1 Corinthians 12:1-11 - Gifts for the Common Good

Introduction

Since lunchtime is coming up pretty soon, and since some of us are already hungry, I want you to think with me for a moment about an excellent Chinese buffet… or if Ryan’s or Golden Corral or some pizza buffet is your thing, then you can imagine one of those.

Buffets are great, not usually because the food is of such great quality (though some are surely better than others), but because there is food of great variety. Buffets are great because you can take the whole family and everyone can get whatever they want… You like meat and mom likes noodles? Well, Magic China has got you covered! One kid wants enchiladas and the other wants fried chicken? No problem!

You know, I think a lot of people think about Christianity(in general) and church (in particular) at least somewhat like a buffet. I’m not the first person to use this analogy, so maybe you’ve heard it before… but I’ve heard people talk about their own Christian experience and about their preferences for a local church in exactly this way… What kind of music do you like? What kind of programs do you want? Do you like an older preacher or a younger one?

I think most of us can see superficial stuff pretty easily for what it is, but it is still likely that at least some of us are influenced by a preference for buffet-style Christianity. If you think of Christianity mostly in terms of what you are getting out of it… if you think of church largely in terms of what it does for you… then you are probably closer to buffet-style Christianity than you might think.

We will all go through various seasons of life, and there will certainly be times when we are more receivers than we are givers… but if you’ve never arrived early or stayed late on a Sunday morning in order to connect with someone new… if you’ve never started a conversation with a fellow church member with the intentional goal of encouraging or helpingthem… if you’ve never thought of yourself as one who bears the responsibility to care for the soul of another church member… then you probably need to rethink your understanding of Christianity.

We are continuing our study through the New Testament letter of 1 Corinthians, and we are going to read a passage today that will confront self-centered, cliquish, individualized, and self-important perspectives of Christianity. The Apostle Paul intended to instruct the church of Corinth so that they would not be “uniformed” or “ignorant” about some of the fundamental realities of spiritual life and spiritual growth. And I pray that the Lord will help us too, as we consider Paul’s instructions and how they apply to us similarly today.

Let’s stand together as I read from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 12:1–11 (ESV)

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Main Idea:

God is at work among us, and we (different as we are) need each other.

Sermon

1. All are Spiritual (v1-3)

As we’ve noted several times before in this letter, Paul wrote to the Corinthian church here in response to the “report” Paul received from “Chloe’s people” (likely a few Christians who did some traveling on behalf of a wealthy woman named Chloe). Whoever they were, they told Paul about the “quarreling” and “divisions” among the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:10-11). So, Paul sent this letter to address both the root and branchesof the problem.

But Paul’s letter also indicates that the Corinthian church had sent a letter of their own to Paul. In ch. 7, Paul refers to “matters about which you wrote” (1 Cor. 7:1), and from ch. 7 through ch. 14, Paul addresses a series or listof questions and topics… all related to Paul’s effort to get the Corinthian church back into order and re-united on the basis of their shared doctrine and practice… which Paul repeatedly tells them ought to be motivated by love (a major theme of ch. 13).

So, from ch. 7 to ch. 10, Paul seems to answer various questions about Christian living, instructing them to live in a regulatedway as a scattered church. As individual Christians living scattered about in the world, Paul urged them to regulate their sexual desire, their marital commitments, their ambition, their worldly expectations, and even their judgments about various ways to speak and act according to Christian conscience (again, you can read about this in chs. 7-10).

Then in ch. 11, Paul turns to answer questions about the gatheredchurch. As a gathered assembly of saints (churching together in the name of Christ), Paul first urged them to understand and to live within the boundaries of an ordered organization (he specifically addressed the matter of gender distinctions; specifically, men should look and act like men, and women should look and act like women). Next, Paul urged them to come together as a church with an awareness that they are a united body, and not just a group of individuals. This, Paul argued, is one of the main points of observing the Lord’s Supper – it’s that regular occasion when the united body of Christ becomes visible in the world.

And now here in our passage today, we see the continuation of Paul’s instructions for the gathered church, but it is also the beginning of yet another section and topic – spiritual unity and spiritual gifts. The fact that various church members were exercising a varietyof spiritual gifts was a point of division among the church of Corinth, but the Apostle Paul explains in our passage that this fact should have been a point of unity instead.

There are three reasons Paul offers here for why they ought to be united as a church (and not divided) even though they all had different “manifestations of the Spirit” of God at work in them (v7). They seem to have been comparing and competing with each other, thinking that some gifts were better, and therefore acting like some church members were better than others. But Paul says that such thinking betrays “ignorance” (KJV) or a lack of understanding (v12).

