Paul explains the body analogy: “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body-whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” The Spirit places people of all ethnic and social groups together. The Corinthians needed to know about that diversity, because some of them said that everyone should have one gift in particular-tongues-and they looked down on people who did not have that gift. Paul is still stressing diversity within one body. Paul compares the church to a human body: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ”-that is, with the body of Christ, the church. This best of all things is shown in the next chapter.Every Member Is Needed (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) There is something still better than these which all may possess. To each the Spirit granted the special gifts required.Īre all apostles? Only a few had this office given them, and so of each of the other gifts.Ĭovet earnestly the best gifts. The administrative abilities of the presbytery. Spiritual aid granted to helpers, such as deacons. One division of miraculous powers granted. Those who had the power to work miracles. Men gifted by the spirit to teach in the church. The twelve, Paul, and such evangelists as Barnabas and others men sent by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel. Nine spiritual gifts have already been named nine positions in the church are now given.Īpostles. Some had stations to which they were assigned by the spirit. The various offices of the members are pointed out. All were "baptized into one body" ( 1Co 12:13), and hence are severally members or parts of the one body, with offices to discharge like those of the members of the human body.Īnd God hath set some in the church, first apostles. Hence, if special and extraordinary spiritual gifts were imparted to the members of this body, these would be due to one spirit. All, too, receiving it as a gift, drank of the same spirit. The idea is that, though diverse in race and condition, all have been made parts of one body by baptism, and that this had all been done under the direction of one spirit. Rather, moved by one spirit acting through the apostles and evangelists, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, bond or free. "For by means of one spirit we were all baptized into one body" (Meyer). The spiritual body of Christ, the church.įor in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Each is a part, each necessary, each set where God pleased, and all taken together make up the body. No member could claim that it was not of the body because it is not the eye, the ear, or some other organ. The unity of these diverse gifts, all given by the same Spirit, is illustrated by the human body, which has many members and organs with different offices, but all parts of one body. There are named here nine gifts, all supernatural, imparted by the same spirit, which distributes them according to its own will. Hence another gift was the interpretation of tongues, the ability to explain the meaning of those who spoke with tongues. Sometimes their utterances were not understood by the audience. He who spoke with tongues, spoke languages that he had never learned. The power of reading hearts and determining whether men spoke by the divine spirit, or some other impulse. The prophet was one who, under divine impulse, spoke words given by the Holy Spirit. Not that faith which comes by hearing, but that faith which carried miraculous power. The aptitude to teach unerringly what had been revealed to the apostles and prophets. The ability to reveal divine truth, such as possessed by the apostles. To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom. No gift of the Spirit is for the benefit of the recipient. However varied these manifestations, all are for the profit of the whole body. But the manifestation of the Spirit, etc.
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