1 Corinthians 12:12-26

Butler's Comments

SECTION 3

Sagaciousness of Diversity (1 Corinthians 12:12-26)

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. 13For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one bodyJews or Greeks, slaves or freeand all were made to drink of one Spirit.

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If 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. 16And 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. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single organ, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need for you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 22On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, 25that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 The Organism: The body of Christ (the church) is an organism, not an organization (see Special Study, Is the Church An Organization or an Organism?). On the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1 ff.) when the apostles began to carry out the command of their Lord, the resurrected Christ in heaven was united, as the Head, to the spiritual body (the church) being formed on earth in order that the work of redemption, attained by Christ in his physical body, might be practiced and proclaimed and increased in Christians (the body) until he comes. Of course, the church (Christians) can never add a word, a thought, or a deed to the finished work of Christ's vicarious death and the Holy Spirit's revelation of the New Testament scriptures. Jesus completed all that forever. But the Lord in that human body was not ending something, he was beginning a great program which he himself, in the limitations of a human body could never complete (the task of world-wide proclamation of redemption, see Colossians 1:24-27), When Jesus was here in his physical body there was no part of human life that his holy nature did not penetrate with the redemptive purpose of God; his incarnation was an invasion of holiness on all fronts and in every aspect of human need. He penetrated every level of life with righteousness: social, political, ecclesiastical, moral, educational and familial. That is the work his body (the church) is commissioned now to do.

The definition of organism is: Any highly complex thing or structure with parts so integrated that their relation to one another is governed by their relation to the whole. An organism is something living where the whole exists for the parts, and each part for the whole and for all other parts. That is precisely what Paul is saying to the Corinthians in these verses about the church. Plummer says: The Church is neither a dead mass of similar particles, like a heap of sand, nor a living swarm of antagonistic individuals, like a cage of wild beasts; it has the unity of a living organism, in which no two parts are exactly alike, but all discharge different functions for the good of the whole. All men are not equal, and no individual can be independent of the rest; everywhere there is subordination and dependence.

Paul is saying that every individual has some function to discharge, and all must work (see Ephesians 4:15-16) together for the common good. The all-important operation of an organism is unity in loving service. The Church is an organic body of which all the parts are moved by a spirit of common interest and mutual affection.

Christ's body (the church) is one. Any member contributing to the destruction of this oneness, either by refusing to function (as it has been gifted) or by hindering another member from using its gifts (through jealousy or pride), is in danger of being cut off (see Matthew 5:29-30; John 15:1-11). The oneness of mind, love and purpose in his disciples was what Jesus prayed for on the night before his death (John 17:1 ff.). He knew the world would never believe God sent him if his disciples could not function as many different members in one whole, living, organism. Just as a human body must have all its members (parts) functioning properly in order for one body to be whole and serving its purpose, so it is with Christ, says the apostle. Paul is using Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:12 as a metonymy for the church. All members in a physical body cannot have the same function, but the fulfillment of the body's purpose demands that each member function according to its part. The body cannot be whole and cannot reach its fullest potential when one of its members does not function properly.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 12:13 in Greek thus: dai gar en heni pneumati hemeis pantes eis hen soma ebaptisthemen. literally, for indeed by one Spirit we all into one body were immersed.. The emphasis is, of course, on the oneness of the instrumentality of the Corinthian's immersion (see Acts 18:8). The Greek preposition en used with the dative case pneumati should be translated causally (see examples of en translated causally at Luke 24:49; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2) when the context demands it. The Corinthians were not initially immersed in the Spirit but by the revealed will and command of the Spirit. Their initial immersion was in water in obedience to apostolic preaching. Some of the Corinthians later received the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. But the possession of miraculous gifts did not necessitate the immersion of the Holy Spirit. The immersion (baptism) of the Holy Spirit was administered only by direct endowment of Christ (see Matthew 3:11-12; Luke 24:48-49; John 1:33; John 20:22-23; Acts 2:1-21; Acts 10:44-48; Acts 11:1-18). Miraculous gifts of the Spirit were incidentally imparted to those (the apostles and Cornelius-' family) who received the immersion (baptism) of the Spirit. All other Christians, except the foregoing, who received supernatural endowments, received them by the laying on of the hands of an apostle. Therefore, when Paul says en henipneumati, by one Spirit, he is indicating that all the Corinthians, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, were immersed in water in obedience to the revealed will of the same Spirit of God. His argument is that since they were all obedient to the will of the same Spirit, they are all members of the same body. Any person immersed in water in obedience to the revealed will of the Holy Spirit as preached and written by the apostles is a member of Christ's body and equally important. Such a person is then personally responsible to the Head (Christ) of the body to use with humility and gratitude any and all endowments (gifts) he may have for the edification and increase of the whole body of Christ. All who have been immersed into Christ's body by the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit were made to drink of one and the same Spirit of God (see John 7:37-39; Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 55:1; Isaiah 58:11; John 4:10; John 4:13; John 6:35; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:17). All Christians of all ages drink of the Holy Spirit without receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament plainly teaches that drinking of the Holy Spirit is the same as partaking of the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 6:4) or the same as partaking of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) or the same as having the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (John 14:23; 1 John 2:24; 1 John 3:24, etc.).