And the first reason Paul gives to show them that their variety of spiritual gifts ought to unite them (and not divide them) is here in our first three verses. In short, Paul says here that if anyone is a church member (i.e., if anyone is a Christian) he or she is “spiritual” (v1) or “in the Holy Spirit” (v3)… or (as we considered at length last Sunday) he or she is born again or regenerated or spiritually alive. The basis upon which the members of the church of Corinth were joined together was their shared belief and confession that “Jesus is Lord” (v3). And Paul says that is a confession that only “spiritual” people can truly make (v3).

Paul says, in v1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed” (v1). Now the word translated “spiritual gifts” here can refer to gifts, but it seems to me that Paul is not yet addressing “gifts” specifically. A literal translation of the Greek words here would be, “Now concerning [or “about”] the spiritual…” (v1). Paul used this same word earlier in the letter, and the context gives us a better perspective of what is intended.

So, for example, Paul said in 1 Cor. 9 that those who “proclaim the gospel” (i.e., devote themselves vocationally to the word ministry of the church), these “should get their living by the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:14). And Paul used the analogy of farming there, saying that it is reasonable for those who “have sown spiritual things [lit. “sown the spiritual”; same word as in our passage] among you” to “reap material things [lit. “the physical” or “fleshly”] from you” (1 Cor. 9:11).

In 1 Cor. 9, then, “the spiritual” is spiritual truth, spiritual instruction, and spiritual wisdom… those spiritualinvestments of biblical teaching and exhortation that build up or edifyChristians. These “spiritual” things are contrasted (in 1 Cor. 9) with “material” or “physical” or “fleshly” things… those material investments of worldly resources that sustain physical life and well-being in this world.

The context (and especially the contrast) tells us what sort of “spiritual things” Paul was talking about in ch. 9. But what is being contrasted in the immediatecontext of our first three verses today? When Paul says, “Now concerning [or “about”] the spiritual” here, he immediately contrasts (in v2-3) those who are “pagans” (or literally “Gentiles”) with those who are “in the Spirit of God” (v2-3). Now, no doubt Paul does talk about “spiritual gifts” later in our passage, but the “spiritual [things]” he’s talking about here are people (v1)!

And it seems to me that this is the whole point of Paul’s first reason as to why the church of Corinth ought not be divided over their various expressions of spirituality. They ought not be divided (according to who is more or less spiritual) because they are all spiritual! If they are joined together by their shared confession that “Jesus is Lord” (v3), and if that shared confession is credible (in other words, if they are generally living in keeping with that good confession), then they are all “spiritual” (v1)! Only the workor enabling power of the Holy Spirit can provoke such a good confession!

As Paul says in v2, “pagans” are “led astray” by that which is not powerful at all – by “mute idols” and the systems of false belief that come along with all non-Christian ways of viewing and living inthe world (v2). Unbelievers and those who are spiritually “dead” (Eph. 2:1-3), and those are the ones who say with their mouths “Jesus is accursed” … or (what is more common) live in a way that rejects the lordship of Jesus Christ (v3). But the only way that anyone can proclaim “Jesus is Lord” with sincerity is that they are enabled to do so by “the Holy Spirit” (v3)!

Brothers and sisters, this should give us great comfort, and it should produce in us tremendous humility. If your heart rejoicesat the thought that Jesus is Lord… if you have a real desire to submitto the lordship of Christ… if you are truly looking forward to the day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father… then this is the work of the Holy Spirit in you! …This is evidence of real spiritual life in you!

What a comfort it is for Christians to be made aware of evidence that they are spiritually alive! But it is also quite humbling… or at least it ought to be. Why is it that anyone in Corinth was able to truly proclaim, “Jesus is Lord” (v3)? Why did the church members in Corinth make that good confession even while many others there had heard the gospel and yet rejected or ignored it? Why is it that many of us here today believe and live in keeping with the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord, but many others we know and love ignore that same reality?

Friends, that which unites all true Christians is a shared belief that we are sinners, that Jesus Christ lived and died for sinners, that Jesus was raised from the dead as a vindication of His own righteousness and power, and that the same Jesus who died and was raised is reigning as Lord of all creation right now… And the only waythat any of us can truly believe any of this is that God’s Spirit made us alive.

Therefore, if we are a church of Christians, then God (by His Spirit) is at work among us… and this is a reason for unity (we are allspiritual because God is at work among us!), it’s a reason for comfort(if I am believing and confessing Jesus as Lord, then God is at work in me!), and it’s a reason for humility (if I am a believer, then it is God’s doing – His work – and not my own).

