31Unified and Diversified (12:12-19)
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? (12:12-19)
The Corinthians’ misuse of spiritual gifts was one of many reflections of their fleshly worldliness, and was closely related to their divisiveness, which Paul now continues to reprove.
While illustrating the diversity of spiritual gifts (12:4-11) the apostle repeatedly stresses their one source in God (vv. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11). He also stresses their one purpose, to reveal the Holy Spirit’s work and power for the common good of the church (v. 7). These unifying realities lead the apostle’s thought to a general discussion of the oneness of the redeemed community.
In the present passage he explains and illustrates the nature and importance of the unity of the church itself, and then again the importance of diversity as a key factor in that unity. The diversity of the church is a God-ordained means of bringing the fellowship to oneness, but unless each diverse member recognizes and accepts his part in the whole body, diversity will divide rather than unite, destroy rather than build up, bring discord rather than harmony, and result in self-serving rather than self-giving.
In verse 12 Paul gives an illustration of unity and in verse 13 he explains its origin.
UNIFIED IN ONE BODY
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. (12:12)
Paul again (cf. 10:17) uses the human body to illustrate the unity and interrelationship of the members of Christ’s Body, the church. Through verse 27 of chapter 12 Paul uses the term body some 16 times, and he uses the metaphor many other places in his writings (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:23; 2:16; 4:4, 12, 16; Col. 1:18; etc.).
The human body is by far the most amazing organic creation of God. It is marvelously complex yet unified, with unparalleled harmony and interrelatedness. It is a unit; it cannot be subdivided into several bodies. If it is divided, the part that is cut off ceases to function and dies, and the rest of the body loses some of its functions and effectiveness. The body is immeasurably more than the sum of its parts.
Christ’s Body is also one. There are many Christian organizations, denominations, agencies, clubs, and groups of every sort. But there is only one church, of which every true believer in Christ is a member. Paul is so intent on driving home the point of oneness in the church that he refers to Christ as the church: so also is Christ. We can no more separate Christ from His church than we can separate a body from its head. When Christ is referred to as the head of the church it is always in the sense of mind, spirit, and control. When a body loses its mind and spirit it ceases to be a body and becomes a corpse. It still has structure but it does not have life. It is still organized but it is no longer a living organism.
Through another figure for the church Jesus tells us the same truth. “I am the vine, you are the branches,” He said. “He who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). A severed branch not only is an unproductive branch but a lifeless branch.
It is for that reason that the New Testament speaks of our being in Christ and of Christ’s being in us. He is more than simply with His church; He is in His church and His church is in Him. They are totally identified. The church is an organic whole, the living manifestation of Jesus Christ that pulses with the eternal life of God. The common denominator of all believers is that they possess the very life of God. Jesus said, “Because I live, you shall live also” (John 14:19). “He who has the Son has the life” (1 John 5:12), because “the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17).
While He was on earth Christ was incarnate in a single body. Now He is incarnate in another body, the great, diverse, and precious Body that is His church. Christ is now incarnate in the world through His church. There is no true church life without Christ life. Paul did not say, “For to me, to live is being a Christian,” but “For to me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). He could say, in fact, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). This same Christ life is possessed by every believer, and every believer therefore is a part of Christ, a part of His Body, the church. The church is one body because so also is Christ. For illustrations of the implications of this solidarity, see Matthew 18:5 and 25:31-46, where our Lord teaches that what one does to a child of God he does to Christ Himself.
BAPTIZED BY ONE SPIRIT
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (12:13)
In this verse Paul presents two important truths about Christ’s Body: its formation and its filling.
THE FORMING OF THE BODY
The church is formed as believers are baptized by Christ with the Holy Spirit. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. The Holy Spirit is the agent of baptism but Christ is the baptizer. At Jesus’ own baptism John the Baptist tells us that it is Jesus Christ, “He who is coming after me [and] is mightier than I,” who would baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11; cf. Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33). As explained in the following verse, the baptism of fire is the judgment of hell, the burning of “the chaff with unquenchable fire.” As Savior, Christ baptizes with the Holy Spirit; as Judge, He baptizes with fire. All believers receive baptism with the Holy Spirit; all unbelievers will receive baptism with fire. Therefore every living soul will be baptized by Christ.
