Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

What does 1st Corinthians Chapter 12 mean?

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes how and why God gives spiritual gifts to Christians. He seems to continue answering issues raised in a previous letter from the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 7:1). From the context, believers in Corinth seem to have been asking why some Christians were given spiritual gifts while others seemed not to be “spiritual ones.” It’s possible that some in Corinth had been demonstrating obvious supernatural power through speaking in tongues, for instance, while others lacked this ability.

Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts in this chapter shows how off-base this thinking is. He begins by saying he doesn’t want them to be uninformed. Every Christian is spiritual, or one of the “spiritual ones,” because every Christian has the Holy Spirit. Only those with the Holy Spirit can truthfully and sincerely say “Jesus is Lord,” and every believer can say that (1 Corinthians 12:1–3).

Spiritual gifts, acts of service, and other godly activities come in a wide variety. What they have in common is that each one comes from the same Holy Spirit. Each one is given to be used in service to the same Lord Jesus. Each one is possible only through the power of the same God the Father. In other words, these spiritual gifts are not about the people who use them; they are ultimately about God and His purposes.

In addition, spiritual gifts are given to every Christian, and they are given for the purpose of serving other Christians. They are given for the common good and not to bring status and respect to one believer and not another. A spiritual gift is the supernatural ability to serve the church in a way that someone could not do in mere human strength (1 Corinthians 12:4–7).

Paul begins by listing nine of them, emphasizing that one is given to one believer while another is given to a different person. Nobody receives every single gift, but everyone receives at least one of them. These first nine gifts are often called the sign gifts or confirmation gifts. Many Christian groups and teachers believe these gifts were commonly given by the spirit during the time of the apostles and before the New Testament was established. Their purpose was to confirm that God’s power was behind the message of the gospel. Other Christian groups and teachers understand these gifts to continue to be given to Christians by the Spirit in large numbers even today.

These gifts include the word of wisdom and word of knowledge, along with faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning between spirits, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. These gifts were likely on display in Corinth. Paul emphasizes that the Spirit decides who to give each gift to. This means the gifts are not earned or acquired by the effort of those who receive them (1 Corinthians 12:8–11).

That means, of course, that having one spiritual gift or another should not cause anyone to be thought of as more spiritual or important than another. Instead, Paul urged the Corinthians to think of their church, and the worldwide church in general, as a kind of body. A human body is just one thing, one organism, but it is made up of many different parts, all with different functions. In the same way, the church is made up of many believers, all connected by the Holy Spirit in them, and it is just one thing: Christ’s body on earth (1 Corinthians 12:12–13).

It would be ridiculous for body parts to declare they were quitting the body because they can’t be another part. It would be equally silly for any body part to say it doesn’t need the other parts. Christians, too, should discover how essential their role in Christ’s body really is, as well as learning to value how needed every other function is. Even those parts thought of as “less honorable” are given special care and honor, because we instinctively know how important they are! The same ought to apply to how Christians treat each other as we use and encourage spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:14–27).

Paul concludes, though, by saying that, at least in Corinth, the first, second, and third most essential gifted positions were apostle, prophet, and teacher. This seems to suggest that those are the roles most impactful, or at least the most potent, in fulfilling the church’s role. As Paul has stated in this chapter, however, those gifts cannot be effective unless the other members of the body are being honored, and being active (1 Corinthians 12:28–31).

Paul ends this section with an intent to show “a more excellent way.” This leads into one of the most famous passages in all of Scripture, a depiction of Christian love as God intended it to be.

Chapter Context
After tackling the issues of head coverings for women and the Lord’s Supper in the previous chapter, Paul moves to the issue of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul insists that the display of spiritual gifts does not make one believer more spiritual or important than another. Every believer in Jesus has the Spirit, and the Spirit gives to every believer one or more spiritual gifts. The gifts are given for the common good, and the church is like a human body. Each gifted function in the church represents a body part, and all the parts are essential. This sets up a description of love, as defined from a Christian viewpoint, and famously recorded in chapter 13.

Verse by Verse

Verse 1.Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.

Paul launches into a new topic with this verse. Since he begins by saying “now concerning,” most scholars assume he is answering another, separate question. This is likely another issue raised by the Corinthians in a letter we no longer have (1 Corinthians 7:1). Paul has gone back and forth between addressing reported issues in the Corinthians church and answering their questions to him.

