12:12-27 One body, many members
Verses 12-27 are part of chapter 12 and part of Paul’s corrective teaching on spiritual gifts. It is a very good section, however I’m not doing a study on 1 Corinthians as a whole, I’m only looking at spiritual gifts, so I will simply summarize this section. At the beginning of the chapter he said, there are many gifts, but one Spirit. Here he is saying the same thing from a different angle. He compares the church to a body and uses the same principle of many yet one, “There are many members, but one body; there is one body, but many members.” 27 Now ye are a body of Christ, and members in particular.
12:28-31 Another list
28 And God hath set some in the church
God has set some in the church. Again, God is in control
of who gets what gift and who has what ministry. This list is different than
earlier in the chapter, both as to content and intent. This seems to refer more
to ministries than manifestations. There are 8
gifts listed, arranged in 5 categories, in order of importance:
first apostles – apostle means sent forth. An apostle is someone who leaves home to bring the gospel to a people who have never heard, make converts, organize them into churches, and maintain oversight of these brethren.
second prophets – this is related to but slightly different than prophecy. The gift of prophecy is a manifestation, a word that the Spirit gives as he sees fit. Prophet is what I call a take home gift, a ministry. A prophet would no doubt exercise the gift of prophecy from time to time, but this refers to him speaking forth for the Lord. He sees what ought to be as well as what is, and urges the people to rise up or go forth. It is a strong ministry. Not loud, critical, or harsh (although prophets are often unpopular), but insightful, penetrating, and challenging.
third teachers – these are the ones raised up by the Lord and gifted by the Spirit with the ability to understand and explain the Faith and the Word of God. If a prophet is uncomfortable, a teacher can be irritating or annoying, “What this really means is…. You’re not saying that correctly…” The prophet seeks to stir us up to right living; the teacher is concerned with right belief and correct interpretation of a passage.
after that [fourth] miracles – seems to me while there is a manifestation of working of miracles, there is also a ministry of miracles. These saints have a ministry marked by miracles. We need people whose ministry is filled with signs and wonders.
then [fifth] gifts of healings, helps, governments, kinds of tongues
In the fifth category he places 4 gifts. They are all
gifts of the Holy Spirit, which means they are all good; they are all
ministries raised up by the Lord for his church, which means they are all
helpful, valuable, positive.
Gifts of healings – we may experience this manifestation, but some have a ministry of healing
Helps – we can all set up tables, put chairs away etc. and that’s helpful, but this refers to those who help or assist a ministry. Chuck Smith was raised up by God to teach the Word, reach the hippies of the 60s and 70s, and oversee the Calvary Chapels birthed through him, but his right hand man, the one who “helped” keep it all together and functioning was Pastor Romaine. I think he had the gift of helps.
Governments – this is the gift of administration. Helps and administration is not confined to deacons and elders, but it sure helps if they have them. This is a very helpful gift in all ministries.
Kinds of tongues – Any believer can have the manifestation of tongues, but some move in this gift quite often. This is the public speaking in tongues. There is a place for speaking in tongues in our gatherings, as we will see in ch 14.
The expected answer to each question is, No. Are all
apostles? No. Are all teachers? No. Do all speak with tongues (the context here
is, publicly)? No. His point is, there are diversities of gifts, but one
Spirit, there are a variety of ministries, but one Lord and one church.
What’s interesting is while he listed 8 gifts in the
previous verse, here he only mentions 7; but one is an addition to the 8 in v
28! He’s not listing every gift in every list, no list is exhaustive.
People with these ministries can also move in the manifestations mentioned earlier in the chapter. An apostle can also have words of wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, discerning of spirits et al. A teacher should expect words of knowledge, and can have gifts of healings, and kinds of tongues. The manifestations are open to all, while the Lord raises up some for ministries.
31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.
Covet earnestly the best gifts. Covet earnestly is a translation of a single word, a strong word, which means “desire earnestly or pursue.” Another word is seek. The denomination I was affiliated with in my years of ministry developed an approach to the gifts in the 1960s, especially tongues, “Seek not, forbid not” (which sort of spiraled down to, “Seek not, forbid not, hope not, better not”). We see here that seek not is not Scriptural. “Pursue” is an imperative. This is a command, “desire earnestly", "pursue” the gifts. Pray about it; ask God to give you gifts; be open to the gifts; be filled with the Spirit and let Him give you gifts!
I show unto you a more excellent way. This is the set up for ch 13
NEXT: Chapter 13
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