Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts.We see Paul apply his analogy of the human body to the situation that was occurring at the church in Corinth; “Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.” Paul’s point to the church and to us today, is that every follower of Jesus is a part of the body of Christ.
That is why at City Bible Church, we believe that the issue is not membership, because every follower of Jesus is a member of the body of Christ. The issue is partnership; the issue is are you partnering in what God is doing to advance His kingdom mission by using the spiritual gifts in an interdependent relationship as part of a local church.
Paul then reveals how God had placed specific spiritual gifts in place to promote partnership at the church in Corinth. Paul provides a list, in no order of importance of some of the spiritual gifts that were at Corinth. When Paul uses the word Apostle, he is referring to an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ who had received the spiritual gift by Christ to supervise the special work of laying the foundation of the church. Prophet refers to the God given ability to receive and speak forth new truth from God during the founding of the church that could not have been known by any other means.
Teachers have the God given motivation to research and explain spiritual truth; Kinds of tongues, gifts of miracles and gifts of healings were a sign spiritual gift that was used to confirm and authenticate new verbal revelation from God as to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. The spiritual gift of helps is the God given motivation to serve in a way that meets needs. The gift of administration is the God-given motivation to organize resources in order to meet a goal.
Paul then asks a string of rhetorical questions to expose the reality that not every member of the church at Corinth possessed the same gift. The members of the church were experiencing division due to their diminishing and discounting of those who had spiritual gifts that they did not view as being important and necessary for the church. This division resulted in two negative consequences for the church. First, many of the members of the church viewed themselves with a sense of spiritual pride and arrogance as a result of their spiritual gifting. The members of the church were also competing for prominence and position as a result of the spiritual gifts that they had received from God. And second, the members of the church who were being disregarded and diminished were failing to exercise their spiritual gifts.
Paul concludes this section of his letter by commanding the members of the church to earnestly desire the greater gifts. The phrase, earnestly desire, literally means to strive to intensely exert oneself. The greater gifts Paul refers to are the spiritual gifts that are superior in their ability to meet the needs of others in a way that builds them to grow spiritually. But what exactly are those gifts? Before Paul answers that question, however, Paul, will address a more important question, which is what should be the motivation behind the use of our spiritual gifts? We will look at that question next week.
So are you abusing the spiritual gifts, the talents, and the abilities that God has given you? Or are you using those gifts, talents, and abilities into God’s kingdom mission by serving God by serving others?
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