The question raised here is about “spiritual gifts” or the “spiritual ones.” It’s possible the Corinthians’ question had to do with those among them who were thought to be “more spiritual,” because they seemed to have spiritual abilities the others did not. Paul writes he does not want them to be uninformed. He will go on to show that every Christian is spiritual. Every believer has a gift, or gifts, from the Holy Spirit. Not all gifts are as obvious or as public as others, however.

Context Summary
First Corinthians 12:1–11 details Paul’s specific teaching on what spiritual gifts are, who receives them, and why they are given. Every believer in Jesus is spiritual, because each Christian has God’s Spirit with him or her. The Spirit gives one or more spiritual gifts to every believer for the common good, to be used in service to the church. Nobody acquires or earns their own gifts. The same Spirit gives them away, for free, as He sees fit, meaning that having one or the other gift does not make a Christian more important than another.

Verse 2. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.

Paul has clearly stated that he is about to address the issue of spiritual gifts in the life of the Corinthian church. He begins with an introduction which is difficult to fully interpret. Bible scholars differ widely on how best to explain what’s going on in verses 2 and 3.

Some assume Paul’s comments are about supernatural “utterances,” or words spoken by spirits or the Holy Spirit through a human being. Others understand Paul to be describing a method: something by which Christians can avoid being led astray by false teachers in the church.

The best explanation seems to be that Paul is beginning to show that every believer is spiritual. This is meant in the sense that every believer is occupied by the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, no Christian would be able to say that “Jesus is Lord,” as Paul says in the following verse.

First, though, he reminds those converted from paganism that when they were led by others to worship idols, those idols were mute. They said nothing, and nobody said anything by the power of any idol. Paul’s Christian readers have come to understand that idols have no power because they are not actually gods (1 Corinthians 8:4).

In the following verse, Paul may be referring to religious Jews who claimed that Jesus is accursed, as they would see any mere mortal who was hung on a “tree” (Galatians 3:13).

Verse 3. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

Bible scholars disagree about what is going on in verses 2 and 3. Is Paul talking about “utterances” provoked by spirits or the Holy Spirit? Is he arming the Corinthians against false teachers? Perhaps the best explanation is that Paul is showing that every Christian is “spiritual.” In this context, that means every Christian is occupied by the Holy Spirit. Paul may have been countering a misunderstanding among his readers: that only those with the most obvious spiritual gifts were spiritual Christians.

If that’s the case, then Paul showed in the previous verse that idol worshipers are the ones who are not spiritual, since an idol has no spirit. It is mute, something made by human hands. Now he shows that those who say “Jesus is accursed!” are also not spiritual, perhaps referring to religious Jews who denied Jesus’ deity and saw Him only as a criminal who was hanged on a “tree” (Galatians 3:13).

On the other hand, every single person who says “Jesus is Lord” is a spiritual person. In this context, that means something more than simply mouthing certain words. The idea is someone who says “Jesus is Lord” as the sincere expression of their belief. Nobody can say that—in truth and sincerity—unless they do so in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s larger point will be that those with the more visible spiritual gifts, such as tongues and teaching, are not more spiritual as Christians than those with the less public gifts. Every Christian is a spiritual person, even those who aren’t gifted with obvious or ostentatious talents.

Verse 4. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;

Paul spoke in the previous verse of the Spirit of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. In other words, he mentioned all three members of the Trinity or the Godhead. Now he begins to do the same in reverse order, beginning here and continuing his thought through verse 6.

Paul is preparing to give the Christians in Corinth very specific information about the spiritual gifts given to every believer by the Holy Spirit. He starts by revealing there are a variety of different gifts. Each serves a different purpose in the church. His main point here, though, is that there is only one Holy Spirit, the same one that occupies every person who comes to faith in Christ.

In other words, the Spirit is not given to some Christians and not others (Romans 8:9). Those who are saved all have the same, the only, Spirit of God with them. There are not different versions of God’s Spirit, though there are different kinds of gifts given to believers by Him. Differences in spiritual gifts are not, at all, differences in spiritual value or salvation.

Verse 5. and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;

Paul wrote in the previous verse that there are different spiritual gifts, but they all come from the same Holy Spirit. Now he adds that there are different services. The term translated “services” here is diakoniōn, sometimes rendered as “ministries.” All spiritual gifts given by the Spirit are intended for serving others in the body of Christ. None of the spiritual gifts are given as a way of enriching or serving just the one who is gifted.

In this chapter, Paul will list some spiritual gifts and the services those gifts empower Christians to perform. He says here, though, that there is only one Lord. Christ alone is the Lord. He is the one we give our allegiance to even while we use our gifts to serve each other in the church. The overall theme of this passage, and the chapter, is that Christians are equally valuable and equally part of the body, even if they are designed with a different set of gifts.

