[Are] all apostles? [are] all prophets? [are] all teachers? [are] all [in possession of] miraculous powers?
Paul has just listed the gifts God set in the church, and now he turns the list into a string of questions. Each one asks whether every believer holds a given place, and the way he asks already gives the answer.
Paul never stops to answer his own questions. One writer explains why:
At the end of the chapter (vv. 29 and 30) Paul raises many questions. He gives no answer, because the answer is so obvious. "Are all apostles?" he asks. No. "Are all prophets?" No. "Do all speak with tongues?" Again, no. Are all Christians members of Christ's body by baptism of the Spirit? Yes. Do all the members speak with tongues? No.
The point of the questions is how God hands out gifts. They are spread across the members, and no single member holds the whole set:
Notice too how, in verses 29, 30, the apostle's questions assume that gifts are distributed among the members of Christ, and not concentrated either in one or in all. Neither do all have the same functions, nor does any one have all the functions which are expressly said to be distributed to each of the many members, to this one, and to that another.
That cut across what the Corinthians wanted:
Verses 29-30 show another important principle. All cannot be apostles, prophets, leaders, workers of miracles, and so on. God does not give all these different gifts to one individual. They are distributed as it pleases Him, to each member as He sees fit. Ministry in the body of Christ is the exercise of a gift. The Corinthians in their puffed-up condition had a selfish ambition to have all these gifts concentrated in every member.
The questions also work as a restraint. Freedom in the assembly is not a licence to take up any role you please:
The questions here match, in principle, the ones already asked about the natural body. Their clear aim is to check self-confident presumption, which might look for a chance to make a false display under cover of the general teaching of spiritual liberty. The Spirit does fill the whole body, but He gives out His gifts to each in a particular way. Freedom to act reaches only as far as the power God gives to act.
One writer applies this to what happens when the church meets:
There are functions in the church, and the Master appoints people to them as He pleases… In the church of God there are special places of service. "Are all apostles?" Anyone who thinks that being a fellow believer leaves him free to take up any function in the assembly is seriously mistaken.
If not every believer holds these places, who decides who does? Not the congregation:
But it is the Lord who calls, not the church. The church may be the place where the gifts are used. It is never the source of the authority, any more than of the power. Both come from Christ. He gives the mission. He sends workers out to sow or reap… The Lord equips the servant He calls for the work He gives him to do. Scripture, and this chapter above all, shows that ministry is the use of a gift from the Lord for a set purpose.
This verse rules out two opposite errors. One is wanting every gift in every member. The other is handing all public ministry to one appointed man:
The Corinthians were foolish to want every gift in every believer. The modern theory that claims all public ministry for one official is no better. The first was ignorant vanity, at a time before the truth stood written down in full. The second is a more guilty presumption, since it stands in the presence of God's acknowledged word, which condemns every departure from His principles.
This truth touches two kinds of people: the member who feels small, and the member who feels large:
Let us be thankful for the grace that has given us any place at all. Let us carry out with zeal the functions God has given us in the body of Christ. But let us value every other member and make the most of them — not least those whose place is completely different from our own. Let disdain be as far from us as discontent.
The same questions settle a common claim about tongues:
Many believe that unless someone can speak with tongues he has not received the Holy Spirit… The apostle Paul's questions in 1 Cor. 12:29-30 prove that not everyone spoke with tongues. Every member in the body of Christ has a place and a service. But members do not all have the same gifts, however useful they are… And note this well: the apostle is speaking to people who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit.
- Ask. Paul's questions need no answer; the plain reply to each is No.
- Answer. God spreads the gifts among many members. No one holds them all, and no one gift belongs to everyone.
- Source. The Lord calls and equips. The church is where a gift is used, not where the authority comes from.
- Restraint. Your liberty reaches only as far as the gift God gave you. Being a believer does not qualify you for every role.
- Result. Take this to heart, and both discontent with your own place and disdain for another's fall away.
have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
Paul ends his list of gifts with a burst of questions, and every one of them expects the same answer. The real issue is not what the Corinthians lacked, but who decides who receives which gift.
Paul leaves the questions unanswered. One writer supplies the silent "no", and marks the line between what every Christian has and what only some receive.
At the end of the chapter (vv. 29 and 30) Paul asks many questions. He gives no answer, because the answer is so obvious. "Are all apostles?" he asks. Clearly, No. "Are all prophets?" No. "Do all speak with tongues?" Just as clearly, No. Are all Christians members of Christ's body by baptism of the Spirit? Yes. Do all the members speak with tongues? No.
Another writer points out that the questions would be pointless unless the answer were already plain to everyone reading them.
There would be no meaning in these questions if the fact had not been self-evident, that such places in the body were filled by but a few.
The questions have a target: an attitude that uses spiritual freedom as cover for showing off. Each real gift also carries its own evidence.
Their clear aim is to check the rise of fleshly pride, which might look for a chance at a false display under cover of the general teaching of spiritual liberty. The Spirit does indeed fill the whole body, but He gives His gifts to particular people, and freedom to act must stay within the measure of power He supplies. An apostle has his "signs." A prophet has his witness in the hearts of those who hear him. A teacher is approved or discredited by the word he claims to explain. And so with the rest. What God really gives, He also makes work.
Behind the questions stands a choice the church never made. One writer names the ambition in Corinth that Paul is answering.
All cannot be apostles, prophets, leaders, workers of miracles, etc. God does not give all these different gifts to one person. He hands them out as He pleases, to each member as He sees fit. Ministry in the body of Christ is the use of a gift. The Corinthians were puffed up, and they had a selfish ambition to see all these gifts gathered in every member.
The same arranging hand reaches from the top of the list to the bottom of it.
This shows us how fully the truth stands: God, not man, arranged the assembly and the place each one holds in it. The same principle runs from the highest to the lowest, from apostles down to the least gift that shows the Spirit at work in it.
One writer traces where this gift appeared and where it did not.
The One who confused human speech at Babel was able to give some in Jerusalem the power to speak languages they had never learned, and He did so. We say some, because even in the days of the apostles not all Christians shared in this display of the Spirit... At Corinth, where some had that power, it seems that not all did. At Philippi, Rome, Thessalonica and in Galatia we read of no convert receiving it. Paul himself spoke with tongues more than any of the Corinthians. He needed it for his work, and he tells us the purpose of it was to impress and to attract unbelievers.
Tongues and interpretation come last in Paul's list. One writer draws out what that order says about what to desire, and about tongues today.
They did not all have all the gifts he mentions, but he urges them to desire the greater ones. "Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts." The greater gifts were not miracles and tongues, but apostles, prophets and teachers. God gave these to establish the church in the great truths of its heavenly calling and its link with Christ on high. And since apostles and prophets have not remained to this day, we are not entitled to expect the miracles and tongues named in the same list to continue.
The gift of interpretation named here exists for the same reason as every other one.
"The interpretation of tongues" means explaining what at least some people did not understand... Let us remember that every gift has in view the blessing of the body of Christ, and not merely the blessing of the person who has the gift.
- The question — Paul asks if all heal, all speak in tongues, all interpret. He gives no answer, because the answer is plain: no.
- The Giver — God decides who gets what. He never loads every gift onto one person, however much ambition may want it.
- The check — the questions curb showing off. Freedom to act reaches only as far as the power God supplies.
- The reach — every gift looks outward. Interpretation clears up what others miss, and tongues were meant to attract unbelievers. No gift is for its owner alone.
- The result — no member holds everything, so no member stands alone. Desire the greater gifts, the ones that build up the church.