Chapter 12

The doctrine of the Church

1. The Greek word used for “church” is e)kklhsia. It is used five different ways in scripture and it is used for something beside the word “church” as we understand it.

a) The Classical Greek use of the word was for the assembly of the Athenians to conduct the affairs of their city state. This use of the word is found in Acts 19:25,29,32 where we have the Greek concept of government.

b) There is an Old Testament use, Acts 7:38 is an illustration of the assembly of Israel.

c) A reference to the synagogue, Matthew 18:17.

d) The body of Christ, made up of all believers as of the moment they accept Christ as saviour — Ephesians 1:22,23; 5:25-27; Colossians 1:17,18.

e) Then the word e)kklhsia is used for a local group geographically, the church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth, etc. A local church is made up of believers and unbelievers assembled together in one area.

2. The Church began on the day of Pentecost in 32 AD and then terminates with the Rapture, whenever that is.

3. The Church is said to be a mystery, Ephesians 3:1-6; Colossians 1:25,26; Romans 16:25,26. The word mystery is defined in these passages: something that was hidden in the past during the Old Testament period but is now revealed. This is the Church Age which was never revealed in Old Testament times.

4. The distinctive character of the Church.

a) Every believer is in union with Christ. This was never true before, no Old Testament saint had union with Christ. “In Christ” is technical for believers in the Church Age only.

b) Jesus Christ indwells every believer. He does not indwell for any purpose except fellowship.

c) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He indwells every believer and this was never true before in the Old Testament where there was a system called empowering or enduement. Under enduement you could lose the Holy Spirit which is why David prayed “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me,” and that is why Saul lost the Holy Spirit.

d) Every believer is a priest — the universal priesthood of the believer.

e) We have a completed canon of scripture in writing. This was never true before.

f) For the first time in human history believers are commanded to live an entirely supernatural way of life. This was never true of the Old Testament saints.

g) For the first time in all of history every believer in Jesus Christ is an ambassador representing Christ on the earth.

The doctrine of spirituality

1. This is distinguishes between the salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit and the post-salvation ministry. The Holy Spirit does five things for every believer at the moment of salvation:

a) Regeneration. The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration.

b) Indwelling. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer at the moment of salvation and forever.

c) The Holy Spirit seals. This is the basis of eternal security.

d) The Holy Spirit baptises which is simply taking every believer at the moment of salvation and entering him into union with Christ.

e) The Holy Spirit gives every believer at least one spiritual gift.

The post-salvation ministry of the Spirit is filling: “Be filled with the Spirit, Walking in the Spirit, Put on Christ Jesus,” etc. Cf. Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:16; Romans 13:14; 1 John 1:7.

2. Spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive, therefore absolutes in phase two. You are either spiritual or carnal, you cannot be both. The spiritual believer walks in the light, the carnal believer walks in darkness.

3. Imitation is the great issue in spirituality. The spiritual believer imitates Christ when he is filled with the Spirit. When he is controlled by the old sin nature he imitates the unbeliever. Ephesians 5:1 in the Greek; 1 John 3:9 cf. Galatians 5:19-21; 1 John 1:6; 2:11; 3:4.

4. The spiritual believer accomplishes three general objectives: a) He imitates God, Ephesians 5:1; b) He glorifies Christ, John 7:39; 16:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20; c) To fulfill the Mosaic law, Romans 8:2-4; 13:8.

5. The spiritual believer is therefore not subject to the Mosaic law, Galatians 5:18,23; Romans 8:2-4; 10:4.

6. The spiritual believer produces the character of the incarnate Christ, Galatians 4:19; 5:22,23; 1 John 2:5,6.

7. The Holy Spirit is God and cannot sin, therefore the believer filled with the Spirit cannot sin in the status of spirituality apart from human volition or ignorance. Therefore the believer magnifies Christ in his inner life, 2 Corinthians 3:3; Philippians 1:20,21.

8. The production of the Christian way of life depends on the filling of the Spirit.

9. The results of the filling of the Spirit: imitation of Christ, Galatians 4:19; perception of the Word, John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; witnessing, Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians chapters 3-5; guidance, Romans 8:14; Ephesians 5:16-18; assurance, Romans 8:14-16; Galatians 4:5,6; 1 John 3:24; 4:13; worship, Philippians 3:3; John 4:24; prayer, Ephesians 6:18 cf. Psalm 66:18; helping other believers rebound, Galatians 6:1.

10. Emotion or ecstatics is not characteristic of the filling of the Spirit during the Church Age, 2 Corinthians 6:11,12 (Greek); Romans 16:17,18.

The doctrine of spiritual gifts

1. Scripture listing spiritual gifts: Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:26; Romans 12:8. Spiritual gifts are mentioned in other passages but these are three passages which actually list them. All spiritual gifts are not listed in the Bible. These are merely representative for categorical concepts.

2. Spiritual gifts are the Father’s organised witness to the plan of salvation, Hebrews 2:4. All spiritual gifts operate as a part and function of the team. Our spiritual gift determines what position we play on the team.

3. The purpose of spiritual gifts is given in Ephesians 4:8-13. This is the purpose of leadership gifts.

4. The perspective of spiritual gifts is given in the first half of 1 Corinthians 12.

5. There are two kinds of spiritual gifts: temporary and permanent. A temporary spiritual gift was a gift which was used before the canon of scripture was completed. It was to function in the place of a completed canon of scripture. Permanent gifts are gifts that exist throughout the entire Church Age.

6. Attitude toward spiritual gifts is given in Romans 12:3.

7. The operation of spiritual gifts depends entirely upon the filling of the Holy Spirit for maximum production in that gift, Acts 2:4.

Chapter 12. In verses 1-11 the subject is relationship with the Holy Spirit. Verses 12,13, relationship with Christ. Verses 14 to the end of the chapter, relationship with each other.

In verses 1,2 we have the hindrance of relationships.

Verse 1, ignorance hinders the believer’s relationship. The Greek says stupidity. There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. Stupidity means that you could know the difference but you won’t .In other words, stupidity is having the Bible and not using it. Ignorance is not being aware of the existence of the Bible.

“Now,” this is the particle de and it meant originally to wake up and start listening, but it actually comes to mean a new subject.

“concerning spiritual gifts,” the word “gifts” is italicised because there is no such word. There are two Greek words, pneumatikoj and xarismata. Both words are technical and gifts is allowable to clarify. The word here refers to spiritual things, not spiritual gifts. The former refers to spiritual things and sometimes refer to spiritual gifts. The spiritual things he is going to discuss here is spiritual gifts and it is a legitimate translation. But when we get down to verse 4, “there are diversities of gifts,” then we have xarismata and from then on that word is used.

1. It is clear from 1 Corinthians 1:7 that the Corinthian church abounded in spiritual gifts, more than any other church of the ancient world as far as the record goes.