Verse 6. and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

In prior verses, Paul has written of a variety of spiritual gifts given to Christians. These unique endowments enable believers to serve each other in a variety of ways. However, only one Spirit gives those gifts, and they can be used only under the authority of one Lord. The Spirit and the Lord are the same for each and every Christian.

Now Paul adds that the number of activities spiritual gifts can be used to participate in is varied as well. Paul will list some of those various activities later in this chapter. Again, though, he shows that the power to participate in these activities all comes from one and the same God. It is His power at work in believers through the Holy Spirit and under the authority of Christ that is at work when any Christian receives and uses spiritual gifts to serve others.

Paul wants the Corinthians to understand that even though spiritual gifts are given to people, in the end it’s all about God. The gifts of the Spirit don’t make God’s people impressive; they reveal how powerful and impressive He is.

Verse 7. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Paul does not want the Corinthians to misunderstand the truth about spiritual gifts. He seems to be answering a question from them, written in a letter that has since been lost (1 Corinthians 7:1). Some speculate their question revealed a misunderstanding: that some Christians were given gifts while others were not, because “gifted” Christians were more spiritual than others.

Paul is making clear that this is a false idea. First, he has shown that every Christian is spiritual because every Christian has the Spirit with them (1 Corinthians 12:3). Next, he pointed out that the spiritual gifts are not about enriching the people who receive them. Spiritual gifts are about God’s power at work through the Holy Spirit and under the authority of Christ. In other words, spiritual gifts do not make some people more important or impressive than others.

Now he adds two more ideas. First, each believer is given some manifestation of the Spirit. What does that mean? What is a spiritual gift, anyway? One way to describe a spiritual gift is the ability to do something that is beyond the normal human capacity. In other words, a spiritual gift is a specific supernatural ability. This does not mean something the secular world would call a superpower, or a magical skill. However, that gift “manifests” itself in the life of a Christian, often becoming noticeable to other people. Paul will list some of those abilities in the following verses.

The other revelation in this verse is that these gifts are given to Christians, all Christians, by God for the common good. The purpose of the gifts is to build up the church, to serve other Christians.

Verse 8. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,

Paul has been describing to the Christians in Corinth what spiritual gifts are. In short, they are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. That is, they are abilities that go beyond normal human capacity in some specific way, even if the display of God’s power is not always obvious. Paul has shown that they are given to every Christian by God to be used for the common good of the church.

Now Paul begins to describe some of these specific gifts. This first list contains nine gifts, and it is not exhaustive. Other passages in the New Testament list additional spiritual gifts (Romans 12:6–8; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 4:10–11).

Some groups of Christians believe this specific set of gifts, sometimes called the sign gifts or confirmation gifts, to have been given to Christians in the early church to demonstrate the power of God and confirm that the gospel was true. These groups typically believe God stopped giving these gifts after the church was established and the New Testament was published. The same group may or may not believe these gifts are given today sporadically and under special circumstances. Other groups of believers, such as Pentecostals and Charismatics believe these gifts are still distributed by the Holy Spirit regularly and throughout the church around the world.

Paul starts the list with two gifts of “utterance” or kinds of messages. He says again that both are given by the same Spirit, though they are slightly different. The first is the “utterance” or “word” or “message” of wisdom, depending on the translation. The second is the utterance of knowledge.

The word of wisdom involves the supernatural ability to offer insight into truth from God in a way that helps others. The word of knowledge might be understood as the ability to proclaim God’s revelation to those who need to hear it or to offer understanding of how it applies to specific areas of life.

Verse 9. to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

Paul is listing some of the gifts the Holy Spirit delivers to believers. Not every believer is given every gift. Paul wrote in the previous verse that one is given the utterance of wisdom, while another is given the utterance—or “message”—of knowledge.

Now he adds that one might be given the gift of faith, while another gifts of healing. In all cases, Paul’s emphasis is that these gifts are given by the same Holy Spirit of God. He is the source of each of them, and all the power behind them comes from God.

By definition, every born-again believer has faith in Christ and faith to believe God’s Word. The spiritual gift of faith, as narrowly implied here, seems to involve the ability to trust God with a confidence or certainty that is beyond the ability of other Christians. Some scholars suggest this gift is tied to the rest of the gifts in this list, including the gifts of healing.