Parenthetically, it should be noted that Paul is not speaking here of water baptism. Water baptism is an outward, physical ordinance believers submit to themselves and which is performed by other believers, in obedience to Christ’s command (Matt. 28:19; cf. Acts 2:38). Water baptism plays no part in conversion, but is a testimony to the church and to the world of conversion that has already taken place inwardly. Spirit baptism, on the other hand, is entirely the work of God and is virtually synonymous with salvation. The term baptizō (“to baptize”) is used in the New Testament to refer to figurative immersion in trouble (Matt. 20:22-23, KJV) or to spiritual immersion (Rom. 6:3-5) in Christ’s death and resurrection. As one can be immersed in water, so a believer is immersed spiritually into the Body of Christ.
It should also be noted that the phrase “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is not a correct translation of any passage in the New Testament, including this one. En heni pneumati (by one Spirit) can mean “by or with one Spirit.” Because believers are baptized by Christ, it is therefore best to translate this phrase as “with one Spirit.” It is not the Holy Spirit’s baptism but Christ’s baptism with the Holy Spirit that gives us new life and places us into the Body when we trust in Christ.
It is not possible to be a Christian and not be baptized by Christ with the Holy Spirit. Nor is it possible to have more than one baptism with the Spirit. There is only one Spirit baptism, the baptism of Christ with the Spirit that all believers receive when they are born again. By this the Son places all believers into the sphere of the Spirit’s power and Person, into a new environment, a new atmosphere, a new relationship with others, and a new union with Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 10:2, where Paul shows how the nation of Israel left Pharaoh and Egypt to become immersed and identified with a new leader, Moses, and a new land, Canaan).
The pouring forth of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost also reveals that this baptism was by Jesus Christ (Acts 2:32-33), in fulfillment of John the Baptist’s prediction (Matt. 3:11; etc.) and of Jesus’ own promise (John 7:37-39; 15:7-15; Acts 1:5). We are not told exactly how this is done, any more than we are told exactly how God can give a person a new heart and new life. Those are mysteries beyond our comprehension. But there is no mystery as to the divine roles in salvation. The Father sent the Son and the Son sends the Spirit. The Son is the divine Savior, and the Holy Spirit is the divine Comforter, Helper, and Advocate. The Son is the baptizer and the Holy Spirit is the agent of baptism.
Paul’s central point in 1 Corinthians 12:13 is that baptism with the one Spirit makes the church one Body. If there were more than one Spirit baptism, there would be more than one church, and Paul’s whole point here would be destroyed. He is using the doctrine of baptism with the Spirit to show the unity of all believers in the Body. Many erring teachers today have used a wrong interpretation of the baptism with the Spirit to divide off from the Body an imagined spiritual elite who have what the rest do not. That idea violates the whole teaching here.
For by one Spirit we were baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free. The apostle could not have stated the truth more clearly. One Spirit baptism establishes one church. There are no partial Christians, no partial members of Christ’s Body. The Lord has no halfway houses for His children, no limbo or purgatory. All of His children are born into His household and will forever remain in His household. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal. 3:26-27). All believers in Jesus Christ become full members of His Body, the church, when they are saved. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:4-6).
It is interesting that those who advocate Christians’ seeking the baptism by the Spirit in order to belong to the spiritual elite cannot seem to agree on how that is to be done. They have many ideas and many theories but no scriptural method. The reason is simple: Scripture contains no command, suggestion, or method for believers to seek or receive the baptism of the Spirit. You do not seek or ask for that which you already possess. The believers in Samaria who were converted under the ministry of Philip had to wait a short while to receive baptism with the Holy Spirit, until Peter and John came up to Samaria and laid hands on the converts (Acts 8:17). In that unique transitional situation as the church was beginning, those particular believers had to wait for the Holy Spirit, but they were not told to seek Him. The purpose for that exception was to demonstrate to the apostles, and to bring word back to the Jewish believers in general, that the same Holy Spirit baptized and filled Samaritan believers as baptized and filled Jewish believers—just as a short while later Peter and a few other Jewish Christians were sent to witness to Cornelius and his household in order to be convinced that the gospel was for all men and to see that “the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also” (Acts 10:44-45). Those special transitional events did not represent the norm, as our present text makes clear, but were given to indicate to all that the Body was one (Acts 11:15-17).
