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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman The
Organic my
commentary on 1 Corinthians 12 written 2022 Unless
otherwise stated, all quotes from the Bible that you will read in this
book have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible. Scripture
quotations have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.
Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks
of Holman Bible Publishers. 1
Corinthians 12:27 Now
you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it. Table
Of Contents The
Evolutionary Nature Of Church Ministry
Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1 - 11) The
Organic Church (1 Corinthians 12::12 - 31) Other
Books By Stephen Sweetman As
I normally say, before you read any further, I tell you in advance that
due to the fact I have been legally blind since birth, because I am not
a professional editor, and, because this book has not been edited by an
outside source, you may find a few grammatical or spelling errors.
I have tried to keep them to a minimum, but knowing myself, I
have surely, without any doubt, missed some mistakes.
Hopefully you will not find many, but most importantly, I hope
those you do find will not detract from what you read. I
hope and pray that what you will read in the following few pages will
both inspire you and educate you to the Biblical meaning of church.
Experiencing church as the Bible teaches is part of what being a
Christian is all about. If
you are experiencing church as Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 12, consider
yourself real blessed, because many, if not most, aren't experiencing
church as Paul taught. So,
let's get started through our journey to discover the organic church as
recorded in 1 Corinthians 12.
Before
I delve into my verse by verse commentary on 1 Corinthians 12, I would
like to explain some preliminaries.
A
brief reading of both first and second Corinthians tells us that the
community of believers in the Greco-Roman city of Corinth were sadly
divided and fragmented, much like our present-day church is divided and
fragmented today. 1
Corinthians 1:10 through 13 reads as follows.
"Now
I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree in what you say, that there be no divisions among
you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same
conviction. For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and
sisters, by members of Chloe's people, that there is rivalry among you.
What I am saying is this: One of you says, "I belong to Paul,” or
“I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or
"I belong to Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in Paul’s name? If
you are an honest Christian, who you should be, you would have to admit
that what you have just read from 1 Corinthians 1:10 through 13 portrays
our western-world church in our day.
You might claim to be a Baptist, a Methodist, a Pentecostal, or
whatever, just as the Corinthian believers claimed allegiance to certain
apostles. That being the
case, all that Paul wrote to the Christian believers in With
this in mind, one of the most important things the church can do for
itself these days is to study 1 Corinthians 12.
Then, as what Paul taught us in this chapter works its way into
our brains, we must allow it to sink deep into our hearts, where, it
will become the conviction by which we live.
Bible study is not merely a mental exercise.
We study the Bible so we can live the Bible.
We study the Biblical meaning of church so we can live the
Biblical meaning of church. You
might not have thought much about the concept of living church, if you
have even thought about it at all. You
might not even understand what I mean when I suggest that we must live
church, but living church is fundamental to what Paul taught about
church. So, continue reading
and let us clear up a common misunderstanding.
It
is the apostle Paul who coined the term "Body of Christ,"
which is in reference to the church.
A common misunderstanding is that Paul merely portrayed the
church to be a body-like organization.
By that I mean many of us view the term Body of Christ as being a
metaphor for the church. It's
a symbol to help us understand what church is all about.
They say that Paul was simply comparing a human body to the
church to help us understand the true nature of church.
I do not see it that way. I
do not view the term Body of Christ, as Paul described church, as being
a symbol or a metaphor, and here is why I believe as I do.
Read what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:27. "Now
you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it." Paul
did not tell the Corinthian Christians that they were like a physical
human body. No, he
specifically said that "you are the Body of Christ."
The words "you are" do not suggest anything that looks
metaphoric or symbolic to me. The
words "you are" and the words "you are like" give
two different and distinct portrayals of church.
I, thus, view the Body of Christ, the church, as Jesus'
present-day replacement body. I
call the church Jesus' present day earthly human body for this reason.
Since
Jesus is no longer here on earth in physical form as He once was, and,
since the Holy Spirit resides in both the individual Christian and the
church as a whole, the church is in fact the replacement earthly human
body of Jesus. The world should see Jesus when it sees the church,
because, we are His replacement body.
We are the human representation of Jesus to our surrounding
culture. The sad fact is
that Jesus' present-day body is disabled by divisiveness, just like the
Corinthian church was disabled by its divisiveness.
It is for this reason why what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 12
about church is so important tor today's church.
In
short, just as you live in your material body, so Jesus lives in His
material body, the church, otherwise known as the Body of Christ.
That makes church a living organism and not merely a static
organization.
Something
that is considered to be organic is something that has been derived
from, or birthed by, a natural living source.
Organic vegetables are organic because they are grown naturally,
without any man-made chemicals or genetic modification.
A new-born baby is organic because the baby was conceived by two
natural living cells. A
human relationship is organic because two living people have been
naturally united in friendship. Church
is organic because the living Holy Spirit and living people have been
immersed into one living body, otherwise known as the Body of Christ.
With this understanding of the word "organic," read
what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:13. "For
by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or
Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink
into one Spirit." Paul
taught that the Holy Spirit has baptized, or immersed, us into one
living body, the church. From
my perspective, Paul's teaching about church recorded in 1 Corinthians
12 is sadly unknown to most. Much
of the church in the West views church as an organization you join or
attend. That's not what Paul
taught about church, especially here in chapter 12
of 1 Corinthians.
Paul
did not describe church as being a static organizational structure to
join or attend in 1 Corinthians 12.
He described church as a living organism, Christ's present-day
earthly physical body where the Holy Spirit has baptized believers into
each other's lives. This
makes church organic in nature, where Christians who have been immersed
alongside each other in supportive relationships can function as the
healthy maturing Body of Christ it is meant to be.
Church
is more than an organisation to facilitate a mission.
Church being a living organism is important as our western
culture, step by step, becomes more anti-Christ in nature.
As this transition occurs, church will begin to lose its state
sponsored ordinations, tax exemptions, charitable status, and the
sufficient funds to maintain its buildings and organizational structure
that presently exists. With
these losses church will be forced to become organic if it is to
survive. I maintain that if
you don't find yourself baptized into the lives of those Jesus has place
you alongside in His earthly body, you'll find yourself alone,
attempting to survive the onslaughts of our anti-Christ culture.
If
you don't understand 1 Corinthians 12, you will misunderstand church.
The
Evolutionary Nature Of Church I
have often asked people over the years if they believe that church is
evolutionary in nature. That
is to say, is church permitted to evolve over time, and from place to
place, to best facilitate its mission, or, is there any Biblical
teaching about church that must never evolve but remains constant?
Here is my answer to this question.
There
is an evolutionary aspect to church that may, and really should, evolve
over time and from culture to culture to best facilitate its mission and
remain relevant in whatever time or culture in which it exists.
Take computers, for example.
Paul never had a computer or a cell phone, but I bet you that if
he did have them, he would have sure used them to the fullest extent in
his ministry. Modern
technology is a great asset and tool to the church and its mission. Just
think how many more letters Paul could have written that we could still
be reading today if he had a computer and email account literally at his
fingertips. Texting Timothy
would have saved much time and effort instead of penning a letter on
parchment, and then, having someone take weeks to deliver it. Then
there are cars. We have cars to help accomplish our goals in church.
How Paul could have used a car to get from one place to another.
Instead of taking weeks to travel across the empire, it could
have taken a few days.
Music
is another evolutionary process in church.
Being raised in 1950's evangelical Christianity, music sung in
church was much different than it is now.
As a matter of fact, the guitar was viewed as being sinful when I
was a child. Well, that is
not the case today. Church
had to sanctify the guitar if congregational singing was ever going to
be relevant to the baby boomer generation of Christians, which I am one.
For the record, I do play the guitar.
Part
of today's mission for the universal church is to translate the Bible
into various languages and dialects.
Even when it comes to translating the Bible into these languages
and dialects, there is an evolutionary aspect to the process.
