossa” (gloce-sah) 21 times for “Tongues” and it is by definition “the organ in one’s mouth that is used primarily for taste and speech”, and, it is “a learned spoken language or dialect, not naturally acquired”.
    “Ecstatic (emotional) utterances (statements)”, otherwise known as “speaking in tongues” is “non-sense utterances” that have no possible interpretation, not even by the person who speaks them, and, is of no spiritual value, or no apparent spiritual benefit, to anyone who hears it. Such a person is speaking only from his or her “human spirit” (v.14), which is controlled primarily by satan. As Christians we should all know that not only must our human spirit be willing in prayer, but we must also pray in the power of the HOLY SPIRIT WHO directs us to the will of GOD in our prayers, where we can also benefit others.
    “Ecstatic Utterance” finds its origins in the ancient pagan prophetesses known as “sibyls”, or “sibylla”. One sibyl in particular, the “Cumaean Sibyl”, was the most famous and influential of the ten pagan sibyls in and around the Roman Empire in the first century. She was the priestess who presided over the Apollonian Oracle at Cumae, Italy, an important Greek colony located near Naples. She is also the person most responsible for infiltrating of the Christian Church with this nonsense, along with her ally, the sibyl of the Oracle at Delphi in Greece.
    The word “sibyl” comes from the ancient Greek word “sibylla”, which means “prophetess”. Because of the importance of the Cumaean Sibyl’s position in the legends of early Rome (it is even codified in “Virgil's Aeneid VI”), she became the most famous of all the ten pagan sibyls in the Roman Empire prior to the first century and beyond.
    These sibyls were believed, even by medieval Christians, to prophesy through the use of “ecstatic utterances” and thereby, they began to gain spiritual weight and respect in the Christian Church of the first century. Their “Sibylline Oracles” sometimes called the "pseudo-Sibylline Oracles" are a collection of “oracular utterances” written in Greek hexameters, ascribed to the Sibyls, who uttered so-called divine revelations “while in a frenzied emotional state”. Fourteen books and eight fragments of Sibylline Oracles survive today. These collections of utterances have been composed or edited under various circumstances, probably between the 2nd and 6th centuries AD.
    The Sibylline Oracles are a valuable source for information about “Classical mythology” and early first century Gnostic, Jewish, and Christian beliefs. Some apocalyptic passages scattered throughout these oracles seem to give “sketchy outlines” of the Apostle John's Book of Revelation, and other Apocalyptic literature. These oracles have undergone extensive editing, re-writing, and redaction as they came to be exploited in wider and wider circles as the years went by.
    The satanic demon spirit behind ecstatic utterances is called “Cybele” (sounds the same as “sibyl”) known as “Magna Mater”, or, “The Great Mother” in Roman religion. The Roman State adopted and developed a particular form of her cult after the Sibylline oracle of Cumae recommended her conscription as a key religious component in Rome's second war against Carthage. Rome’s defeat of Carthage, the battle victory that launched the Roman Empire, was predicted by this Cumaen Sibyl and thus she gained great prestige and a huge following for her “lucky guess”, I mean, “prophecy”.   
    Roman mythographers “channeled” this demon up as a Trojan goddess, and over time it became an ancestral goddess of the Roman people, by way of the Trojan prince Aeneas. With Rome's eventual military and political dominance over the Mediterranean world, Romanized forms of “Cybele's cults” spread throughout the Roman Empire. The meaning and morality of her “transgender” cults and priesthoods were topics of debate and dispute throughout ancient Greek and Roman literature, and remains so, even in modern scholarship.
    The Apostle Paul was very much aware of the pagan sibyl’s influence in the Christian Church in its infancy, mostly through the infiltrating work of “Gnostics” and antichrist Jews, and he knew that the Corinthians may have thought of ecstatic utterances as a spiritual gift from GOD. That is why in this first letter to the Corinthians, we find Paul using the word “glossa” 21 times between chapters 12-14 to demonstrate, and accentuate, the difference between “a learned language or dialect” (those gifts or abilities that come from GOD), and the “mumble jumble” emotional utterances of the pagan sibyls.   
    Nowhere in its biblical use, or its Greek or English definition does the word “glossa” or “tongue” refer to “ecstatic speech”, not in any of Paul’s letters (used only three other times outside of 1 Corinthians), and, not when used anywhere else in the New Testament. Whether it is used “literally” of the physical organ (Mark 7:33, James 3:5, Revelations 16:10), or “figuratively” of human languages (Acts 2:11, Revelations 5:9, 7:9, 10:11, 11:9, 13:7, 14:6, & 17:15) the word is always the same, “glossa”.