If you want to talk more about what the gospel is, about what it means to be someone who is spiritually alive (i.e., a Christian), or about why and how Christians unite as members of a local church, then let’s get together and talk right after the service today.

2. Variety from God (v4-6)

If v1-3 of our passage are emphasizing the unity that Christians have (all being spiritual people who have been made spiritually alive by the work of God’s Spirit), then this next section (v4-6) is emphasizing diversity among Christians.

Paul says, in v4, “Now [or “But”] there are varietiesof gifts…” (v4) …“varieties of service…” (v5) and …“varieties of activities” (v6). But even this “variety” or “diversity” (KJV) is “empowered” or “produced” (NET) by “the same Spirit” (v4), by “the same Lord” (v5), and by “the same God” (v6).

In the first three verses, Paul’s point was that the working of the Spirit of God is the decisive reason that all of them were now“spiritual” and not “pagan” (v1-2). They were “led astray” or “carried away” (KJV) by all manner of false belief, but they had been regenerated or renewedby God’s Spirit, such that they could now say (with their mouths and with their lives) that “Jesus is Lord” (v1). In other words, they were unitedby their shared experience of regeneration or renewal, which is the work of God’s Spirit.

And now, in these three verses (v4-6), Paul’s point is that the work of God (this time even emphasizing the distinction between the persons of the godhead – “Spirit,” “Lord,” and “God”)… God’s working is the reason for diversity in the spiritual “manifestations” among the church (v7). In other words, they were united by their experience of God’s ongoingwork among them too, even though their particular “gifts” or “ministries” or “activities” were different.

So, the example is different in these first two sections (one is conversion, and the other is Christian livingor Christian growth), but the point is the same – “What you have, you have from God!” and “Both your initial conversion and your ongoingChristian life and growth are the gracious work of God!”

And this is the second reason Paul gave the church of Corinth that their variety of spiritual gifts ought to have united them (and not divided them). God is the one who has given them their spiritual “manifestations” in the first place (v7)! Their “varieties of gifts” (v4), diverse “ministries” (NASB) or “services” (v5), and various “working” (NIV) or “activity” (v6) were all “empowered” by “the same Spirit” (v4), by “the same Lord” (v5), and by “the same God” (v6).

The Christians in Corinth seem to have been divided and fighting among themselves about all sorts of things, but it is the height of irony that any church would compete among its members about whose spiritual “gifts” or “ministries” or “activities” are better. Paul already asked them in chapter 4, “What do you have that you did not receive? [And] if then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7).

Friends, it seems that one way the church of Corinth needed to fix their thinking (in order to fix their disordered church) was to embrace a perspective of gratitude and humility… and to put off the perspective of ownership and self-importance. When a church member or leader starts to think of some skill, or ability, or ministry as his or her own possession… that’s when division is sure to come. When a church member or pastor starts to think that this church needs him or her in order to survive or to grow, that’s when fractures start to happen.

But when everyone embraces the reality that the chief reason we are believing followers of Christ in the first place is that God has graciously given us His Holy Spirit… and when everyone knows that God is building and growing local churches according to His own plans and pleasure… and when everyone understands that any good I presently have(skill, ability, interest, experience, gifting) is a gift from God(it’s on loan, and it’s not mine by right)… Oh, now that’s a church that’s not only united, but it’s also healthy and arranged to grow.

And that is exactly as God intends it to be… which leads us into the third point of my sermon… and the third reason Paul gives for why the variety of spiritual gifts ought to have united the church of Corinth (and not divided them).

3. Gifts on Purpose (v7-11)

The third reason that their variety of spiritual gifts ought to have united them (and not divided them) is that the variousand diverse gifts that each church member had been given were “apportioned” specifically by the Spirit of God for the purpose of “benefitting” (NET) or “profiting” (KJV) or working for the “good” of the whole body (v7).

God Himself has intentionally designed it so that Christians would be different from one another. God saves sinners from all sorts of backgrounds and education levels and socio-economic classes and ethnicities and personalities and ambitions… and even the “gifts” and “ministries” and “activities” God gives to Christians are “diverse” (KJV) or “different” (NET) or “varying” by design (ESV).

It seems to me that v7 and v11 are our key verses for understanding Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church in this passage. Of course, there is repetition throughout this whole passage – “the same Spirit… Lord… and… God” “empowers” or “works” these “gifts” or “manifestations” in “everyone” or “each one” (v4-7, 11). And even this repetition is meant to drive home the overall point. But v7 and v11 directly confront one of the main problems of the Corinthian church – they were fighting and divided because of pride andapparent ignorance.

