“If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?”
We come to two members of the body that have an inferiority complex – the foot and the ear. They both disparage their gifts and express an attitude of discontentment.
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
We have the phrase “I am not of the body” in both verse 15 and verse 16. This is an indication of a feeling of insignificance: “No one thinks that I am important or significant. I have little to contribute to this ministry. I don’t really matter to this church.”
The foot is jealous of the hand because he is covetous of the hand’s prominence. The hand is in the public and in the limelight but the foot is in confinement inside a shoe. We rarely permit it to go out in public. We manicure hands and put ointment on them. We make hands beautiful by putting rings on them. We put jewelry on the hand but rarely on the foot. Hands take a scalpel and do delicate operations. They play the piano or violin. No wonder the foot feels inferior! During a church vote, no one in a meeting says, “Raise your foot”; it’s always, “Raise your hand”! The foot thinks, “The hand has so much dexterity – it can pick up things so easily.” The foot has an inferiority complex because the hand is out in the limelight!
The foot neither will nor can ever be the hand, so why make it an issue? Be the best foot you know how to be. The body would be in bad shape without a foot. If we dislocate a tiny bone in our foot, the whole body is miserable. Why should the foot say, “I don’t count; I’m not important; no one ever notices me; no one cares about what I do. If I do anything, no one sees me or cares about me. I don’t belong. I might as well give up.” No, God rewards the foot based on being a foot. All God expects of us is to do what we can with what we have. We need to be the best foot we know how to be.
PRINCIPLE:
There are no insignificant members in the body of Christ.
APPLICATION:
Just because we claim that we do not have a significant gift does not make it so: “Is it therefore not of the body?” This peevish grumbling seeks untenable equality with superior gifts. Many people in local churches sit back and let others do ministry, thinking that they can make no significant contribution to that ministry because they deem that their gifts are inferior to others. Every gift is essential for ministry in God’s economy. A Christian without a ministry that manifests his gift is an incongruity.