The Greek word "kardia," for example, is normally
translated into English as heart, but in some remote tribes in Yes,
there is an evolutionary aspect to church, but on the other hand, there
are certain aspects to church that should never evolve over time or from
one culture to another, and what we read in 1 Corinthians 12 is one
example. The church being a
living organism where the Holy Spirit has been given to its members and
has immersed them into each other's lives should never evolve over time
or from one place to another place.
It is one of those fundamental aspects to church that must remain
constant if church is to be the productive Body of Christ it is meant to
be.
God's
New It
is important for us to realize that the Holy Spirit, also called the
Spirit of Christ in the New Testament, dwells in both the individual
believer as well as the church as a whole.
In once sense of the word, then, both the individual believer and
the church are a temple in which God lives. This is an amazing fact if
you think this through. If,
you are a born-again-of-the-Spirit Christian, and that is the only kind
of Christian there is, then, the Almighty Creator God lives within your
very being. Once that takes
place, that should certainly make a dramatic change in your life, don't
you think? We
often think that the Spirit of Jesus lives within us as individual
believers. That is certainly
true, but, He also lives in us as the collective body of people known as
the church. Unless you
understand that fact, you will misunderstand the facts of church. The
church was born in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit came to live within one
hundred and twenty disciples. As
the Holy Spirit united the disciples with Jesus, by virtue of the fact
that He came to live in each believer, He also united the disciples with
each other. That is to say,
they collectively shared the same Spirit of God.
As
the disciples were immersed into the life of the Holy Spirit, so they
were immersed into the lives of each other.
There was, in fact, a collective ecclesiastical immersion seen on
the Day of Pentecost. The
Holy Spirit fell on, and then into, all disciples, both individually and
collectively. That is basic
to church. We will clearly
see this when we study 1 Corinthians 12:13. In
Paul's letter to the Corinthian believers we note that the Holy Spirit
lives in both the individual Christian and the church as a whole.
That is to say, both the individual believer is a 1
Corinthians 3:16 tells us that the Holy Spirit lives within the
collective community of Christians, the church.
It what makes church the living Body of Christ. That verse reads: "Don't
you yourselves know that you
[plural] are God's temple and that
the Spirit of God lives in you? The
word "you" in the above verse is a plural pronoun in the Greek
text. It is not a singular
pronoun. The word
"you," then, is in reference to a number of people, that is,
the church in the city of "The
God who made the world and everything in
it — he is Lord of heaven and
earth — does not live in shrines made by
hands."
In
contrast to the church being God's New Testament temple, we note that in
1 Corinthians 6:19, the individual believer is also God's temple.
That verse reads: "Don't
you know that your body is a temple
of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you
have from God? You are not your own," Understanding
the fact that God lives in both the individual Christian and the church
as a whole, is fundamental to what you will read in 1 Corinthians 12.
It is fundamental to the true New Testament church.
If there is no God in church, then you do not have a church.
It is that simple. If
there is no God in you, then, you are not a Christian.
That's Biblically simple as well.
(1
Corinthians 12:1 - 11) The
Text 1
- Now
concerning spiritual gifts: brothers and sisters, I do not want you
to be unaware. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you used to be enticed and led
astray by mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of
God says, "Jesus is cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus
is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are different
gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are different
activities, but the same God works all of them in each person. 7 A manifestation of the
Spirit is given to each person for the common good: 8 to one is given a
message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message of
knowledge by the same Spirit, 9 to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by
the one Spirit, 10 to another, the performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to
another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different
kinds of tongues, to another, interpretation of tongues. 11 One and the same Spirit
is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills. My
Commentary Verse
1 "Now
concerning spiritual gifts: brothers and sisters, I do not want you to
be unaware." You
can divide 1 Corinthians 12 into two sections, as is seen in many
versions of the English New Testament.
The first section, from verse 1 through verse 11, concerns the
ministry gifts given to the church.
These gifts are given by God the Father, by Jesus the Son, and by
the Holy Spirit. The second
section of this chapter begins at verse 12 and goes to the end of the
chapter. This section
concerns the Body of Christ, the church, to whom these ministry gifts
are given. Both sections are
relevant to today's church, and if we set Paul's teaching seen here
aside, church will not be the productive body of believers it is meant
to be. What
Paul meant by the words "spiritual gifts" I will explain later
when I comment on verses 4, 5, and 6.
All that I will say now is that individuals in the church, the
Body of Christ, have been given certain ministry gifts that should make
for a healthy growing church. Concerning
these spiritual gifts, Paul said that he did not want his readers to be
unaware. The King James
Version of the Bible uses the word "ignorant" instead of the
word "unaware" that we read in the Christian Standard Bible.
The New Living Bible uses the word "misunderstood."
The New International Version of the Bible, along with the
English Standard Version, uses the word "uninformed."
I
personally like the word "ignorant" in the King James Bible
and here is why. The Greek
word "egoeo" is translated as "unaware" in the CSB.
We derive our English word "agnostic" from this Greek
word. This Greek word means
to be ignorant, that is, not knowing of something.
Paul
said that he did not want his readers, and that would include us today,
to be ignorant, uninformed, or, unaware of these spiritual gifts.
The Greek verb tense here is what is called a Greek present,
active, infinitive verb. The
present active part of this verb means that right now, in present time,
we must be actively involved in not being ignorant of the facts
concerning spiritual gifts. An
infinitive verb is what could be called a verbal noun.
It is an action, which a verb is, that is meant to produce some
specific result. In short,
Paul was telling his readers that they must be presently active in
informing themselves about spiritual gifts so they could be
well-informed Christians. This
is especially important in today's culture, where many of us, just like
to hear the sound bites. We
don't want the details, and, we definitely don't want to take the time
and effort to investigate the details.
This mentality would have driven Paul crazy, or so I believe.
I
would suggest, in our Biblically illiterate Christian world today, many
are not doing what Paul told them to do in this verse.
Of course, they can't follow this instruction because they don't
know this particular instruction because they have not given themselves
to the study of Scripture to have read it.
This failure is exactly what Paul is talking about here in this
verse. The
Evangelical Christian world is divided over these spiritual gifts.
Some believe that they no longer exist, that is, they passed away
when the first apostles passed away. Others,
like me, believe they should still be in existence in the church today.
Verse
2 "You
know that when you were pagans, you used to be enticed and led astray by
mute idols."
The
religious world of the first-century, Greco-Roman world is understood to
have been a polytheistic religion, meaning, people believed in a
multitude of various gods. There
was pretty much a god for everything, and, these gods were not gracious
or loving gods. They were
self-centered and demanding. They
demanded to be appeased, and if they were not appeased, the worshipper
would be in serious trouble. In
short, this polytheistic paganism was a religion of fear.
The
Greco-Roman world had been in the midst of a cultural revolution for
quite some time. The
polytheistic pagan religion was being challenged by a rational,
intellectual, and philosophical revolution.
Paul knew all about both the pagan religious world and this
new-found world.
He was raised in Note
the word "enticed." Enticed
is translated from the Greek word "ago," which is, an
imperfect, passive, indicative Greek verb.
This means that the Corinthian Christians were once being
continually, and with all certainty, enticed and led astray by outside
sources, which were mute, or dumb, idols.
Note
the words "led astray." They
are translated from the Greek word "apago," which is a
present, passive Greek participle. This
places the action of being led astray to the next step of enticement.
These believers were more than being led astray.
They actually became what the idols wanted them to be.
The very essence of their lives was idol worshippers.
Through the worship of these mute idols and these pagan gods,
their very essence became like those gods, that Paul actually called
demons in his letters. Note
the word "mute" in the term "mute idols."
This English word is translated from the Greek word "aphonos,"
which means, voiceless or soundless.
We derive our English word "phone" from the Greek word
"phonos," where "aphonos" finds its roots.
In
short, Paul was stating a Biblical fact here.
The idols, representations of the gods, to which the Greco-Roman
people gave themselves, were voiceless.
They said nothing. They
could not speak. They were
just wood and stone. They
were not worth worshipping. That
being said, behind these silent idols were demons.
Look at what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:19 through 21.
"What
am I saying then? That food
sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to
demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons!