The gifts of healing provide the supernatural ability for the person who possesses the gift to restore health or even to hold off death. This is not to be confused with the ability to practice the medical arts or sciences. Those with the gift of healing are empowered by the Holy Spirit to heal a specific ailment supernaturally, often immediately.

Verse 10. 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.

Paul continues listing supernatural gifts distributed to Christians by the Holy Spirit. Among believers today, some churches see the gifts of this list as belong primarily to the era of the apostles. Other church groups believe they are distributed and practiced today. All agree that these are gifts empowered by God through the Holy Spirit and available only to those who are in Christ.

The working of miracles, or miraculous powers, may include the ability to heal, in some cases. And yet it also goes beyond that to supernatural displays of God’s power for purposes of confirming the gospel message as well as enacting God’s judgment.

Prophecy is usually described as delivering a message from God, perhaps with force and conviction. Some believe the gift of prophecy to include the supernatural ability to describe things that cannot be known by the speaker beyond special revelation from the Spirit of God. These might be things happening in the present or that will happen in the future.

The ability to distinguish between spirits may be related to prophecy. This seems to be a supernatural ability to tell whether a speaker truly represents God, or is a false or demonic spirit attempting to mislead God’s people.

Various kinds of tongues includes the ability of a Spirit-powered believer to speak in a language not known to him or her. The gift was first seen at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–13). It allowed Peter to preach the message of Jesus to people in their own native language without his knowing those languages.

Interpretation of tongues is the supernatural ability to listen as someone speaks in a language not known to the interpreter, or usually to the speaker, and to translate it so those present can hear it in their own language.

Verse 11. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Paul has concluded his first list of spiritual gifts distributed by God’s Spirit to Christians. He repeats once more, as he has throughout the chapter, that all these gifts are given by one and the same Holy Spirit of God. He is the unifying factor in all spiritual gifts. Now Paul adds that the Holy Spirit is the one who decides to whom each gift will be given.

The point of Paul’s emphasis is that nobody selects their own spiritual gifts. Nobody generates the power behind their spiritual gifts. Nobody earns their gifts. Because of that, nobody can take credit for which gift or gifts they receive from the Spirit. Paul will urge the Corinthians to understand that the gifts are not meant to glorify the people who receive and use them. They are intended to be used to serve other believers and to bring glory to God.

This is a key concept in the idea of Christian unity: that we can be differently-abled, differently-blessed, and differently-assigned, yet serve with equal value, purpose, and meaning.

Verse 12. 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.

Paul has written much about the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians. Now he uses the illustration of a human body to show how Christians, each with their individual spiritual gifts, are intended by God to work together.

Every human body is one thing, one body, one person. This is true even though the body is made up of widely different parts or “members.” Each part of the body contributes to the overall functioning of that body. Paul says the same is true of the body of Christ. Each believer is one member of Christ’s “body” on earth. Each of us is defined by the spiritual gifts given to us and the service they allow us to provide to the church.

This is a key teaching in Christianity. Fellow believers are equally valuable in the eyes of God, and in their contributions to the function of a healthy church. While it’s true that some have more “honorable” roles—a concept Paul will discuss later—that does not make those roles more meaningful.

Context Summary
First Corinthians 12:12–31 continues Paul’s teaching on the spiritual gifts as they cooperate to empower God’s will for the church. The Christian church is like a human body. It is one individual organism made up of many different parts that serve a wide variety of functions. All those functions matter. Nobody should decide they don’t like their gift or their role in the church and try to quit. The body needs each member to do its part in order to work properly. We must respect and value each other for the vital roles we serve in the church.

Verse 13. 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.

Paul is building an illustration for the church, all the Christians on earth, from the idea of a human body. Every human body is one thing, one person, made up of lots of different parts—”members”—with a wide variety of functions, sizes, and visibility.

Likewise, the church, known as the body of Christ, is one thing with lots of parts. How is this possible? Paul uses the concept of baptism here to imply a union, or a joining-together for a common faith and purpose. Paul may have literal water baptism in mind here. This is something the early church practiced almost immediately after someone converted to Christianity. It’s also possible that water baptism is being used as a picture of what happens when someone comes to Christ and receives God’s Spirit for the first time. They are said to be baptized into the Spirit, immersed in God’s protective, empowering Spirit. In addition, Paul describes every believer in Jesus as drinking of one Spirit. This pictures the Spirit’s coming into Christians and occupying them. Every Christian has the Spirit of God (Romans 8:9).