2. Yet this same church where gifts abounded was the worst of all local churches in the first century. One reason they were having so much carnality was because they thought that the possession of some of these gifts meant they were spiritual, and they were causing divisions in the church. The possession of a spiritual gift doesn’t make you anything.

3. The possession of a spiritual gift does not mean spirituality.

4. It is important to distinguish between spiritual gifts and spirituality. A spiritual gift for its proper function depends upon the filling of the Spirit but they are not synonymous.

5. False teaching based on legalism and emotionalism had infiltrated the church at Corinth. Therefore we have three chapters to refute legalism and emotionalism.

“brethren,” this passage is addressed to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are in the family of God, Galatians 3:26.

“I would not have you ignorant,” should be “I do not desire for you to be ignorant.” This is present linear aktionsart which means this is a constant desire on his part. Ignorance is the great problem in the Christian life, ignorance of doctrine. With regard to spiritual gifts Paul’s desire that they no longer be ignorant because ignorance has led to many abuses. For example, one of the greatest abuses is the tongues crowd taking over. Possessing the gift of tongues doesn’t have anything to do with where the believer stands spiritually.

Verse 2, he illustrates ignorance. “Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away with these dumb idols, even as ye were led.” Worshipping idols was their status quo in the past; “ye were” is linear aktionsart in past time. The words “carried away” is imperfect passive to indicate that this was part of their culture and they went along with it. It means to be led away into something that was going to hurt them. There is a principle that comes out of this: Ignorance puts a person in a false position. In this case ignorance of doctrine put one in a false position and hindered their relationship with God.

“unto dumb idols,” the preposition proj plus the accusative which means “face to face with dumb idols.” This is a direct analogy to show that the ignorance in unbelief has only one parallel in salvation and that is ignorance of spiritual gifts. They have distorted tongues out of its place and they have made it the biggest thing when it is the smallest of things and has a limited operation.

“even as ye were led,” this means to be led astray; “even as” means “howsoever.” This means that they got into this idolatry in different ways through Greek culture.

Verse 3, relationship with the Holy Spirit begins at the point of salvation. The Holy Spirit has a pre-salvation ministry to the human race but this doesn’t involve mutual relationship. Before salvation the ministry of the Holy Spirit is conviction or convincing. At the point of salvation the Holy Spirit has a fivefold ministry. Then there is a post-salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit, but relationship with the Holy Spirit begins at the point of salvation.

“Wherefore” is literally “therefore.”

“I give you to understand” is where he is going to correct this problem of spiritual gifts. This is a word which means to cause to understand, “I am going to cause you to understand, I am going to orient you to the subject.”

“no man” is literally “no one.”

“speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed,” the interesting thing here is speaking by the Spirit. “Speaking” is a present active participle and it indicates one under the control of the Holy Spirit. No one is under the control of the Holy Spirit until he believes in Christ. At that time he is filled with the Holy Spirit and then he begins to speak. No one speaking from this position, the filling of the Spirit, will call Jesus accursed. But a believer, and this is a result of being saved, will call Jesus Lord. Speaking by the Spirit means to be in the bottom circle, the place of the filling of the Holy Spirit. A believer can be out of fellowship and call Jesus accursed but he can never do it in fellowship, the place of the filling of the Holy Spirit. However, when the believer is filled with the Spirit Jesus is always Lord, i.e. deity, kurioj.

“and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord,” this is kurioj, the Greek word for deity. This is not a reference to Jesus being Lord of all, it is a reference to the fact that he is God.

“but by the Holy Spirit” is literally, “in the sphere of the Holy Spirit.” It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to teach the Word of God and in teaching the Word of God to clarify these issues.

Romans 10:9,10, Romans 10 is salvation of the Jews in the Old Testament. They weren’t saved by the law, says the end of Romans 9, they were saved by faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is closer to them than the Mosaic law. Romans ten goes into something like this: Which is closer to the person, his heart [thinking part of the mind] which produces faith or the Mosaic law which produces nothing? The heart, of course.

So when we get to verse 9, “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord.” This is a result. It is in a third class condition saying, maybe you will confess and maybe you won’t .Some people never overtly mention Jesus Christ even though they are definitely saved. But the word “and” separates the result from the cause.

“and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Notice: “Thou shalt be saved” goes with the second clause, not the first. To explain that we have verse 10 — “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness [+R].” Then there is the word “and” which divides, this is salvation — the first part of the verse. The heart is the thinking part of the mind.

“and,” here is a result now; “with the mouth confession is made with reference to salvation,” literally.

The heart is the thinking part of the mind. Which is closest, the Mosaic law or the heart and the mouth. Obviously to the Jew the heart and the mouth was closer to him. The law is not salvation, for salvation you believe in Jesus Christ. As a result, out comes the fact, Jesus is Lord or God.

In verses 4-6 we have diversities among believers. No two believers are exactly alike. Diversities among believers does not in any way hinder relationship with God. We are all saved in exactly the same way, by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. All believers are in union with Christ. However, in time we have different personalities because we are different persons, and it is not the objective of the Christian way of life to cast everyone in the same mould. There are diversities among believers and these diversities will always continue and they do not hinder your relationship with the Lord.

Verse 4, “Now there are diversities of gifts.” As long as the Church is on the earth there will be diversities. What we have in common are found in Ephesians 4 but there are differences which should always be different. a) There are differences of personality; b) There are differences of spiritual gift, and because there are differences it does not imply superiority.

“there are” is present linear aktionsart, absolute status quo verb, which means this keeps on existing as long as the Church is on the earth. “Diversities” simply means different gifts. The word for “gifts” connotes gifts distributed on the basis of the principle of grace. We know this from the Greek word, xarismata. Xarij is the word for “grace,” and the Greek word here simply indicates that all spiritual gifts are a matter of grace, you don’t earn them or deserve them, and you don’t work for them. The possession of a certain spiritual gift does not indicate merit or spirituality. You do not get a certain spiritual gift because you are better than anyone else, because you have had some kind of an experience. No believer earns or deserves the spiritual gift that he possesses. As far as a spiritual gift is concerned what you are and who you are depends upon the sovereign decision of the Holy Spirit. It has nothing to do with the believer’s ability or any experience he has had, it is strictly a matter of what God the Holy Spirit has given you as a spiritual gift at the moment of salvation.

There are three passages which indicate various kinds of spiritual gifts. Some of the gifts are temporary and some are permanent: Romans 12:8ff; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11. These three passages list a lot of the spiritual gifts but all of the gifts are not mentioned in the scripture and we only have principles in connection with these gifts. The temporary gifts were gifts used until, the completion of the canon of scripture, and once the canon of scripture was completed then all temporary gifts were removed. They include apostleship. We have no apostles today. An apostle was a man who had dictatorship over all the churches. There is no man alive today that has the right to rule or have final authority over more than one church. The highest authoritative gift today is the gift of pastor, and no pastor has the right to have responsibility for more than one congregation.

