1 Corinthians 12 – Spiritual Gifts and The Body

Spiritual Gifts 12:1-11

The Holy Spirit is the only spiritual influence capable of enabling anyone to say, "Jesus is Lord." The influence of the Holy Spirit prevents one from confessing, "Jesus is accursed." Naturally people can utter confessions and rejections on their own accord absent spiritual submission. Paul commences with his desire for the Corinthians' cognizance of spiritual gifts. He also reinforces that when they were pagans they were led astray by evil spirits. Paul addresses this issue because of the grievance caused from the leading astray as unbelievers.


Evil gifts caused some to deplore Christ. Consequently, Paul corrects significant miss-understandings. Concurrently, many in the church ignored the Holy Spirit's gifts. Ignoring gifts of the Holy Spirit causes the Corinthians to miss amazing, powerful relationship tools from God for interacting with Him and the world. It's comparative to having a pick-up stuck in the mud, yet refusing to acknowledge and engage the four-wheel drive. Paul encourages the Corinthians to recognize, receive and thrive with the gifts of the Spirit. Conversely, other Corinthians misused their spiritual gifts, seeking self-gain. This equates to using the four-wheel drive pick-up in the previous analogy to drive on and damage other peoples' property for self-enjoyment.

The Body 12:12-31

Paul now compares the Holy Spirit's gifts to a body. Just as one person's composition consists of many parts, or many parts comprise one body, so does the one Triune body of God supply many gifts. Prudence understands that the spiritual gifts, like body parts, are interdependent of one another. The analogy continues with each person in the body of Christ intertwining with others. While each part possesses different functions, an optimal body relies on each part. Paul concludes with listing the order of appointments in the church, emphasizing their symbiotic relationship.


See Christ, Believe Christ, Achieve with Christ!
Rick E. Meyer
See, Believe, Achieve Inc.
www.rickEmeyer.com



(Radmacher, Allen and House 1999, 1477)
² (D. S. Toussaint 2012, Class Notes)
³ (Coffman 1984, 191)
⁴ (Getz 2011, 1564)