    What Paul is saying in verse two of this chapter of 1 Corinthians 14, is that, if a person were sitting in a Church assembly in France, for instance, and everyone in the assembly spoke in the French language except that person, then, if that one person was to stand up and start speaking in, say, the German tongue, no one would be able to understand them but GOD.
    And while that person, who may be gifted to teach in more than one language, or, “tongue”, and, could be uttering something that may be totally GODly and spiritual, it wouldn’t be of benefit to anyone in the assembly because none of them are gifted in the German dialect. They simply would not be able to comprehend what the, more gifted, person were saying, as it would sound to them like “utter non-sense” or “mumble jumble” (1 Corinthians 14:2).
    However, one who has the gift of prophecy, which is a “Spiritual gift”, is helping people grow in the LORD, encouraging them, and comforting them by giving them revelations from GOD (revealing and explaining the bible and its application)  (v.3). The person who speaks in various tongues, a “learned gift”, through GOD-given intellectual capabilities”, is only strengthened “personally” in the LORD, while one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire Church (v.4).
    In verse 5 Paul says, “I wish you all had the gift of speaking in tongues, but even more I wish you were all able to prophesy. For prophecy is a greater and more useful gift than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets what you are saying so the whole church can get some good out of it”. Dear brothers and sisters, if I should come to you speaking in tongues, how would that help you? But if I bring you some revelation or some special knowledge or some prophecy or some teaching, that is what will help you (NLT).
    Paul himself spoke in various tongues, in fact, the bible tells us that he was able to speak and write in at least three different languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. However, he tells us in verses 9-12 that “If you talk to people in a language they don’t understand, How will they know what you mean? You might as well be talking to an empty room. There are many different languages in the world, and all are excellent for those who understand them, but to me they mean nothing. I will not understand people who speak those languages, and they will not understand me. Since you are all so eager to have spiritual gifts, ask GOD for those that will be of real help to the whole church” (NLT).
    Languages that are interpreted can benefit the assembly (Acts 19:6) as well as prophesy, therefore, the gift of interpretation should be requested from GOD also. This means that someone independent of the person, who is speaking a different language, must be present and able to interpret what that person is saying to the assembly, not just the person who’s speaking it (v.13).
    Gifts are not given by GOD, so much for personal use, as they are for use in helping others, and building them up. “Personal edification” is something that should be a “by-product”, or a “result”, that is reserved for someone who has shared their gift to help better the Christian community as a whole. Personal edification should not be a result of one helping himself, or taking advantage of others.
    Some people try to make a distinction between the word “tongues” in this epistle, and the use of the word “tongues” in the book of Acts on Pentecost Day. However, there is no difference as the same Greek term “glossa” is used in both instances. The only difference is that the HOLY SPIRIT acted on several people on that Pentecost day, giving them special supernatural abilities to “instantly” communicate in other languages that was not their own, for the benefit of the many foreigners who were in Jerusalem at that time observing the Pentecost, and, who spoke in the many different languages of their native land.
    GOD wanted everyone in attendance that day, regardless of their native tongue, to participate in, and to understand the significance of this “distinctive act”, where HE first allowed HIS HOLY SPIRIT to embody all those who choose to believe in CHRIST JESUS.
Paul says in this particular passage of 1 Corinthians (Vs.22-24), that, unbelievers view “strange tongues” as being some sort of a sign, while believers are not of that opinion. In order for unbelievers to become convicted of their sins, they must hear the Gospel in their own native languages before they can begin to comprehend the things of GOD.
    The Word of GOD should convict and condemn by what it says to us personally, and it can’t do that unless it is first understood by those who hear and see it. And among those who see, hear, and understand the Word, their secret thoughts are laid bare, and they can then, fall to their knees and worship GOD with their whole heart, just as they should.