The gift of healing is gone. God Himself still heals. God is omnipotent and can heal when and so He desires — sovereignty plus omnipotence — but no man has the gift of healing today. The gift of healing has been removed. The gift of miracles no longer exists, or the gifts of prophecy, tongues, interpreting tongues, discerning spirits. (Discerning spirits was a gift whereby a person could tell whether men who came through and wanted to speak to the congregation were doctrinally sound or not) These were all temporary gifts and they no longer exist.

We also have permanent spiritual gifts used throughout the Church Age, pastor and teacher, the gift of evangelism, the gifts of governments, of ministering, of exhortation, of wisdom, of giving, of showing mercy, and many other spiritual gifts. If you are personally a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you have at least one spiritual gift. Your spiritual gift determines what your position happens to be in the team.

“but the same spirit,” God the Holy Spirit is the source of all spiritual gifts. When you are talking about diversities in the Holy Spirit, as you are in verse 4, the subject has to be the filling of the Holy Spirit. Diversities means that everyone has a different gift, but if you are talking about unity in the Holy Spirit or sameness you are talking about the filling of the Holy Spirit. This passage isn’t talking about spirituality [Ephesians 5:18] it is talking about diversity in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in verse 4 “there are diversities of gifts.” The sameness comes from the source.

Verse 5, When we are talking about diversities we are talking about administrations. Why are we here as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? We are here to represent Christ, to glorify Christ. Do we all glorify Christ in the same way? No, we do not. That is what is meant by “administrations.” The basis of glorifying Christ is the filling of the Spirit — John 16:14. Once Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father then operation glorification of Christ begins by the coming of the Spirit, and through the filling of the Spirit we glorify Christ. But the manifestations are different. Glorifying Jesus Christ is accomplished in different ways, there are different administrations. The use of your spiritual gift becomes administration — operation of the team — and it is different. Administration means a form of service, and area of service. There are certain things we all have in common, but that is because we are all in union with Christ. We all, for example, are supposed to witness for Christ. Prayer is the responsibility of all believers, as is worship, giving. But all of these are between the believer and the Lord and none of them are to become status symbols — “I witness to ten people a day,” or “I go to prayer meeting,” etc. Every believer is in full-time Christian service whether he is in the pulpit, on the mission field, in business, in the barracks, on the campus, and even the housewife is in full-time Christian service. Whatever you are doing you are supposed to be doing it as unto the Lord.

“but the same Lord,” Jesus Christ is to be glorified and declared wherever Christians are located.

Verse 6, Diversities in the Father. We are all in the same family, the first person in the Trinity is our Father. All divine discipline is administered by the Father. “There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.”

“There are,” linear aktionsart, there keep on being throughout the Church Age diversities of operations. For example, administration, teaching, prayer, witnessing, giving, etc. We all have the same Father but we have diversities of operations.

“which worketh,” literally “who,” the relative pronoun referring to God the Father; “worketh” is e)nergew , operational power. The same God who provides the operational power, the same God who energises. We use the same power, we do it in a different way. What does this tell us? We have different personalities, we have different vocabularies, different thought patterns, different approaches to life, but the same power.

Verse 7, spirituality is common to all believers. “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall.” The manifestation of the Spirit is the filling of the Holy Spirit using different personalities. In other words, believers may be filled with the Spirit but there are different personalities. The point is that the filling of the Spirit must be there.

“is given” — present passive indicative. God the Holy Spirit indwells every believer and every believer should be filled with the Spirit; “to every man” is literally, “to each,” and it means to each believer; “to profit,” the word means to bring something together with something else for the benefit or advantage of all. In this case it is to bring the Holy Spirit into the life of every believer for the glorification of Christ and the profit of all believers. The present tense indicates this will always be the modus operandi of the Church. The active voice means initiation of action on your part — rebound.

“withall” means “on account of this. That is, on account of spirituality, “to profit each on account of spirituality.”

The subject of the first eleven verses of this chapter is relation of the believer with the Holy Spirit. In verses twelve and thirteen we have the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ. In verses fourteen to the end of the chapter we have the believer’s relationship with believer. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. In religion man seeks to gain the approbation of God through human good [his own works] but in Christianity God gains man through regeneration, through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verses 8-10, spiritual gifts are different in all believers. This goes back to the diversity. We have in common spirituality. All believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. All believers are commanded to learn doctrine, to apply doctrine to experience, to use the faith-rest technique, to rebound when necessary, to be occupied with Christ, but every believer has a different spiritual gift.

Verse 8, a reference to two of the permanent gifts. “For to one,” this is to one believer, dative case in the Greek which means dative of advantage. It is to the advantage of every believer to have a spiritual gift. The distinction of gifts does not in any way make a believer superior or inferior. It is to the advantage of the entire body of Christ on the earth to have a spiritual gift. The Holy Spirit is God. That means that He is sovereign and He is omniscient. He gives every believer at the point of salvation a spiritual gift. Why all of these different gifts? What is behind all of this? All we can say by way of speculation is that several things are obvious. Due to the attrition in the body of Christ — believers going to be with the Lord and other new believers coming into the picture — there apparently must be balance. The team apparently has X number of positions and God the Holy Spirit sovereignly bestows these spiritual gifts. Whatever your spiritual gift happens to be it has absolutely nothing to do with your spiritual life.

“is given,” the verb “to give” means a spiritual gift is provided for each believer apart from any merit. The moment you accept Jesus Christ as saviour you have no merit, you are a sinner saved by grace. At that moment you are given a spiritual gift, and the spiritual gift is given on the basis of who and what the Holy Spirit is. “To one is given,” this is a dramatic present tense, it is a dramatic thing that at the moment of salvation, the moment you receive eternal life, you also receive a special gift so that you can operate as a member of the team in temporal life in phase two. The passive voice indicates that the believer does not earn or deserve his spiritual gift. How do we get these? “by the Spirit,” dia plus the genitive indicates instrumentality, “through the instrumentality of the Spirit.” This dia plus the genitive means God the Holy Spirit does the whole thing without any help from anyone else.

“the word of wisdom,” the ability to understand and relate doctrine to all situations in life. Wisdom is the application of doctrine to experience. Any believer who knows maximum doctrine can have wisdom but the “word of wisdom” is actually what we would call today, the gift of counselling, the ability to look at a person’s problems, to immediately grasp the situation, see the solution and to disseminate the solution — communicate it to the person who has the problem, to see a problem objectively in the light of the Word of God, to relate the problem to the proper doctrines from the Word, and to immediately arrive at a solution.

“to another,” another of the same kind; “the word of knowledge,” the ability to categorise Bible doctrine. God presented the Word to us in a system whereby it can be absorbed and understood. You can’t, for example, as a new believer sit down and read a chapter of the Bible and understand everything — even if you can read it in the Greek — unless you have in your frontal lobe X number of categories and can relate the various paragraphs to the categories of doctrine. So there has to be a categorical development of the content of the Word.

