1 Corinthians 12:4-27
- Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit.
- And there are different ministries, but the same Lord.
- And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.
- To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all.
- For one person is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, and another the message of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
- to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
- to another performance of miracles, to another prophecy, and to another discernment of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.
- It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things.
- For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body — though many — are one body, so too is Christ.
- 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.
- If the foot says, “Since I am not a hand, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that.
- And if the ear says, “Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that.
- If the whole body were an eye, what part would do the hearing? If the whole were an ear, what part would exercise the sense of smell?
- But as a matter of fact, God has placed each of the members in the body just as he decided.
- If they were all the same member, where would the body be?
- So now there are many members, but one body.
- The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor in turn can the head say to the foot, “I do not need you.”
- On the contrary, those members that seem to be weaker are essential,
- and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our unpresentable members are clothed with dignity,
- but our presentable members do not need this. Instead, God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member,
- so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another.
- If one member suffers, everyone suffers with it. If a member is honored, all rejoice with it.
- Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it.
Updated on 2009-07-19 (r.23) by Andrew Fountain