A CALL FOR ORDERLY WORSHIP
1 Corinthians 14:26-40

   Here in this passage, Paul returns to the subject of spiritual gifts and their limitations. All the while, he was trying to deal with the problem of the Church services being disrupted by women who worshipped the highly respected pagan sibyls (female pagan prophetesses) of the first century, and, who ran around the room during services speaking in demonic “ecstatic utterances” commonly known as “speaking in tongues” trying to imitate the women of the pagan church assemblies who were said to prophecy that way.
    Here Paul uses the “gift of prophecy” to counteract this foolishness, and to show the difference between “intelligible speech” (teaching and providing revelations from GOD), which “edifies”, or, “spiritually builds a person up”, and, unintelligible speech (ecstatic utterances) that is of no spiritual value whatsoever, to anyone, not even to the person who speaks it.
    Paul says that, while “unbelievers” who see ecstatic utterances (nonsense speech) as a sign, may be impressed with it, “believers”, on the other hand, should not be, but rather, they should be more interested in what GOD has to say through intelligible prophecy (teaching and revelation), not the unintelligible murmurings of pagan sibyls.
    The problem of ecstatic speech interruptions in Church services had gotten so out of hand in the Corinthian Church that Paul had to command that all women be silent during church meetings, period (Vs.34-35). Furthermore, why would GOD give someone an unintelligible message that even the hearer can’t understand. It makes absolutely no sense that it can come from GOD. However, it does make sense that ecstatic utterances would come from satan, because it can be very effective in distracting the Church from the teachings of GOD, and the effect those teachings can have on the lives of those who seek HIM.
    Here in this passage Paul seeks to restore some sense of order to the Christian Church at Corinth before the influence of the pagan sibyls spread and infiltrated the entire Christian Network of believers as it has in today’s Christian Church. The believer has to hear the Gospel in their own native tongue before they can be convicted by it and be able to acknowledge the importance of CHRIST JESUS to the lives of mankind in this world.
    We will also do good not to miss Paul’s instructions about judging those who prophecy before you. In verse 29 he says that we must “weigh” (diakrino judge) what is said by those who claim to prophecy from GOD. The word “diakrino” in the Greek means to “judge every person, place, or thing, by the written word of GOD”.
    GOD wants us to “judge”! But we must, first, judge ourselves (anakrino judgment) by the Word of GOD, and then we must judge others by the Word of GOD (diakrino judgment). However, we are not allowed to judge (krino judgment, which is to condemn) a person as only GOD can, for we do not have GOD’s permission, or power, or the perfect lifestyle that would enable us to rightfully “condemn” others. We are to simply make the correct judgment calls, based solely on GOD’s Word, so that we may do no harm to ourselves, nor allow others to harm us, neither spiritually, physically, or mentally.
   
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander





                                 
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website



Friday, January 12, 2018

BOOK BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
larrydalexanderbiblestudies.blogspot.com

