Tuesday
Tuesday
The Spirit of Unity
The body is a unit…. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
1 Corinthians 12:12–13
We know from 1 Corinthians 1 that the Corinthian church was torn apart by factions, and it is against this background of division that we can best understand today’s text. Paul’s emphasis is that there is only one Holy Spirit and that he is the Spirit of unity. Seven or eight times in the first half of chapter 12 he is called either “the one Spirit” or “the same Spirit.” Paul enforces this by making three strong and unifying statements.
Firstly, all believers have been illumined by one and the same Spirit to say “Jesus is Lord” (vv. 1–3). Still today this is a reliable test to apply to any person or movement. The characteristic work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus. We must never separate the second and third persons of the Trinity.
Secondly, all believers have been enriched by one and the same Spirit with different gifts (vv. 4–11). There are five lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament. Added together, there are at least twenty-one of them, and some are quite ordinary, like administrative gifts, doing works of mercy, and giving money. Their purpose is “for the common good” (v. 7), and the more they build up the church, the more important they are (14:12).
Thirdly, all believers have been baptized with one and the same Spirit into the body of Christ (vv. 12–13). It is well known that Pentecostal and charismatic Christians regard the baptism of the Spirit as a second experience, subsequent to conversion and new birth, that some Christians have received and others have not (though all may). But our text appears to contradict this teaching. For here, according to the apostle Paul, we have all been baptized with the one Spirit and have all drunk of the same Spirit. The gift of the Spirit, portrayed now as a baptism and now as drinking, is the privilege of all believers. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Rom. 8:9).
For further reading: 1 Corinthians 12:1–13