Because every Christian is immersed in and filled up with God’s Spirit—the same Spirit for all believers—we are also connected to each other. This allows the church to become one body made up of diverse parts. These differences include nationality and race, gender, physical and intellectual ability, as well as social status. The church in Corinth was especially diverse in these differences.

Verse 14. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

Paul’s illustration of the church—the collective name for all believers everywhere—is that of a human body. Like a body, the church is one organism. Like a body, the church has many, diverse members who serve a variety of functions. A body is not made up of identical copies of just one part; a healthy body requires a diversity of forms and functions.

Paul began this discussion with an explanation of the supernatural gifts God’s Holy Spirit distributes to every believer as He sees fit. Soon, Paul will identify each believer’s “part” in the body of Christ by the gifts we have been given to use to serve the rest of the church. Our gifts determine our function, and our function determines our part in the body of Christ. Every Christian has the Spirit. Every Christian has received a gift to use in service. Every Christian is a member of Christ’s body.

Verse 15. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

Perhaps the question the Corinthians had asked Paul about spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1) had to do with why some received more prestigious gifts while others received less desirable ones. After correcting their understanding of how and why the Holy Spirit distributes gifts to Christians, Paul began building an illustration to help believers understand more fully the point of these gifts. The church is like a body. It is one thing with many different parts—different “members”—which serve many different functions. No matter how diverse it is, however, it is still just one organism, and the health of every part is affected by the health of any individual part.

Paul now makes use of his illustration to demonstrate how ridiculous it is for Christians to complain about which spiritual gifts they have been given. Or to claim they are not a functional member. Or for them to opt out of the church because they don’t like the function they serve. It would be absurd for a foot to claim it’s not really part of the body because it’s not a hand!

This analogy speaks to the concept of design: it’s not up to the foot to make that decision, and the foot has a purpose, one that the hand is not able to correctly fulfill.

Verse 16. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

This passage uses the illustration of the human body to show the importance of diverse Christians working together as a single church. It is irrational for a Christian to decide they don’t want to be part of the church because they don’t like what God has given them to do in their spiritual walk. Since the church is like a body, Paul says, the members of the body can’t just decide to walk away. That’s bad for the body, and worse for the missing piece!

Paul repeats the pattern of the previous verse: that a foot’s claim not to belong to the body because it can’t be a hand doesn’t make sense. This time, though, it is the ear that complains that it is not an eye. If it can’t be an eye, it decides it is not attached to the body, any longer. The problem, of course, is that it’s still sitting there. It might choose not to function—and that’s bad for the rest of the body. Parts of bodies could not quit even if they wanted to.

Paul will show that the same is true of people in the body of Christ. Christianity is not a club that can be joined and then quit later when it stops being enjoyable. Those who come to faith in Christ come for good. They are given a permanent place in an eternal organism. Believers who become discontent with their Spirit-given role in the body cannot simply give up serving that function or even quit belonging to Christ. It is who they are now.

The best they can do is to discover, or rediscover, how essential their function is to Christ and His body, as Paul shows in the following verse.

Verse 17. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

Paul has described a comically-absurd scenario. Imagine a human body where the foot is disgruntled that it cannot be one of the hands. Perhaps it wants the prestige of doing “hand” tasks; it doesn’t like being inside of shoes anymore. Or suppose there is an ear who declares itself independent of the body because it cannot be an eye. Even if it were possible for body parts to have such feelings, Paul’s point is that there’s nothing they could do about it.

In the same way, those in Christ have been given their own unique spiritual gifts, as well as specific functions to do in the body of Christ. Those functions require their specific gifts. Apparently, some in the church in Corinth were discontent with their role in the church, with the purpose God had uniquely equipped them to fulfill. Perhaps, they wanted out. Or they simply refused to use those God-given abilities.

Christians, though, like body parts, can’t just walk away from the body they belong to. Every believer remains attached to the body of Christ. Like a stubborn body part, all a saved believer can do is refuse to function—making them the equivalent of a paralyzed limb or an inert organ. The best that we can do, once we have discovered what our function is, is to learn how vital it is to the church and to do it with the power of God.

Paul demonstrates that by calling attention to the work of hearing. If ears and all the other body parts decided to be eyes, how would the body hear anything? If there were only ears, on the other hand, the body would lose its sense of smell. Every body part—every believer, without exception—serves an essential function in the body.

Verse 18. But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

Here, Scripture extends the illustration of the church as the body of Christ. Paul has imagined parts of the body trying to quit because they cannot be some different member with a different function. Apparently, though, that’s exactly what was happening in Corinth. Perhaps some Christians wanted to stop belonging to the church, at all, because they did not like the role they were given by the Spirit to serve in the church.

