Monday,
July 20 –
Welcome
back. At the beginning of the week, we return to reading thru the Bible in a
Year. Today’s reading continues in 1 Corinthians in chapter 12:1-31. After
you’ve finished reading the Scripture please come back and we’ll walk through
it together.
The Scriptures, and specifically the Apostle Paul, uses many metaphors to
describe the church of Jesus Christ. He has called it a building and later will
refer to the Church as a bride. In chapter 12 he refers to the church as a
body. He had been writing to the Corinthians – in a long section – about living
in harmony with one another as the people of God – in the church. Beginning in
8:1 he addressed the issue of whether the food that appeared in the marketplace
was ok to eat, if they didn’t' know whether it had been sacrificed to some
Roman/Greek god. It was a long section on the freedom we have in Christ, but in
it, Paul addressed what it meant to live together as a community under Christ
instead of as religious individuals.
The
Apostle Paul was answering various questions that had been submitted to him.
Each of these (look back at 8:1 for example) began with the words, “Now
concerning” – which could be understood as “As respect to your question
about...”. In chapter 12 we have another “Now concerning” and it has
to do with how the gifts of the individual members of the church contribute to
the whole body of the church.
“Now concerning spiritual gifts,
brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed” (12:1). The words “spiritual gifts” is one
word in Greek – “pneumatikos” – the Spirit endowed gifting from God to
each person in the body of Christ. You can see our words “pneumonia” and
“pneumatic” in the word. The Spirit is described as a “wind” (Acts 2:1-5), and
as the Spiritual presence of Jesus. Before,
Paul had reminded them that idols were not “gods”, but merely objects of pagan
worship – substitutes for the real living God. Now he reminds them that the way
in which they came to Christ Jesus was by recognizing him as Savior and Lord.
They had received the Spirit – “the Pneuma” – of God, and by the gift of
His Spirit, they could understand that Jesus alone is LORD (12:2-3).
This
truth is how we understand the giving of “Gifts” – “charisma” – the
Spirit-empowered things we are given in order to serve in the body of Christ.
“Now there are varieties of gifts,
but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and
there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all
in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common
good” (12:4-7).
Each
person is given some aspect of the Holy Spirit’s empowering to build up the
body of Christ. There are “varieties” of gifts, different kinds of
gifts, but the Spirit of God is the initiator and power behind all of the gifts.
The
gifts are not given to highlight the individual person, but are given for “the
common good”. If we can understand that God has given us something that
spiritually serves the body of Christ, and also the world around us, we can
begin to see how Christ Jesus is at work in the world. We have seen that the
Corinthians struggled with their selfishness and immaturity. Here also, Paul
lays down the truth that emphasizes the way in which they are meant to work
together – as a body works – because they have been placed in the body of
Christ to serve with their gifts.
To
explain this, Paul reminds them that they not only have a gift and the source
of that gift is the Holy Spirit, and that the purpose is for the common good,
but also that the gifts vary in identity:
“For to one is given through the
Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another, the utterance of knowledge
according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another
gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to
another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to
another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues”
(12:8-10).
The
church in Corinth was diversely gifted. We should not read this as an
exhaustive list, but as a sampling of the kinds of gifts God gives to the body
of Christ. There are several other passages that emphasize the extensiveness of
God’s gifting. What we see is that the gifts have different emphasis – support,
service, sign gifts – all meant to function harmoniously. Think of a symphonic
orchestra. It is not one musical instrument, but a number of instruments that
are meant to play harmoniously. When they do that there is beauty in music.
When they don’t do that, there is a cacophony of noise.
The
gifts are given by God, according to his own sovereign purposes: “All these
are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one
individually as he wills” (12:11). The skills, abilities that we bring to
the body of Christ are not created by our own will. They come to us as Spirit
enabled, and as we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so also we are a gift of
the Holy Spirit to the body of Christ. Our responsibility is first to recognize
we have been gifted, and then to use that gift for the good of others, and for
the singular purpose of glorifying God. No one is gifted in such a way that
they can boast about their gifting – it is a gift from God, for God’s purposes.
Now,
the metaphor shifts as Paul places the purpose of the gift(s) we have received
into the context of “body-life”. Clearly, we begin to see why Paul addressed
this issue in the first place. The Corinthian church was marked by division,
carnality, immaturity, and selfishness. They were “in the church” as
individuals, not as gifted people in a community. They didn’t understand the
concept of the body of Christ as a mutually gifted and interdependent group.
“For just as the body is one and
has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews
or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the
body does not consist of one member but of many” (12:12-14).
We are
placed by God, with Spiritually endowed gifting, into the body of Christ by the
Spirit of God – a baptism, or immersion into the body of Christ. We, as
individuals are many parts of one body.
Beginning
in verses 15 – 20, Paul used the imagery of parts of our own body to remind
them/us that the body needs every part – whether it is prominent or hidden. A
hand, an ear, an eye, are outward prominent parts of the body that function
because of the many hidden parts of the body that direct them. Therefore, in
verses 21 – 24, there is an essential or necessary aspect of each body part.
Who could imagine a body where one part says to the other part – I don’t need
you? The Corinthian readers get the point! As a body cannot be one part – such
as a giant eye, or ear – so also the body of Christ is designed by God to
reflect the diversity and necessity of each gifted person. “...God arranged
the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” (12:18); leads to
an understanding: “...God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to
the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that
the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all
suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are
the body of Christ and individually members of it” 12:24-27).
The
tension of any church, any organization that is meant to serve Christ is that
the individuality becomes larger than the interdependence, and when that
happens we lose sight of the necessity of body-life. The Corinthians struggled
to live out their faith with one another. They lost sight of the fact that they
each had a “gift” – “charisma” – because they each were a gift, they
each had received a gift as a work of Grace that came from God through His
Spirit. Body life isn’t just a good idea, it’s an essential idea. It’s crucial
for us to see that this is how Christ Jesus is working in and through his
Church.
Paul
ends this first part (and he is not done) with a series of rhetorical
questions: “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second
prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping,
administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all
prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of
healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the
higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way” (12:28-31).
There
may be more prominent “out-front” gifts, even as there are more outward body
parts, but there cannot be a sense of exclusivity. We should “desire” (vs 31)
the gift(s) we’ve been given, but only if we do it in “a more excellent way”.
That we will get to in the next chapter – the famous “love” chapter, 13.
As we
leave this today, let’s first realize we have been given a gift from God to be
a gift to others and to glorify God in doing that. “What is my gift?” – a
frequent question. I don’t know. I have some awareness of what my gifts are,
but it is because I’ve been at work in the body of Christ for many years. The
best way to discover your gifting is to get involved. Discover what you enjoy
doing, and discover what others say about what you do. Most of all pray and ask
God for the ability to serve Him, to glorify Him, and to magnify the name of
Jesus in a world that desperately needs to know Him. Gifts are like tools. They
do no good sitting in a box. They are meant to be used in the work we seek to
get done. You have a Gift, You are a Gift, Use it!
Peace
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