Also, it must also be
noted (and noted well), that Paul is not attempting to offer up an exhaustive
list of the giftings of the Spirit (or the evidences of the mysterious working
of the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead). It is inconceivable
that Paul was constructing a hard and fast list of “spiritual gifts” that would
be forever operable in the church at large.
Rather, just as is the case with the whole of the letter, he is dealing
with issues related to this church, with what he knows about this church, and
the actions in the church that are resulting in a setting that runs counter to
that which is expected from those that represent and model out the kingdom of the
Creator God and His Christ before the world.
Surely one would not be
willing to place limitations on the Creator God’s working through His people,
through that same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead, by indicating that
this list of actions found in the first half of chapter twelve of the first
letter to Corinth is an actual and limited list of the ways in which the Spirit
of the covenant God manifests itself in and through the lives of believers. Given all of the potential ways to live in
such a way that declared the cosmic King-ship of Jesus, and given all of the
potential ways for those that call Him Lord (which is the fundamental gift of
the Spirit in Paul’s estimation) to be the place of the overlap of heaven and
earth and to set forth the renewed creation through simple actions of
self-sacrifice, compassion, and love, any notion that there is a defined or
limited list of gifts would have to be thought ludicrous.
Clearly then, this
list is not meant to be systematic. It is most likely that Paul could
have gone on to make reference to other activities within the church as
evidences of the gifting of the Spirit, but it might be the case that this was
a list of activities that were most related to the problems at hand within this
church. It is also quite interesting to point out that, though the
performance of all of these things could lead to the accrual of honor and
status, more than half of Paul’s list have to do with public speech acts.
Paul goes on to
stress the need for unity within the church body, regardless of the spiritual
gifts that are being expressed. One must continue to hear an effort to
level out the believers, undoubtedly lifting up some while lowering others as
needed, and decimating hierarchies that are or have been improperly constructed
in the church upon the standards of the surrounding world. Honor and
shame approbations, as popularly enacted and recognized, are and were not going
to have any place within the church of the Christ. Consequently,
believers that exercise what are considered to be the more prominent spiritual
gifts are not going to be allowed to have a place or position above those whose
spiritual giftings are not so obvious or familiar (ecstatic speech being a
rather familiar and highly honored practice).
Paul writes “For just
as the body is one and yet has many members, all the members of the
body---though many---are one body, so too is Christ” (12:12). This use of
“one and yet… many,” followed by “many… are one,” most assuredly picks up
on the “different, same, each, and all” pattern that has already been on offer
from Paul. Continuing in this mold, Paul goes on: “For in one Spirit we
were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or
free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit. For in fact the body
is not a single member but many” (12:13-14).
No comments:
Post a Comment