1 Corinthians 12:28

“Now ye are the body of Christ” gathers up the whole picture Paul has been drawing. He opened the chapter with the one Spirit who gives every gift (1 Corinthians 12:1–11), said that by one Spirit all believers were baptized into one body (1 Corinthians 12:13), and then showed at length how the parts of a body depend on one another, so that the weaker parts are as necessary as the strong and every part shares in the others’ suffering and honour (1 Corinthians 12:14–26). Now he says it to the Corinthians themselves. The “ye” is emphatic in Greek (hymeîs): you, the church in Corinth, are this body.

The word for body, sōma, is the ordinary word for a body. Strong’s ties it to sōzō, “to save” or “make whole”, and reads it as the body as a sound, complete whole. Here it is the whole company of believers, a living whole joined to Christ, where each part adds to the health and purpose of the rest. The word for members, mélos, means a limb or part of a body, and it names each believer. “In particular” translates ek mérous, from ek, “out of”, and méros, “a part” or “share”. Each believer is a distinct part of the whole, with a place and a gifting of his own. Paul has already said that God set the members in the body as it pleased him (1 Corinthians 12:18), so each person’s place is God’s own choice.

The body belongs to Christ. Paul teaches the same truth in his other letters. Christ is the head of the body, the church (Colossians 1:18). God has made him head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:22–23), and the whole body grows up into him and is joined and knit together from him (Ephesians 4:15–16). In Romans Paul uses the same picture of many members in one body, each with its own office, all one body in Christ (Romans 12:4–5).

So the church’s identity, unity and purpose all come from Christ. The church exists because of his atoning death and his resurrection, by which he formed a new covenant people, and he joins believers to his body by his Spirit. Through this body he carries on his work in the world, showing his character and carrying out his purposes until he returns. Each believer finds his own identity and purpose inside this body, and Christians grow to maturity and serve fruitfully together, as many gifts work in harmony under Christ the head.

Corinth was a busy, wealthy port city with people from many nations. The church there was young and full of spiritual zeal, and it was also divided into factions and troubled by pride. Some believers prized certain gifts, above all speaking in tongues, and those who had them felt superior while others felt they counted for less. Their meetings became disordered. The Greek and Roman cults around them often featured ecstatic experiences, and the city valued rhetoric and public display, so the Corinthians may have been drawn to whatever looked most impressive. Paul’s teaching on gifts runs through three chapters (1 Corinthians 12–14) and comes to rest on order and building up: “Let all things be done unto edifying” (1 Corinthians 14:26). In a society that prized individual achievement and social rank, a body in which every part counts was a striking message.

“God hath set” stands first in verse 28, and it governs the whole list. The verb títhēmi means to set, place or appoint, and it speaks of a deliberate placing. God himself puts these people and gifts in the church in an ordered arrangement of his own design, which rules out self-appointment and ambition. Earlier in the chapter Paul said the same of the Spirit, who divides his gifts “to every man severally as he will” (1 Corinthians 12:11), and of the diverse gifts, ministries and workings that all come from the same God (1 Corinthians 12:4–6). The word for church, ekklēsía, means an assembly or congregation, and in the New Testament it is the gathered community of believers, whether in one place or throughout the world. The gifts are given for the good of that assembly.

The list begins with three kinds of people, numbered.

• Apostles. The word apóstolos comes from the verb “to send forth” and means a delegate or ambassador, someone officially sent by Christ to represent him, often with miraculous powers. It refers first to those Christ commissioned directly, like the twelve, and to men sent to lay the foundations of the gospel and plant churches, like Paul. Many of them were eyewitnesses of the risen Lord, and signs and wonders often went with their work.
• Prophets. A prophḗtēs, from pro, “forth”, and phēmi, “to speak”, is a foreteller and, more broadly, an inspired speaker. In the New Testament the prophet spoke messages from God, making his will known, giving guidance, and calling the church to repentance and righteousness.
• Teachers. These were gifted to explain God’s word and apply it, so that the church held sound doctrine and understood it.

After these Paul names gifts of power. “Miracles” is dýnamis, from a verb meaning “to be able”, the word for force, power or ability, and so for a mighty work done by God’s power. “Gifts of healings” joins chárisma, a gift of grace, with íama, which Strong’s gives as a cure, the effect of healing. Both nouns are plural, which may point to different kinds of healing or to healing given for different diseases. These gifts show God present and at work, confirm his message and bring relief.

The list ends with practical gifts. “Helps”, antílēpsis, means support and aid given to others, the work of service. “Governments”, kybérnēsis, is a rare word drawn from piloting or steering a ship. It means direction, administration and wise guidance, the work of those who steer the church’s affairs, keep order and give direction to its mission as a pilot guides a vessel. “Diversities of tongues” joins génos, “kind”, with glōssa, “tongue” or “language”, and means kinds of tongues. Paul used the same phrase earlier in the chapter, in verse 10, and he takes up this gift at length in 1 Corinthians 14.

The list moves from people to gifts. Apostles, prophets and teachers are persons, while miracles, healings, helps and the rest are named by the gift, which stands for the members who use it. Taken together the list covers the church’s needs for teaching, power, practical service and leadership. It is a sample, and other passages name other gifts and ministries (Romans 12:4–8, Ephesians 4:11–13, 1 Peter 4:10–11). Ephesians gives the purpose of them all: the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”.

