One of the marks of an individual’s maturity is a growing understanding of, and appreciation for, their own body. There is a parallel in the spiritual life: as we mature in Christ, we gain a better understanding of the church, which is Christ’s body. “Individual Christianity” can lead to isolation from the local church, we must think bigger.
Of course, the image of the “body” is not the only one Paul used in discussing the church, and we must be careful not to press it too far. The church is also a family, an army, a temple, and even a bride; and each image has important lessons to teach us. However, in three of his letters, Paul gave emphasis to the church as a body; and, in each of these passages, he brought out the same three important truths: unity, diversity, and maturity. The chart below makes this clear.
| Unity | Diversity | Maturity | |
| 1 Corinthians | 12:1-13 | 12:14-31 | 13:1-13 |
| Romans | 12:1-5 | 12:6-8 | 12:9-21 |
| Ephesians | 4:1-6 | 4:7-12 | 4:13-16 |
It is impossible to discuss the body without also discussing the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It was the Spirit who gave birth to the body at Pentecost and who ministers in and through the body. In the Corinthian church, unfortunately, the members were grieving the Holy Spirit by the carnal ways in which they were using spiritual gifts. They were like children with toys instead of adults with valuable tools, and they needed to mature.
- Unity: The Gift of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:1-13)
Since there was division in the Corinthian church, Paul began with an emphasis on the oneness of the church. He pointed out four wonderful bonds of spiritual unity.
We confess the same Lord (vv. 1-3). Paul contrasted their experience as unconverted idolaters with their present experience as Christians. They had worshiped dead idols, but now they belonged to the living God. Their idols never spoke to them, but God spoke to them by His Spirit, and He even spoke through them in the gift of prophecy. When they were lost, they were under the control of the demons (1 Cor. 10:20) and were led astray (“carried away,” 1 Cor. 12:2). But now the Spirit of God lived in them and directed them.
It is only through the Spirit that a person can honestly say, “Jesus is Lord.” A sneering sinner may mouth the words, but he is not giving a true confession. (Perhaps Paul was referring to things they had said when influenced by the demons prior to conversion.) It is important to note that the believer is always in control of himself when the Holy Spirit is at work (1 Cor. 14:32) because Jesus Christ the Lord is in charge. Any so-called “Spirit manifestation” that robs a person of self-control is not of God; for “the fruit of the Spirit is… self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23).
If Jesus Christ truly is Lord in our lives, then there should be unity in the church. Division and dissension among God’s people only weakens their united testimony to a lost world (John 17:20-21).
We depend on the same God (vv. 4-6). There is a trinitarian emphasis here: “the same Spirit… the same Lord… the same God.” We individually may have different gifts, ministries, and ways of working, but “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). The source of the gift is God; the sphere for administering the gift is from God; and the energy to use the gift is from God. Why, then, glorify men? Why compete with one another?
We minister to the same body (vv. 7-11). The gifts are given for the good of the whole church. They are not for individual enjoyment, but for corporate employment. The Corinthians especially needed this reminder, because they were using their spiritual gifts selfishly to promote themselves and not to prosper the church. When we accept our gifts with humility, then we use them to promote harmony, and this helps the whole church.
The various gifts are named in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 and 28, and also in Ephesians 4:11 and Romans 12:6-8. When you combine the lists, you end up with nineteen different gifts and offices. Since the listing in Romans is not identical with the listing in 1 Corinthians, we may assume that Paul was not attempting to exhaust the subject in either passage. While the gifts named are adequate for the ministry of the church, God is not limited to these lists. He may give other gifts as He pleases.
12:8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice.
To one person, explained Paul, the Spirit gives the message of wisdom. The problem of wisdom (human versus divine) was a hot topic in Corinth. At the beginning of this letter (1:17-2:16), Paul spent several paragraphs explaining the difference between God’s wisdom and human “wisdom.”
All believers are given wisdom from the Spirit (2:15-16), but some are given the ability to give the “message of wisdom.” This may refer to the promise of Christ (see Luke 21:15) that the Spirit would give special wisdom to those facing adversaries and persecution. Based on Paul’s argument in chapter 1, it most likely refers to recognizing Christ crucified as the basis of God’s true wisdom, and proclaiming Christ in this way.
To another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit.NIV Another person might be given the message of knowledge. As with “wisdom,” the Corinthians also believed they had special “knowledge.” People may think they have all kinds of wisdom and knowledge, which leads to pride, but true wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ alone. But to some people the same Spirit gives extraordinary knowledge. This could mean a special knowledge of spiritual realities (see 13:2, 8-12; 14:6) or knowledge given to teachers who are training others in Christian truth.
