Since there was division in the Corinthian church, Paul began with an emphasis on the oneness of the church. He pointed out four wonderful bonds of spiritual unity.
We confess the same Lord (vv. 1–3). Paul contrasted their experience as unconverted idolaters with their present experience as Christians. They had worshipped dead idols, but now they belonged to the living God. Their idols never spoke to them, but God spoke to them by His Spirit, and He even spoke through them in the gift of prophecy. When they were lost, they were under the control of the demons (1 Cor. 10:20) and were led astray (“carried away,” 1 Cor. 12:2). But now the Spirit of God lived in them and directed them.
It is only through the Spirit that a person can honestly say, “Jesus is Lord.” A sneering sinner may mouth the words, but he is not giving a true confession. (Perhaps Paul was referring to things they had said when influenced by the demons prior to conversion.) It is important to note that the believer is always in control of himself when the Holy Spirit is at work (1 Cor. 14:32) because Jesus Christ the Lord is in charge. Any so-called “Spirit manifestation” that robs a person of self-control is not of God; for “the fruit of the Spirit is … self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23 nasb).
If Jesus Christ truly is Lord in our lives, then there should be unity in the church. Division and dissension among God’s people only weakens their united testimony to a lost world (John 17:20–21).
We depend on the same God (vv. 4–6). There is a trinitarian emphasis here: “the same Spirit … the same Lord … the same God.” We individually may have different gifts, ministries, and ways of working, but “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). The source of the gift is God; the sphere for administering the gift is from God; and the energy to use the gift is from God. Why, then, glorify men? Why compete with one another?
We minister to the same body (vv. 7–11). The gifts are given for the good of the whole church. They are not for individual enjoyment, but for corporate employment. The Corinthians especially needed this reminder, because they were using their spiritual gifts selfishly to promote themselves and not to prosper the church. When we accept our gifts with humility, then we use them to promote harmony, and this helps the whole church.
The various gifts are named in 1 Corinthians 12:8–10 and 28, and also in Ephesians 4: and Romans 12:6–8. When you combine the lists, you end up with nineteen different gifts and offices. Since the listing in Romans is not identical with the listing in 1 Corinthians, we may assume that Paul was not attempting to exhaust the subject in either passage. While the gifts named are adequate for the ministry of the church, God is not limited to these lists. He may give other gifts as He pleases.
We have already discussed apostles (1 Cor. 9:1–6). Prophets were New Testament spokesmen for God whose messages came immediately from God by the Spirit. Their ministry was to edify, encourage, and comfort (1 Cor. 14:3). Their messages were tested by the listeners to determine whether they were truly from God (1 Cor. 14:29; 1 Thess. 5:19–21). Ephesians 2: makes it clear that apostles and prophets worked together to lay the foundation of the church, and we may assume that they were no longer needed once that foundation was completed.
Teachers (also pastor-teacher) instructed converts in the doctrinal truths of the Christian life. They taught from the Word and from the teachings of the apostles (tradition). Unlike the prophets, they did not get their messages immediately by the Spirit, though the Spirit helped them in their teaching. James 3: indicates that this is a serious calling.
The evangelist majored on sharing the good news of salvation with the lost. All ministers should do the work of an evangelist (2 Tim. 4:5) and seek to win souls, but some men have been given evangelism as a special calling.
In the early church, miracles were a part of the credentials of God’s servants (Heb. 2:1–4). In fact, miracles, healings, and tongues all belong to what theologians call “the sign gifts” and belonged in a special way to the infancy of the church. The book of Acts, as well as church history, indicates that these miraculous gifts passed off the scene.
Helps and governments have to do with the serving of others and the guiding of the church. Without spiritual leadership, the church flounders. Ministry (Rom. 12:7) and ruling belong to this same category. In my three pastorates, I was grateful for people with the gifts of helps and leadership.
There were several “speaking gifts”: tongues and the interpretation of tongues (about which more will be said later), the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge (the ability to understand and apply God’s truth to a definite situation), and exhortation (encouragement, rebuke if necessary).
Giving and showing mercy relate to sharing material aid with those in need, as well as supporting God’s servants in ministry. The gift of faith has to do with believing God for what He wants to accomplish in the church’s ministry, that He will lead and provide. The discerning of spirits was important in the early church, since Satan tried to counterfeit the work of God and the Word of God. Today, the Spirit especially uses the written Word to give us discernment (1 John 2:18–24; 4:1–6). Since there are no prophets in the church today, we need not worry about false prophets; but we do have to beware of false teachers (2 Peter 2:1).
Some students have categorized the various gifts as the speaking gifts, the sign gifts, and the serving gifts. However, we should not be so fascinated by the individual gifts that we forget the main reason why Paul listed them: to remind us that they unite us in our ministries to the one body. The Holy Spirit bestows these gifts “as he will” (1 Cor. 12:11), not as we will. No Christian should complain about his or her gifts, nor should any believer boast about his or her gifts. We are many members in one body, ministering to each other.
We have experienced the same baptism (vv. 12–13). It is unfortunate that the term “baptism of the Spirit” has been divorced from its original New Testament meaning. God has spoken to us in Spiritgiven words that we must not confuse (1 Cor. 2:12–13). The baptism of the Spirit occurs at conversion when the Spirit enters the believing sinner, gives him new life, and makes his body the temple of God. All believers have experienced this once-for-all baptism (1 Cor. 12:13). Nowhere does the Scripture command us to seek this baptism, because we have already experienced it and it need not be repeated.
The “filling of the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18ff.) has to do with the Spirit’s control of our lives. (In Scripture, to be filled by something means “to be controlled by.”) We are commanded to be filled, and we can be if we yield all to Christ and ask Him for the Spirit’s filling. This is a repeated experience, for we constantly need to be filled with spiritual power if we are to glorify Christ. To be baptized by the Spirit means that we belong to Christ’s body. To be filled with the Spirit means that our bodies belong to Christ.
The evidence of the Spirit’s baptism at conversion is the witness of the Spirit within (Rom. 8:14–16). It is not “speaking in tongues.” All of the believers in the Corinthian assembly had been baptized by the Spirit, but not all of them spoke in tongues (1 Cor. 12:30). The evidences of the Spirit’s filling are power for witnessing (Acts 1:8), joyfulness and submission (Eph. 5:19ff.), Christlikeness (Gal. 5:22–26), and a growing understanding of the Word (John 16:12–15).
Because of the gift of the Spirit, which is received at conversion, we are all members of the body of Christ. Race, social status, wealth, or even sex (Gal. 3:28) are neither advantages nor handicaps as we fellowship and serve the Lord.