How the Body is Supposed to Work – part Two -
14-
I Corinthians 12:12-27
A body operates as a unit. The Corinthian body did not. They were fragmented over many issues. There was competition between the factions. There was pride and bragging. There were underhanded practices intended to hurt others. The Holy Spirit had transferred gifts to them, just as He does to all believers. Primarily, gifts were to enable the church to go into all the world and make believers and churches out of the heathen (unbelieving) people of the world; Secondly, the gifts were to help and enable the church to be a healthy and well-equipped environment for new believers to grow. Something was terribly wrong in the church.
So Paul starts this section by emphasizing that a body must function as a single unit, and that we who are believers in Jesus are, in every sense, a body. (12:12,13)
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body 1Co 12:13
The baptism of the Spirit
Much talk regarding the baptism of the Spirit has been heard in the last century. Not so much before that. Verse 13 talks about a work of the Spirit that is invisible and yet is one of the most real things that can ever happen to a person. The statement is: We were baptized into the body. The word baptism comes from the Greek word that means 'complete immersion'. Through the centuries Catholicism has changed baptism to mean 'sprinkling'. NOTE – we were not sprinkled with the body of Christ. We were immersed into it.
I need to put a couple of questions forward right here.
I don't intend to answer these questions one at a time, but after we have taken look at scripture, you should be able to answer all of them yourself.
A very important verse to start off with is in Ephesians.
Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
In verse 4 Paul seems to be talking to the Ephesians about the same topic he is addressing with the Corinthians.
He is talking about unity in the body. As he does so, he says there is One Lord. We can respond, Amen. Our God is One. Secondly he says, “There is one Faith”. Again, we say, 'Yes, the faith that leads to salvation comes only once in our lifetime'. Then we read, “There is one baptism”. And we think … “Uhh wait a minute. I know of several baptisms”?
Let's talk about the One baptism.
Paul mentions baptism in Romans 6. There he says;
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3,4
Is he saying that, just prior to going down into the water … we were not IN Christ, but when we came out of the water, we were now in Christ? Is water baptism essential for salvation? If so, God has changed the rules. That is, Old Testament people could be saved without it … but now New Testament people need it?
Water baptism was something that John the Baptist did, then later, Jesus is credited with having 'water baptized' more people than John. So water baptism, during Jesus personal ministry down here on earth, became a church practice … a church ordinance.
Since baptism in water was an integral part of Jesus' ministry, when we come to his crucifixion we discover a problem with understanding Romans 6:3 and 4 to be referring to WATER. The problem is, as Jesus was dying on the cross, one of the thieves turned to Him and asked, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus gave a straight forward answer. He said … “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” He did not say, “I am very sorry, but you are in no position to get baptized.
In essence what Jesus is saying … water baptism is not necessary to be saved. The way we have to understand the Romans passage is that Paul is not talking about water baptism as being the thing that places us INTO Christ.
There is only One baptism that can do that. Our verse in Corinthians says that we all were baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
I will make it plain by saying there is only one REAL baptism. Any other baptism is not REAL. Here is a simple illustration: On my drivers license is an image of me. If I were to show it to any number of people and ask the question … “Who is that on my driver's license?”, the vast majority would answer ...“That is you”. The accurate answer would be, “No, it is not me. That is a piece of plastic. It is not me.” In fact, it is a picture of me.
Water baptism is also not real, in the sense that it has no power and can do nothing more than picture the REAL thing. The real thing was an invisible action of the Holy Spirit. He places believers into the body. We then PICTURE that by being baptized in water.
When did I Corinthians 12:13 first become effective? We might be tempted to say, the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost must have been the day. The 120 persons gathered in the upper room … were not 'IN CHRIST' until the Spirit descended on them.
Does scripture bear this out? No, there is no mention that they were placed into Christ at that point. In addition to this, Jesus had promised that He would not leave them alone, but would send the Spirit. He called the Spirit 'The Comforter' in the KJV. In other translations He is referred to as our 'Advocate'. But there was a 10 day gap after Jesus left earth before the Spirit came. Were they 'alone' during those 10 days? To add another consideration, look at this verse:
John 20:21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
Well, guess what, this was before the giving of the Spirit on Pentecost. Either Jesus gave the Spirit twice … or He gave the Spirit for two different reasons; The reason for the first giving of the Spirit, was to baptize us into Christ, and the reason for the second giving of the Spirit, to empower the church.
All of the above is to correct our thinking about the Baptism of Spirit.
So to recap:
The simple truth is … if you have received Jesus as your personal Saviour … you ARE Spirit baptized.