Verses 29 and 30 ask seven questions in a row: are all apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles? have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? Each one opens with the Greek particle mē, which expects a negative answer. Paul is making a strong statement in the form of a question, and the repeated “are all” drives the point home while it lets the Corinthians give the obvious answer themselves.

Each question touches a gift from verse 28. Apostleship was a unique and limited calling in the church’s foundation. Prophecy was valued and desired at Corinth, and still God gave it to some. Teaching is vital to the church and is given to some. In the fourth question the Greek names the power itself, dýnamis, and the KJV supplies “workers of”, so the question is whether all have the miracles.

Verse 30 carries the questions on to three more gifts. “The gifts of healing” uses íama again, the miraculous restoring of health. “Tongues” is glōssa, literally the tongue and by extension a language, in Strong’s words a language “naturally unacquired”. At Pentecost the tongues were languages that people of many nations heard and understood (Acts 2:4–11), and in Corinth Paul speaks of tongues that need interpreting before the hearers can understand them (1 Corinthians 14:2). “Interpret” is diermēneúō, from dia, “through”, and hermēneuō, “to interpret”, meaning to explain thoroughly or to translate. This gift renders what was spoken in tongues into a known language, so that the whole church understands and is built up (1 Corinthians 14:5).

Tongues was the gift the Corinthians prized most and the one at the centre of their disorder. “Do all speak with tongues?” answers anyone who held that every believer must speak in tongues, or that tongues marked a higher spiritual standing. The same holds for every gift in the list. The Spirit gives them as he wills, so every believer has a part and each one leans on the others. The questions lift from each believer the burden of being everything, and they leave those with the more visible gifts with nothing to boast of.

Verse 31 opens with “But”, dé, a connective that can mean “and”, “now” or “but”. Here it turns from the questions to a closing word that gives the Corinthians’ zeal its right direction. “Covet earnestly” is zēlóō, “to have warmth of feeling for or against”, to be zealous for or eagerly desire something. Here the zeal is good and commended. The coveting forbidden in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:17) is a different word, epithyméō, the selfish, grasping desire for what belongs to someone else. Paul is urging a fervent desire for the gifts that strengthen the whole church.

“Best” is kreíttōn, “stronger”, and figuratively “better” or “nobler”. So some gifts are of greater benefit to the church than others, and the best are the ones that most build up the body, such as prophecy, teaching and discernment. Desiring them well takes discernment, to see which gifts truly serve the church, and the desire is aimed at the good of everyone in it.

“And yet” joins kaí, “and, also, even”, with éti, “yet” or “still”, and it brings in something further. Paul promises to “shew”, deiknýō, to point out and make plain, “a more excellent way”. The Greek of that phrase reads kath’ hyperbolen hodon. Hyperbolḗ means “a throwing beyond”, surpassing greatness, and with katá it means “pre-eminently” or “exceedingly”. Hodós is a road or way, and here it pictures a manner of life, the path a person walks.

That way is love, the subject of the chapter that follows. Love is the road on which every gift is meant to travel, and it governs the use and worth of all of them. Even the most impressive gift is hollow when love is absent, and at the end of that chapter love stands as the greatest of the three things that abide (1 Corinthians 13:13). This love is a quality of God himself and a selfless way of living that seeks the good of others and the glory of God. God’s power shows itself in the gifts, and it is always meant to flow through his character, which shows itself in love.

The desire for gifts and the way of love belong together. When Paul returns to the gifts he joins them in one sentence: “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1).

Every gift in this list is found whole in Christ, the head of the body. He is “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession” (Hebrews 3:1), sent by the Father to establish the new covenant. He is the Prophet like Moses whom God promised to raise up (Deuteronomy 18:18), a prophet mighty in deed and word (Luke 24:19), the only begotten Son who has declared the Father (John 1:18). He taught as one having authority (Matthew 7:29), and Peter said to him, “thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). He worked miracles, healing all that were sick (Matthew 8:16) and showing his glory in his first sign at Cana (John 2:11), and he pointed John’s disciples to the blind who saw and the lame who walked as the proof of who he was (Matthew 11:4–5). His works of power were moved by compassion for the crowds (Matthew 9:36).

The gifts in his church come from him. He promised the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in his name (John 14:26), and as the ascended Lord he gives gifts to his people so that the body is built up into him (Ephesians 4:7–16). Those who guide the church answer to him, the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16), and in the church he is all and in all (Colossians 3:11).

Christ also walked the more excellent way to its end. Paul writes, “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2). Jesus called himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), so the way of love is walked by following him, sharing his humble mind (Philippians 2:5–8), and loving one another as he has loved us (John 13:34–35).

God himself arranges his church. He sets each member in the body and gives each gift where he wills, so every believer’s place is his choice and his gift. Because each of us is a member in particular, every believer has a part, and because all of us together are the body of Christ, each of us needs the rest. The teacher needs the one who helps, and the one who speaks in tongues needs the one who interprets.

Paul’s questions free us from the weight of being everything, and they take away any ground for pride in a gift that others lack. Verse 31 gives us a right desire, a zeal for the gifts that build up the church. Over all of it God shows a road better still, the way of love that Christ walked to the cross, and every gift he gives is meant to be used along it.