BIBLE STUDY LESSON
For the week beginning Sunday January 14, 2018

ALL WE NEED IS LOVE
1 Corinthians 13

   Faith, Hope, and Love, are the three great enduring things. They are the spiritual elements that must be embodied in every person, who desires to be a true follower of CHRIST JESUS, and, who wishes to worship GOD, in spirit, and in truth. Out of those three elements, “Love” is the greatest.
    The word “love” in this chapter is “charity” or, in the Greek, “agape” and it is “benevolence and affection toward people”, and “adoration and obedience to GOD”. JESUS says that, we show love for HIM by obeying HIM, and by obeying HIM we remain in HIS love, just as HE obeys the FATHER and remains in HIS love (John 15:10). And then HE tells us in Matthew 25:31-46 that HE will “judge” us, when HE returns, and that judgment will be based on how we reacted to “human need”, or, how we showed or didn’t show “agape love” towards one another.
    In the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the segment we now know as chapter 13 is the best-known passage. In fact, with the exception of Psalm 23, it may be the most well-known chapter in all of Scripture. Over time, it has come to be known the world over, as the “Love Chapter”.
    In this, now famous passage, Paul, moves from explaining how to recognize “spiritual gifts” that come from GOD, in the previous chapter, to how one can measure and express, his or her spirituality, in the “most excellent way”. Here Paul insists that we succeed in exercising our gifts, only by showing “Love”, an element of quality so vital, that without it, not even the greatest of man’s GOD-given abilities can enrich and enhance the lives of those who possess them, nor, the lives of the people that they seek to help with those abilities (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
    Paul clearly understood that “Love” is not just an abstract, philosophical idea, but rather, it is practical, and must be expressed in the everyday actions and attitudes of the believer (verses 4-7). Even the greatest of spiritual gifts are limited and distorted, by their own mortalities and imperfections. In other words, no spiritual gift lasts forever, but rather, they fade and deteriorate in conjunction with the aging process of the human body (verses 8-12). 
    However, through it all, we can rely on our Faith, Hope, and Love, which is, GOD personified, to sustain us. And “Love” is the greatest quality, because it, quite literally, is the foundation of the Christian Faith, and, life itself. Understanding that, we can see, quite vividly, why “Love” is the true measure a person’s spirituality, and it also exemplifies the closeness of one’s relationship with GOD.
    Paul sought to make sure that we realize, quite readily, who, among us is truly spiritual. And the only way to do that was, by first, making sure that we understood the true nature of love, and then, by presenting to us, the criteria, by which we can evaluate the spirituality of others. This is so we won’t be duped into following the leadership and advice of false teachers.
    Paul, quite simply, shows us in his own brilliant sort of way, the true “behavioral definition” of “Love”. In this passage, Paul is saying that, any person, who is a spiritual representative of GOD, “acts like it”, not just “talks like it”. GOD is love, and when JESUS came to earth, HE clearly demonstrated that Love to us, and for us, time and time again. As a result, HE became “LOVE” personified, in the eyes of men, for all times. HE served to show us what “Love” is supposed to look like as an integral part of the human, earthly experience, or, in other words, how we are to incorporate this “Love” into our everyday actions, attitudes, and indeed, into our existence.
    And while it is true that perfection won’t come to the Church until GOD’s   program for it is consummated with the “second coming” of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST, and until then, a church is only perfect when no human being is in it, we as Christians can still, all reach a high level of maturity, by learning and becoming accustomed to practicing the immortal acts of Love, already exhibited to us, by CHRIST JESUS, during HIS first advent. 
    As for “Faith” and “Hope”, they are merely manifestations of “Love”, but because of it, they too, will endure forever. All, that we know now, is partial and incomplete, because we are yet, mere children in CHRIST. And when we are children, we are expected to act like children, just as, when we grow up, we are expected to put away childish things and behavior.
    Before we come to know CHRIST, we’ve already long become accustomed to looking at ourselves, through an unclean mirror, and, as a result, we do not see ourselves, as we really are. The blood of CHRIST gives us something, by which we can use, to clean that mirror off, and begin seeing ourselves clearly, for the very first time.
    We are then able to walk into the store of GOD, and pick us up a free bottle of “faith”. And then, we can take it home and use it to spray some “hope” on that unclean mirror. And with “Love”, we can wipe away the old life, and usher in the new. Then, and only then, will we be able to turn ourselves around, and begin heading in the right direction, in the newness of life, that is found only in CHRIST JESUS.

A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander





                                 
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website





Friday, January 5, 2018

BOOK BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
larrydalexanderbiblestudies.blogspot.com

