1 Corinthians 12

In the previous chapter the Apostle addressed issues of head covering and the sharing of food and drink at the Lord’s Table. These issues are just two of many topics that Paul addresses in this letter concerning the worship of God. Worship takes up the remainder of this letter. In specific, Paul writes about the use of spiritual gifts in worship in chapters 12 through 14.

God wants us to approach Him with both sincerity and knowledge when we come together to worship Him. Many within the Corinthian church used to worship idols. Now they worship a God who speaks, and who has given His message through prophetic representatives, authoritative spokesmen of the Lord. But how is the church to know whether someone who wishes to speak is a true spokesman for Jesus? Paul wants the church to be well informed so that they can exercise discernment on these matters. As always, the message must be tested according to the body of speech from the Lord already recorded in the existing Scriptures.

Does someone have an ecstatic utterance where the words “Jesus is accursed” come out of his mouth? What does that even mean? Is someone claiming that Jesus is not the way for us, or that Jesus is not in charge of His church? Such a person is not from the Lord, and he needs to be silenced in the gathering of saints who worship God through our Messiah. Is someone else giving a message that exalts the complete lordship of Jesus over His beloved people? This is the truth, and if it is truly believed and lived out, then the Holy Spirit must be at work somehow in the life of the one who is speaking. He may not be qualified to preach, but at least He is not an agent of the devil.

The Spirit of God provides a variety of gifts to the church. His gifts are given not so that we can boast in our giftedness, but that we might boast in the Lord and see the Holy Spirit build up the body of Christ. In the first century church in Corinth there were a variety of revelatory and sign gifts that demonstrated the truth of the New Covenant message. These included the speaking of direct revelation from God, gifts of healing, speaking in languages unknown to the speakers, and translation of languages unknown to the hearers. It would have been easy for the gifted ones to become puffed up when such extraordinary gifts were in use in the worship assembly. Yet this would have been a very sad mistake. It was God who gave these gifts as He saw fit for His own glory. There is no spiritual gift of prideful boasting. It does not come from the Holy Spirit.

There is one body of Christ. The gifts that we have been given together and that we all possess in common are by far the most significant gifts. Have you been given Christ, regeneration, faith, repentance, forgiveness, the comfort and freshness of new life by the Holy Spirit, the hope of eternal life, all the blessings of heaven, and a life of sacrificial love even now as a display of Christ to the world? These gifts are for all of us and they are very substantial.

But our thinking can so quickly become unspiritual as we forget the value system of heaven. We want prominence and recognition. When we do not receive preeminence we can become despondent, disappointed, and divisive. This type of pride and rebellion will not help to build up the body of Christ.

God has revealed to us through the facts of the human body that all parts are necessary for the body to function well together. All of us have our part to play. There are so many great things that we can learn from the bodies God has given us. For instance: 1) A body with just one part would not be much of a body. 2) Being embarrassed about one part of your body does not make that part any less a part of the body. 3) To lose any part of your body is significant trouble. 4) God has arranged the parts of your body in the way He thought best. 5) The weak and unpresentable parts of your body are still of great importance. 6) If one part is in pain, your whole body will more than likely be truly miserable, and if one part is given new comfort and relief, your whole body will be helped. 7) The body is one, and no part of your body that is truly a part of your part should be casually divided from the body as if it were useless.

Paul’s point is of course about the church as the body of Christ. All this exalting over a hand or a foot is very insulting to the One who is the Head over the whole body, Jesus Christ, and ruinous of the right order of holy worship. Jesus alone is Lord. If the apostles are something, then they are messengers of the Head of the church. If the prophets bring a true Word, then it comes first from the One who is the Word. If the teachers open up the mysteries of the Scriptures to the church, they are only showing Christ to His people. If there are those with special sign gifts testifying to the message of the New Covenant to the people of Corinth, they are going forth by the authority of the One who has commanded us to make disciples of all nations. His love to us is the greatest gift, and every one of His loved ones has received it. This love of Christ would be the best gift to live out in our brief lives that we have been given in this age. It is the love of the cross, and it is the most excellent way for all who truly honor Jesus as Lord.