When someone has the gift of knowledge they have it “by the same Spirit.” This is the second time we have the phrase “by the Spirit” in this verse. The first phrase is dia plus the genitive and it should be translated “through the instrumentality of the Spirit.” But the second time the phrase occurs the preposition is not dia but kata. Kata means norm, or standard or criterion. So it should be translated “according to the criterion of the Spirit.” Who is the norm or the standard for determining your spiritual gift? The Holy Spirit. So we have kata in front of the word “Spirit” and that means he decides. The first “by the Spirit” indicates not only does He decide — sovereignty of the Spirit — but He actually gives the gifts of the Spirit, he is the instrument as well. So we have instrumentality in the first prepositional phrase, indicating He not only decides but He has the power to distribute.

By the way, since the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ in this age and since spiritual gifts are for the Church Age only, it is therefore quite obvious that whatever spiritual gift you receive from the Spirit is designed to glorify Christ. Whatever you have by way of a spiritual gift it must be used to the glory of Christ.

Verse 9, we go on with the thought but we go to temporary spiritual gifts. “To another faith,” the gift of faith, it is not the faith-rest technique. We are all to understand doctrine but some people have a special gift of categorising doctrine. This refers not to the faith-rest technique but the actual gift of faith. It is described in Matthew 17:20; 21:21. It can remove mountains, as it were. It is a miracle performing gift, a temporary gift not in operation today. We have the faith-rest today but not the gift of faith.

“by,” again mistranslated because the preposition this time is e)n, usually translated “in” or “in the sphere of,” “in the sphere of the operation of the Spirit.” It is the operation of the Spirit to provide this gift.

“to another gifts of healing,” plural. There are various types of gifts of healing. This is a very temporary gift, and this is “in the sphere of the Spirit.” To illustrate that the gifts of healing are no longer in existence: Acts 19:11,12, in this particular passage Paul had the gift of healing and if people touched Paul they were healed, if Paul touched them they were healed, if they passed by and just brushed his clothes they were healed, or he could say “be healed” and they were healed. That is the gift of healing, and that is a man deciding who can be healed and who cannot be healed. it was not a meritorious thing but it was designed to focus attention on the Gospel before the Bible was completed. However, when you get to Philippians 2:27 one of Paul’s best friends, Epaphroditus, was very sick and was dying. And Paul could not heal him then, he no longer had the gift of healing. It was withdrawn from Paul by 57 AD when Paul wrote the epistle. All he could do was pray for Epaphroditus. So the gift of healing had already been withdrawn. Then on one more occasion, in the second imprisonment - 1 Timothy 4:20 - Paul had to leave one of his friends behind because he was ill. No one has this gift today. The gift of healing was a temporary gift and no person has the gift of healing. Healing does occur and miracles do occasionally occur though it is not the objective in the Church Age because for the first time in human history we have something greater than any miracle or any manifestation of divine power, and that is the completed canon of scripture, the Word of God. The Word of God is much greater than any kind of extranatural phenomena of any sort, and so once the Word was completed these temporary gifts were withdrawn. God heals but usually He does not. So stay away from the mumbo jumbo.

Verse 10, “To another,” a believer; “the working of miracles.” We don’t have the gift of miracles any more. We have a lot of slight-of-hand artists but no miracle workers. God still performs miracles.

“to another prophecy,” necessary to complete the canon of scripture. There are two different aspects to prophecy: foretelling, predicting accurately the future. John the apostle had the gift of foretelling because that was Revelation. Paul had the gift of prophecy and this comes out in 2 Thessalonians. So first of all it was accurately telling the future. The gift of prophecy before the Bible was completed was actually where a man could stand up and preach and talk about the Rapture, long before 1 Thessalonians chapter four was written or 1 Corinthians chapter fifteen; talk about the second advent, the Tribulation, the Millennium, and so on. All of these things were thoroughly understood before the canon of scripture was completed and they were presented through those who had the gift of prophecy. The man who had the gift of prophecy was a preacher, so we have a second description of the gift: forthtelling, which is simply preaching, and this aspect still exists. The gift of prophecy simply relates the plan of God to time. There is actually a difference between prophecy and prediction. Prediction anticipates the plan of God, prophecy gives an accurate doctrinal picture of the plan of God in the future.

“discerning spirits,” this is the gift of distinguishing true from false doctrine. We have the Bible as the norm today but before the Bible existed there were those with the ability to know whether a man was biblically or doctrinally correct or not.

“kinds of tongues,” the word “kinds” refers to a category of known phenomenon. The known phenomenon were languages, communication. The gift of tongues had been abused in Corinth. The gift of tongues is the gift of speaking the Gospel in a foreign language. This should be translated “kinds of languages.”

“interpretation of languages,” the spiritual gift of translating what was said. The principle is the God the Holy Spirit is the source of all of the spiritual gifts. He is responsible for all of these gifts.

Verse 11, the source of all spiritual gifts. “But all these [spiritual gifts] worketh,” the word “worketh” means energise or empower. It is a present tense meaning this is always the way it works. The Greek word is e)nergew, the word for operating power.

“[by] that one and self-same Spirit,” referring to the Holy Spirit, “self-same” indicates the sovereignty of the Spirit, and indicates that the Holy Spirit makes the decision as to what spiritual gift you receive.

“dividing,” the distribution verb, a present active participle which means constantly distributing. Whenever a person is saved the Holy Spirit distributes to him at least one gift.

“to every man” is literally, “to each one” which is dative of advantage. It is to the advantage of the body of Christ, it is to the personal advantage of each believer to have a spiritual gift.

“severally,” means individually. Christianity always emphasises the individual; “as he wills.” There are two verb “to will” in the Greek: qelw and boulomai. The first means to will, and it involves the emotion. You make a decision but you are influenced by your emotion. The second word means to make a decision from your volition and to make it without any emotion being involved. This is strictly objective. So boulomai is the word used by the Holy Spirit. In other words, this word is used to indicate that the Holy Spirit does not get emotionally involved with you when He gives you a spiritual gift. In other words, He doesn’t give you some spiritual gift because you seem to be nicer than most people!

Verse 12, the principle of positional truth. The analogy between the Church and the human body is brought out. The word “body” in this verse is a reference to the human body compared to the regenerate of the Church Age, and only the Church Age. It did not refer to any born again person before the Day of Pentecost in 32 AD nor any born again person after the Rapture of the Church. The body analogy is found in Acts 2:47; Ephesians 2:16; 4:4,5, 15; Colossians 1:24; 2:19. The principle is the Church is the body. We as believers are members of the body and this is analogous to any athletic team in which we play different positions but are members of the same team.