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You
cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons."
Part
of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10 concerned idols and the worship
of idols. He basically said
that the idol itself was nothing. It
was just stone, wood, or whatever it was made of.
That being said, what that idol represented were demons, and
therefore, one should never participate in any activity that related to
idol worship. In actuality,
Paul was saying that the Greco-Roman gods were, in fact, demons. Verse
3 "Therefore
I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says,
'Jesus is cursed,' and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the
Holy Spirit." In
context, Paul then wrote that no one, including those who worship mute
idols, can say "Jesus is cursed" as they are inspired by the
Holy Spirit. He also said
that the reverse is true. No
one, and once again, including idol worshippers, can say "Jesus is
Lord" but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
There
has to be more than meets the eye concerning this verse.
Anyone can say the words "Jesus is cursed" and
"Jesus is Lord." I
have actually asked people to say those words to prove my point.
I asked, for example, an avid atheist to say "Jesus is
Lord," and he said the words "Jesus is Lord" with no
hesitation. The
English verb "speaking" in the phrase "speaking by the
Spirit" in this verse is actually a present active participle in
the Greek text. That means
it is not a full-fledged verb. This
simply means that if someone is a genuine born-of-the-Spirit Christian,
he cannot from his heart say or believe that Jesus should be cursed.
The emphasis here is on one being a true born-again-of-the-Spirit
Christian. That one cannot
say that Jesus should be cursed. Paul
was talking about more than simply saying words.
He was thinking about saying the words based on who that person
is. The
reverse is also true. Our
English verb "say," in the phrase "no one can say,"
is a Greek aorist active infinitive verb.
You have to be a genuine born-again-of-the- Spirit Christian to
utter the words "Jesus is Lord" and really mean it from your
heart. Paul
would have wanted his readers to know and understand that because there
were false believers in the midst of the community of Christians in During
the second century AD, in one of ten times of severe Christian
persecution in the first three hundred years of Christian history, this
very issue came to the forefront. Caesar
wanted Christians to say the words "Caesar is Lord."
This became a real divisive controversy in the second-century
church. Some Christians said
that they could say those words with no problem.
They claimed that they were just words, and nothing else.
They could say that Caesar is Lord so their lives would be saved
so they could continue to preach the gospel of Jesus.
They could say the words but not believe what they said in their
hearts, and what was in their hearts was what really mattered.
In their hearts, they believed that Jesus is Lord, and that was
the important thing. Other
Christians, however, maintained that they could not, nor never would,
say Caesar is Lord. They
believed that words were important and there was no way that they would
utter any such words suggesting that anyone, other than Jesus, was Lord.
I would like to say that it would have been my hope to have been
in this camp if I lived back in those days. Verses
4 through 6 "Now
there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different
activities, but the same God works all of them in each person."
There
are three, what I call ministry gifts, mentioned in the above three
verses. In verse 4 we note
gifts of the Spirit. These
gifts are obviously the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit that Paul lists in
verses 7 through 10. I will
comment on those gifts when I come to those verses.
The
verb "there are" is a present active indicative Greek verb.
This simply means that right now in present time, there are
various gifts of the Spirit given to believers within the church.
Of course, the verb "there are," in context, would be
gifts of the Spirit being given to the church in Paul's day.
That being said, I do believe that these same gifts of the Holy
Spirit can be active in church in our day as well.
There is no credible support for the notion that what Jesus
wanted to give Christians in Paul's day are not available to Christians
today. The
word "gifts" is translated from the Greek word
"charisma." Some
of you might recognize this word from the 1960's and 1970's movement
known as the Charismatic Movement, where, these gifts were given to many
people. In
verse 5 we read that there are different ministries but the same Lord.
These ministries, as the verse states, are from the Lord,
meaning, Jesus. You can see
these ministries in Ephesians 4:11, that reads: "And
he [Jesus] himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, some pastors and teachers," Many
people see five ministry gifts in Ephesians 4:11 but according to the
grammar of the Greek text, there are four ministries.
Pastors and teachers are one in the same ministry.
An
apostle is simply one who Jesus has sent to preach the gospel that leads
to the formation of a local community of believers.
Our English word "apostle" is translated from the Greek
word "apostolos," which means "a sent one."
If a mother sends her son to the store to buy a loaf of bread, he
is on an apostolic mission. Apostolos
was not a religious word in the first-century, Greco-Roman world.
It was an ordinary, common-usage word.
Apostles
have a measure of authority over the church that is often called
apostolic authority. We see
this in 2 Corinthians 13:10 that reads: "This
is why I am writing these things while absent, so that when I am there I
may not have to deal harshly with you, in keeping with the authority
the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down." There
is such a thing as apostolic authority, but when viewing it from what
Paul has written, it is not a dictatorial authority.
An apostle is not a dictator.
He is a servant of Jesus who has been called to serve those Jesus
has called him to serve. The
next ministry gift that Paul mentions in Ephesians 4:11 is the prophet.
When reading the word "prophet" most of us probably
think of Old Testament prophets, but as we see here in Ephesians 4:11,
prophets are a ministry calling in New Testament times as well.
A prophet is one who simply speaks what the Lord has told him to
speak. Of course, you might
say that the Lord tells all of us things we should share with others,
and that is certainly correct. That
being said, the prophet has a special ministry in speaking the Word of
the Lord. You might say that
it is his full-time ministry. In
Acts 21:10 we read about a man named Agabus.
He was a present-day, New Testament era, prophet. "After
we had been there for several days, a prophet named Agabus
came down from
The
next ministry gift in Ephesians 4:11 is the evangelist.
Our English words "evangelist" and
"evangelical" come from the Greek word "euangelistis."
Euangelistis comes from the Greek word "angelos," which
means "a messenger."
We derive our English word "angel" from angelos.
An evangelist is one, then, who brings the message of the gospel
to those who have not heard it. Again,
you might say that all Christians should preach the gospel, but also
once again, an evangelist has a full-time ministry of preaching the
gospel. We
note that a man named Philip was an evangelist.
Acts 21:8 reads: "The
next day we left and came to The
last of the four ministry gifts is the pastor/teacher.
The Greek word "poimen" is translated as pastor in this
verse. Poimen can also be
translated as shepherd. In
actuality, the word "shepherd" is the most common translation
of poimen because that is exactly what this Greek word means.
If I were translating this verse, I would use the word
"shepherd" and not the word "pastor."
A pastor, then, is one who tends or cares for the flock of God,
and part of this caring includes teaching, or, being a teacher.
Much
can be said about the ministry of a pastor, which you can read in my
book entitled "Plurality Of Elders."
There are just two points I would like to make here concerning
pastors, and they are this. There
are three other English words in our English New Testament that are
associated with the word "pastor."
They are, shepherd, overseer, and elder.
The King James Bible adds another word, that being the word
"bishop." All
four, or five, of these words apply to the same ministry gift.
The word "elder" is the most used word found in the New
Testament for this ministry gift.
The
second point I would like to make is that the New Testament teaches what
I call "plurality of church leadership."
That means, not one pastor cares for the local church, but a
group of pastors care for the local church.
Not one overseer oversees the local church, but a group of
overseers oversee the local church.
Not one shepherd feeds those in the local church, but a group of
shepherds feed those in the local church.
This is the New Testament teaching concerning the leadership
within the local church. Today's
one man pastor who leads the church is not really New Testament
teaching. Again,
much more could be said about these ministries of Christ.
I suggest you read my book entitled "Plurality Of
Elders" where I go into much detail concerning the plural nature of
church leadership. I
now return to 1 Corinthians 12:6 where we read the words "the same
God works all of them in the each person."
This phrase, at least on the surface, is difficult to understand.
It needs some digging into. Here
is how the New International Version of the Bible translates verse 6. "There
are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is
the same God at work." Here
is how the English Standard Version of the Bible translates verse 6. "
... and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who
empowers them all in everyone." The
Greek word "energema" is translated as "works" in
the CSB, as workings in the NIV, and, activities in the ESV.
