By Roy Ciampa, Ph.D.
Armstrong Chair of Religion, Samford University
UNITED THROUGH THE SPIRIT
1 Corinthians 12:4–14
It is an incredible thing that God gives every single believer a gift, and other members of the church are also expected to benefit from this gift as it is shared with everyone else.
The Holy Spirit works through every believer for a singular common good. (4–7)
In Paul’s world, social relationships and status were maintained in part by a system of gift-giving known as a patronage system. In this system, people of high socioeconomic status used their influence and resources to help those who depended on them for help, sometimes called “clients.”
The system created a hierarchy all the way down to the poorest people. Everyone had or sought to secure a patron, and those patrons depended on their own patrons who had even greater resources.
In that society one knew exactly where one stood in the larger hierarchy.
That background helps us understand part of the significance of the spiritual gifts Paul discusses in 1 Corinthians. In the church, every member receives a gift or gifts directly from God. These gifts are special ways the Holy Spirit empowers each believer to bless and strengthen the church and its ministry. And every person’s gift is important for the well-being of the church as a whole.
Even Christians with the highest social status in the church depend on the use of spiritual gifts given to people with little social status in the church. The ministry of every believer is important to the well-being of every other believer. Believers don’t receive their gifts from people of differing levels of status and influence, but instead all are given from “the same Spirit.”
We have different ministries or roles in the church, but it is all in the service of “the same Lord.” The very same God works through each believer; note the Trinitarian references seen in Spirit, Lord and God.
All of those gifts and ministries are given not for the aggrandizement of the one who receives the gift but “for the common good.” That is, it isn’t about the one with the gift but about how that gift can be used for the good of all.
The Holy Spirit works through us in different ways toward that common good. (8–11)
Here we find one of several partial lists of diverse gifts God gives to believers “by the same Spirit” (see 1:5; 12:28–30; 13:1–3, 8–9; Rom. 12:6–8; Eph. 4:11). There is no exhaustive list of potential spiritual gifts. We do not have space here to explain the various gifts, but the key to this passage is Paul’s emphasis on both the great diversity of the gifts and the fact that every gift is given “by the same Spirit.”
Every gift, every Spirit-enabled ability to bless and strengthen the church and its ministry, has the same origin: the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit makes us one body. (12–14)
While in verses 8–11 Paul emphasized the diversity of gifts and the singular and identical source of each one, in these verses he emphasizes the relationship between “all” (or “many”) and “one.” The body is one but has many parts. All the parts of the body are part of one body, and it is the same in Christ. All believers have been baptized into one body and drink from one Spirit, whatever our ethnic or social backgrounds.
The body (both the human body and the body of Christ, which is the church) is not one part but consists of many parts.
The metaphor of the body is a wonderful reminder no matter how diverse the church might be (just as our bodies have many different parts), we are ultimately one organic community which functions at its best when all the parts are encouraged and allowed to serve for the good of all.
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