THE FILLING OF THE BODY
When we were born again the Lord not only placed us into His Body, but placed the Holy Spirit in us. At salvation we are all made to drink of one Spirit. We are in the Spirit, who is in us. Just as there are no partially saved Christians there are no partially indwelt Christians. The Spirit is not parceled out to us in installments. God “gives the Spirit without measure” (John 3:34).
Like being baptized with the Spirit, being indwelt by the Spirit is virtually synonymous with conversion. It is a separate facet of the same glorious, transforming act. “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Rom. 8:9). A person who does not have the Holy Spirit does not have eternal life, because eternal life is the life of the Spirit. Thus Peter can affirm “that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:3-4; cf. Col. 2:10; 1 Cor. 6:19).
Well-meaning and otherwise sound Christian leaders have caused great confusion, frustration, and disappointment in the lives of many believers by holding out the prospect of a second working of grace—which is called by many names. Time and energy that could be used in simply obeying the Lord and relying on what He has already given is spent striving for that which is possessed completely and in abundance. A person cannot enjoy what he has if he is forever seeking a nonexistent second blessing. An inadequate doctrine of salvation will always lead to an erroneous doctrine of sanctification. It is an ironic tragedy that those who seek a second blessing of grace cannot enjoy either. They do not enjoy the first blessing, although it is complete, because they are continually seeking the second, which does not exist.
The idea of the second blessing probably originated in the Middle Ages with the teaching that a person is saved when baptized, even though as an infant, and later receives the Holy Spirit at confirmation after coming of age. Sincere and otherwise biblical evangelicals modified the idea as a means for trying to enliven lifeless Christians. Because the church was lethargic, carnal, worldly, and fruitless, they sought to infuse vitality by encouraging believers to seek an additional work of God. But the problem has never been the insufficiency or incompleteness of God’s work. Christ gives no salvation but perfect salvation. And it is tragic that so many are seeking some “triumphalistic experience” of “deeper life,” some formulized key to instant spirituality, when the Lord calls for obedience and trust in what has been given in His perfect work of salvation (Heb. 10:14).
The being “filled up to all the fulness of God” of which Paul speaks in Ephesians 3:19 has to do with living out fully that which we already possess fully, just as does the working out of our salvation (Phil. 2:12). When we trust in Christ we are completely immersed into the Spirit and completely indwelt by Him. God has nothing more to put into us. He has put His very self into us, and that cannot be exceeded. What is lacking is our full obedience, our full trust, our full submission, not His full salvation, indwelling, or blessing.
DIVERSIFIED IN ONE BODY
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? (12:14-17)
The most important characteristic of the Body is unity; but diversity is essential to that unity. The church is one Body, but the body is not one member, but many.
The Corinthian church, as many churches today, was divided where it should have been unified and tried to be uniform where it should have been diverse. On the one hand it was divided, for example, over leadership—whether to follow Paul, Apollos, or Peter (1:12)—when it should have been unified under the perfect leadership of Jesus Christ, their Lord. On the other hand, the members tried to be alike in all having certain spiritual gifts, especially the showy ones such as speaking in tongues, instead of being glad for and faithfully using the many diverse gifts the Lord had given them (12:27-31).
Many of the Corinthian believers were unhappy with their gifts. Envy is a sure sign of carnality, and it seems that everyone wanted a gift that someone else had. Paul’s analogy is graphic as he extends the illustration of the human body. The person with a foot thought he could not really be a part of the church body because he was not a hand. One with an ear thought he was left out because he was not an eye. It is almost certain that, had the gifts been changed to suit the complainers, their reactions would have been the same. Selfishness is never satisfied and envy is never content.