I actually like the ESV's wording best, and here is why.
We
derive our English word "energy" from the Greek word
"energema" that we read in verse 6.
What Paul seems to have said in verse 6 is that God the Father
gives each and every individual certain energy that results in some kind
of productivity. What could
this energy be? I believe
the energy Paul had in mind were the talents that each and every
individual are born with. Because
these talents are inherent from birth, they are given by God, and thus,
can be used in the service of the Lord.
We will see some of these talents later in this chapter. So,
to sum of verses four through six, I write this.
All three persons of the Trinity have gifts to be given to
believers that are expected to be used in the service of the Lord and
for the health and growth of the Body of Christ, the church.
The Holy Spirit provides us with spiritual gifts.
Jesus provides us with ministry callings, and, God the Father
births talents within us. All
three types of gifts, from the three persons of the Godhead, are thus,
instrumental in providing each and every individual believer with the
necessities to grow a healthy church. Verse
7 "A
manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common
good:" Here
in verse 7 Paul taught that a manifestation, that is, a demonstration,
an expression, of the Holy Spirit's presence in one's life, is given to
each and every believer. Of
course, that believer must have the Holy Spirit living within him.
Also of course, the Holy Spirit's residency within a person is
what makes that person a true Christian.
Without the Holy Spirit living in a person, that person is not a
Christian, as Paul taught us in Romans 8:9, that reads: "You,
however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit
of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he
does not belong to him." So,
if you are a real Christian, you should realize that some kind of gift
from the Holy Spirit will be offered you so you can function alongside
of others in the Body of Christ to help the church be the healthy church
it is meant to be. Note
the words "each one" and "common good."
Here we see the importance of viewing church in a Biblical
balance between the individual and the collective whole.
We need a balance between the two in order for church to work as
it should. Sometimes we get
this out of balance. Sometimes
we emphasize the individual at the expensive of the collective, and
sometimes, we emphasize the collective at the expense of the individual.
As
I wrote earlier, some people believe that these gifts from the Holy
Spirit are not available for today's church.
That is certainly not my position, and, I cannot find any New
Testament support for that position.
The church needs these Holy Spirit gifts just as badly today as
it needed in the first generation church.
It
is my thinking that the idea that every Christian has one or more gift
of the Spirit available to him or her is sadly lacking in today's
church. We all have a part
to play in church and we need all we can get from the Holy Spirit to
help us facilitate God's will, both individually and collectively. One
thing we must understand about these gifts of the Spirit is that they
are supernatural gifts. They
are not the talents we are born with that I mentioned earlier.
They are not any kind of human gifts we can generate on our own.
Over the years I have seen people attempt to duplicate these
gifts of the Holy Spirit. These
are Holy Spirit gifts and we should never try in our human effort to
copy them. I have especially
seen this with the gifts of tongues, interpretation, and prophecy.
We need to discern what is a real gift of the Spirit and what is
a false gift, a product of our own imaginations.
Verse 8 "... to one is
given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message
of knowledge by the same Spirit," We
see two gifts of the Spirit mentioned here in verse 8.
They are the gift of wisdom and the gift of the message of
knowledge. Inherent in all
of us, to one degree or another, is both wisdom and knowledge, but,
since this wisdom and knowledge is from the Holy Spirit, this is a
special wisdom and knowledge that cannot be gained through any human
effort. This wisdom and
knowledge is supernatural wisdom and knowledge.
It is the wisdom needed to perform a certain task and it is the
knowledge we need to accomplish that task.
Hopefully
we all are growing in wisdom and knowledge, but it takes more than human
wisdom and knowledge to serve a supernatural God as we are expected.
Verse 9 "to another, faith
by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one
Spirit," In
verse 9 we see the supernatural gifts of faith and healing.
Our English word "faith" is translated from the Greek
word "pistis," which simply means "trust."
Faith is not some kind of abstract leap into the world of the
unknown. Faith, as it
applies to the Christian and Jesus is this.
If you claim to have faith in Jesus, then, you claim to trust
Jesus with your life, and trust implies the development of a
relationship, and a relationship with Jesus is what being a Christian is
all about. Since
the faith we see here in verse 9 is a gift from the Holy Spirit, this is
the ability to trust Jesus beyond our human ability to trust.
Sometimes in certain situations, we need supernatural trust in
Jesus to accomplish what He has asked us to do.
We
also see the gift of healing in this verse.
We often associate the word "healing" with the healing
of sickness, and that might well have been Paul's intent here.
On the other hand, anything that is broken might need to be
healed. As
humans we have medication that can heal a sick body, but beyond what we
can do, there is the Holy Spirit's power to heal our sick bodies as
well, and it is available in today's church. At the age of six, I was
dramatically and miraculously healed of Juvenile Diabetes.
The doctors at Sick Children's Hospital in There
have been debates over this gift of healing.
Is this gift given to an individual believer so he might lay
hands on the sick so they would be healed, or, is this gift of healing
the healing of someone's sick body?
I tend to believe that if someone has received the gift of
healing, that one, like the gifts of tongues, has that gift resident
within him to heal sick people.
Verse 10 "to another, the
performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another,
distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of
tongues, to another, interpretation of tongues." In
verse 10 we have five gifts of the Spirit mentioned.
The first is a gift to perform miracles.
A miracle is a supernatural event in any aspect of life that
would be impossible for a human to perform.
Jesus, for example, turned water into wine.
That was a miracle.
The
next gift mentioned is prophecy. Many
of us think of foretelling future events when we hear the word
"prophecy," but that is a secondary meaning to the word.
Prophecy, as it applies to spiritual gifts, is simply speaking
whatever God would have us to speak that is under the influence and
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We
all can proclaim God's word, but sometimes the Holy Spirit takes over
and takes our words, and places them into the heart of the person to
whom we are speaking. That
is supernatural. We can
easily speak the Word of God to people, but, we cannot place those words
within the heart of those to whom we speak.
That takes the Holy Spirit's involvement, and that is
supernatural. In
Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian circles prophecy is often
understood in terms of someone speaking out in a church meeting what he
would call a word from God. The
prophecy would often begin with words like, "thus says the
Lord." I cannot
discount that as being part of the gift of prophecy, but prophecy goes
farther than that. One can
prophesy over coffee in a coffee shop.
If the Holy Spirit is using your words to speak to the heart of
another person, that is pure prophecy. In
today's world, it seems to me, that prophecy is often being misused and
abused. That is to say, not
all that is said to be prophecy is really prophecy.
Many prophecies are just a product of one's over-active, and even
emotional, imagination. We
must distinguish between true and false prophecies.
We must judge what is claimed to be a prophetic word from God, as
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:29, that reads: "Two
or three
prophets should speak, and the others should evaluate."
We
need to evaluate that which is said in the name of the Lord.
Of course, the timing and how this evaluation takes place is
important. Much relational
damage can be done with this evaluation is not done properly from a
heart of love and concern.
The
next supernatural gift of the Spirit is the divine ability to
distinguish between spirits. Many
often view this gift as the ability to distinguish between one kind of
demon from another, and that, I believe is part of what Paul was
thinking of here. On the
other hand, we must be able to distinguish between an evil spirit and
one's human spirit, and that is important.
You do not want to criticize a person fro exhibiting traits of
having an evil spirit influencing him when it is just his own human
spirit causing him to say and do certain things.
The
last two gifts of the Spirit that Paul mentioned here are tongues and
the interpretation of tongues. Tongues
are simply a message spoken in a different language, and, since this is
a supernatural gift, the person speaking this language would not have
learned or known the language. Like
all gifts of the Spirit, tongues has been misunderstood and abused.
Not all who claim to have the gift of tongues has the gift of
tongues. Much of what is
called tongues is simply gibberish, or so I think.
I have seen that over and over again.
Some people want so badly to speak in tongues that they just
invent their own tongues, and that is not the gift of tongues. If
you study 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, you will note that this gift of
tongues is seen in the context of a meeting, and when it is, someone
should be there to interpret the message in this unfamiliar language.
If not, then why speak the message if it cannot be understood.
Once again, this is a supernatural gift.
Note
what 1 Corinthians 14:2 says. "For
the person who speaks in another tongue is not speaking to people but to
God, since no one understands him; he speaks mysteries in the
Spirit". Many
people think, and it is often spoken this way, that tongues is a message
from God to people. Paul
says just the opposite in the above verse.
More
could be said about all nine of these gifts of the Holy Spirit.
This has just been an introduction to these gifts.
They are all given to people to maintain a healthy and growing
body of believers. Some
ask if this is a complete list of gifts of the Spirit or are there more
gifts of the Spirit that Paul did not mention.
I cannot say for sure that we actually know the answer to that
question. Could Paul have
added more to the list? Maybe
he could have. I just don't
know. We do see him
balancing these nine gifts of the Spirit with nine fruit of the Spirit
in Galatians, chapter 5. Is
Paul's use of the number nine symbolic or metamorphic?
Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't.
Another
concern some have is this. Are
these gifts resident within people or are they only given when needed?
This is another difficult question to answer.
I lean towards believing these gifts being resident within people
that the Holy Spirit can use at His disposal.
Others may say differently and that is fine with me.
Verse 11 "One
and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person
as he wills." Verse
11 ends this section of 1 Corinthians 12.
Note the word "active" here in verse 11. It
is translated from the Greek word "energeo" that I mentioned
earlier. We derive our
English word "energy" from this word and for good reason,
because energy is what energeo is all about.
It
is the Holy Spirit who energizes each and every true Christian with
these gifts of the Spirit, and He distributes them to whoever He wants,
whenever He wants, and wherever He wants.
We have to be willing to receive whatever the Holy Spirit offers
us, but we must always acknowledge that the distributing of these gifts
is all up to Him. It's His
will, not our will. Any
attempt at copying these gifts is clearly out of order, and I would
suggest, is blasphemous.
(1
Corinthians 12:13 - 31) The
Text 12
- For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts
of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether
Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one
Spirit to drink. 14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many. 15 If the foot should say,
"Because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body," it is
not for that reason any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should
say, "Because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body," it
is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an
eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where
would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body
just as he wanted. 19 And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many
parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don’t need you!" Or
again, the head can’t say to the feet, "I don’t need you!" 22 On the contrary, those
parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. 23 And those parts of the
body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater
honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, 24 which our respectable
parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving
greater honor to the less honorable, 25 so that there would be no division in the body, but that the
members would have the same concern for each other. 26 So if one member suffers,
all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the
members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of
Christ, and individual members of it. 28 And God has appointed
these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third
teachers, next miracles, then gifts of healing, helping,
leading, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do
miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all
interpret? 31 But desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even
better way. My
Commentary Verse
12 "For
just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of
that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ." Verse
12 introduces us to the term and the concept of church being the Body of
Christ. The verse begins
with making mention to a human physical body.
Paul is not being overly spiritual or overly intellectual here.
It is not difficult to figure out.
A human body is what I would call a unified plurality.
A body is one, but it is made up of several individual parts
joined together in supportive relationships so each and every part,
along with other parts, can function together for the good health and
growth of the body. One body
plus multiple parts equals a unified plurality.
It is exactly who God is. Trinity
is a unified plurality and it is what God wants in church, the
present-day earthly body of Jesus.
Take
your hand as an example of what I am saying.
It is made up of several parts.
Each part has its job to perform.
Each part is also joined to another part for two reasons.
The first reason is logistical.
One bone is joined to another bone, and if it wasn't, you would
have a bunch of bones lying on the floor.
This joining is what I call supportive.
No particular bone in your hand is of any use if it is all by
itself on the floor. No,
each bone in your hand is joined together to function with the bone it
is joined to. When all the
bones in your hand are joined together, only then can your hand work as
it should. If by chance,
just one of these bones is sore, then, your whole hand will be sore and
will not function as it should.
What
I have just described in your hand is what I called supportive and
functional relationships. Bones
are joined to each other to support each other as they function for the
good health, growth, and productivity of your body.
That is what Paul is talking about here in verse 12, but, he adds
one more thought. Paul
closes this thought with the words, "so is Christ."
What does that mean? I
believe, in context, Paul was saying this.
As your physical body is one body with many supportive and
functioning parts, so is Christ, meaning, so is Christ's present-day
earthly body, the church. So,
as our body is meant to work, so, in like manner, the Body of Christ is
meant to work. Paul will
then go on to explain how the present-day body of Christ is meant to
work in the remaining verses of this chapter.
At
this point I want to say what Paul said next is not metamorphic or
symbolic in nature. Yes,
there is some comparison between our physical body and the Body of
Christ. I get that, but,
verse 27 makes it clear that what he wrote in verse 13 and beyond was
more than a comparison between our physical body and the Body of Christ.
It was more than symbolic. The
church, in fact, is Jesus' present-day, replacement, earthly body here
on earth. It is so because
He is no longer here in physical form as He once was.
Because He lives within individual believers and the church as a
whole, the Body of Christ is Jesus' replacement physical body on earth.
Verse 27 reads: "Now
you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it."
In
verse 27, Paul did not say that the church is like a body, like the
comparison that he had just written about between a physical body and
the Body of Christ. He said
that "you are," as in right now in present time, the Body of
Christ. In other words, we
should understand church to be the physical, replacement body of Jesus
on earth because He is no longer here in physical form as He once was.
He is, however, here in physical form through the Body of Christ,
the church. Verse
13 "For
we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or
Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to
drink." Our
English word "baptized" in this verse and throughout the New
Testament is transliterated from the Greek word "baptizo."
Baptizo was not a religious word in the first-century,
Greco-Roman world. It was an
everyday, common-usage word. If
a wife dipped her clothes in a river to wash them, she would baptizo her
clothes. She would, in
English, baptize her clothes. Baptizo
simply means to dip or to immerse.
When
it comes to the religious meaning of the word "baptize," most
would think of water baptism, but water baptism is not what Paul had in
mind when he penned the above statement.
The
concept of baptism is used in many ways in the New Testament.
First, there is the everyday, common-usage of the word, meaning
to dip something into something else.
Beyond that, the word "baptize" is used in reference to
water baptism. It is also
used in terms of Spirit baptism, as in, when the Holy Spirit came to
dwell within the believers on the day of Pentecost, as is recorded in
Acts, chapter 2. Just prior
to that incident Jesus told His followers that they would be baptized by
the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:5
reads: "For
John baptized
with water, but you will be baptized
with the Holy Spirit in a few days." Here,
in 1 Corinthians 12:13, Paul was not talking about any of the above
references to baptism. He is
talking about the Holy Spirit baptizing, or immersing, true believers
into one body, that being, the Body of Christ, the church.
This is important. Here
is how it works. As
it was with the first disciples, it is with us today.
The moment we are born again of the Holy Spirit, meaning, the
moment the Holy Spirit enters our very being, is the moment that we have
been immersed into both Jesus and His present-day earthly body, the
church. The
word "baptized` in the Greek text in this verse is an aorist verb,
which is, a one time completed action.
This verb tense supports my point that the moment the Holy Spirit
comes into a life, which is a completed action, is the moment one is
baptized into the Body of Christ. I
dare say that many, if not most Christians, fail to clearly understand
this to be the case, and that is clearly seen in the church's failure to
be the church it is meant to be. Paul
ended this verse with the concept that we are all given one Spirit to
drink, or as the Greek text more precisely puts it; made to drink.
The verb "made to drink" is also an aorist verb.
This means that this drinking is a completed, one-time action.
Metaphorically speaking, when the Holy Spirit first comes into
our lives to live, it is like drinking Him into our lives. If
you read Acts 2 you will see that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the
one hundred and twenty disciples. It
was then that they received the Holy Spirit into their lives.
The words "poured out," as we see throughout the Book
of Acts, suggests a drinking of sorts.
It's like one who drinks water that is being poured out from a
hose. I believe this is what
Paul was getting at here at the end of verse 13.
Verse
14 "Indeed,
the body is not one part but many." Verse
14 is not difficult to figure out. Yes,
the body, whether the Body of Christ or our physical body, is one body,
but, it consists of many parts. It
is what I have called a unified plurality.
Verses
15 and 16 "If
the foot should say, 'Because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the
body,' it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I'm not
an eye, I don't belong to the body,' it is not for that reason any less
a part of the body." What
Paul was teaching here in these two verses is that there are many body
parts that make up a body. If
you consider living cells to be a body part, which I do, then our
physical body consists of millions of individual parts.
Each part has a specific job to perform on its own and also in
conjunction with the body part to which it is joined.
A hand is important for what it does.
A foot is important to the body for what it does.
We need both the hand and the foot in order to have a healthy
body. So, one body part
should not isolate itself from the body, and if it does, it hurts the
whole body. The sad fact of
the matter is that many people in the western-world church often isolate
themselves from the expression of church in which they have been joined.
Again, this is one reason why the church is not as effective as
it should be. Church
is not a hobby. It is not an
organization you simply join or attend.
It is a living organism in which you have been immersed into the
lives of others in order to work together to be a productive, active,
and healthy growing church. Verse
17 "If
the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole
body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?" Most
of us have probably heard the old saying "birds of a feather flock
together." That is the
way it is with any group or community of people.
People with like interests get together.
People with like personalities hang out together.
People with completely different interests and personalities
often end up separating, and often during a time of conflict.
Church is no exception to this human tendency.
That being said, Paul said here that we should not separate.
We need each other, despite all of our differences.
That is easier said than done. Divisiveness
was especially so with the community of Christians in We
need to understand that God designed our bodies to be a functioning
unity of various distinctive parts.
It is the same with the Body of Christ.
Look, for example, at the twelve men who Jesus chose to be His
first apostles. A serious
study of the gospel accounts clearly show us that these men were not
birds of a feather who were flocking together.
They had serious differences.
They must have been at each other's throats on a daily basis.
Jesus did not choose men with similar personalities, interests,
and view points. No, He
chose just the opposite, and, as His prayer seen in John 17 states, His
desire for them was to live in a functional unity.
John 17:21 reads: "May
they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they
also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me."
The
prayer of Jesus was certainly not being realized in the church at "What
I am saying is this: One of you says, 'I belong to Paul,' or 'I belong
to Apollos,' or 'I belong to Cephas,' or 'I belong to Christ.'" Jesus'
prayer concerning the unity of the church has never been fully realized.
I can only believe that once He returns to earth, the unity of
God's people will be a fulfilled reality.
Verse
18 through 20 "But
as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he
wanted. And
if they were all the same part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one
body". Verse
18 tells us that it is God who has arranged each part of the body within
the body. Whether it is our
physical human body or the Body of Christ, it is God, not us, who
arranged and positioned body parts within the body.
When
God first created a human being, it was He, not the human being, who
arranged the parts of the body within the human being.
The human being had nothing to do with the arrangement of body
parts. You and I were born
into this world as one unified being with millions of body parts.
We had no choice in the matter where our eyes should be located.
We had no choice to have just two hands, despite our desire at
times to have four hands. No,
it was God, not us, who designed a human body and arranged its various
parts as He wished. It is
all in God's design, even at conception.
Look at what Zechariah 12:1 says.
"A
pronouncement: The word of the LORD concerning Note
that the CSB version of Zechariah 12:1 states that it is God who
"formed the spirit of man," formed being past tense.
Most Bible translations do not put the word "formed" in
the past tense but in the present tense.
Those translations, then suggest, that God does, in present time,
form the spirit of a man or a woman within them.
Here is how the New International Version of the Bible translates
Zechariah 12:1. "A
prophecy: The word of the LORD
concerning Zechariah
12:1 takes the formation of our body a step farther.
It is not only our physical parts that He puts together, it is
our very spirits that he forms. How
the Creator God has created us is how He wants to create His human body
today, and in the end, He will have His way.
The
same, then, is true with the Body of Christ, the church.
It is God, not us, who places us alongside others in supportive
and functioning relationships in the Body of Christ.
This is not how much of the church in the West views and
experiences our positioning in church.
We pick and choose what expression of church we prefer according
to the whim of the day. It's
what I call our consumer orientated church.
Church is all about what church can give to us instead of what we
can give to church. We come
and go, from one expression of church to another expression of church
with great ease. That is not
what Paul taught here in 1 Corinthians 12:18.
Our
practice these days is to join ourselves to a local expression of church
that is like us, that agrees with us.
Verse 19 tells us that is unbiblical.
A local expression of church does not consist of like-minded
people, does not consist of a bunch of spiritual eyes, and when it does,
that expression of church is severely disabled. I
use the term "expression of church" because what we call a
church today in any given locality is only one expression of the real
church in that locality. The
real church in any given locality consists of all Christians within the
city. The teaching of church
seen in the New Testament knows nothing about a Baptist church, a
Pentecostal church, a Methodist church, or any other so-called church
within a city. Verse
21 "The
eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' Or again, the head can't
say to the feet, 'I don't need you!'"
What
I have just said in the last paragraph is confirmed here in verse 21.
The eye can never say to the hand that it doesn't need it.
In the Body of Christ, the church, one member can never say to
another member, "I don't need you," but it is something that
is routinely said and done throughout much of the church today.
It
is my thinking, that as our western-world becomes more anti-Christ in
nature, we will lose much of our external organizational structure.
We will lose our state sponsored ordinations, tax exempt status,
and much of our funds to continue as the organized church as we have
experienced it. We will be
forced to live out church as Paul taught here in 1 Corinthians 12.
We will be forced to agree with the Lord's placement of our lives
within the living Body of Christ. We
will no longer be picking and choosing our positioning in church, and,
if we fail to comply with Paul's teaching here, we will be left alone to
survive the oppression of an anti-Christ culture, and that is not what
being a Christian is all about. Verse
22 through 26
"On
the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. And those parts of the
body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater
honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, which our respectable
parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving
greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in
the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each
other. So
if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is
honored, all the members rejoice with it." A
lot is said in these four verses. Paul
wrote about parts of our human body that are not presentable for all to
see, yet, they are indispensable. I
am sure you can figure out what parts of our human body Paul had in mind
when he penned these words. Let's
get down to the bare facts of life at this point.
A man has a penis. Paul
called this an unrespectable body part, meaning, a man should not be
displaying his penis for all to see.
That being said, the male penis is extremely important for both
the good health of the man and the creation of the next generation of
humans. If, for some reason,
every man in the world suddenly lost his penis, that would begin the end
of humanity. Just because
the penis is not seen by all, does not mean that it is less important
than any other body part that is visible for all to see. There
are those in the church who function in ways in which most people seldom
see, but, they, and what they do, are just as important as those people
who are in what we would call the spotlight.
Each and every member of the Body of Christ has his or her
importance and should be functioning in the important capacity in which
he or she is meant to function. When
what Paul taught here works as it should, divisions within church
becomes less of a problem. Paul
is simply saying that when each and every member of Christ's body is
esteemed for whom he or she is, divisions disappear, while genuine
concern for each and every member becomes the reality. Paul
concluded this thought by saying that when one member suffers, all
suffer. When one member is
honoured, all are honoured. It's
all about, what I call a "unified functioning plurality."
That is to say, one unified body with many varied and distinctive
parts that function for the health and growth of the body.
Verse
27 "Now
you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it."
I
believe verse 13 and verse 27 are two of the more important verses to
understand in this chapter. They
are vital to understand if you are going to ever understand the true
Biblical nature of church. In
verse 27 Paul clearly and specifically told the believers at Jesus
said many things during the last couple of days prior to His earthly
death on the cross. One
thing He said is found in John 14:18, that reads: "I
will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you." In
the context of Jesus dying and leaving this planet and then giving the
disciples His Spirit that He called the Spirit of Truth, he said the
above statement. He told
them that He would not leave them as orphans.
He said that He would return to them.
You might think that this return Jesus spoke of was His second
coming back to earth that has not yet happened.
I do not believe the context makes that to be the case.
I also think that if Jesus was speaking of His second coming,
then, the disciples would have lived as orphans during their life on
earth, and Jesus clearly said that would not be the case.
I
believe that when Jesus told His disciples that He would return to them,
that meant that He would return to them in the form of His Spirit, the
Holy Spirit. That being so,
about fifty days after Jesus made that statement, He did return to them
when the Holy Spirit fell on them and made His home within each and
every one of them. We see
that taking place in Acts 2. It
was the Day of Pentecost. The
precise moment the Spirit of Christ entered those one hundred and twenty
believers on the Day of Pentecost was the precise moment Jesus'
replacement body was born into this world.
Verse
28 "And
God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second
prophets, third teachers, next miracles, then gifts of
healing, helping, leading, various kinds of tongues." We
see the word "church" here in verse 28.
It is translated from the Greek word "ekklesia."
Ekklesia was not a religious word in the first-century
Greco-Roman world. It was a
common, everyday, common-usage word meaning a group of people who have
been called out of a larger group of people to form relationships
whereby they could collectively accomplish certain stated goals.
The Sanhedrin, often called the Jewish parliament in The
church was known as an ekklesia because Jesus had taken certain people
out of the population of the world to come into relationship with each
other to accomplish God's will on earth.
The church, then, could be called the community of God,
especially when you consider the Jewish concept of God's people being a
community of people who existed in a harmonious relationship with both
God and with each other. All
of the above being said, if you understand church in today's
western-world concept of church, you will most likely not understand the
true Biblical meaning of church. It
is for this reason, that I like to replace the word "church"
as seen in the New Testament, with the term "the Community of
Christ," or something similar.
Verse
28 states that God appointed certain ministries in the church.
I do not believe this is an exhaustive list.
Obviously this is the case because, for example, some of the
gifts of the Spirit are mentioned and some are left out of the list.
Some of the gifts of Christ are mentioned and some are left
unmentioned. Some of the
godly talents given to us at birth are listed and some are not seen on
the list. Our
English verb "appointed," as it is in the Greek text, is what
is called an aorist middle indicative verb.
The aorist part of this verb means that this appointing is a
completed action. That would
suggest, then, that the concept of these ministries were instituted into
church when the Body of Christ was birthed in Acts 2.
It would, then, suggest that all of these ministry callings did
not die off once the first generation church died.
No, they still exist for today's church.
The
indicative part of this verb means that the institution of these
ministries was a certainty. We
should have no doubt about their inclusion into church.
The
middle part of the verb "appointed" suggests to me that the
appointment came from Jesus and was given to the church.
It would also suggest that the individual believer has a part to
play in bringing these ministries into a functional place within the
church. I say this because
the middle part of this verb implies that the action of the sentence is
being both done by the subject of the sentence and is also being done to
the subject of the sentence. When
it comes to Christian ministry, ministry is a collaborative effort
between Jesus and His community of people.
It is what Mark 16:20 is all about.
That verse reads: "And
they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word by the accompanying signs." I
understand the long-standing controversy over this verse and the last
few verses of the Book of Mark. Laying
that aside, this verse does clearly state the collaborative outworking
of God's will between Jesus and His community of people.
The disciples went out and preached.
They did the manual labour here on earth because they existed in
a human body on earth. On
the other hand, Jesus being in heaven did the spiritual work.
It was He who took the message preached and delivered it to the
hearts of those who heard the message.
The disciples could easily preach the good news of Christ, but
what they couldn't do was reach into the hearts of those to whom they
preached. Only the Spirit of
Jesus could do that. Again,
the work of the Lord is accomplished when Jesus does His part in church
and when the church does its part. Paul
listed three of the four ministries of Christ from Ephesians 4:11 that I
mentioned earlier in this chapter. He
mentioned apostles, prophets, and teachers, also known as pastors,
overseers and shepherds. He
did not make mention the evangelist that we read in Ephesians 4:11.
Paul
listed these three ministries of Christ in the particular order of
first, second, and third. I
cannot say for sure why Paul put these ministries in this order.
Would not each ministry be equally important?
Paul might not have been listing them in order of importance.
He might well have listed them in terms of creating a local
community of Christians. First,
the apostle would come in and lead people to Jesus.
The prophet might come in next to speak the word of the Lord, and
then, teachers/pastors would be appointed to care for the newly created
community of believers. That
is the way I presently see the ordering of these three ministries of
Christ that Paul mentioned here. Beyond
these three ministry gifts of Christ Paul listed three of the nine gifts
of the Holy Spirit. They
were, the gift of miracles, healing, and tongues.
Again, this tells me that this list is not a complete list.
Why he left six of the gifts of the Spirit out of this list is
unknown and thus debatable. Beyond
the ministry gifts of Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Paul
listed two ministry gifts from God, that earlier I said were inherent
talents given to us at birth by God, our Father.
The Christian Standard Bible that I have been quoting calls these
two ministry talents helping and leading.
I find the Christian Standard Bible's translation here somewhat
difficult to understand and just awkward.
Our
English word "helping" or "helps" as some
translations put it is translated from the Greek word "antilēmpsis."
This Greek word suggests the inherent talent of being able to lay
hold on a task in order to successfully accomplish the task, and thus,
the word "helping." The
point here is that there are some in the Community of Christ who are
quite talented in doing certain things and getting them done.
In other words, they are a great and needed helper to the Body of
Christ. They may not be
great preachers or teachers, but they may be good with their hands in
building something. They may
be reliable and willing to accomplish anything that is needed to build
up the local church. The
other inherent ministry talent that Paul mentioned in the CSB is called
"leading," which is translated from the Greek word
kybernēsis. This Greek word suggests an ability to govern,
to lead, to steer, or something similar.
Not everyone has this God-given talent, but those who do, can be
very useful to the church.
Verse 29 and 30 "Are
all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do miracles? Do all have gifts of
healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?" Paul asked a number of
questions here, and the obvious answer to each question is a resounding,
"no." Not
everyone is an apostle. Not
everyone performs miracles. Everyone,
however, does have a ministry calling to facilitate.
This is what Paul has already pointed out.
Like our physical body, the Body of Christ consists of a number
of individuals with certain ministries of Christ, gifts of the Spirit,
or talent ministries from God our Father.
We all, none excluded, have our part to play in the health and
growth of the Body of Christ, and we do so in relation with others to
whom we have been called alongside in the church.
If one of us does not fulfill his or her ministry obligation, the
church will suffer, and that is exactly why the church suffers to this
very day.
Verse 31 "But
desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better
way." Verse
31 is actually an introduction to the next chapter of 1 Corinthians,
which I will leave for another day.
Paul said, at least in the way the Christian Standard Bible puts
it, is for us to "desire the greater gifts."
First
of all, our English word desire here is translated from the Greek word
"zeloo." Zeloo
simply means to covet and it is often the word translated as covet in
the New Testament. For
example, James 4:2 reads: "You
desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You
fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask." The
word "covet" in James 4:2 is translated from the Greek word
"zeloo." So, when
Paul told his readers to desire the greater gifts, he meant for his
readers to really desire them, as in, covet them.
As
a young Christian, around the age of twenty, who had become interested
in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, one older man told me that I should not
desire the gifts of the Spirit. He
told me that instead of seeking the gifts of the Spirit, I should be
seeking the giver of the gifts. That
did sound quite logical and the nice stance to take.
How could I argue with seeking Jesus?
I didn't enter a debate with him but I thought this to myself.
"If Jesus has some gifts He is handing out to people, I see
nothing wrong with standing in line and waiting to receive one.
Besides, verse 31 here pretty much destroys what this older
Christian man in the faith told me.
Yes, it was a nice sounding concept.
No one could say that they shouldn't seek Jesus, but the Bible
tells us to covet the gifts and ministries from Jesus, His Spirit, and
God our Father. Note
the word "greater."
Does this mean that some gifts and ministries are less important
than others? I'm not sure
Paul had that in mind. He
has already told us that each and every individual believer in the Body
of Christ has great importance and value.
I suggest, then, and I could be wrong, that the greater gift or
gifts might just be the particular gift needed at any given time.
If, for example, a person is in need of some financial support
because he lost his job and you offer him a prophecy of Our
English word "greater" is translated from the Greek word
"megas." We derive
our English word "mega," as meaning large, from this Greek
word.
When
Paul wrote that he would show his readers a "better way," the
word "better" is translated from the Greek word
"hyperbole." This
Greek word is made up of "hyper," meaning farther or beyond,
and, "bole" meaning to throw.
Whatever the better way is, goes beyond the normal way.
It is the difference between hitting a single in baseball and a
home run. The home run is
the better way, especially if there is a man on base.
The
better way Paul had in mind is seen in the next chapter and that better
way is the way of love. The
Greek word "agape" is translated as love throughout the New
Testament. Agape is
sacrificial love. It is love
that is demonstrated through some kind of sacrifice.
If there is no sacrifice in your demonstration of love, then it
is not agape love. It is
philos style love. The Greek
word "philos" is also translated as love in the New Testament.
It is often called "brotherly love," or as I call it,
reciprocal love. That is to
say, philos love is a free exchange of love between two or more people.
Philos style love is I love you as you love me in return.
There is a distinct difference, then, between agape style love
and philos style love. God
is all about agape style love. It
is just who He is and that sacrificial love He desires to be
demonstrated through our lives.
1
Corinthians 13:1 tells us what kind of love Paul had in mind here.
That verse reads: "If
I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal." Our
English word "love' in 1 Corinthians 13:1 is translated from the
Greek word "agape." Paul
had love that is demonstrated through sacrifice in mind when he wrote
about a better way. Yes,
we covet the gifts of the Spirit, of Christ, and of God, but we
administer them through a life of sacrifice.
It is the only way in which all that Paul taught in 1 Corinthians
12 can be affectively worked out in church, the replacement Body of
Christ. When all of the
ministry gifts given to us by God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit
are working in church, church will be the better for it.
If
I have studied and thought about any Biblical issue over the last fifty
years of my life, it has been the topic of church.
I have studied church in its historical sense and its Biblical
sense. I have not only
studied church from its historical and Biblical perspective; I have
pretty much lived church for the entire seventy years of my life.
I was born and raised within the 1950's and 1960's evangelical
church. I have experienced
much about church, some of which you will read in the "About The
Author" chapter of this book. For
more of my thoughts and teaching on this issue, I suggest you read my
book entitled "The Community We Call Church."
In
1978 I preached a Sunday morning message to a local Pentecostal church.
I asked them this two-part question.
"If
you no longer had a building to gather in, and, if you had no regularly
scheduled meetings, would you still have a church here?"
I
believe that was a relevant question back in 1978.
I also believe it is just as relevant, if not more relevant,
today. This is especially
due to our governments limiting the size of our church meetings, and
even shutting them down, in recent times due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
If you struggle with this limitation and shutdown, you must
realize that sooner or later, as our culture becomes more anti-Christ in
nature, church will lose all of its government privileges, so, you
better get used to such things now, but most of all, you better start
living church as Paul taught us.
It
is my opinion that if a local church, for some reason lost its building
to meet in, and, if they could no longer have any regular scheduled
meetings, there would be no church.
The reason for this is because the church's existence was built
around a building and regular scheduled meetings.
For the most part, those who are a part of that church only see
each other in regular scheduled meetings in their buildings that they,
without any Biblical support, call a church.
If you take away the building and the meeting, there is nothing
left. The church was not
built on personal, supportive, and functional relationships between its
members. Church for this
group was not a living organism, was not the living Body of Christ that
Paul taught here in 1 Corinthians 12.
It was an organization that they joined and attended, not much
different than any civic organization in their town. I
am certainly not discounting buildings and regularly scheduled meetings.
They have their place within church.
They are useful tools in the service of the Lord, but tools they
are. They are not church.
People, who have been knitted together, immersed into each
other's lives, in a unified plurality to accomplish God's will is
church. People to whom Jesus
has joined in supportive relationships to accomplish His will, is
church. Maintaining these
relationships is vital in growing a healthy church, and that cannot be
completely accomplished in regularly scheduled meetings.
That takes interaction between believers outside of regularly
scheduled meetings and the building in which we hold our meetings.
Today's
western-world church looks more like a Fortune Five Hundred corporation
than the living, replacement Body of Christ it is meant to be, or at
least, that is my opinion. We
view church as a consumer commodity that we can pick and choose, based
on our likes and dislikes. We
join a particular church group that best fits our needs and desires at
any given time. We come and
go with great ease. Our
commitment is limited. We
view church as just another hobby. It
is something we join, much like a civic organization.
We just add church to our list of things to participate in, and
that, if we have the time and energy.
Church is none of that.
Paul,
on the behalf of Jesus, taught us that the moment the Holy Spirit comes
into your life is the moment you have been baptized, or immersed, in the
Body of Christ, the church. That
means you have been, or are being, immersed into certain lives of fellow
Christians. Jesus has placed
you alongside of a few others, in what I call, supportive and functional
relationships. Those few
others to whom you are joined support you and you support them in as
many ways as is needed. As
you exist in this supportive relationship, you function together in the
service of the Lord, which in turn, grows the Body of Christ into a
healthy body of believers. Like
our human physical body parts, one can only be joined to a few other
body parts. Yes, you are a
member of the church as a whole, but, you function with only a few.
Your knees and your hands, for example, do come in contact with
each other from time to time, but, they are not physically united to
each other to accomplish a specific job together.
They do not share in the same task or function.
The same is true with your placement in church, the Body of
Christ. As
an individual believer, you have a ministry calling to facilitate, both
on your own, and, in conjunction with those few other believers that
Jesus has called you alongside. It
is a dual functionality. That
is to say, you serve the Lord in the capacity He has given you on your
own, and, you also serve Him with those to whom He has placed you
alongside. We, far too often
serve Jesus on our own, and not with others.
That is not church. Church
is a collaborate effort between you and those to whom who have been
called alongside in the service of the Lord.
As
with our human physical body, the Body of Christ is comprised of many,
various, and distinctive body parts.
A toe nail, for example, has no real relevance to a liver.
They are nothing alike. Their
jobs in the body are totally and completely different, but take one away
from the body, and the body will surely suffer.
That is what church is all about.
If Jesus has placed you alongside others in His body, then
leaving where Jesus has placed you is a serious matter.
Leaving cannot be done on a whim of the moment.
It cannot be done because you don't get along with, or like,
those to whom Jesus has placed you alongside.
Granted, there are reasons why Jesus might move your placement in
the Body of Christ. I get
that, but, much of what people say today about finding a new church has
little to nothing to do with the will of God.
It has everything to do with our likes and dislikes as we
manoeuvre our way through a consumer driven church, and that is not
church. Obviously,
much more could be said about the organic nature of church from other
Scriptural passages. I have
limited this book to just one part of the Bible, but an important part
of the Bible it is. I
strongly suggest that we all study, and restudy, what the apostle Paul
teaches us about the living Body of Christ, as seen in 1 Corinthians 12.
I
now close this account with what Paul taught us in Ephesians 4:16
because I think it fits perfectly with what I have written concerning
the nature of the organic church. That
verse reads: "From
him the whole body, fitted and knit
together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body
for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual
part." Notice
the words "fitted and knit together" in Paul's statement.
These two words tell us what our relationships in church are all
about. As your sweater is a
piece of clothing that has been knitted and fit together with various
colours of thread, so are those in any local expression of church.
If this is your experience of church, you are, one very blessed
person. If this is not your
experience with church, I suggest you pray that Jesus will help you find
your place in His body where you are fitted and knitted alongside others
in His present-day, living, physical body, otherwise known as the Body
of Christ, the church.
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