Paul told them in v1-3 that every church member (every person who lives and speaks under the pledge, “Jesus is Lord” [v3]) is indweltor filled with the Holy Spirit. There is no church member who is not“spiritual” (v1), and no spiritual person ever lives or speaks in a way that rejectsJesus as Lord/Messiah/Christ!

…And the Corinthians could accept that. They weren’t denyingthat other church members were saved; they were just treating some as lesserChristians.

And then, in v4-6, Paul told them that the “variety” of “gifts” and “services” and “activities” among the members of the church were all “empowered” or “produced” (NET) by God (v6). Though there was much diversity among their church members, God is the one who is behind it – God wants them to be differentfrom one another, God has intended it to be this way, and God is even “working” (KJV) in “everyone” to make it this way among the church (v6).

…And, again, the Corinthians could accept that too. In fact, the Corinthian church members were quite agreeable with the notion that various church members did have different spiritual gifts… and a lot of them were pretty sure that God had given them a gift or two that was betterthan most others.

But v7 and v11 together confront their pride directly. Whois it that “apportions” or “distributes” (NASB) or “divides” (KJV) spiritual gifts “as he wills” or “as he desires” or “as he wants” (v11)? See it there in v11. God does! Specifically, God the Spirit does!

And for what purpose does God the Spirit “apportion” or “distribute” (NASB) those spiritual gifts (v11)? See it there in v7. Paul says, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit [i.e., various spiritual gifts] for the common good” or “for the benefit of all” (NET) or literally “to be profitable” (v7).

In other words, whatever spiritual gift or gifts any church member had in Corinth, there was no reason for him or her to be prideful about it, because the purpose for which God had given the gift in the first place was so that he or she might be a “benefit” or “profitable” to other church members (v7).

Brothers and sisters, this reality has not changed in 2,000 years. God’s work in converting sinners and apportioning to Christians various spiritual gifts is still in full effect. This is what God does in every generation, from the time of Christ’s first coming all the way until His return.

And the purpose for which God apportions the various spiritual gifts He does is so that others will benefit from them. Whatever skill, ability, experience, resource, or gift you might have… those are not ultimately for you! They are for other church membersaround you.

This is the opposite of buffet-style-Christianity. We are not individuals who come together and belly up to the bar in order to satisfyour own desires, interests, or tastes. As a matter of fact, we ought not make it our priority to be served or appeased at all. As church members, we are all recognizing and even embracing the fact that we each have various skills, perspectives, experiences, and preferences… and we are eagerly aiming to benefit and to be a benefit for others who are not exactly like us!

Have you ever heard a symphony? I have… though never in person… only by listening to it through some sort of digital device.

I had to look up this word to make sure that I would use it properly, but a symphony is a specific form of musical composition (usually an elaborate one) which is written for a full orchestra (and usually a big one). A full orchestra is a band that incorporates a variety of instruments… including woodwind, string, brass, and percussion. And when the whole group is playing together, the music they can create is far more complex and beautiful than any of them could play alone… or even in a group with lesser variety.

You can’t play Beethoven or Mozart or Bach with just a violin or a guitar. And you can gather up 100 cellos, but you’ll still be powerless to play Handel’s Messiah. It doesn’t make any difference in the world that you have the best musicians or the most expensive instruments, if you don’t have the right variety, you can’t play a symphony.

The Scripture teaches us that God graciously and supernaturally brings wayward sinners into His kingdom (into His family, into His Church)… though we were “strangers and aliens” to the promises of God, He has made us “fellow citizens with the saints and membersof the household of God” (Eph. 2:19). But God doesn’t stop there! He produces in His people (and for His people) a variety of gifts and ministries, so that they will all be built up together into something greater than they could ever be alone… the household of God is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord… a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:20-22).

And it is in this united and diverse body that the “mystery” of God’s plan to save and glorify sinners is brought to light… “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known” (Eph. 3:9-10).

Brothers and sisters, God is at work among us, and we (different as we are) need each other. We need each other for correction… we need each other for encouragement… we need each other for accountability… we need each other for instruction… we need each other for our spiritual good and growth… and we need each other to persevere all the way through to the end.

There are all sorts of questions we might ask about what spiritual gifts Paul mentions in our passage today, and we will certainly talk more about these and other gifts as we continue our study of 1 Corinthians… but the main idea of our passage cannot be overstated… God is at work among us, and we need each other.

May God help us to look for ways… not merely to identify our gifts or simply to exercise our gifts… but to use what we have for the benefit of others.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Vaughan, Curtis, and Thomas D. Lea. 1 Corinthians. Logos Research Edition. Founders Study Commentary. Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2002.