BIBLE STUDY LESSON
For the week beginning Sunday January 7, 2018

SPIRITUAL GIFTS
1 Corinthians 12:1-11

   In the first century “ecstatic utterance” which is by definition, “nonsense speech” or “speaking in tongues” as it is called by confused professed Christians today, was a popular sign that a person was “possessed by certain gods of the pagan world”. In fact, in the pagan world even “Epilepsy” which has a similar effect on people during a seizure, as one would experience during a spell of ecstatic utterances, was considered to be a “divine disease”.
    The mutterings of drugged “female pagan prophetesses” known as Sibyls, at places such as Delphi, Greece, and Cumae, Italy, were believed by the people to convey messages, or prophecies from idol gods. Today this attitude and belief has carried over to the Christian Church, and now many Christians unwittingly are worshipping these false gods through these ecstatic murmurings, as some truly believe that they are communicating with the real GOD, even though they don’t understand a word they are saying themselves.
    In the Church at Corinth, many women who were already familiar with these pagan Sibyls before they converted to Christianity, continued to worship these female prophetesses and even considered themselves to be more “spiritual” than other Christians. Even though their utterances were interpreted only by those who spoke them, and clearly contradicted the laws and principals of GOD, some Christians were awed enough by them to believe them anyway.
    And so, it is against this backdrop that Paul began to develop his teachings on spirituality, spiritual gifts, and the proper way to discern the difference between those abilities which truly come from GOD, and those that don’t come from GOD. Paul felt that it was high time that he correct the misunderstandings concerning “ecstatic utterances”, etc., which is something that doesn’t come from GOD (Vs.1-3a).
    In verse 3b, Paul tells us that, “no one speaking by the SPIRIT of GOD can curse JESUS (deny HIS humanity), and no one is able to say, “JESUS is LORD” except when speaking by the HOLY SPIRIT”. One of the first heresies of the Christian Church came from those false teachers who denied JESUS’ “humanity”, not HIS “deity”. To deny JESUS’ humanity is to curse HIM, and it robs us of the true understanding of the impact that JESUS had on the human existence, in this world.
    The Apostle John had to tackle this same issue later on, and he dealt with it in his letters to the Churches (1 John 4:1-3, 2 John 1:7). It is extremely important to our understanding how we, like JESUS, can become great overcomers of this world. However, we can’t do that unless we first accept the fact that, like JESUS, we were all born with “GOD’s nature” in us already, and along with the power of the HOLY SPIRIT, we have within us, a power that is greater than “he who is in the world”, satan.
    In verses 4-11 Paul goes on to list several gifts, or “abilities” that the HOLY SPIRIT provides us with, as they are needed in the various services that must be performed and addressed in “the Body of CHRIST”, which is the Christian Church. Here he tells us that;

·         To some, the SPIRIT gives a word of special wisdom
·         To some, the SPIRIT gives special knowledge
·         To some, the SPIRIT gives special faith
·         To some, the SPIRIT gives the ability to heal the sick
·         To some, the SPIRIT gives the ability to perform miracles
·         To some, the SPIRIT gives the ability to  prophesy
·         To some, the SPIRIT gives the ability to discern between (human) spirits
·         To some, the SPIRIT gives the ability to speak in different languages
·         To some, the SPIRIT gives the ability to understand and interpret what is being said

The HOLY SPIRIT alone decides who receives which abilities, but they all come from one source, GOD.

ONE BODY WITH MANY PARTS
1 Corinthians 12:12-31

   The human body has many parts, however, all of those parts, only make up one body. That’s how it is in the “Body of CHRIST”, the Christian Church. The Church is a living body, where each member, or part of that body, needs to make a contribution in order for the body as a whole, to maintain its health and functionality.
    The use of the human body as an analogy in this passage stresses the necessity of a close, interpersonal relationship between each of its members, with their unique GOD-given abilities to succeed in its service to CHRIST, in unison. Each part of the human anatomy belongs to the body as a whole, and likewise, each member of the Body of CHRIST belongs to HIM, and, we are responsible to HIM and to each other as a viable unit under GOD.
    This three-part summary of chapter 12, as it is expressed by the Apostle Paul, is crystal clear, and it really brings home the point about how the Church has to be viewed, in so far as to how it has to work together in unison with all members being on board with CHRIST. Here we see that;

·         The Church body, like the human body, is a unit
·         The Church body, like the human body, has many parts
·         The Church body, like the human body, must work together as one

    Everyone in the Body of CHRIST has been baptized into the Church by the same HOLY SPIRIT, and therefore, no person is inferior to the other, but rather we are interdependent upon each other. If the SPIRIT gifted us all with the same abilities, the Church could only succeed in one area of its business, and everything else would go lacking.
    However, GOD made our bodies, and the Body of CHRIST, the Church, with many working parts, and HE has put each part where HE wants them to go. No part of our body or the Body of CHRIST can say “I don’t need you”. In fact, on our bodies, some of the parts that seem weakest, or least important, are really the ones that are the most necessary. And some of the more important parts that the body naturally shields, such the heart, the brain, and other internal organs, are never seen, but in reality, are what keeps the body functioning as a whole.
    The parts we clothe with the greatest care, and regard as, less honorable, the ones that we protect from the eyes of others, in reality, should not be seen. However, there are other parts that do not require that kind of special care. That is why GOD put the body together in such a way that, extra honor would be given to those parts that have less dignity. Such an action provides harmony among the members, and causes them to care for each other equally. If one part of the body is hurt or suffers injury, the whole body is aware of it and senses the pain.

A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander