Saturday, January 26, 2019

I Corinthians 12:12-31


I Corinthians 12: 12-31a

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But strive for the greater gifts.



Paul offers the metaphor of the human body in order to help us grasp how the diversity and individuality with which the Spirit works in the community of believers is a benefit to the community.

Among the beautiful things that God did was to make us in such a way that none of us is complete alone. No matter how gifted and talented we are, no matter how saintly we become, we still need each other. In this way, we reflect the image of God. I realize that the Trinity is a difficult doctrine to understand and apply to one’s spiritual life. Yet, the Trinity is one way for us to understand the nature of God. God is one while God is also in relation. God is already in community, before God created anything else. This shows how much community means to God. God as Father, Son, and Spirit were in relationship with each other from eternity. God invites all creation, but especially us as human beings, into that relationship.

The teaching of the church concerning the Trinity suggests a relational image of God. As persons made into the image of God as Father, Son, and Spirit, we also need relationships with others. We are not complete until we enter into that kind of relationship. C. S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Great Divorce of a place in which everyone got exactly what they wanted. They did not have to relate to others. They could live isolated lives, knowing they would also get want they wanted. He called that place Hell.

We can forget what matters most to us.  I like the way Stephen Covey talks about this problem.  We easily focus upon the trivial and minute matters of life, the little things that attract our attention, and lose sight of what matters most. I recall a Seminary professor asking a group of us why we entered ministry. I was surprised how many said that it was because they wanted to help people and work with people. After several responses, the professor said, “You must not understand people very well.” His point was that people could be difficult. However, even those difficulties are what we need to grow in our Christian life. We could focus upon the little things that irritate us. We could also focus upon what matters most.

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. As a metaphor of how all this works, a body is one, but also has many members. The members of the body are many, but are part of one body. Christ is the same way. His point is that the aim of the Christian is the well-being of the whole body. One meaning of this description is that the existence of the church involves a repetition of the Incarnation of the Word of God in the person of Jesus Christ in that area of the rest of humanity that is distinct from the person of Jesus Christ.[1] The term “body of Christ” stresses Christ is a body. The “being” of the Christian community is this “body.” Christ is one in many. Jesus Christ is by nature body. Such a statement is why Paul will stress the necessity of unity and plurality in the community. The gifts, services, and workings have a bodily nature that recognizes the order and freedom needed within the community. The resurrection of Jesus is what allows Paul to tell the Corinthians they are the body of Christ in verse 27. The body of Christ as seen in the community points like an arrow to the unity of humanity in Christ. The exclusiveness of referring to church as the body of Christ is relative, provisional, and teleological. To use the language and theology of Karl Barth, the community is the body of Christ in the election of Jesus Christ from eternity. It became the body of Christ and individuals members of it due to their election in the death of Christ on the cross and proclaimed in his resurrection from the dead. The work of the Holy Spirit is to realize subjectively the election of Jesus Christ and to reveal and bring it to humanity. The Holy Spirit awakens the poor praise on earth.[2] We may also find a kind of representation in a broader sense in any social group in which individual members have special functions that both single them out and enable them to contribute to the unit as a whole and to the other members, this passage being an example. In a working society, the different members do particular jobs for others, and all the members relate reciprocally to each other. They are “for” each other and must act in solidarity in this sense.[3]

13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body in a way that dissolves distinctions of race and class-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-- and we were all made to drink, maybe referring to baptism again but also a possible reference to the Lord’s Supper, of one Spirit. The Spirit is the means through which the reconciling work of Father and Son find completion. For Paul, the fellowship of Christians with God and each other rests on their participation in the one Jesus Christ to whom each of them is related by faith and baptism.[4] By the Spirit, we receive baptism through the one Spirit and immediately we drink of the one Spirit.[5] Here, Paul describes as a work of the Spirit the incorporating of believers into the one body of Christ by baptism, by which they also receive sonship.[6] The Holy Spirit binds believers together in the fellowship of the body of Christ and thus constitutes the church, as the Spirit is present as its lasting gift.[7] Baptism incorporates individuals into the body of Christ and thus relates them to the unity of the body. Baptism establishes the identity of individual Christians and integrates them with their separate individual qualities into the fellowship of the church.[8] As such, the church becomes a provisional sign of the eschatological fellowship of a renewed humanity in the future reign of God.[9] The redemptive work of the Spirit is present in individuals and society. Individuals receive the gift of the Spirit in baptism, but the gift is not in isolation. It binds them to fellowship with each other. All of this points us toward the goal of the work of the Spirit, renewing individual life and corporate life.[10]