Now Paul drives home the point that body parts don’t choose their jobs. God does that. He placed each body part in the best place on the body to do its work, giving each part the exact job for which it was designed. Those parts are meant to work in harmony—when certain parts refuse to work, the body cannot function as it was intended.

Paul’s point is that God does the same with the church. Paul wrote in verse 11 that the Spirit matches every believer with their personal gift or gifts, to be used to serve the other members in the church and the body of Christ as a whole. God chooses our role; we don’t decide what part in the church we would like to play. As Paul describes it, we receive the role and fill the part we’re given.

Verse 19. If all were a single member, where would the body be?

Paul’s comical picture of the parts of a body in rebellion against their functions feels less comical when we think of all the ways Christians do similar things in the church, the body of Christ. How many Christians have decided to simply stop functioning because they don’t like the function God has given them to fulfill? It’s not that they cannot serve, give, teach, and so forth. It’s that they’d really like to do something else.

Spiritually, this like a body part choosing to become inert—like a finger that simply stops performing its functions. At best, it’s now taking up resources without contributing to the body’s intended mission. At worst, it’s distracting other members from being efficient in their intended roles as they work to take up the slack.

Why can’t we all choose what job we want to have in the church and serve in that way? Paul shows why in this verse. If every member decided to be the same thing—pastor or encourager or speaker of tongues—the body would cease to exist. A thousand noses is not a body. A mass of brain cells—without bones, fingers, intestines, or elbows—would be useless, and incapable of survival.

Verse 20. As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

Paul has just written that if we all chose our own job in the church based only on what sounded meaningful or exciting or important to us, the church might cease to exist. A church made up of people who refuse to perform any task except those associated with being the pastor, for example, would not be a “church.” This is in the same way that a body made up entirely of elbows would not be a “body.”

Bodies that survive, thrive, and accomplish their purpose have many and varied parts while still being just one body. Churches that accomplish their purpose have many and varied people serving different functions assigned to them through the gifts of the Spirit while still being just one church. Not every spiritual gift is equally glamorous in the eyes of the world. Not every task in a church is equally prestigious in the eyes of the world. But churches need people to fulfill those other roles, just as much as the body needs all those members to serve their purpose. They are all part of the same Spirit and need to work together for that reason.

Verse 21. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

Scripture has been describing a reason for discontent among some members of Christ’s body, the church. Perhaps this was going on in Corinth. Some Christians didn’t think the service-role given them by God was valuable or interesting or visible enough. They were discontent with their Spirit-assigned part in the body of Christ. It’s possible they did not understand how essential it was to the church for them to fulfill the function God had gifted them. As Paul has stated before, a functioning body must have these diverse parts. It cannot function without them.

Now Paul identifies a separate problem, but one closely related to the first. Some Christians felt they didn’t need the service provided by other Christians who were gifted by the Spirit to provide it. They mistakenly believed that they were important to the body of Christ while other believers were unimportant because their gifts did not serve exciting or visible functions. While some were bitter about their spiritual gifts and did not want to use them, these believers were arrogant about their gifts, and didn’t think others needed to use theirs.

Paul writes that this is like an eye saying to the hand, or the head saying to the foot, “I have no need of you.” Any eye or head that would say such a thing clearly does not understand how bodies work. The brain might think itself more important than the stomach, but it cannot survive without what the stomach does. As Paul explains in upcoming verses, it’s often the body parts we sneer at which perform the most vital roles! Any Christian that would think such a thing of a brother or sister in Christ—that their God-given role is unimportant or irrelevant—does not understand how Christ’s body works.

Verse 22. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

Are there unimportant jobs in the church? Are there unessential people with spiritual gifts that don’t really matter? Paul has written that to think such a thing is as foolish as an eye thinking it doesn’t need the hand.

In fact, Paul now adds that the opposite is true. The parts of the human body that seem to be weaker, less exciting, less seen in public, those are the parts that we truly cannot live without. The subtlety and power of this analogy is easy to miss. Consider internal organs that we rarely think about. If a lung or a pancreas or a five-foot section of the intestines was suddenly gone, the body would instantly recognize how indispensable that part was. It’s not unfair to say that losing a finger, visible though that may be, is nowhere near as disruptive as losing a kidney—an organ most people think nothing of until it’s in crisis.