“For as the body is one,” the reason that the body is one is because every believer at the moment of salvation is entered into union with Christ, we are all in union with the same person, Jesus Christ; “and hath many members,” reference to the fact that we have different spiritual gifts. All believers are in union with Christ but all believers have different spiritual gifts. It takes all kinds of positions to make the team function, we all play different positions - “being many” is a present active participle and it means this will always be true as long as the Church Age exists.

“being many, are one body,” the present active indicative “are one body” means an absolute status quo that never changes; “so also is [the] Christ” is a technical term. The last word here, “Christ,” is “the Christ” in the Greek, it is a technical phrase used quite frequently in the New Testament but it is never translated correctly. They do not translate the definite article. There is a difference between “Christ” and “the Christ.” The word “Christ” without the definite article refers to the person, the God-Man — undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever; “the Christ” refers to Jesus Christ and every believer in union with Him, referring to the Church in positional truth.

The doctrine of positional truth

1. The mechanics of positional truth are found in the baptism of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:13.

2. Positional truth belongs to the carnal believer as much as to the spiritual believer, 1 Corinthians 1:2,30. The Corinthians believers were the worst of all the believers in the sphere of carnality and yet they were declared twice to be “in Christ.”

3. Positional truth protects the believer from eternal judgment. The fact that you are in union with Christ makes it impossible for you to be at the last judgment, Romans 8:1.

4. Positional truth results in eternal life and imputed righteousness, 1 John 5:11,12; 2 Corinthians 5:21.

5. Positional truth defines both election and predestination, Ephesians 1:3-6. In eternity past God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit held a conference and in this conference God the Father delineated operation grace, the plan for mankind. The plan focuses in the person of Christ and God the Father elected God the Son to rule for eternity, and those who are in union with Christ to rule in this eternal kingdom. So he was elected and because He was elected He was given a destiny. One person has a destiny - Christ. When the believer enters into union with Christ His election becomes your election and he is therefore called “elect.” Furthermore, His destiny becomes your destiny and you are therefore called predestined.

6. Positional truth produces a new creature in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17. The believer is a new creature not because of what he has done for God but because of what God has done for him at the cross. The believer is a new creature because he is in union with Christ. “New” means having something that you have never had before — eternal life, justification from God, union with Jesus Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you now become a priest and represent yourself before God, all of which come to you in a moment of time.

7. Positional truth guarantees the eternal security of the believer, Romans 8:38,39.

8. Summary of current positional truth.

a) The believer shares the life of Christ, which is eternal life, 1 John 5:11,12; John 20:31

b) The believer shares the righteousness of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:21.

c) The believer shares the election of Christ, Ephesians 1:4.

d) The believer shares the destiny of Christ, Ephesians 1:5.

e) The believer shares the sonship of Christ, Galatians 3:26; Romans 8:16,17.

f) The believer shares the heirship of Christ, 1 Peter 1:4,5; Romans 8:16,17

g) The believer shares the sanctification of Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:2.

h) The believer shares the priesthood of Christ, 1 Peter 2:5,9.

i) The believer shares the kingdom of Christ, 2 Peter 1:11.

9. The characteristics of positional truth.

a) Positional truth is not an experience.

b) Positional truth is not progressive, it is perfect at the moment of salvation and can never be improved.

c) Positional truth is not related to human merit.

d) Positional truth is eternal in nature.

e) Positional truth is known only by the Word of God — not found anywhere else.

f) Positional truth is obtained in toto at the moment of salvation.

Verse 13, the mechanics of positional truth. This has been an abused verse. The weirdo movement has taken this over and tried to make an experience out of it. One of the greatest attacks upon Bible doctrine today is the tongues movement and the things that accompany it. It starts out with a criterion of emotion instead of the Word and it encourages people to get away from the Word, except with things that might be regarded as miraculous or that might somehow stimulate the rosy glow.

“For by one Spirit,” reference here to God the third person. This is an instrumental dative case. The instrumental indicates that the Holy Spirit is the means of accomplishing something. In other words, “by one Spirit” indicates that the Holy Spirit is actually going to do something. He performs the mechanics of positional truth; “are we all,” this is the shocker, it refers to every Corinthian, all of the carnal believers, all are involved in the Baptism of the Spirit; all believers are included. It is not an ecstatic or an emotional experience, it is the work of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, it can never be reversed. What God accomplishes is permanent, “baptised,” aorist tense, referring to a point of time when you believe in Jesus Christ. It is a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever, so it could be translated “once and for all baptised.” It is passive voice, which means the subject [believers] receive the action of the verb. He doesn’t earn it or work for it. It is the indicative mood, which indicates reality. The baptism of the Spirit is unseen, unfelt, and yet it is the believer’s at the moment of salvation.

The etymology of the verb. We have transliterated the word instead of translating it and as a result have tried to define it instead of translate it.

The first use of the verb baptizw. It was originally used in the 9th century BC by Homer. It was used in the 5th century by Euripedes. It was also used by Xenophon. It was used in the Koine Greek and later on in the Patristic Greek.

What does baptizw mean? Homer, in the 9th book of his Odyssey describes the conflict with Cyclops, and when they rammed the sharpened stake into the eye of Cyclops Homer says the hissing of the burning eye sounded like the hissing of water when a smith baptises [baptizw] a piece of metal. What he is saying is that when you take hot iron and you identify it with water the character or the nature of the iron is changed. It is tempered. This indicates that the verb baptizw means to identify one object with another object whereby the original object identified is changed. So you have identification as the meaning.

Euripedes describes the sinking of a ship. He uses verb baptizw and he says the ship is so identified with the water that the character of the ship is changed. So, once again, in Euripedes the meaning of the verb is to identify.

Xenophon, describing the ten thousand on their way to Persia to join the Persian army, related a little ceremony on their departure. Each man took his new war spear, went by a bowl of pigs blood and baptised his spear in the pig’s blood. That changed the ordinary spear into a war spear. In other words, one thing was so identified with another thing that there was a change, and he used the word baptizw.

In all of these cases the word baptizw comes to mean to identify. One thing is identified with another thing resulting in some change to the thing being identified. It does not mean to immerse, it does not mean to sprinkle.

In the scripture there are two categories of baptism: real baptism - a real identification is made. There are four such baptisms found in the scripture.

1. The first is the baptism of Moses, 1 Corinthians 10:2. It is a dry baptism. The children of Israel were identified with the cloud [Christ] and therefore moved safely across the Red Sea, and none of them were wet. The result was deliverance from the Egyptian army.

2. The baptism of the cross, Matthew 20:22. The cross is said to be a baptism, a dry baptism. Our sins are identified with Christ with the result that when Christ bore our sins they were judged at that time and therefore we can never be judged for our sons.

3. The baptism of fire, Matthew 3:11,12, takes place at the end of the Tribulation. This is the separation of the wheat and the tares. The unbeliever is identified with literal fire forever.

4. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Romans 6:3,4; Galatians 3:26-28; Colossians 2:12; Ephesians 4:5.