In the next section of this chapter Paul gives us a verbal picture of how our bodies work. He is comparing a human body with the church body of believers. (Read verses 14 – 24)
As we come to verse 25 Paul's picture is leaning more heavily to describing the church body. A church body can have as little as 2 or 3 members. Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in His name, that He himself was there with them in a very special capacity. In Corinth we could say that each house group was a church. But that is not really true. The total sum of all of the house-groups comprised what we call 'the Church in Corinth'. Paul wanted all of the house groups, (all the Paul groups, all the Apollos groups, all the Peter groups, all the Jesus groups) to be what he says in verses 25 an d 26.
He says there should be no 'schism' … division. Across all the groups, members should care for one another. Across all the groups if one member suffers, all should feel it. If one member is honored, all should share the joy.
Let's take this close to home. We sometimes talk about the true believers around the world as being 'the church'. If one of them suffers, do we all consciously suffer? If one believer somewhere on the other side of the world is honored, do we share the joy right here at home? Obviously not.
So then, how can Paul's statements in these two verses fit us today? First I want us to think of a our local group being just a 'handful'; two or three, or ten or twelve. It would be very easy to share the pain or the joy of our other members. Make the group into 200. A little harder but as news gets around, yes, we can carry each others burden and rejoice when they rejoice. Make that into all the true believers in our town … now it's getting harder. Should it be harder? Is it normal to expect that our intimate contact with other believers in another 'group' in town should be minimal?
Paul saw the church as city-wide, regardless of how many individual house-groups were there. He expected unity, love, pain and joy to be shared right across all the groups. Does God expect us to do the same? Is it time for us to stop thinking of our church as being those who attend this one building, and start seeing the body through God's eyes?
Just as God composed (put together) our bodies with all their many parts, even so God has put together the church body (verse 28).
Paul now recites a list of gifts and offices in the church. He starts with Apostles. Why? Are they most important and rank the highest? While it is true that Apostles were set in place to make decisions that would govern and affect the whole church, Paul did not seem to allow this thought to elevate his office. He even said this; For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. 1Co 4:9
No, I don't think it has much to do with rank. Rather, it has something to do with the order in which God did it.
Verse 28 says He appointed Apostles first. When? During Jesus' personal ministry.
And when it was day, He called His disciples to [Himself]; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: Lu 6:13
Jesus called His church together and had them wait for him at the base of a mountain. He himself went on up to the top of the mountain and spent the whole night in prayer. He was talking to the Father about choices. In the morning He went down and made the appointments.
By the way, are we to do the same? Should we too have apostles? No, for this reason. At the end of the world we will be transported to a New Earth that has a huge city having 12 foundations. On each of the foundations is a name of one of the twelve apostles. Judas' name likely is not one of them. He disqualified himself. Paul's on the other hand, is most likely the replacement for Judas.
Apostles played a very important role in the early days of the churches mission. They had no manual to follow and their word was the rule. So they had 'apostleship' as a gift. God communicated through that gift and made their task easier.
As the list unfolds we read that prophets came next. They would speak the very 'word of God'. Next God supplied the gift of teaching when there were people who needed teaching. God gave some the gift of miracles and healings to confirm the message that was being preached. He mentions 'helps'. This gift would really be seen as persons have a servant's heart. Another is 'administration'. This gift would become very necessary as the group increased in size. Finally Paul mentions varieties of tongues or languages, and interpretation of languages.
So whether we are talking about feet, hands, eyes, ears, nose, apostleship, prophesying, teaching, miracles, healing, helping, administering, or languages, Paul's focus is on the body as a unit.
Paul ends this section with a series of questions:
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? (29,30)
There are only two possible answers for these questions; either Yes or No. The implied answer is 'No'. Not only does no-one has all these gifts, the gift that a person has cannot be bragged about, and if it should seem 'insignificant' … it's not. The so called less significant gifts are most essential. And it is God who orchestrates who gets what gift.
The next verse may taken in two different ways:
But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. 1Co 12:31
First, it may be a negative observation by Paul. He may be saying .. “You earnestly desire to have the best gift, and that is selfish and wrong. I want to show you a better way”
I believe that view may be the correct one.
There is another way to take this verse.
“Ernestly desire, prayerfully desire a gift to help you in the ministry in which you desire to serve, and God will supply that gift.”
This may be what he is saying, but I don't think so.
Coming up Paul will give us the 'better way'. Think of the many problems that this church had. All of them would cease to exist if they were to exercise the gift of love. In the next chapter we will discover that some gifts are 'universal' and some 'specific', and some are 'disposable'.