In the same way, the most essential functions in the church are often carried out by Spirit-gifted Christians who call no attention to themselves. There, again, is a subtlety in this analogy which needs to be understood. A body can better survive with the loss of the “high profile” members, like eyes and fingers, than it can if it loses the behind-the-scenes members like the lungs and organs. The Christian church, in truth, “needs” the deeper and more essential members to perform their roles and cannot be effective otherwise.

Verse 23. and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,

What are the least honorable and least presentable parts of the human body? Most of us immediately think of parts which seem crude to discuss among polite people. These are the parts we hope are never seen in public, and we are especially careful to keep from getting injured. These might include the body functions we train young children to control and only use in appropriate times or places.

Paul’s analogy about the importance of certain members takes on a special power when seen in this way. Losing a finger, or an eye, for instance, would be difficult to endure. Both would create hardships of their own. And yet, some people know what it means to lose organs associated with those “less presentable” functions. Losing those is more disruptive to one’s life and comfort than damage to a more “prestigious” member.

That is exactly Paul’s point in this verse. Because we must keep them from view and protect them so carefully, the least honorable and seen parts of a human body become, in a way, the most honored and essential parts of the body. His purpose is to extend this idea to those members of the Christian church who some might dismiss as less valuable, or less important, since they have spiritual gifts “less presentable” than some.

The least honored functions of the church become the most honored when God’s people work together to protect and care for those who need it most. What the more honored members do is important, yes, but it literally cannot be done without the contribution of those other members.

Verse 24. which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,

Not every part of the human body requires protection and modesty. Most of us don’t worry too much about hiding our hands from view or keeping them out of harm’s way. They’ve got obvious work to do right out in the open. Many functions in the church are like that, too. The pastors and teachers are very visible members of the body with obvious gifts and obvious work to do. When certain situations occur, those are the first members expected to move, to work, and to be put into use.

At the same time, there are parts of the body which some might consider “less honorable,” in that we don’t want them to be exposed or seen. They’re also not parts we want treated roughly or put in harm’s way. But that, in and of itself, speaks to the value and importance of those parts. They have a role to fulfill, and we instinctively want to protect their ability to function, keeping them from things they were not meant to do.

Beyond the easily-seen roles like pastors and teachers, other gifted people fill roles that are virtually invisible to the rest of the church body. Those roles and the people who fill them should be given perhaps even greater honor in the church. Without the quiet encouragers, the helpers, and the givers, the church would stop being the church. Paul insists we must honor all parts of the church body.

Verse 25. that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

This verse uses a word mentioned before in this letter. This seems to be a particular problem in the church in Corinth: division. Paul has held the believers in Corinth accountable for dividing themselves over everything like which spiritual leader has their loyalty (1 Corinthians 1:10–12) to how much money they have (1 Corinthians 11:18–21). Division is ugly and runs against the very idea of the church of God.

Paul brings up the word “division” here to show how little sense it makes for a body to be divided. A human body is made up of diverse parts that all serve different functions. A “divided” human body ceases to function properly. If all the parts are not working together toward the same ends, the body doesn’t work as it was intended, if at all.

One way to avoid that, Paul writes here, is for each part of the body to honor the other parts of the body. Those with visible, up-front gifts and roles must honor those who serve the body behind the scenes. The teachers must honor the helpers. The exhorters must honor the encouragers. And those behind the scenes must honor and support those who serve on the front lines.

All believers must care for and uplift one another. Then there will be no division.

Verse 26. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Body parts don’t literally have individual emotional experiences. And, as Paul suggests in this verse, it’s not entirely possible for one body part to be “happy” when some other part is deeply suffering. People don’t really notice their hands are feeling fine when their feet are in agony. Bodies are single organisms. If one part of the body suffers, the rest of the body suffers along with it. The hand will do whatever it can to relieve the pain in the foot and vice versa.

Once again, Paul’s analogy demonstrates a deep level of sophistication. A common mantra in workplace safety is “lift with your legs, not with your back.” The point is that if the body part designed for a task—the legs—does not fulfill that role, some other part—the back—must try. By definition, that other part is not as well-suited for the task. That leads to over-exertion, stress, and injury. One way to keep the back from being strained is for the legs to fulfill their role. When each body part cooperates to meet the needs of their unique design, the body acts with maximum comfort and efficiency.

The church never functions more correctly, according to God’s design, than when Christians do the same thing for each other. When we are willing to be moved by the experiences of our brothers and sisters in Christ, to feel pain and joy at the pain and joy of others, to take on the roles we have been given by God, we move closer and closer to being that single Christ-like organism. It is who God intends for us to be.