The second category of baptism is ritual baptisms, i.e. a person identified with water. Ritual baptisms always use water but the water always represents something of spiritual significance.

1. John’s baptism, Matthew 3:1-10. The water represented the kingdom of God. When a person believed in Christ John took him down to the Jordan river and immersed him in the water to indicate that he was identified with the kingdom of God forever. He did this for a reason. There was no temple in the desert, there was no synagogue, no altar, and it must be remembered that wherever there was an altar there was a laver. In the concept of the laver the priest washed his hands before the offering and after the offering. This had spiritual significance. There was no altar except that here was something greater than an altar. Here was a transition between the shadows going toward the reality of the New Testament, therefore baptism was used and in a sense the river Jordan was the altar and it was a perfect concept of the altar. When the Jordan was crossed and the Jews entered into the land and the water was pulled back there were some stones there. They took these stones out and they put them in Gilgal [which means the circle] indicating the fact of relationship - a perfect illustration of positional truth. Then there were some stones on the dry land at Gilgal and they put them back in the Jordan to indicate retroactive positional truth. When the water came back it covered the mound of stones — identification with Christ in His death; current position truth: identification with Christ in His resurrection. So what an excellent place to indicate this and so John baptised them in the Jordan.

2. The baptism of Jesus - the water represents the Father’s plan for the Son. Jesus is about to officially begin His earthly ministry of some three years and as He begins He declares that He will fulfil the purpose of this ministry which is to go to the cross. Therefore when Jesus goes into the water it is His public declaration that He will go to the cross.

3. Christian baptism — for Christians only. The believer is to be identified with the water, a testimony to positional truth, retroactive and current. When the candidate is in the water this is a picture of retroactive positional truth - we are identified with Christ in His death. When the candidate comes out of the water this is a picture of current positional truth. What you have in water baptism is a representation of union with Christ.

The doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit

1. The baptism of the Spirit does not occur in the Old Testament.

2. The baptism of the Spirit was first prophesied by Jesus during His earthly ministry, in two different ways, John 14:20, “I in you and ye in me”; Acts 1:5.

3. Mechanics, 1 Corinthians 12:13.

4. Unification of believers is achieved by the baptism of the Spirit, Ephesians 4:5.

5. The baptism of the Spirit produces the only equality in the human race, Galatians 3:26-28.

6. The baptism of the Spirit provides retroactive identification with Christ, Romans 6:3,4.

7. The baptism of the Spirit begins the Church Age, Matthew 16:15; Acts 1:5; 11:15-17; 2:3.

8. The baptism of the Spirit is the basis for positional truth, Ephesians 1:3-6.

9. The baptism of the Spirit is not an experience, not speaking in tongues, not ecstatics, etc.

“into one body,” this means union with Christ. Notice, there are no racial distinctions, we have Jews and Gentiles. All racial distinctions are removed by positional truth. Social and economic distinctions are removed by positional truth, “neither bond nor free.”

“all,” refers to both the carnal and the spiritual Christian; “have been made to drink,” the Greek says “all have been given to drink.” “Of one Spirit,” this is indwelling of the Spirit.

Verse 14-21, the problems of the spiritual inferiority complex.

In verse 14 we have the concept of the team, members of the body of Christ. Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity is absent from the earth, He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Every believer represents Him. Every believer is a part of the body of Christ, we are in union with Him. Because we are in union with Him the Holy Spirit has sovereignly bestowed upon us spiritual gifts. Each believer has at least one spiritual gift and this spiritual gift determines each believer’s position on the team. There is no such thing as equality among believers from the standpoint of church order or from the standpoint of church modus operandi. All believers are equal from the standpoint of positional truth but when it comes to practice there are a few who qualify as chief and there are a whole lot of Indians.

“the body,” the body is one, its members are many. The word “member” refers to the various positions that believers play on the team. The determining factor is the principle that God the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation bestows upon every believer at least one spiritual gift and this determines what position you play on the team. The word “many” refers to you when considered from the standpoint of your spiritual gift, but the word “member” refers to our relationship on the earth. We are all members of the same body.

Verse 15, we have two members of the body mentioned: the foot and the hand. Brother Hand’s spiritual gift is speaking in tongues, the lowest of all spiritual gifts. Brother Foot has the gift of administration and no one is writing him up in Christian magazines and ninety-nine per cent of the time no one knows he is around. He is fulfilling a very important function in the local church but he is practically unknown. he is used in a wonderful way behind the scenes but no one has asked him for his testimony, etc.

“if,” third class condition, maybe yes, maybe no. The third class condition is often used to introduce a case history. “If the foot,” and Brother Foot has a spiritual inferiority complex. The obvious cause of his complex is that he doesn’t have the gift of tongues.

It is to the advantage of the body of Christ to have all of the spiritual gifts. It is to the advantage of the body of Christ to have the gift of administration and that is exactly where Brother Foot comes into the picture. He has the gift of administration. He does not have the gift of tongues, he will never speak in tongues in a bona fide manner, and as a matter of fact, very shortly after Corinthians is written, neither will anyone else speak in tongues again. It was the first of all temporary gifts to be removed. The second gift to be removed was the gift of healing and the third one was the gift of apostleship. The gift of tongues was removed in 70 AD.

Both Brother Foot and Brother Hand suffer from the same problem, a malady known as ignorance of doctrine. The ignorance of Brother Foot results in his spiritual inferiority complex. The ignorance of Brother Hand results in legalism and a superiority complex plus a pseudo spirituality system. Both are then are as a result of ignorance of the Word of God.

Verse 16, the principle is repeated, but using different parts of the body; “if the ear,” “if” is a 3rd class condition in the Greek; “shall say, Because I am not the eye.” The ear is a believer with a gift which is not well known — the gift of helps, the gift of administration. Brother Eye has the gift of tongues, and we have exactly the same principle that we had in the previous verse; “I am not of the body.” So here is Brother Ear thinking that he is not saved because he can’t be like Brother Eye, he can’t speak in tongues, and so he says he is not in the body.

Speaking in tongues is not necessary for either salvation or spirituality, it has no superiority. As a matter of fact speaking in tongues is the inferior gift, the lowest of all spiritual gifts in a passage where they are listed in order of merit.

Verse 17, the necessity for spiritual gifts. “If the whole body were an eye, where were the ear?” This is a debater’s assumption, a first class condition in the Greek. In the case histories of Brother Foot and Brother Ear we use a third class condition to present case histories. But now this gift becomes a first class condition to show that we are now going to refute the position of the spiritual inferiority complex. This is to be done by the use of a debater’s technique. Let’s assume that the whole body is one giant eye: “If the whole body were an eye.” Suppose that every believer had the same gift. Suppose that every believer had the gift of tongues. It would be the worst confusion and, as a matter of fact, evangelism would come to a crashing halt because it would be assumed that all Christians were crazy. As a matter of fact this is the impression that the Corinthians were giving. But there is a need for all the members of the team; we need the eye and we need the ear. Twice in this verse we have the first class condition. It should be translated: “Let’s assume that the whole body is an eye. Well then, where are the ears? Let’s assume that the whole body is an ear. Well then, where is the smelling?” Notice the parts of the body which are used here, the sensory parts of the body — smelling, hearing, seeing. All of these are necessary to learn under the principle of empiricism, you have to be able to hear, smell, see, and all of these are put together to indicate communication, to receive communication. To receive information all of these are necessary and the body is blessed by having all of the spiritual gifts.

