1 Corinthians Chapter 12

vs 21

You might say "Yes, I think we've been here, Paul", but now Paul is taking a different tac. Rather than one body part deciding it is not a part of the body, now other body parts are slagging off each other. This works equally badly in the church. There are no fifth wheels in a church. So if God gives our church a person who is gifted in speaking in tongues, then (assuming he also gives us someone gifted in interpreting tongues) we can't say we don't need them.

vs 22

Indispensable? Inconceivable! But true. When you are involved in church leadership, you see so many things that you just don't notice as a pew sitter, that you suddenly realise what people are up to, and how valuable they are to the church.

vs 23

When you read the NIV translation, you think that Paul is talking about our regular bodies as an example (in which case you wonder how we treat the dishonourable bits with special honour, but then cover the unshowable bits with special modesty). But the NASB and the greek don't carry that understanding, at least in my reading. They say something more like "to those parts of the body we think are less honourable, we give more honour, and those members that are less presentable become much more presentable", which to me gives the idea that our estimations of parts of the body are somewhat incorrect in comparison to what Paul is talking about.

What I think is going on here is that vs 21 is a bit more abstract from this whole idea - it starts off the thinking that all parts of the body are necessary. But then we move from the necessity of all body parts (vs 22) to the way we treat our body (which ends at the start of vs 24).

vs 24

Presentable parts need no special treatment (except perhaps a hair cut per chapter 11).

Now Paul says "But God", which to me indicates a swapover of ideas, but for the life of me I just can't get my head around it. Is Paul saying "The body can't say to one part "I don't need you", and we treat our body differently dependant on the bit, but God has brought the whole body together"? I think that's it. God gives honour to the dishonourable bits, (possibly rather than us doing it).

vs 25

The purpose of God's work is so that the body might have an equal concern for all its parts, rather than ranking some above the other. When you think about that, then it seems to make a bit more sense. We spend all our time on the bits that are problematic (too little honour, so we try and make them more honourable, or not presentable, so we try to make them presentable). But God wants all the body to be treated with a more equal concern. This is good pastoral theology, methinks.

vs 26

Then, when they body is being thought of as a whole (rather than individualistically like we tend to in our culture), it has a more general concern for the whole, and can share the joys together (which makes them more fun) and frustrations and pains as a whole (which should make them easier to bear).

vs 27

Look at that, you can apply this stuff to the church (I've been doing this already).

vs 28

When I read this, I usually read it as a ranking system, with apostles at the top. I'm now wondering if it is chronological - is this just the order God gave these gifts out? Not sure. It seems odd to have a ranking of 3 gifts, and then mush all the others together under it. However, later on Paul talks about the "greater gifts" which does suggest a sort of ranking.

vs 29-30

The fact is that not everyone has every gift, although sometimes you think Paul has them all. Paul is asking the questions "Do all have..." to make the point that these gifts are spread around the church, in linking with the body idea above that all are necessary.

vs 31

But he does tell them that they should desires the greater gifts, because as we find out later that the Corinthians have a bit of a thing for tongues. And we'll see how Paul ranks gifts later on in the book.

And now, he's going to go into that oft-misquoted-at-weddings-especially but generally misunderstood chapter. Next week.