For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also [is] the Christ.
Paul has just listed the many gifts the Spirit gives. Now he explains why that variety never splits the church: a body has many limbs and is still one body. What startles the reader is the last clause — he does not say "so also is the church," but names the whole thing Christ. (Older translations read "so also is the Christ"; the ESV renders it "so it is with Christ.")
Paul pushes the comparison further than we might expect. He does not just compare the church to a body, or link it to Christ. He gives it Christ's own name.
Scripture does not only say the body is united with Christ. It says the body is Christ Himself — "so also is Christ." The limbs, so to speak, are simply attached to the Head. The Head gives motion, life, and character to the whole, so the whole thing goes by the name of the Head. It is not easy to grasp the full force of this remarkable language. It seems to lose the Church in Christ, so that He alone is seen, and the Church looks like only a part of Him.
That one name covers both the Head above and the members below:
Paul is clearly speaking of the Head in glory and the body here on earth. Together they make up one spiritual "man": Christ is the Head, and all the members are the body. When he says, "So also is Christ," he gives that one mystical man a single name — Christ.
The verse states the fact. The next verse tells us how it happened.
Verse thirteen explains the statement made in verse twelve. It gives the nature and origin of the wonderful truth of verse twelve, which is this: though we are many members, we are one body, and that body carries the name Christ.
One writer rules out two common ideas of how unity comes about:
We, the members, do not build this unity ourselves. It does not come from each one losing his individuality and merging into the others. That is not how the body is formed. What forms it is the connection of the members with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some treat this body as something only heavenly, or still future. The answer runs through the whole chapter.
Look at 1 Corinthians 12:12 to the end. No one in his right mind can fail to see a body on earth here. Paul compares it to our natural body... But it is by one Spirit that we are baptized into one body, and this took place on earth... Which of these gifts are to be exercised in heaven? The whole passage is as clear as language can make it: there is a body formed on earth.
This body is bigger than any one local church. Even so, the local church has a job to do about it.
Our human spirit controls how our bodies work. In the same way, the Spirit of God is the animating power of every member of the body of Christ. The body is one. It has many members, yet together they are one body. "So also is the Christ." This is not just local. It takes in the whole body of Christ worldwide, though the local assembly is meant to give expression to it.
One sentence holds two truths, and each keeps the other in balance.
"For just as the body is one and has many members" — this is diversity in unity. "And all the members of the body, though many, are one body" — this is unity in diversity. "So also is the Christ." We are united in one body, the Christ, and yet every child of God has his own appointed work, which no one else can do for him. Each one receives a different service. I cannot do yours, and you cannot do mine.
The teaching cuts two ways at once. It stands against a few doing everything, and against anyone acting alone.
This side of the truth guards us from clericalism, and also from independence. Every member of the one body is needed. Where the gathering does not quench the Spirit, He works through the members for the profit of all.
- One Spirit — no agreement of ours builds the body, and no merging of members makes it. One Spirit joins each one to Christ.
- One name — Scripture puts the Head in glory and the members on earth under one name: Christ.
- One earth — these gifts are used here and now, so the body is real on earth today, not only in heaven.
- One scope — the reach is worldwide, and the local gathering exists to give visible expression to it.
- One task each — inside that unity every believer has a service no one else can do. So neither a clergy class nor a go-it-alone spirit fits the body.
For also in [the power of] one Spirit *we* have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit.
Here Paul says why the many members are one: one Spirit made them so. That raises three questions — is this water baptism, when did it happen, and what does it mean to be "made to drink" of one Spirit?
The word "baptized" makes many readers think of water. One writer rules that out and points to the Spirit's own act:
Of much importance is verse 13... This refers to the formation of the body. The baptism mentioned in this verse is not water baptism. Water baptism does not save, nor can this ordinance put anyone as a member into the true church, the one body. The baptism is the baptism of the Spirit. It took place on the day of Pentecost. On that day the Spirit was poured out, and while He filled every believer, He also united them into one body. Then the body of Christ was formed once for all by this baptism... Many Christians speak of repeated baptisms by the Spirit and point to certain experiences as new baptisms. In the light of this verse all this is incorrect. Scripture knows only one baptism.
One writer draws a careful line between faith and the Spirit's coming:
Note this carefully: faith did not form this unity, precious and mighty as faith is. The Holy Spirit formed it, sent down in person from heaven. Faith is individual; it does not unite, though it fits for union morally. One believes the gospel for one's own soul... But the baptism of the Spirit is something more than life. So it is not given to the dead unbeliever, but to those already made alive. The result is the one body.
How do later believers get in? One writer answers with a picture:
Picture a lake with water as smooth as glass. Someone picks up a pebble and flings it into the centre. What is the result? A circle forms, and it widens and widens until every reed in the lake stands inside it. From the day of Pentecost until now, every soul born of God is brought into that unity, sooner or later, when he receives the forgiveness of his sins and the Holy Spirit.
The picture inside the word "baptized" explains why Paul names Jew and Greek, slave and free:
In baptism a man is submerged and figuratively buried. Here is the basis on which the one body was formed and we are brought into it. We are natural men, children of Adam, with all our personal quirks and rough edges. And we have been submerged in the one Spirit. So all our natural distinctions have disappeared in the one body. There was no greater national distinction than Jew and Gentile. There was no clearer social divide than slave and free. But these distinctions and divides, and all others like them, are gone in the one body.