Verse 18, spiritual gifts are distributed on the basis of God’s will, not human merit. You do not have a spiritual gift because you are better than anyone else or because you have had some type of super experience or because you are a wonderful person or a pleasing personality. You have a spiritual gift because of a sovereign decision made by God the Holy Spirit.

“But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body.” God, here, is a reference to the Holy Spirit. How do we know it is the Holy Spirit who does this? Chapter 12, verse 11, says that “all these worketh that one and self-same Spirit dividing to each one individually as he wills.”

The deity of the Holy Spirit

1. The Trinity passages reveal co-equality in the Godhead, 2 Corinthians 13:14, the Greek indicates co-equality between Father, Son and Spirit.

2. “Jehovah” is used for the Holy Spirit is the Old Testament. In the Old Testament “God” is used for the Hebrew word elohim. The second one is “Lord,” and Lord is used for Jehovah. Whenever you find “God” elohim is plural and it is a reference to the essence box. God is one in essence. But Jehovah is always used for a person” Jehovah distinguishes the various persons who have this essence. Jehovah is used for the Father, Jehovah is used primarily for the Son, but Jehovah is also used for the Holy Spirit, Isaiah 6:8,9 cf Acts 28:25; Jeremiah 31:31-35 cf Hebrews 10:15. So we have a double reference here. The comparative passages indicate that the Spirit is in view. The word “Jehovah” is used in context and the passage itself indicates that Jehovah is a reference to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit must be God because Jehovah is only used for God. Now the word “Jehovah” is possibly not Jehovah, it is an unpronounceable name in the Hebrew and is called the tetragrammaton because it has four letters. It is the verb to be doubled, indicating absolute existence.

3. The Holy Spirit has sovereignty, 1 Corinthians 12:11, “as He wills.” Sovereignty indicates God.

4. The Holy Spirit has omniscience, 1 Corinthians 2:10,11.

5. The Holy Spirit has omnipotence, Genesis 1:2.

6. The Holy Spirit has omnipresence, Psalm 139:7.

“hath set” means to appoint. “God has appointed,” aorist tense. The aorist tense refers to the point of time when you were saved. The middle voice is also used in this verb, and the middle voice means that the subject is benefited by the action of the verb. Every believer is benefited by having at least one spiritual gift. The mood is indicative, indicating the reality of the fact that right now you have a spiritual gift and you have possessed this gift since the moment of salvation. Whether this gift manifests itself, whether it is utilised or not, depends upon several things: whether you are in fellowship or not, and whether you are spiritually mature or immature - which means partial or full expression of the gift. If a believer spends his whole Christian life being a baby then his gift will not show up.

“as it hath pleased him,” is literally, “as he desires.” So once again we have a verb that indicates that the Holy Spirit who makes the decision. The Holy Spirit does not become impressed with people, He sovereignly bestows in order to develop balance in the team.

Verse 19, the citation of a bizarre analogy. “And if they were all one member, where is the body?” This is directed toward those in Corinth who have the gift of tongues. If everyone has the gift of tongues there is no balance at all, there is no effectiveness for the Lord Jesus Christ. The “if” is a debater’s first class condition, let’s assume for the moment that everyone in the body was exactly the same member.

Verse 20, “But now are there many members, yet one body,” one team, different positions.

Verses 21-25, the spiritual superiority complex.

Verse 21, “And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee.” In other words, he speaks in tongues and has probably already told Brother Hand with the inferiority complex because he only has, say, the gift of helps, that he is not needed. All the gifts are necessary.

In the middle of the verse we have the case of the head, “nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” Colossians 1:18 tells us that Christ is the head of the body, the Church. Even Jesus Christ Himself cannot say to a member of the body, I don’t need you. The present tense here is linear aktionsart, “I keep on.” In other words, the situation is always true. There was never a time when Jesus Christ can say to any member of the body, I don’t need you.

The doctrine of eternal security

1. The doctrinal approach: Romans 8:1; Ephesian 1:3-6. Every believer is in union with Christ, Romans 8:38-39; Colossians 2:6-12

2. The logical approach: Romans 5:9,10,15, 17, 20 with 8:32. God did the “most” for us when we were His enemies and will do “much more” for us as His sons. Romans 8:38-39.

3. The hand approach: John 10:28; Psalm 37:23-24. The believer is held by God’s hand, and He will never let go.

4. Experiential approach: 2 Timothy 2:12-13. Though a believer may say he no longer believes, God remains faithful, because He is immutable. The Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit indwells you and He cannot deny Himself.

a) 2 Tim. 2:12 speaks of rewards: “Deny us” (believers) rewards. When a believer denies Christ, he is out of fellowship and therefore not producing.

b) 2 Tim. 2:13, “believe not”: (Stops believing). A believer denouncing Jesus Christ, yet He keeps on abiding faithful, He cannot deny the unconditional quality of our salvation.

5. Family approach: Galatians 3:26; John 1:12. We are born into God’s family and cannot be unborn.

6. Inheritance approach: 1 Peter 1:4,5, based on omnipotence. Heirs of God.

7. Body approach: 1 Corinthians 12:13, 21. Christ, the head of the body can never say to any member of the body (a believer) that He does not need him.

8. Sovereignty approach:

a) Aorist tense (once and for all): Acts 16:31

b) Perfect tense (saved in the past with the result that you keep on being saved forever): Ephesians 2:8,9; Colossians 2:6; Romans 8:1.

9. Sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit approach: Guarantee for protection and safe delivery at destination (heaven). 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30; 2 Timothy 2:19.

10. Title deed approach: Jude 24, 25; 1 Peter 1:5, God will keep any promise made.

11. God’s essence approach: God never goes back on His character. Romans 8:35 (love), 8:38, 39; Romans 14:4.

12. Marriage approach: Revelation 19:1-10 (Eternal relationship).

13. God’s faithfulness approach: 2 Timothy 2:11-13; 1 Corinthians 3:4-5; Revelation 19:11.

Verse 22, the case of the feeble members. Like the poor we have the feeble with us always. Here is a very interesting principle. “More feeble” means without apparent power, without apparent energy, without apparent usefulness. And they are said to be necessary. This is a reference to the fact that many believers have a spiritual gift that is not scintillating, not spectacular, or is not in any way ostentatious.