So Paul starts this section by emphasizing that a body must function as a single unit, and that we who are believers in Jesus are, in every sense, a body. (12:12,13)
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body 1Co 12:13
The baptism of the Spirit
Much talk regarding the baptism of the Spirit has been heard in the last century. Not so much before that. Verse 13 talks about a work of the Spirit that is invisible and yet is one of the most real things that can ever happen to a person. The statement is: We were baptized into the body. The word baptism comes from the Greek word that means 'complete immersion'. Through the centuries Catholicism has changed baptism to mean 'sprinkling'. NOTE – we were not sprinkled with the body of Christ. We were immersed into it.
I need to put a couple of questions forward right here.
- Does the baptism of the Spirit always result in speaking in tongues?
- Is the baptism of the Spirit something that happens after Salvation?
- Is the baptism of the Spirit optional … do I really need it?
- What does the baptism of the Spirit feel like?
- How many different kinds of baptisms are there?
- What is the baptism of fire?
- What does water baptism do for a person?
- ?
I don't intend to answer these questions one at a time, but after we have taken look at scripture, you should be able to answer all of them yourself.
A very important verse to start off with is in Ephesians.
Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
In verse 4 Paul seems to be talking to the Ephesians about the same topic he is addressing with the Corinthians.
He is talking about unity in the body. As he does so, he says there is One Lord. We can respond, Amen. Our God is One. Secondly he says, “There is one Faith”. Again, we say, 'Yes, the faith that leads to salvation comes only once in our lifetime'. Then we read, “There is one baptism”. And we think … “Uhh wait a minute. I know of several baptisms”?
Let's talk about the One baptism.
Paul mentions baptism in Romans 6. There he says;
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3,4
Is he saying that, just prior to going down into the water … we were not IN Christ, but when we came out of the water, we were now in Christ? Is water baptism essential for salvation? If so, God has changed the rules. That is, Old Testament people could be saved without it … but now New Testament people need it?
Water baptism was something that John the Baptist did, then later, Jesus is credited with having 'water baptized' more people than John. So water baptism, during Jesus personal ministry down here on earth, became a church practice … a church ordinance.
Since baptism in water was an integral part of Jesus' ministry, when we come to his crucifixion we discover a problem with understanding Romans 6:3 and 4 to be referring to WATER. The problem is, as Jesus was dying on the cross, one of the thieves turned to Him and asked, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus gave a straight forward answer. He said … “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” He did not say, “I am very sorry, but you are in no position to get baptized.
In essence what Jesus is saying … water baptism is not necessary to be saved. The way we have to understand the Romans passage is that Paul is not talking about water baptism as being the thing that places us INTO Christ.
There is only One baptism that can do that. Our verse in Corinthians says that we all were baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
I will make it plain by saying there is only one REAL baptism. Any other baptism is not REAL. Here is a simple illustration: On my drivers license is an image of me. If I were to show it to any number of people and ask the question … “Who is that on my driver's license?”, the vast majority would answer ...“That is you”. The accurate answer would be, “No, it is not me. That is a piece of plastic. It is not me.” In fact, it is a picture of me.
Water baptism is also not real, in the sense that it has no power and can do nothing more than picture the REAL thing. The real thing was an invisible action of the Holy Spirit. He places believers into the body. We then PICTURE that by being baptized in water.
When did I Corinthians 12:13 first become effective? We might be tempted to say, the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost must have been the day. The 120 persons gathered in the upper room … were not 'IN CHRIST' until the Spirit descended on them.
Does scripture bear this out? No, there is no mention that they were placed into Christ at that point. In addition to this, Jesus had promised that He would not leave them alone, but would send the Spirit. He called the Spirit 'The Comforter' in the KJV. In other translations He is referred to as our 'Advocate'. But there was a 10 day gap after Jesus left earth before the Spirit came. Were they 'alone' during those 10 days? To add another consideration, look at this verse:
John 20:21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
Well, guess what, this was before the giving of the Spirit on Pentecost. Either Jesus gave the Spirit twice … or He gave the Spirit for two different reasons; The reason for the first giving of the Spirit, was to baptize us into Christ, and the reason for the second giving of the Spirit, to empower the church.
All of the above is to correct our thinking about the Baptism of Spirit.
So to recap:
- There is only one baptism - the baptism of the Spirit.
- The baptism of the Spirit placed us IN Christ – Salvation.
- There is no OTHER Spirit baptism that happens some time AFTER salvation.
The simple truth is … if you have received Jesus as your personal Saviour … you ARE Spirit baptized.
