Bible Commentaries
1 Corinthians 12

Verses 1-31

XII 1-11 All Special Favours are equally from God — —The Corinthians had asked him some question on this subject, cf. 7:1, 25. Introd. E. 1. ’Things’: ’Gifts’.2. ’Went’: ’You were led away (or astray)’.

3. The idols were dumb, but they now have to deal with spiritual powers, both holy and unholy also, which speak through their human lips, and they need a rule to distinguish good from bad. ’Anathema . . .’ ’May Jesus be accursed’. A Christian uttering such words when he felt himself gripped by some force beyond his control must be considered as under diabolical influence. Baxter says that Puritan fanatics used to utter ’most hideous words of blasphemy’ in moments of supposed inspiration.

4. ’Graces’: here Paul has ’charismata’ (plural of charisma, ordinary Greek word meaning ’favour’) as an allembracing word for these graces.

5. ’Ministries’: i.e. modes of serving, duties. All the charismata are given for the service of the one Master, Christ.

6. ’Who operates always in all men’,i.e. in all those endowed with the charismata. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity clearly underlies vv 4-6 for ’Lord’ surely means Christ.

7. ’To this or that man however the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the highest good’:i.e. God’s mode of distribution is not haphazard but planned for the widest spiritual good.

8. ’Word’: ’words’, ’utterance’. The first gift is probably higher than the second, but the exact distinction is uncertain.

9. ’Faith’ must mean some exceptional kind or degree of faith, the faith that could work miracles perhaps, as in 13:2 below.

10. ’Discerning of spirits’: power to distinguish good inspiration from bad or pretended inspiration, in cases where such easy rules as that of v 3 were not applicable. ’Tongues’: ’languages’, cf. 14:1. ’Speeches’: ’lanquages’, the same Greek word as before.

11. ’Dividing’: ’distributing’.

12-26 Parallel between the Church and the Human Body —It is ’Paul’s longest allegory and remarkably consistent, cf. 3: 10 f. and 2 Corinthians 3:1-3. Compare our Lord’s allegory, of the Vine, on a closely similar subject, John 15:1-8. The comparison of a society to the human body was familiar to Greeks and Romans. Here the spiritual meaning is present throughout. A threefold lesson: 1. Those who are without the more showy gifts must not be depressed or discontented, 15-16. 2. The most richly endowed are useless except as parts of the Christian society, 17-20. 3. The plainer graces are equally needed and nobody must despise them, 21. 13. ’Members’: i.e. parts or organs. ’Christ’: logically we should expect ’the Church’, but Paul wishes to insist on the oneness of Christ and his church, as our Lord himself had done in his first words to him ’Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?’ cf.Matthew 25:40; John 15:1, etc.).

13. ’Baptized into . . .’: ’made into one body by baptism’. ’In one Spirit . . .’: probably: ’We have all had one Spirit poured out upon us’,cf.Isaiah 29:10, ’The Lord has poured out upon you the spirit of drowsiness’, where LXX uses the same Greek verb; Acts 2:17; Titus 3:6. But many prefer: ’We have all been given one Spirit to drink’.

15-17. To console those who had not received the popular and spectacular charismata.

15. ’Not of the body’: i.e. not part of the body.

22. ’More feeble’: the choice of this word may well be meant to recall the ’weak brethren’ of ch 8, the ignorant and scrupulous Christians.

23. ’Honour . . . comeliness’: probably refers to clothing.

24. ’tempered’: ’subtly compounded or proportioned . . . giving all the more honour to that which lacked it’.

25. ’Schism’: ’division’.

26. ’glory’: ’is honoured’. The human body as a whole feels the pleasure or pain of any part. It ought to be so in the Church.

27-31a Application of the Allegory —27. ’Members . . .’: probably and individually you are parts (organs)’.

28. ’Doctors’: ’teachers’. ’Helps . . .’: ’Gifts of assistance, of government’. Probably refers to the local Christian office-holders, the deacons and priests, for these also had received charismata through ordination (note on 12:1, cf.1 Timothy 4:14). The priests are called ’presidents’ in. Romans 12:8 and ’shepherds’ in Ephesians 4:11. In Ac and the Pastoral Epistles they are called Seniors (presbyteroi) and that was the name that lasted. No doubt some of the prophets and teachers were priests or deacons too. The honourable place assigned to prophets, etc., in these lists has led to the unfounded theory that there were unordained or ’charismatic’ priests. (§§ 657-9).

31a. ’Better’: or ’best, greatest’. He puts the gift of languages last but one in both lists here, and it is clear from 14:5 that the higher gifts were those that ’built up’, i.e. had a greater social value (e.g. prophecy, teaching).

XII 31b-XIII 13 The Perfect Way—Charity — Charity is necessary for all, as a condition of salvation, but in a higher degree it may be a charisma. Both as virtue and as charisma it stands first in its class, for 1. Without it all the rest are vain. 2. It outlasts all other charismata. This is certainly one of the grandest passages written by Paul: an extraordinary combination of close reasoning and poetic language. The poetic forn owes little either to Hebrew or to Greek models, but is free and unartificial, the natural dress assumed by the exalted thought. The exact scope of Love is not directly stated, but it must be understood throughout in its full sense —love of God and of man for God’s sake. Outside the Gospels the other great passage on this subject is 1 John 4:7-21, which in its very different way is as fine as this.

31b-XIII 3 Virtues and Charismata are Vain without Love —He takes five or six charismata in turn, the miraculous gift of languages being naturally placed first, as it had been especially over-prized. 31b. ’And moreover I can show you a perfect way’.