Verse 27. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Now Paul makes his illustration—human body as the body of Christ—very personal for the church in Corinth. He speaks to them directly and with purpose. They are both the body of Christ together as a group, and they are individual members of the body of Christ.

In prior verses, Paul has noted that the diverse members of the body must work together, according to their designed roles, in order for the body to function. This is not only good for the body, it’s good for each individual member.

Everything Paul has written in the chapter applies to the Corinthian believers and their experience of spiritual gifts. This means if they are willing to set aside their discontent about the role God has given to them in the church, and their arrogance about not needing other members of the body of Christ, they have the opportunity to thrive together to become what God intends for the church to be.

The same application is meant to be taken on by all believers, in all churches, even today.

Verse 28. 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.

This verse begins to wrap up a section on the spiritual gifts and the body of Christ. Paul has made a general illustration about the body of Christ being like a human body into a very personal message. It is now about the church in Corinth, and how they should respond to the gifts given to them by God.

Paul repeats again that God is the one who assigns the gifts to specific people in specific churches. He has written previously that each gifted function in the church is worthy of honor. Even so, he has noted that some functions are more prestigious, or more public. Here he seems to explain those by listing off three specific gifts. In order, they are apostles, prophets, and teachers. Perhaps these are described first because it is through these gifts that God communicates truth to His people. Perhaps Paul emphasizes these three because he believes the Corinthians value them too little.

After these three leading/teaching gifts, Paul names a variety of others, including some he mentioned earlier in the chapter: miracles, healing, helping, administration, and speaking in various tongues. Once again, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all the possible gifts given to people in the church. Nor is it explicitly meant to rank those gifts in order of importance or authority. Other gifts are found on other lists in the New Testament (Romans 12:6–8; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 4:10–11). In fact, the only gift mentioned on each list is teaching: the supernatural ability to make clear and applicable the Word of God.

Verse 29. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

In this and following verses, Paul is driving home his main point. This is that all spiritual gifts are needed and should be honored in the church, which is the body of Christ. Some may seem more desirable. Others may seem less interesting. Those are only perception, however. All are needed and vital to the proper function of the church.

As he does often, Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions: statements which assume a particular answer. Is everyone in the church an apostle or a prophet or a teacher? Of course not. Can everyone work miracles? No, only those given the gift of the ability to work miracles by the Holy Spirit can work miracles. This applies the body analogy Paul used earlier (1 Corinthians 12:17), pointing out that the whole body cannot be made up of identical copies of the same organ.

Paul continues these questions in the following verse.

Verse 30. Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

Paul is asking a series of questions to which the obvious answer is “no.” He seeks to drive home a point: that all spiritual gifts are needed to serve all the functions in the body of Christ. As pointed out before, the body cannot be made up entirely of eyes (1 Corinthians 12:17). There are innumerable things which must be done, which an eye simply cannot do. That’s why not everyone is an apostle or a prophet or a teacher. Not everyone can do miracles.

Now he asks if everyone has gifts of healing or the ability to speak in or interpret speaking in tongues? Of course not. If that were the case, the church in Corinth would not be a church. A pile of eyes is not a “body.” All spiritual gifts are needed, and all those diverse members have an important role to fulfill in the health and success of the church.

Verse 31. But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

This concludes a section about the importance of the spiritual gifts in the life of the church. Paul encourages the Corinthians to earnestly desire the higher gifts. By this, he likely means they should want to see gifted apostles, prophets, and teachers in their church. This might seem confusing, since Paul has labored over these last verses to explain why there is honor and value in all gifts and roles. So, why would Paul say this about these certain spiritual abilities?

Perhaps it is because through these gifted functions that God is best able to communicate needed truth to His people. Or perhaps the Corinthians did not value these leadership roles among them nearly enough. From all Paul has had to correct in their understanding and practice of Christianity, it’s possible that they either lacked or did not receive good teaching from gifted leaders.

Even keeping with the body analogy, this still makes sense. A professional athlete certainly desires to hone the abilities of their arms, or legs, or fingers. That’s a good thing, and not something to be ashamed of. That same athlete, however, still knows that there is importance and value in those other, less-visible body parts. They realize that extraordinary accomplishments by the arms and legs require support and care for those other members of the body.

The chapter ends with a teaser of sorts for what Paul will discuss next. He calls it the “more excellent way.” The theme explored in this passage forms a well-known discussion of the biblical concept of love.

End of Chapter 12.

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