In the next section of this chapter Paul gives us a verbal picture of how our bodies work. He is comparing a human body with the church body of believers. (Read verses 14 – 24)
As we come to verse 25 Paul's picture is leaning more heavily to describing the church body. A church body can have as little as 2 or 3 members. Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in His name, that He himself was there with them in a very special capacity. In Corinth we could say that each house group was a church. But that is not really true. The total sum of all of the house-groups comprised what we call 'the Church in Corinth'. Paul wanted all of the house groups, (all the Paul groups, all the Apollos groups, all the Peter groups, all the Jesus groups) to be what he says in verses 25 an d 26.
He says there should be no 'schism' … division. Across all the groups, members should care for one another. Across all the groups if one member suffers, all should feel it. If one member is honored, all should share the joy.
Let's take this close to home. We sometimes talk about the true believers around the world as being 'the church'. If one of them suffers, do we all consciously suffer? If one believer somewhere on the other side of the world is honored, do we share the joy right here at home? Obviously not.
So then, how can Paul's statements in these two verses fit us today? First I want us to think of a our local group being just a 'handful'; two or three, or ten or twelve. It would be very easy to share the pain or the joy of our other members. Make the group into 200. A little harder but as news gets around, yes, we can carry each others burden and rejoice when they rejoice. Make that into all the true believers in our town … now it's getting harder. Should it be harder? Is it normal to expect that our intimate contact with other believers in another 'group' in town should be minimal?
Paul saw the church as city-wide, regardless of how many individual house-groups were there. He expected unity, love, pain and joy to be shared right across all the groups. Does God expect us to do the same? Is it time for us to stop thinking of our church as being those who attend this one building, and start seeing the body through God's eyes?
Just as God composed (put together) our bodies with all their many parts, even so God has put together the church body (verse 28).
Paul now recites a list of gifts and offices in the church. He starts with Apostles. Why? Are they most important and rank the highest? While it is true that Apostles were set in place to make decisions that would govern and affect the whole church, Paul did not seem to allow this thought to elevate his office. He even said this; For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. 1Co 4:9
No, I don't think it has much to do with rank. Rather, it has something to do with the order in which God did it.
Verse 28 says He appointed Apostles first. When? During Jesus' personal ministry.
And when it was day, He called His disciples to [Himself]; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: Lu 6:13
Jesus called His church together and had them wait for him at the base of a mountain. He himself went on up to the top of the mountain and spent the whole night in prayer. He was talking to the Father about choices. In the morning He went down and made the appointments.
By the way, are we to do the same? Should we too have apostles? No, for this reason. At the end of the world we will be transported to a New Earth that has a huge city having 12 foundations. On each of the foundations is a name of one of the twelve apostles. Judas' name likely is not one of them. He disqualified himself. Paul's on the other hand, is most likely the replacement for Judas.
Apostles played a very important role in the early days of the churches mission. They had no manual to follow and their word was the rule. So they had 'apostleship' as a gift. God communicated through that gift and made their task easier.
As the list unfolds we read that prophets came next. They would speak the very 'word of God'. Next God supplied the gift of teaching when there were people who needed teaching. God gave some the gift of miracles and healings to confirm the message that was being preached. He mentions 'helps'. This gift would really be seen as persons have a servant's heart. Another is 'administration'. This gift would become very necessary as the group increased in size. Finally Paul mentions varieties of tongues or languages, and interpretation of languages.
So whether we are talking about feet, hands, eyes, ears, nose, apostleship, prophesying, teaching, miracles, healing, helping, administering, or languages, Paul's focus is on the body as a unit.
Paul ends this section with a series of questions:
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? (29,30)
There are only two possible answers for these questions; either Yes or No. The implied answer is 'No'. Not only does no-one has all these gifts, the gift that a person has cannot be bragged about, and if it should seem 'insignificant' … it's not. The so called less significant gifts are most essential. And it is God who orchestrates who gets what gift.
The next verse may taken in two different ways:
But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. 1Co 12:31
First, it may be a negative observation by Paul. He may be saying .. “You earnestly desire to have the best gift, and that is selfish and wrong. I want to show you a better way”
I believe that view may be the correct one.
There is another way to take this verse.
“Ernestly desire, prayerfully desire a gift to help you in the ministry in which you desire to serve, and God will supply that gift.”
This may be what he is saying, but I don't think so.
Coming up Paul will give us the 'better way'. Think of the many problems that this church had. All of them would cease to exist if they were to exercise the gift of love. In the next chapter we will discover that some gifts are 'universal' and some 'specific', and some are 'disposable'.