12:9 The Spirit gives special faith to another.NLT All Christians have faith because the faith that brings a person to salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit. “God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God” (Ephesians 2:8 nlt; see also Galatians 5:22; 1 Timothy 4:12-14). Some people, however, have the spiritual gift of faith, which is an unusual measure of trust in the Holy Spirit’s power. In 13:2, Paul describes this gift further: “If I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move . . .” (nlt). This kind of faith is a supernatural trust in God’s miraculous power for specific situations. While the next two gifts, healing and doing miracles, are listed separately, this gift of faith is surely connected to the ability to do such acts through the Holy Spirit. This gift of faith could also be manifested in believers’ willingness to face persecution and martyrdom without renouncing what they believed.
To another gifts of healing by that one Spirit.NIV The next two gifts (healing and miracles) are visual manifestations of the Spirit. The gifts of healing had been manifested through Peter, Paul, and the other apostles. A Christian today has the right to ask God for the healing of any illness. God may choose to heal in order to accomplish some purpose of His and to show His glory.
12:10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles.NLT As with the gifts of healing (12:9), the Spirit will give to some an extraordinary power to perform miracles. While performing a healing would be considered a miracle, the inclusion of this gift separately from healings refers to other miraculous manifestations of the Spirit.
And to another the ability to prophesy.NLT To some people, the Spirit gives a special ability to prophesy. “Prophesy” does not just refer to predicting the future; it can also mean giving a message received from God to the community of believers: “One who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them” (14:3 nlt). The prophet Joel had written the words of the Lord, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy” (Joel 2:28 nlt). As with the gift of faith, the ability to share one’s faith with power is available to everyone (see 14:1-5), but to some the Spirit gives a special measure of this gift. Paul wrote in Romans, “God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you” (Romans 12:6 nlt). Some have interpreted “prophecy” to be fulfilled in various sermons throughout church history. Others, however, say that prophecy is not a sermon, but a spontaneous, Spirit-inspired message that is orally delivered in the congregation for the edification and encouragement of the body of Christ.
He gives someone else the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking.NLT Because there are many false teachers who claim to “prophesy” for God, some in the church are given the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking. While some believers have a special gift to discern what is really from God’s Spirit and what is not, all believers are expected to have discernment: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1 niv; see also 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). But since the gift mentioned here is also described in 14:29 (“Let two or three prophesy, and let the others evaluate what is said”; nlt), this kind of spiritual discernment pertains specifically to oracular manifestations in Christian meetings. Paul’s mention of this shows his concern for the protection of the truth in the worship service. Those given the gift of special discernment can help separate truth from error.
Still another person is given the ability to speak in various languages, and another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.NLT Opinions differ over exactly what Paul meant by various languages. Some believe that this refers to earthly languages that a person did not know before (the same as the gift described in Acts 2:4, 7-8). Other scholars say that this refers to an “ecstatic” language, a “heavenly” language. The word “tongues” refers to other earthly languages when describing Pentecost (Acts 2:4, 7-8). Sometimes in the New Testament, the word refers to ecstatic languages unknown to anyone—”tongues of angels” (13:1). Speaking in tongues is a legitimate gift of the Spirit. The exercise of the gift demands some guidelines (as noted in chapter 14) so that the purpose of the gift—to help the body of Christ—is not lost. Those who speak in tongues should follow the guidelines; those who do not speak in tongues ought not seek the gift as a sign of salvation or as a sign of special closeness with God, for it is neither. It is a gift of God, given only to whomever God chooses. If a person has not experienced the gift of tongues, he or she ought not seek it but seek what gifts God has given.
Some students have categorized the various gifts as the speaking gifts, the sign gifts, and the serving gifts. However, we should not be so fascinated by the individual gifts that we forget the main reason why Paul listed them: to remind us that they unite us in our ministries to the one body. The Holy Spirit bestows these gifts “as He will” (1 Cor. 12:11), not as we will. No Christian should complain about his or her gifts, nor should any believer boast about his or her gifts. We are many members in one body, ministering to each other.
We have experienced the same baptism (vv. 12-13). It is unfortunate that the term “baptism of the Spirit” has been divorced from its original New Testament meaning. God has spoken to us in Spirit-given words which we must not confuse (1 Cor. 2:12-13). The baptism of the Spirit occurs at conversion when the Spirit enters the believing sinner, gives him new life, and makes his body the temple of God. All believers have experienced this once-for-all baptism (1 Cor. 12:13). Nowhere does the Scripture command us to seek this baptism, because we have already experienced it and it need not be repeated.
The “filling of the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18ff) has to do with the Spirit’s control of our lives. (In Scripture, to be filled by something means “to be controlled by.”) We are commanded to be filled, and we can be if we yield all to Christ and ask Him for the Spirit’s filling. This is a repeated experience, for we constantly need to be filled with spiritual power if we are to glorify Christ. To be baptized by the Spirit means that we belong to Christ’s body. To be filled with the Spirit means that our bodies belong to Christ.
