12:12-17 What is the point Paul is making here?
12:12-17 What is the point Paul is making here?
Paul is emphasizing here the equality of every member of the church, regardless of their spiritual gifts (CP V4-7, 11-12 with Pr 25:27; Ro 12:3-5; Eph 4:16). There is no room for pride, and no need to feel inferior in the body of Christ for every believer is essential to the proper function of the body.
As the eye in a human body is no more important than the hand, nor the head more important than the feet, so too in Christ's body, the church - no member, or the gift they exercise, is more important than another (CP 1Cor 12:18-21).
It is unscriptural and unwise to assume that because someone exercises a spectacular gift that person is more spiritual than someone with a less spectacular gift. Neither does possessing a gift means that God approves of all the possessor says or does (CP De 1:17; 16:19; 2Chr 19:7; Ac 10:34-35; Ro 2:10-11; 1Cor 12:20-25; Jas 2:8-9).
God incorporated diversity into the body so there would be no division; that all the members alike should have a mutual interest and care for each other (CP Ro 12:10,16; 15:1-2; 1Cor 13:4-7; Ga 5:26; Eph 5:21; Php 2:1-4).
If one member suffers, the others all share that suffering. If one is honoured, the others all share in that honour. The way God designed the human body is a model for understanding our lives together as a church.
Every part is dependant upon every other part whether they are visible or not. Each part is essential to the well being of the whole (CP 1Cor 12:25-27 with Eph 4:12, 16). Not everyone is an apostle or prophet or teacher.
Neither is everyone a worker of miracles, or have gifts of healing. And they do not all bring messages in tongues, or interpret. But every member of the church has a gift, and that gift is as important as any other (CP 1Cor 12:7, 28-30 with Ro 12:5-6).
It should be noted here that the baptism referred to in 1Cor 12:13 does not refer to either baptism in water, or the Holy Spirit, as many in the church believe (CP V13 with Ro 6:3-11; Ga 3:26-28; Eph 4:1-6; Col 2:8-13).
A great many Christians in the contemporary church believe that those scriptures all refer to water baptism or baptism in the Holy Spirit, but neither is correct, as is plainly evident here. It is the element into which one is baptised that determines what type of baptism it is, and clearly neither water nor the Holy Spirit is the element here. Furthermore it is the Holy Spirit who is the baptiser here.
These scriptures all teach how the Holy Spirit baptises believers into Christ, uniting them to the body of Christ - the church - and making them spiritually one with other believers. This is how the church is constituted, and it is the only baptism that saves. Neither being baptised in the Holy Spirit nor water saves.
It is only by being baptised into Christ and into His body, the church, that one can be saved (for a better understanding of what being baptised into Christ means see comments on Ro 6:3-5).