Scripture Reading 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 (NRSV)
3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, 5 and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
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.
Devotional Thought:
In this passage, Paul uses the Greek term charisma to describe the evidence of the Spirit that were at work in the life of every believer and had become divisive in the congregation. The term charisma is normative in the Pauline literature. In fact, there is only one New Testament usage of the word that does not come in the Pauline corpus, and that is in 1 Peter. In this passage, Paul gives a list of the spiritual gifts as he also does elsewhere in his correspondence. The gifts, however, vary from list to list. What Paul is indicating by his varying lists is that none of his gift lists are comprehensive and that there are many differing types of spiritual gifts. Making a comprehensive, normative list of spiritual gifts was not important to Paul. What was important to Paul was the Author of the gifts and the goal of the gifts.
The Corinthian congregation tended to place great emphasis on the gift of speaking in tongues, and the ones who had the gift of tongues were highly valued. They were thought to be more important than those who had “lesser” gifts. In that way, the importance of the giver of the gifts was minimized. The gift itself and the one who had it became super-important, so much so that they could revel in the gift and not the giver. Paul notes that the Holy Spirit gave the spiritual gifts. The gifts were not causes for bragging in the spirituality of the one who had it. The one who had the gift was a mere recipient of a grace-gift of God. There was never any reason for boasting in the recipient or for the recipient to develop a superiority complex.
Bolstering his claim that one should not boast about spiritual gifts, Paul makes use of the body metaphor. In it, he asserts that each of the gifts is not given for the good of the individual but for the good of the Church. Each member is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the good of all. If the exercise of a spiritual gift had become destructive to the congregation, then the gift was being exercised in a way that was contrary to its purpose. Paul intended to undercut any elitism resulting from having and using any particular spiritual gift.
Paul also undercuts the Corinthian congregation’s over-valuing of speaking in tongues by the order in which he places the gifts. Tongues were not mentioned first or even in the middle. They were listed at the very end. While Paul did not disparage speaking in tongues, he did not want to over-emphasize it either. He certainly did not want speaking in tongues to remain a divisive issue in the Corinthian congregation. He wanted the use of tongues to glorify God and not the speaker. He wanted the gift to be understood in the broad context of the other gifts of God, and he wanted the Corinthian congregation to value the gift appropriately.
Because each person who is in Christ is baptized into the body, each believer’s giftedness is to be used to support and uphold the community of God. God is gracious in the way the gifts are dispensed, and when believers use their gifts appropriately, the church is brought into further unity. The church, the body of believers, like the human body, is a fantastically designed masterpiece of God. Each believer has a part to play that is crucial. No one has the right to be an elitist, and no one should be discounted in the Church.
Prayer:
Father God, help us to embrace the spiritual gifts you have given each of us and help us to continue to develop them to glorify your kingdom, Father. Continue to help us unify your Church and help each of us to play our part to continue to build and strengthen our congregations. Amen