1 Cor. 12:4-26

1 Cor. 12:4-26 (cf Rom. 12:3-8)
In this context, Paul gave a proper perspective on gifts of ministry within the local church—a perspective which many Corinthian believers had forgotten. Let us list Paul’s basic points.

1. All believers possess the Spirit of Christ (v.13).
2. This common Spirit works in all believers (vv.4-7).
3. The goal of spiritual gifts is mutual edification (vv.7,11).
4. The church is a body, whose members all have a vital function (vv.12, l5-18, 21-22).
5. Ministry in the church does not focus in one member, but many (vv.14, 19; cf. Appendix A).
6. The many members, because of their personal union with Christ, have a living relationship with one another (vv.12, 25-26).
7. The body cannot function without its parts, and the functioning (priesthood) of the parts is necessary for the unity of the body (vv.17, 25, 27).

The body brought into existence by Christ’s work does absolute justice to both the worth of each individual part, and to the corporate body as a whole. That is to say, neither is the individual swallowed up in the body, nor is the body sacrificed for the sake of the individual parts. Just as in a human body, it functions as a unified whole, but is dependent upon the proper functioning of all the parts. All of this takes on special meaning when the. general priesthood of believers is supposed. The body is not meant to depend upon the function of one member (vv.14, 19), while the other members are passively receptive. On that basis the body will be crippled, and perhaps die.

It is not going too far, then, to say that the “body” nature of Christ’s people is most basic in the N.T. Erroll Hulse observes, “the main New Testament analogies describe the Church as a body made up of living members. The analogy of the human body predominates” (Local Church Practice, p.56). Howard Snyder comments, that “the Church is no mere collection of isolated individuals, but... it has a corporate or communal nature which is absolutely essential to it[s] true being” (The Community of the King, p.58).

~ Jon Zeus