St. Boniface of Mainz lived in the 700's in Germany. He was archbishop of the area when he went to the city of Frisia. He thought he went to a meeting to instruct new converts and confirm them in the faith. Instead, some ruffians showed up and killed him because he preaching threatened shrines to local gods. They also thought that he carried a treasure of gold in the large chests he carried with him. Instead, after they killed him, they found only the books he carried with him. One well-known quote he made about the church goes like this. “The church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life’s different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship, but to keep her on her course.”

God created a system of interdependence. We cannot escape the reality that we belong to one another and function in unhealthy fashion without each other.

Paul refers to baptism and the Lord's Supper as signs of our unity. Regardless of our differences in social standing, wealth, gender, or ethnic background, Christians are one in their reception of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Both sacraments remind us that Christian life is about Christ. Here is our unity.

God has made you for others and others for you and all for his Body collected.

The theme of I Corinthians 12:14-31a continues to develop the metaphor of the human body for the community of believers.

We could think of other metaphors. The “one-person band” genre is nothing new. The church is so not like this band. The theme in I Corinthians 12 is that all of us are in the band, and we all have an instrument to play. The quality of the music depends on each of us, as individuals, using our gifts for the benefit of the whole.

Starbucks puts its employees through rigorous training to ensure that every venti, nonfat, no-whip, sugar-free Caramel Macchiato is precisely the same as the next. It wants loyal customers to get the same exact drink at a neighborhood store as they do at the airport Starbucks as they do at the Starbucks in Manhattan while traveling for business. I think this is a good image of what Paul writes here. Many people working toward their common goal, giving people the best cup of coffee they can, along with the best experience they can.

The metaphor of the body helps explain, by use of analogy, what Paul has said in 12:4-11, particularly as summarized in verse 4, “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” Paul holds together diversity and unity in his imagery of an individual as part of a collective, working together for the same purpose. The principles that precede and follow this section govern the purpose to which Paul is exhorting this community. The purpose of the body of Christ is to declare the lordship of Christ through the empowerment of the Spirit (12:3), and to cover all gifts and actions in the “most excellent way” of love (12:31; 13:13).

Paul, of course, was not the first to use the body metaphor. One can find it in the works of many different ancient writers. The metaphor of the “body” that Paul uses in I Corinthians 12:12-26 was a common analogy in ancient rhetoric. For example, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek historian and orator, compared the human body to the polis, or commonwealth. He urges that each part of the commonwealth have respect for the other. Each part is important and no part can become the whole. He urges that each part needs to behave in ways that benefit the common good. He uses the image to caution against inappropriate demands for liberty and for each class to respect the other class.[11] Of course, notably, Paul has said in verse 13 that such class distinctions are gone in Christ. In contrast, the point Dionysius is making is not, however, that all people (members of the body) have equal value. Rather, his point is that those parts that have less honor, such as the belly, should not object to the parts that have greater value, such as the brain, to rule over them. In other words, his analogy concludes that the plebeian classes in the Greek commonwealth should have no objection to rule by the Roman Senate. Just as in antiquity, using the human body to illustrate the unity and diversity of a group may seem like a common rhetorical trope with little new to say.