Verse 23, the case of the less honourable members. “And those members of the body which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.”

In the first half of this sentence the “less honourable” are the “not honoured.” It doesn’t means that they are less honourable it just means that they are not honoured by the other means of the body. In other words, there is nothing ostentatious about it; no one sees it, therefore no one honours it.

“we bestow more abundant honour,” the word “bestow” means to place around. it was used for putting a garland of flowers on the head of someone who had just won a victory in the Olympic games, and so on. The “uncomely parts” refer to the unseen parts of the body, and the unseen parts of the body have more abundant comeliness. An uncomely or an unseen part of the body is the heart. If the heart stops functioning then immediately you lose a lot of your beauty and a lot of your animation. The colour of your skin changes and all of your animation seems to disappear and you just are not very scintillating. Yet the heart is an unseen member. Or suppose the liver gets out of kilter, or the kidneys. You turn a very sallow yellow. Not only that but you feel bad. yet you can’t see the kidneys or the liver. And so it is with the body of Christ. The more important ones are these unseen gifts - the gift of helps, the gift of administrations, the gifts that are never publicised. These gifts that are never recognised. No one with these gifts is being patted on the head and yet they are very important spiritual gifts. They are very important to the function of the body of Christ. The principle which comes from this analogy is given in verse 24.

Verse 24, “For our unseen parts have no need [they do not have need of being publicly displayed]: but God hath tempered the body.” The word “temper” means to blend, to give the body balance. Part of this balance in the body of Christ depends upon spiritual gifts. They are properly distributed and in the utilisation of them we have balance which results in great impact for Jesus Christ — collective impact for Christ. So “God hath tempered.” This is an aorist tense referring to the time when we received our spiritual gift. The active voice indicates that the Holy Spirit gives us the gift, and the indicative mood is the reality of the gift.

“having given more abundant honour to the part which lacked.” The real part of you is the inner part of you and there is more honour even in your physical body which is unseen. So God has given more importance to the unseen gifts than to the observable gifts. The obvious gifts are not necessarily the most important.

Verse 25 begins with a purpose clause. “That” introduces the purpose of this analogy — “there should be no schism in the body of Christ. Because we fail to recognise that every believer is important we sometimes have schisms; “but the members should have the same care one for another.” What is this same care that we should have?

Verse 26, “one member” refers to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and those who “suffer with it” are believers in the same vicinity. In a local church or in a local area when one believer suffers the other believers in that area suffer with that individual. The principle taken from the body is that if your head aches the rest of the body might feel fine but the rest of the body doesn’t feel fine! If one part of the body is out of kilter the entire body suffers. Also by the same concept if, for example, one part of the body is stimulated the rest of the body enjoys the stimulation.

Verses 27-28: the principle of the team. In verses 27 we have the principle and in verse 28 the application of the principle.

Verse 27, “Now ye” is second person plural, referring to all believers; “and members in particular,” everyone has a specific position in the body of Christ, depending upon his particular spiritual gift.

Verse 28, we have some application of this: some of the members of the team, some of the spiritual gifts mentioned. It is an extremely important verse in the whole realm of the doctrine of spiritual gifts because it is the only passage in which the spiritual gifts are listed specifically in order of merit. This indicates that some spiritual gifts have more merit than other spiritual gifts.

“Now God hath set,” the word “God” refers to the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:11. “Hath set” means to appoint. The aorist tense here refers to the point of time — salvation. The Holy Spirit bestows at least one spiritual gift on every believer at the moment of salvation. The middle voice indicates that the believer is benefited by having a spiritual gift. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that every believer at the moment of salvation receives at least one spiritual gift.

The word “first” refers to order of merit, and the highest of all spiritual gifts is then listed — “first apostles,” the gift of absolute spiritual dictatorship, the only one in which the one who has it commands all churches. There is no gift today whereby one man can control in more than one church. The gift of apostleship existed before the canon of scripture was complete and its purpose was to take up the slack in keeping the Church stabilised in the field of doctrine, discipline, and other factors.

“second” refers to second in order of merit, the gift of prophecy which was twofold: first of all taking future events and relating them to the situation which existed at the moment. It was a gift of doctrine in the field of eschatology.

Finally we have the gift of teaching. This is the highest gift which is extant today. It carries with it great authority, whether it is a local church or a Sunday school. The highest authority in a local church is the gift of pastor-teacher.

“helps,” the spiritual gift of aid or assistance, and believers who have this gift are often out of the limelight but very important.

“governments” is the office of directorship. It is a spiritual gift of leadership and administration in a local church under the pastor.

Principle: There are diversities of function in a local church. We have certain things in common. We are all to witness, to pray, to worship, to give, and so on. But there are diversities and the diversities are dependent upon the spiritual gift. So we have a series of questions [verses 29, 30] which should be answered in the negative, no.

There are two categories of gifts in verses 29, 30. In verse 29 they are leadership gifts. In verse 30 we have the spectacular gifts, none of which are extant today. The canon of scripture replaces them. The first category — apostles, prophets, teachers — are leadership gifts. But next we have miracles, healings, tongues, interpretation of tongues. These could only have one possible category — spectacular. None of these spectacular gifts are extant, none of them have been operative since the canon of scripture was completed. Do all have the gift of healing? No. Do all speak with tongues? No. Do all interpret? No.

Verse 31 is the key verse for the next two chapters; it actually introduces the next two chapters. Verse 31a introduces 1 Corinthians 14; verse 31b introduces 1 Corinthians 13. Here is where we get some great help from the Greek and absolutely no help from the English. It says “Covet earnestly the best gifts.” In verse 11 of the same chapter we are told that God the Holy Spirit sovereignly bestows spiritual gifts, so how can the Holy Spirit sovereignly bestow spiritual gifts and how can you personally covet a spiritual gift at thje same time? On the surface this is a contradiction. However, the contradiction is resolved when you realise that “covet earnestly” is not only a present active imperative but it is also a second person plural. The plural indicates that it is addressed to the local church as a group, rather than believers as individuals. The word “covet” here is for the church collectively and they as a group were to desire the best gifts operative in their congregation. The present tense indicates that this is to be the rule for the entire Church Age. Note that tongues was the lowest on the list and therefore should never be desired ever in any particular congregation — that is, when it was operative. The active voice: the believers as a group produce the action of the verb. This command will be amplified in chapter 14. The best spiritual gifts would be teaching, helps, governments, rather than tongues, miracles and interpretation of tongues.

“but I show” [demonstrate] you a more excellent way [literally, a way beyond comparison],” the principle of the filling of the Holy Spirit. He is saying, “I am going to demonstrate to you.” 1 Corinthians 13 is not a chapter for liberals, for sentimentalists, for way-outers, but it is a chapter demonstrating the filling of the Spirit. The way beyond comparison is the principle of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 13 demonstrates the concept of the filling of the Spirit.