The second half of the verse is not a repeat of the first:
We have all been baptized in one Spirit into one body. But there is more: each of us, separately and for ourselves, has been made to "drink into (or, of) one Spirit." This seems to be a reference to John 7:37-39. Each member of the body has personally received or drunk of the one Spirit, so that He characterises and governs each. So unity is produced in this twofold way. Each has been submerged in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in each by a personal drinking in.
An older wording of the phrase reads "made to drink into one Spirit." One writer takes it as a mark of shared character:
"We have all been made to drink into one Spirit." This is characteristic... They are all of one mind, all set on the same thing; heart and soul they are seeking the same object... What is that Spirit? It is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit which produces likeness to Christ.
But what about the divisions and failures we see?
God formed it by an act in the energy of the one Spirit, and that guarantees its integrity. Man cannot violate or destroy it, and neither can satanic power. But the visible display of it during its stay on earth may be marred, and has been. The thing itself, divinely formed, remains, and will be perfectly displayed in glory.
Corinth showed that marring, and it repeats:
Had the Corinthians paid attention to this, how much sorrow and shame would have been spared!... It is a state that is always ready to repeat itself. It shows up most where knowledge takes the place of love, and believers stoop to form cliques with a favourite leader.
- One Spirit acts — water baptism did not form the body. The Spirit poured out at Pentecost did, once for all.
- One life given — faith is personal, and it does not unite. This baptism comes on top of life, to those already made alive.
- One circle widening — the act happened once. Every soul since who receives forgiveness and the Spirit comes inside that circle.
- One level ground — baptism means being submerged; the old self goes under, and with it Jew and Greek, slave and free.
- One drink shared — each member takes in the same Spirit, so unity is shared and inward at once. Cliques and favourite leaders only spoil the display of what man cannot destroy.
For also the body is not one member but many.
Paul has just said that one Spirit baptised all believers into one body, whatever their background. Now he points to the obvious fact about any body: it has many parts. He uses that fact to correct a church that was tearing itself apart over gifts.
The statement sounds too plain to need saying. One writer explains why this mark is essential, and why it applies to the church on earth now:
The great and most obvious mark of the body is that it consists of not one member but many. This is so essential to its nature that it could not be called "the body" if it consisted of only one member and not of many. It would be a monstrous shape. It would lack the beautiful unity with diversity seen in the human body, and in every other living structure. It is exactly so with the assembly of God. It is not only His house. It is also Christ's body, because one Spirit has baptised all the believers into one, whatever their background and their otherwise irreconcilable differences. This unity exists now, not only later. It is on earth, not only in heaven.
Many members means many different members. Remove that difference and the body stops working. That is the danger when one member envies another's place:
First, we are reminded that in the human body there is diversity in unity. "The body does not consist of one member but of many." Suppose each member neglected its own function out of envy of members that perhaps have a higher function. Then this diversity would be completely ignored, and the most serious disorder would follow. If the foot began to complain that it was not a hand, or the ear that it was not an eye, the work of the body would stop. Complaining members stop working well for the good of the body.
The Corinthians had real gifts, and were using them to compete:
Sadly, some were misusing what God had given, so that they could exalt themselves. Others, giving their support to one leader or another, helped along a party spirit. This had led to envying, strife and division — marks of man in the flesh rather than of those "sanctified in Christ Jesus". Here in chapter 12 he shows that their behaviour clashed with the truth that the members of the body of Christ depend on each other.
The flesh spoils the body from two opposite directions:
If a humble member of the body were to complain that he was not put in a more exalted place, is he not part of the body? There are two ways the flesh acts: the first is discontent with oneself, and the second is contempt for other people. Each is to be content with his place. The ear would like the position of the eye; there is discontent... but the full blessing of the body normally depends on these differences.
The body has many parts. So building church life around one person contradicts the picture Paul draws:
Suppose I now looked to my head or my hand to perform all the functions of the body — it would be nothing less than folly. But the folly is still greater when you look to a "minister" to carry out all the functions of the body of Christ. I do not deny his gift, or gifts: he may be very gifted. But he cannot do the work of all the members of the body gathered there. All of them have gifts that differ according to the grace given.
The verse also frees you from wishing you were someone else, somewhere else:
If everyone realised that the body is not one member, there would not be this desire for uniformity in the things of God. There is unity, but not uniformity... The apostle wants each believer to realise that he has a part to play for all God's people. That part is not only in relation to the church everywhere, but right where he lives... It is so easy to want to be something other than what we are, and to be somewhere else. We imagine that we would then be of greater service. Whatever gift has been given to us, whether it looks important or not, it is for use. It may be of much greater value than we imagine.
- One body. A single member could never be called a body at all. "Many" belongs to its very nature. This unity exists now, on earth — not only in the future.
- Many members. The differences are not flaws to iron out. The full blessing of the body depends on them.
- Two failures. The flesh denies this truth in two ways: discontent with your own place, and contempt for someone else's.
- No solo body. No one person can carry every function. That is as foolish as asking your hand to do the work of the whole body.
- Your place, here. Unity is not uniformity: the gift you think too small is for use, in the very spot where God has set you.