Thus, while Paul uses the same “body metaphor” that others did, he does it to accomplish very different ends. Furthermore, he works with spiritual, rather than primarily political, connotations. By marking his explanation with comments about Christ, then God, and finally back to Christ, he frames the discussion of the body of Christ with those who create, empower, and sustain this body and its gifts. Paul uses body imagery to affirm both the diversity and the unity inherent in Christ, without ever wholly subsuming one aspect within the other. Unlike some other pagan political writers who compared the parts with the whole in order to repress individual expression and personal freedoms for the sake of a communal good, Paul celebrates the diverse gifts present in the body of Christ in general and in this Corinthian church in particular. Paul is not interested in transforming the wildly, richly diverse Corinthians into some bland homogeneous conglomerate. 

The text establishes the common root out of which all these gifts and graces grow. In his central portion of chapter 12, Paul develops the body analogy, delicately balancing the genuine uniqueness of each part against the organic result these parts produce the miracle of a functioning, unified body. Paul moves his readers from this general body imagery to their own body of Christ experience. At this point Paul moves to sketch out fully the metaphor of the body.

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. The one body into which they received baptism has many members. The following examples of conversations between parts of the body (see Dionysius, above) demonstrate the foolishness of a body that does not work together. Employing great humor, Paul demonstrates how, in spite of their diversity, the members of the church are still one in Christ. 15 If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. Thus, the inferior limb grumbles against the more valuable. 16 In addition, if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. We should not read these references to particular parts of the body to particular spiritual gifts. The temptation to do so is strong, given that the issue Paul is addressing in the congregation is that it values some gifts over other gifts. Yet, his point is general, leaving it open to a variety of applications, given the context. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? Each member has a function that only it can fill.  Christ is the whole body. 18 However, as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. Paul affirms unity but not uniformity.  There must be "higher" and "lower" gifts.  He affirms variety as a God given gift, but he attributes variations in function and design to God not to any inherent superiority of one body part over another. Here, feet and hands, eyes and ears all belong to the body. In projecting that ears and eyes might talk and protest their membership in the body, Paul intends to show this contentious group (some who have claimed "I belong to Cephas," or "Apollos," or "Paul," 1:12) that in spite of their grumbling they are one in Christ. Moreover, Paul argues that this unity is not by their design or volition, but that God has arranged them into this new form. God has ordered this diverse organism for God's own good purposes. God is sovereign over the life of the church. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? Yet, the superior or more valuable parts must not look down upon the inferior. 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. Nevertheless, God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. The purpose of the design is unity in common life. Previously Paul has exhorted the church to boast in nothing but the Lord (1:31), and has demanded that they eat and drink the supper of the Lord in a "worthy" (read, "unified") manner (11:27ff). Here he illustrates for them the basis of their unity. God has organized them so. God designed this composition of members of the body carefully to create no “dissension.” This reiterates an important theme in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. The dissension and strife present in the congregation have him concerned about their faith, life and worship (4:18-21; 5:6-7; 8:1-13; 10:14–11:1). The humbler parts are indispensable to the rest. The way Paul develops his point suggests that there are no humble parts. Rather, the congregation has only God-given functions as Christ blends the whole together. He urges the celebration of all the gifts. The members need to show the same care for each other. Paul moves to engage the notion of hierarchical divisions in the church according to different gifts. Still employing the body metaphor, Paul argues that contrary to appearances, the members that would appear to be "weaker" and "less honorable" than others are clothed with greater honor in the church. Again, Paul attributes this reversal of worldly expectations to God's design. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member receives honor, all rejoice together with it. What one part of the body feels all parts will feel when we view each part as connected to the one Body of Christ. Ultimately, Paul says, regardless of one’s standing or gifts within the community, the pain of one member of the body will affect the quality of life and worship of all of the other members of the body. For example, pain in one’s foot can make the rest of the body feel that pain and try to compensate or suffer with it. The Christian “body” should act in the same way, taking on the suffering and joy of the individual members of the body as “one body.” Thus, if each part fulfills its work, then the whole body is able to achieve a greater good. Just as the individual parts of the body do not comprise an entire body without all the other members, nor are they able to achieve the more holistic purposes that the body can accomplish, so, too, does the analogy apply to the way God calls believers to live out their lives in Christ. If we apply the metaphor broadly, we can think of the social interactions of human society. In a working society, the different members do particular jobs for others. They are “for” each other and must act in solidarity, for if one member suffers, all suffer together. The benefits that the acts of some confer and the harm that the failings of others cause all affect the society as a whole. The solidarity in good and evil that is basic to us as social beings has become alien to us in the West due to our increasing individualism. Yet, the social nature of humanity can open the door for another important area of Christian theology as it considers the classical Christian teaching of representation or substitution.[12] 27 Now, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Concisely, Paul now states the lesson he draws from his metaphor. The declarative mood is important. Paul does not believe that this church is "becoming" Christ's body. They are the body of Christ now. It is imperative for Paul that they behave thusly in their individual and corporate lives. In this sense, Paul's call for unity sometimes demands the expulsion of members who cannot live out this vision (e.g., 5:11-13). Unity seeks inclusion of the diversity of God's gifts, but demands an ethic of personal accountability. In fact, throughout verses 14-27, Paul is stressing the union of all Christians for fellowship with each other in the unity of the body of Christ, stressing here that the individual members of the one body have specific gifts and functions that supplement each other. All the members are to care equally for each other.[13] 28 Further, God has appointed in the church first apostles, acknowledging his personal authority in the congregation. Although Paul mentions apostle as a gift here, it was not on a par with other gifts.  This ministry, and its successor ministry of the episcopacy, consists of responsibility for the unity of the community in the faith of the gospel in spite of all the differences among members and among the gifts conferred on them by the Spirit.[14] Second prophets, setting the stage for his assertion in Chapter 14 that they should value the gift of prophecy as more valuable to the health of the community than the continued expression of unknown tongues, especially if tongues occurs without the accompanying gift of interpretation. Third God has given teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, and various kinds of tongues. Paul intends a less vaunted view of the gift of tongues than some of the Corinthians do by placing it last in his list. His list here differs from spiritual gift registries elsewhere in that Paul appears to create his own hierarchy by claiming a "first" place, a "second" place and a "third." While such assignments may appear at first to fly in the face of his earlier assertions that all the diverse gifts are equally from God and thus equal within the community, in the context of this letter and his developing argument, these particular designations seem purposefully pointed at the Corinthian situation. At the close of the text, Paul speaks of the diversity of talents in the church (apostles, prophets, local teachers as leaders of the house churches,[15] deeds of power, healing, forms of assistance, leadership, and speaking in tongues). The order of this list might be to correct an over-emphasis of tongues within the church (e.g., 13:1, 14:1-25). 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? If God gave each person all these gifts, then that person would be the body.  However, none is self-sufficient.  There are gifts given to people, not offices.  30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? The series of rhetorical questions in verses 29-30 reinforce that the diversity of gifts in this congregation need to receive recognition and receive celebration rather than become the stimulation for quarrelling. His caution is that zealousness for spiritual gifts ought not to lead one to parade the gift of tongues before them all as the superior gift. In all these gifts, God blesses the church, and their single purpose is to live out God's unified purpose of God's love in the world. 31 Nevertheless, strive for the greater gifts. Paul provides an impressive list of spiritual gifts that this congregation knows and recognizes. The surprise, given what Paul has discussed thus far, is that he will not lift up one of the gifts already listed as superior. Rather, he will move them forward to a discussion of a new quality and “gift” that all members are to possess and exercise toward each other.

I have used a couple different images of the church here, including a band and Starbucks, as well as the image of a body, which is what Paul uses in this passage. My intent is to help us think differently about the church. How do we relate to each other and how do we present ourselves to the world, as a band, a Starbucks store, or a body?

First, true giftedness requires community. Some of us may be talkers, and others thinkers. Some of us are planners, and others doers. Some of us find energy while reaching out to the poor and needy, and others when ministering to the children through Sunday school and our youth programs. Some are excited about the music and preaching that draw people to us on a Sunday morning, while others call us to go outside of our walls to love those who feel shut out.