Envy is also frequently petulant and pouting. If it cannot have its own way it takes its marbles and goes home, and will not play with the others. That is what some of the immature believers at Corinth were doing. In seeming humility, they said, “I don’t have a spiritual gift, so I am not really a part of the church,” or “My gift is second-rate and unimportant. I have nothing to offer, so why participate?” But that attitude does not reflect humility. It is self-centered, selfish, and an affront to God’s wisdom and love.
Disclaiming responsibility does not remove it. Refusing to function as part of the body does not make us any the less a part of the body or any less responsible for ministering within it. We have no right to remove ourselves from our God-given responsibilities just because we are dissatisfied with what we are and what we have. Many Christians have never known the joy of ministry and of pleasing the Lord simply because they do not recognize or refuse to use the gifts and opportunities God has given them. That is disobedience.
Continuing his analogy, Paul reminds us that a body could not possibly function if it were all the same part. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? Common sense should have told the Corinthians that, as a fellowship of believers, they could operate more effectively with members performing different ministries. With everyone doing the same thing, at best their life and service would be lopsided.
GIFTED BY ONE LORD
But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? (12:18-19)
Discontentment with their spiritual gifts, however, was much worse than lack of common sense. By wanting gifts they did not have, the Corinthian believers questioned God’s wisdom and goodness by implying He had made a mistake. They also opened themselves up to fleshly and demonic counterfeits. Their primary problem was not intellectual but spiritual. They did not see their gifts rightly because they did not see the sovereign God rightly. They had not received their gifts by accident or whim. But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. Questioning our spiritual gifts is questioning God, and not using our spiritual gifts is disobeying God. “Who are you, O man,” Paul writes in the book of Romans, “who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay?” (Rom. 9:20-21).
A Christian who does not have a ministry is a contradiction. He is disobedient and denies God the right to use him in the way He intends and for which He has gifted him. When we refuse to follow God’s will and God’s plan we deny His authority and Lordship as well as His wisdom and goodness. As members of Christ’s Body we are not to do our own will but the Lord’s. The arm does not have one will, the foot another, and the eye still another. Each is controlled by the head—the mind, will, and spirit. It is possible for the body to be so remarkably coordinated only because it is directed by one will. One will tells each part of the body to do what it is best designed and equipped to do, and consequently they work in marvelous harmony together. How much more should the Lord Jesus Christ control His own Body, the church, of which He not only is Head but Creator.
As Creator and Lord God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body. God has created us, re-created us, placed each of us in His Body exactly where He wants us to be, and equipped us to do exactly what He wants us to do.
Because they were discontent and disobedient the Corinthian believers were also unproductive. They did not use the gifts they had, and, in light of Paul’s repeated emphasis in 12:4-11 that every Christian is gifted, it seems apparent that some thought they did not have a gift at all. In any case their gifts either were not being used or were being misused.
Churches often fall back on organization because the organism is not functioning right. Because a hand is not doing its job, a foot is called on to do that work, and so on. If most of the congregation is inactive, the active members must do work for which they are not equipped. The answer to an inactive organism, however, is not an active organization. Carnality cannot be overcome by compensation. No human substitutions can satisfactorily replace God’s plan and God’s power. The only way the church can function properly is by using the Spirit’s gifts in the Spirit’s power as it should, just as He [God] desired. We all have what God desires for us (cf. Rom. 12:3b) and are to receive the privileged gift with joyful thanks.
It is terribly tragic when believers are discontent with their spiritual gifts, their circumstances, or with anything the Lord has given them. In God’s Body, which is also His family, there is no place for discontent, envy, selfishness, or conceit. No Christian would be better off, or happier, with a showier or more prominent gift. We cannot be happy except with what God has given us, because He gives each and every one of His children the very best possible. What He has given another believer would not be His best for us.
If they were all one member, where would the body be? Paul expands on his point in verse 17. A body that had only one part would not be a body. A church whose members all had the same gift and the same ministry would not really be a church. It is foolish and immature not to be content with or use what the Lord has given us. We are not perfect, but His gifts to us are perfect and the ministry in which he has called us to use them is perfect. His design for the church is perfect and His gifting of the church is equally perfect.