1 CORINTHIANS 12
Paul now addresses another issue that has been causing issues within the Corinthian church; spiritual gifts. Paul’s intention here is clarification; he does not want them to be ignorant (in the traditional sense of not knowing) (v1). He immediately refers back to the time when they were pagans because, in the pagan religions of the time, spiritual experiences were a normal part of these religions. How were those pagan practices influencing their Christian experience? It is another example of secular crossover into Christian life which we have seen has been a problem in Corinth in many areas of church life. Part of the pagan spirituality of the time was that those who showed super spiritual gifts were somehow superior to those who did not. This was spilling over into church life and there were some who considered themselves ‘better’ Christians because they had ‘better’ spiritual gifts.
Paul reminded them that all who could confess ‘Jesus is Lord’ had a spiritual gift because you can only say that (honestly and truthfully) if you had the Holy Spirit in you (v3). So no-one can say that he has the Holy Spirit and others don’t when they all confess that Jesus is Lord. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit gives out a variety of spiritual gifts and none is better than any other. They are all given for the common good of the church (v7) and no gift is better or worse than any other.
To illustrate that, Paul gave the example of the human body. The body is made up of many parts, all different but all necessary for the body to function properly. A foot is not a hand. An ear is not an eye. All the parts of the body serve different functions in order to make the body operate correctly. Similarly with the church. The church is made up if different people with different gifts complementing each other so that the whole works properly. No part of the body should be looked down on or considered unnecessary, because without it, the body is impaired and doesn’t function properly (vv21-22). And again, so it is with the church, all its components are required for it to work.
Paul finishes by combining the image of the body and the church by saying that the church is the body of Christ. It is an image we are familiar with, but it has particular relevance to Paul’s argument here. He has been talking about the parts of the body needing each other. The church is more than just a reflection of that image of a body; it really is a body – the body of Christ. Therefore, it is crucially important that the Corinthians understand what Paul is saying. And those who think that they are a cut above the others because they consider themselves to have superior spiritual gifts (the prevalent attitude in the pagan religions that they came from) are wrong in their thinking. They are no better and no worse than everybody else in the church because all have gifts that contribute to the common good of the community.