Context No. 1875 of 4322 · 1 Corinthians
Context · Reflection
1 Corinthians 12:27-31: in context
27Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various kinds of languages. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracle workers? 30Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with various languages? Do all interpret? 31But earnestly desire the best gifts. Moreover, I show a most excellent way to you.
Paul tells the Corinthians plainly: you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it. And in the body God has given a variety of roles and gifts, apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles, gifts of healing, helping, administration, various tongues. Then he asks a series of questions with obvious answers: are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? No. The gifts are distributed differently to different members, each with a part, none with all.
Paul's point is that the body of Christ, like a physical body, is made of different members with different gifts and roles, and that this diversity is by God's design. Not everyone is an apostle; not everyone is a teacher; not everyone works miracles or has the same gift. God has given different gifts to different people, and distributed them as he willed. And this variety is not a flaw to be corrected but the very way the body works; a body all of one kind of part would be no body at all. There are two temptations this corrects. The first is to despise our own gift because it is not another's, to feel that because we are not the apostle or the teacher or the visible leader, our part does not matter. Paul lists among the gifts things like helping and administration, humble and unspectacular roles, and insists they too are set in the body by God. Every gift, including the quiet and unglamorous ones, has its place and is needed; the body cannot do without them. So we are not to despise our own gift or think our part unimportant because it is not prominent. The second temptation is the opposite: to envy the gifts of others, wishing we had their role, discontent with our own. But the eye is not to envy the hand, nor the ear the eye; each member has its own gift, given by God, and its own place in the body. The call is to value and use the gift we have been given, whatever it is, rather than despising it or coveting another's. God has set the members, each one, in the body just as he desired; and the body flourishes when each member gladly takes up its own part, neither despising its gift as too small nor envying another's, but using what it has been given for the good of the whole. You are the body of Christ, and each of us a member with a part; the question is whether we will value and use our own.
Do I despise my own gift because it is not prominent like another's, feeling my part does not matter, or envy the gifts of others, discontent with my own, or can I value and use the particular gift God has given me, whatever it is, taking up my own part in the body rather than despising it as too small or coveting another's?
Sources
- 1 Corinthians 12:27: now you are the body of Christ, and members individually
- 1 Corinthians 12:18: God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired
- Romans 12:6: having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, let's use them