Second, spirituality is not individualistic. We are individuals with unique capacities and gifts. We are part of a community of believers in whom the same Spirit, Lord, and Father is at work. This mixture of our individuality and community brings tensions. We might find ourselves wondering if the community really needs certain types of individuals. We may view ourselves as in competition with others in terms of influence, power, or prestige. Some persons may seem more important than others are, stronger than others are, more “needed” than others are. Such thoughts are the source of much divisiveness in the church.

What impresses me is how deeply embedded community appears to be in both the human and natural world. Even the atom is a community of particles. Each cell is a community of interacting parts. The human body requires genes and cells, with interacting electrical charges in the brain (at least I hope they are still firing, or else I have lost you), to work together for the good of the body. We do not understand the parts fully until we see how it all comes together in the body. Each part has its place in the whole. 
To view the church from this perspective is a humbling act. The most gifted in time, talent, or treasure, still needs other members of the community in order to grow in their faith, love, and hope. However, this view of the church is also an encouraging one. Every follower of Christ is important to the pattern of life the church is weaving.


[1] Barth, CD I.2 [16.1] 215.
[2] Barth, CD IV.1 [ 62.2] 662-8.
[3] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 419.
[4] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 15.
[5] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 451.
[6] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 16.
[7] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 134.
[8] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume 3, 459.
[9] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 478.
[10] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 552.
[11] (Ant. Rom. 6.86) "A commonwealth resembles in some measure a human body. For each of them is composite and consists of many parts; and no one of their parts either has the same function or performs the same service as the others. 2 If, now, these parts of the human body should be endowed, each for itself, with perception and a voice of its own and a sedition should then arise among them, all of them uniting against the belly alone, and the feet should say that the whole body rests on them; the hands, that they ply the crafts, secure provisions, fight with enemies, and contribute many other advantages toward the common good; the shoulders, that they bear all the burdens; the mouth, that it speaks; the head, that it sees and hears and, comprehending the other senses, possesses all those by which the thing is preserved; and then all these should say to the belly, 'And you, good creature, which of these things do you do? What return do you make and of what use are you to us? Indeed, you are so far from doing anything for us or assisting us in accomplishing anything useful for the common good that you are actually a hindrance and a trouble to us and — a thing intolerable — compel us to serve you and to bring things to you from everywhere for the gratification of your desires. 3 Come now, why do we not assert our liberty and free ourselves from the many troubles we undergo for the sake of this creature?' If, I say, they should decide upon this course and none of the parts should any longer perform its office, could the body possibly exist for any considerable time, and not rather be destroyed within a few days by the worst of all deaths, starvation No one can deny it. Now consider the same condition existing in a commonwealth. 4 For this also is composed of many classes of people not at all resembling one another, every one of which contributes some particular service to the common good, just as its members do to the body. For some cultivate the fields, some fight against the enemy in defense of those fields, others carry on much useful trade by sea, and still others ply the necessary crafts. If, then, all these different classes of people should rise against the senate, which is composed of the best men, and say, 'As for you, senate, what good do you do us, and for what reason do you presume to rule over others? Not a thing can you name. Well then, shall we not now at last free ourselves from this tyranny of yours and live without a leader?' 5 If, I say, they should take this resolution and quit their usual employments, what will hinder this miserable commonwealth from perishing miserably by famine, war and every other evil? Learn, therefore, plebeians, that just as in our bodies the belly thus evilly reviled by the multitude nourishes the body even while it is itself nourished, and preserves it while it is preserved itself, and is a kind of feast, as it were, provided by joint contributions, which as a result of the exchange duly distributes that which is beneficial to each and all, so in commonwealths the senate, which administers the affairs of the public and provides what is expedient for everyone, preserves, guards, and corrects all things. Cease, then, uttering those invidious remarks about the senate, to the effect that you have been driven out of your country by it and that because of it you wander about like vagabonds and beggars. For it neither has done you any harm nor can do you any, but of its own accord calls you and entreats you, and opening all hearts together with the gates, is waiting to welcome you." 
[12] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 419.
[13] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 292-3, 325, 372, 628.
[14] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 387-8.
[15] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 378.

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