1 Corinthians 12:14-20 The Organs: Paul uses the human body, the physical body, to illustrate the wisdom of diversity. Every organism or body consists of more than one member or organ. And no one member or organ can supply every need the whole body must have to function as a whole; proper functioning in order to bring about the common good of the whole body requires the contribution of what each member has. Picture what a human body would look like, and how it might function, if it were all ear or all eye! Not only would it be a monstrous looking thing, it would be a malfunctioning thing, perhaps even a dying thing. God made unity, but not uniformity; he did not reduce all human beings down to sameness. Every member cannot have the same function, and, while it may appear that some members have more important functions than others, it is not so.

Because one member of the church in Corinth did not have the popular miraculous gift of speaking in a foreign tongue (or had no miraculous gift at all) he was not to be considered unimportant or unnecessary. If the Corinthian church had received only the miraculous gift of tongues what a useless body it would have been!
Furthermore, since God arranged the organs in that body (the Corinthian church) as he chose, for Christians to rearrange the priorities and functions of the members was rebellion against God. Whatever gifts God gives (miraculous or non-miraculous) he gives not to please men but to fulfill his redemptive purposes for the world. God certainly did not create diversity of functions in the members of the human body to destroy the body. Neither did Christ's Spirit give diversity of miraculous and non-miraculous gifts to destroy his church, A body has to have many members to function properly. All members cannot have the same function. But the fulfillment of the body's purpose must have each member functioning according to its part. The body cannot do without one of its members. The Corinthian church was dividing and destroying itself over the use and abuse of the different miraculous gifts, thinking some were important and some were not needed.

1 Corinthians 12:21-26 The Operation: The very fact of diversity should preclude the possibility of discord. Diversity is given by God in order that the members may care for one another. What one lacks another supplies. Where one cannot function, another functions. This text teaches that Christians ought to: (a) realize they need each other; (b) respect each other; (c) sympathize with one another.

In the human body God has adjusted (Gr. sunekerasen, literally, blended or mingled together) all the organs and parts of the body in such a way that no organ can be considered inferior or useless or not needed. Those parts of the human body which seem to be weaker we find to be indispensable. One need only to lose the use of an arm, an eye, or even a finger to learn how indispensable each member is. Those parts of the human body we think are less honorable (Gr. atimotera), such as the sexual organs, God invests with greater honor. The sexual organs which some think dishonorable and uncomely have the function of procreation. Thus greater honor is given to those members of the body which men tend to think of as inferior.

These same principles are true in Christ's spiritual body, the church. Some, in the church at Corinth, were categorizing the miraculous gifts in degrees of greater importance, lesser importance and no importance. In chapter 14 we shall learn that the one gift they thought superior was tongues and the inferior gift was prophecy. God revealed through Paul that the divine categorization of gifts was exactly opposite from that of men. It is true in the body of Christ today (universally, or locally). Every member has at least one non-miraculous gift. That gift comes by the grace of the same God to all. The body as a whole cannot get along without that gift. Some gifts are not as flamboyant as others. But the non-flamboyant may be more important. The less sensational gifts are certainly not to be considered inferior; they may, in fact, be superior!

There can be no such thing as isolation in the church. In the body there is no question of relative importance. If any limb or organ ceases to function the whole body is thrown out of order, This is even more true in the spiritual body (the church). When church members begin to think about their own superiority over one another, the possibility of the church functioning properly is destroyed. If any one member of the body suffers abuse, misuse or nonuse, all the other members together suffer some malfunction or loss. If any one member of the body seems to have a more honored (Gr. doxazetai, glorified) function or gift, the whole body should rejoice together that this member is making his God-given contribution to the common good of the whole body, realizing that from God's perspective his glorious function is of no more significance than someone else's non-glorious function. It is not easy for human beings to have the divine perspective. It requires faith! It requires setting the human mind on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5-17)! It requires the control of the love of Christ over our thoughts until we no longer regard anyone from a human point of view (2 Corinthians 5:14-21). Men tend to want to categorize, make themselves superior and others inferior, and lord it over one anotherbut it shall not be so among Christians! (Matthew 20:20-28). The devil will always make the divine perspective concerning gifts, talents, abilities and functions to be impractical and unfair. So the Christian must surrender his evaluations and priorities totally to the direction of the Spirit of God in his word, the Bible. The Christian's only option is to perceive and classify gifts as the Bible does.