Unity And Spiritual Gifts (Part 2)(12:13-31)
Neal Pollard
Sometimes, when you are reading a paragraph or section of Scripture, the theme of it is so clear it virtually screams out to you. 18 times, Paul mentions the spiritual “body” and 12 times he uses the word “one.” Paul’s decided emphasis, in this discussion of spiritual gifts, is Christ’s “one body.” In a book for unity and against division, this makes sense. But nowhere in the letter does he drive this home more pointedly. Individual spiritual gifts are not about the individual; it is always about the one body! Notice:
- This one body has many members (12)
- We are each baptized into one body (13)
- The one body is many members (14)
- God has placed each one in the one body (15-19)
- There are many members, but one body (20)
This is in addition to other ways Paul directs his readers back to the unity that should exist among all the members in this one body. If we miss everything else that Paul says here, we must not miss this!
What does Paul tell us about the exercise of spiritual gifts in the body to help further his overall theme of unity?
UNITY IN THE SPIRITUAL BODY IS LIKE UNITY IN THE PHYSICAL BODY
Paul starts the paragraph with a simile likening a literal, physical body to the church. All the individual body parts come together to make the body work (12). Each individual body part has its unique function to serve, no one less vital than another (14-17). The body is set up by divine design (18). A body would look strange with only one body part (imagine an entire body that was just one big nose?!)(19). How strange if one body part told another body part it was unneeded or unnecessary (21)! Body parts that are less emphasized or visible are still essential (23-24). The body is very empathetic toward itself (watch how other body parts get involved when we hit our thumb with a hammer–eyes, hand, and even mouth get involved in consoling it!)(25-26).
GOD HAS A CREATION PROCESS FOR PLACING MEMBERS IN THE BODY (13)
Just as God used the laws of creation at the beginning of time to establish or determine a physical body (Gen. 1:24-28), He has a law of “new creation.” One is formed as a body part in the body of Christ through baptism (13). This is just one of many compelling reasons why baptism is necessary. It puts one into Christ’s body (cf. Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3; 1 Cor. 10:2). It is a universal law, for anyone and everyone who will.
PAUL’S APPLICATION OF THE ILLUSTRATION TO THE CHURCH (27-31)
How does Paul drive home the point for his discussion on spiritual gifts? “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it” (27). What does that mean for whatever function or ability you possess? In the miraculous age, God had not only different offices but needed all of them to exist (note the seven categories in verse 28). No matter that we do not still have apostles or miraculous healers. What’s the point? Everyone is not the same and does not have the same gifts and responsibilities (29-30). Instead of envying what others can do or have been asked to do, we rejoice and suffer with each other as needed (26).
Lest we think that we are missing out since we cannot miraculously speak a language we’ve never studied or prophesied or worked a miracle, Paul tells us that there is “a still more excellent way” (31). Spoiler alert: it is a way accessible to us today! What a joy when it is present and what a tragedy when it is not! More about that when we turn to the next chapter.
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