Paul moves from ritual matters to spiritual matters. There are lots of spirits in this world. Prior to Paul bringing the gospel to Corinth, some of the church members were idolaters, following whatever spiritual influences that got their attention. It was important that they be able to discern those spirits from the Holy Spirit of God. If someone at any time said words indicating that Jesus was anything less than the Son of God, the full and final manifestation of divine truth, then that did not come from God. On the other hand, no one could submit to Jesus as Lord without the power of God. It’s not a mere question of words; the Greek term for “say” (lego) means an organized teaching backed up by conduct.
We should learn to recognize the boundaries of Christ and the covenant in His blood. He endows His people with all sorts of richness: samples of eternal powers, ministry callings, and sometimes just the results of His work in them. All of them are gifts He bestows, and all of them are marked by the changes His lordship demands from us.
Not one of those gifts are for the private benefit of the one bearing the gift. All of them manifest for the sake of the faith community. He lists a handful of Holy Spirit manifestations: moral wisdom, discrete knowledge, the power to withstand testing, healings, miracles, prophecies, recognition of various spirits, foreign languages or the translation of languages. When the Body of Christ has a need for something the people do not bring with them, the Father provides through His divine Presence on the spot. It always aims at promoting His reputation as our Master.
Paul uses the parable of the human body. We have various parts with different functions. Just so, the Body of Christ of is composed of many parts with different appearances and functions. What a monstrosity it would be if human bodies were just detached ears or eyes or some other part! Is it too subtle to grasp that the Corinthians suffered from self-promotion and envy over gifts God didn’t give them? With their different miraculous endowments, some were strutting around as if they were really something special, somehow the very center of God’s Presence in that body.
What happens when spiritual adults get involved? Spiritual maturity has no need for applause. Instead, spiritually mature people are somewhat indulgent toward those who are struggling, as a way of encouraging them. They give extra attention to those suffering any sorrow, because they understand the necessity of the body uniting in bearing the load of divine glory.
A church body is not built by human design. It cannot serve divine glory to plan out who needs to show up to fill organizational roles. God doesn’t work that way. Instead, He moves hearts to show up and serve Him, so the game plan is to find a use for everyone with whatever gifts they bring. Organizational plans should grow out of the people you have.
Granted, the Lord has been known to give certain roles to people He chooses to serve Him: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, those who solve problems, elders, people who deal with human languages, etc. What He does not supply, you pray for, but waiting on Him and His timing. You can’t just assign a task to whomever walks in the door. You seek to know what God has made of them already, and what He plans to do with them. Stop recruiting skill sets.
Use the people He gives you. Do the Corinthians understand the whole point of all this?
