The Body Politic of Christ Text: 1 Corinthians 12:27-31
Introduction: The Anatomy of the Church
We come now to a passage that is intensely practical. The Apostle Paul has just spent a good deal of ink on the metaphor of the body. He has labored to show the Corinthians that their diversity is not a bug, but a feature. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you." This is God's design. But the Corinthians, being Corinthians, were spiritual show-offs. They were enamored with the flashy gifts, particularly tongues, and this was creating division, arrogance, and chaos in the church. They were acting less like a coordinated body and more like a bag of spare parts rattling against one another.
So Paul, having established the principle of unity in diversity, now gets down to brass tacks. He is going to lay out the divine order, the structure that God Himself has appointed in the Church. This is not a suggested seating chart; it is the anatomy of the Body of Christ. We live in an age that despises all authority and all hierarchy. We want a flat, egalitarian, "every man did what was right in his own eyes" kind of church. But that is not the church of the New Testament. God is a God of order, not of confusion. And He has established an order in His house for the sake of its health, its mission, and its maturity.
This passage is a direct rebuke to two errors that are still very much with us. The first is the error of spiritual egalitarianism, the notion that every gift and every office is of equal rank and importance. Paul is about to put a pin in that balloon. The second is the error of charismatic chaos, the idea that the Spirit's work is measured by emotional intensity, spectacle, and a disregard for structure. Paul is about to show that the Spirit builds a house; He doesn't just haunt it. God appoints, God sets in order, and God defines the functions. Our job is not to reinvent the church according to our cultural sensibilities, but to conform ourselves to the blueprint He has already given.
The Text
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all translate? But you earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I will yet show you a more excellent way.
(1 Corinthians 12:27-31 LSB)
One Body, Many Members (v. 27)
Paul begins by summarizing the point of his extended metaphor.
"Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it." (1 Corinthians 12:27)
This is both a statement of corporate identity and individual identity. Corporately, you are the physical presence of Christ in the world. The Church is not a building, not a social club, not a political action committee. It is a living organism, the body of which Christ is the head. This means the Church is meant to do the things Christ would do. It is His hands, His feet, His mouth. When the world wants to see Jesus, they ought to be able to look at the Church.
But you are also "individually members of it." You are not an amorphous blob. You are a specific part with a specific function. This cuts against both a detached individualism that says "I don't need the church," and a collectivism that swallows up the individual. You are a member, which means you belong to the whole. Your health is tied to the health of the body, and the body's health is tied to yours. To be a Christian without being a committed member of a local church is like being a hand that has been severed from the arm. It is not a matter of preference; it is a matter of life and death.
God's Appointed Order (v. 28)
Having established their identity, Paul now lays out the divine structure within that body.
"And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues." (1 Corinthians 12:28 LSB)
Notice who does the appointing. "God has appointed." The structure of the church is not a human invention. It is a divine institution. We don't get to vote on the offices. We don't get to rearrange the furniture to suit our tastes. God has set this order in place for the good of His people.
And there is a clear order. "First... second... third..." This is not just a chronological list; it is a hierarchy of importance for the foundational work of the church. The word-gifts are ranked above the sign-gifts. Why? Because the church is built on the truth of the gospel. The foundation is doctrinal. As Paul says in Ephesians, the church is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone" (Eph. 2:20).
First, apostles. These were the foundational, eyewitness messengers commissioned directly by Christ. This office, in the primary sense, was unique to the first generation and has ceased. There are no apostles today with the authority of Paul or Peter. Their work is finished, and their doctrine is permanently enshrined in the New Testament.
Second, prophets. New Testament prophets were also foundational. They spoke direct revelation from God for the edification and guidance of the church before the canon of Scripture was closed. Like the apostles, this revelatory office has ceased. The gift of prophecy today, if it exists, is not the giving of new, authoritative Scripture, but rather the powerful and timely application of the existing Scriptures to the life of the church. It is Spirit-empowered preaching.
Third, teachers. This is the ordinary, ongoing word-ministry of the church. These are the pastors and elders who labor in the Word and doctrine, explaining and applying the apostolic and prophetic foundation. This is the central and most crucial ministry in the life of the church week in and week out.
After establishing this foundation of Word-ministry, Paul lists other gifts: miracles, healings, helps, administrations, and tongues. "Helps" likely refers to the work of deacons, ministering to the physical needs of the saints. "Administrations" refers to the gift of governance or ruling, the work of the elders in steering the ship of the church. And notice what comes last in the list: tongues. This was the very gift the Corinthians were most proud of, the one they were flaunting. Paul, with deliberate pastoral wisdom, puts it at the very bottom of the list. He is re-calibrating their values. The spectacular is not the important. The foundational is the important.
Rhetorical Questions and a Rebuke (v. 29-30)
Paul then drives his point home with a series of rhetorical questions, each of which expects the answer "No."
"Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all translate?" (1 Corinthians 12:29-30 LSB)
The answer is, of course, a resounding "No!" This is Paul's direct assault on their spiritual pride and envy. Not everyone has the same gift because God has designed the body to be diverse. If everyone were an apostle, who would be the congregation? If everyone spoke in tongues, who would be there to interpret? This is a rebuke to the Pentecostal and charismatic error that insists that certain gifts, especially tongues, are a necessary sign of salvation or the baptism of the Spirit. Paul says plainly that not all speak in tongues, and it is God's design that they do not.
This diversity is God's wisdom. It forces us into community. It compels us to depend on one another. The teacher needs the administrator. The one with the gift of helps needs the one with the gift of teaching. This is how God knits us together. The desire to have every gift, or to have the most visible gift, is a form of pride that tears the body apart. Contentment with the gift God has given you, and a cheerful dependence on the gifts He has given others, is the glue that holds the body together.
A Better Ambition (v. 31)
Finally, Paul concludes the chapter by redirecting their desires and setting the stage for his majestic discourse on love.
"But you earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I will yet show you a more excellent way." (1 Corinthians 12:31 LSB)
The phrase "earnestly desire the greater gifts" can be taken in two ways. It could be an imperative: "You should desire the greater gifts." Or it could be an indicative: "You are, in fact, desiring the greater gifts." Given the context of the Corinthians' pride, it is likely a bit of both, a gentle rebuke wrapped in an exhortation. Yes, it is good to desire gifts that are most edifying to the church. You should want prophecy and teaching more than tongues because they build up the whole body (as he will argue in chapter 14). So, stop being ambitious for the showy gifts and start being ambitious for the gifts that are most useful to others.
But even as he says this, he immediately points them higher. There is something that animates and gives value to all the gifts. There is a way that is more excellent than even the greatest of gifts. That way is love.
This is the pivot point of the entire section. The Corinthians were gift-centered, and it was producing "charismatic chaos." Paul is about to show them that the Christian life must be Christ-centered, which means it must be love-centered. A gift without love is just noise. Prophecy, knowledge, faith, miracles, healings, all of it, without love, is nothing. It profits nothing. Love is the circulatory system of the body of Christ. Without it, even the most impressive-looking limbs are just dead appendages. The "more excellent way" is not another gift to be coveted, but the very character of Christ to be cultivated, which makes all the other gifts useful for their intended purpose: building one another up.
The solution to the church's divisions, pride, and immaturity is not to get more spiritual gifts, but to get more love. Love is the logic that makes the body work. It is the syntax of the Spirit's language. And it is to this most excellent way that we must now turn our attention.