The evidence of the Spirit’s baptism at conversion is the witness of the Spirit within (Rom. 8:14-16). It is not “speaking in tongues.” All of the believers in the Corinthian assembly had been baptized by the Spirit, but not all of them spoke in tongues (1 Cor. 12:30). The evidences of the Spirit’s filling are: power for witnessing (Acts 1:8), joyfulness and submission (Eph. 5:19), Christlikeness (Gal. 5:22-26), and a growing understanding of the Word (John 16:12-15).
Because of the gift of the Spirit, which is received at conversion, we are all members of the body of Christ. Race, social status, wealth, or even sex (Gal. 3:28) are neither advantages nor handicaps as we fellowship and serve the Lord.
2. Diversity: The Gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:14-31)
Unity without diversity would produce uniformity, and uniformity tends to produce death. Life is a balance between unity and diversity. As a human body weakens, its “systems” slow down and everything tends to become uniform. The ultimate, of course, is that the body itself turns to dust.
This helps to explain why some churches (and other Christian ministries) have weakened and died: there was not sufficient diversity to keep unity from becoming uniformity. Dr. Vance Havner has expressed it, “First there is a man, then a movement, then a machine, and then a monument.” Many ministries that began as a protest against “dead orthodoxy” became dead themselves; because in their desire to remain pure and doctrinally sound, they stifled creativity and new ideas.
However, if diversity is not kept under control, it could destroy unity; and then you have anarchy. We shall discover in 1 Corinthians 13 that it is maturity that balances unity and diversity. The tension in the body between individual members and the total organism can only be solved by maturity.
Using the human body as his illustration, Paul explained three important facts about diversity in the body of Christ. Why are there different members?
The body needs different functions if it is to live, grow, and serve (vv. 14-20). No member should compare or contrast itself with any other member, because each one is different and each one is important. I suppose I could learn to walk on my hands, but I prefer to use my feet, even though I have not yet learned to type or to eat with my feet. The ear cannot see and the eye cannot hear, yet each organ has an important ministry. And have you ever tried to smell through your ears?
There is a tendency today for some people to magnify the “sensational” gifts. Some believers feel very guilty because they possess gifts that do not put them into the limelight. It is this attitude that Paul opposed and refuted in this paragraph. Diversity does not suggest inferiority. Are we to believe that the sovereign Lord made a mistake when He bestowed the gifts?
The members promote unity as they discover their dependence on one another (vv. 21-26). Diversity in the body is an evidence of the wisdom of God. Each member needs the other members, and no member can afford to become independent. When a part of the human body becomes independent, you have a serious problem that could lead to sickness and even death. In a healthy human body, the various members cooperate with each other and even compensate for each other when a crisis occurs. The instant any part of the body says to any other part, “I don’t need you!” it begins to weaken and die and create problems for the whole body.
Paul may be referring to the private parts of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:23-24. If so, then to “bestow honor” on them refers to the use of attractive clothing. The more beautiful parts of the body need no special help.
God’s desire is that there be no division (“schism”) in the church. Diversity leads to disunity when the members compete with one another; but diversity leads to unity when the members care for one another. How do the members care for each other? By each one functioning according to God’s will and helping the other members to function. If one member suffers, it affects every member. If one member is healthy, it helps the others to be strong.
Diversity of members fulfills the will of God in the body (vv. 27-31). It is God who bestows the gifts and assigns the offices. He has a perfect plan, not only for the church as a whole, but also for each local congregation. We have no reason to believe that each congregation in the New Testament possessed all of the gifts. The church at Corinth was an especially gifted assembly (1 Cor. 1:4-7; 2 Cor. 8:7). However, God gives to each congregation just the gifts it needs when they are needed.
In this paragraph, Paul pointed out that there is a “priority list” for the gifts, that some have more significance than others. But this fact does not contradict the lesson already shared—that each gift is important and each individual believer is important. Even in the human body, there are some parts that we can do without, even though their absence might handicap us a bit.
The Apostles and prophets, of course, appeared first on the scene because they had a foundational ministry (Eph. 2:20). Teachers were needed to help establish believers in the faith. The other gifts were needed from time to tone to help individual believers and to build the church.
The construction of the Greek in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 demands “no” as the answer to each of these questions. No individual believer possesses all the spiritual gifts. Each believer has the gift (or gifts) assigned to him by the Lord and needed at that time.
The word translated best in 1 Corinthians 12:31 simply means “greater.” Some spiritual gifts are greater in significance than others, and it is proper for the believer to desire these gifts (1 Cor. 14:1). Paul put a high value on prophecy, but the Corinthians valued the gift of tongues. Paul put tongues at the end of the list.
Unity and diversity must be balanced by maturity, and that maturity comes with love. It is not enough to have the gift of the Spirit and gifts from the Spirit. We must also have the graces of the Spirit as we use our gifts to serve one another.
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