Historical
Context
The division in the Church at Corinth is
evidenced and caused by certain issues that raised the concern of the Apostle
Paul. Most certainly there is a sense of
superiority among some in the congregation; and it can be argued that this
sense of superiority probably comes from an over-realized eschatology. I discuss that in this Blog
post.
David Garland rightly concludes that the
Corinthian believers "regard their gift to be an official notarization
from the Spirit that they are truly spiritual, and they may be insisting that
others owe them esteem and deference."[1] The Apostle Paul is
confronting that issue. "The
presence of the Spirit in power and gifts makes it easy for God’s people to
think of the power and gifts as the real evidence of the Spirit’s presence. Not
so for Paul. The ultimate criterion of the Spirit’s activity is the exaltation
of Jesus as Lord, which in turn expresses itself in loving concern for others."[2] Paul affirms that in 1
Corinthians 12:1-3. In verses 4-11, the
Apostle affirms the necessity for diversity and the "on the great
diversity of gifts that the one God distributes/manifests through the one
Spirit for the sake of the believing community."[3]
The Apostle then makes this contention: “For just as the
body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many,
are one body, so it is with Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12, ESV). His main point is evidenced in the
structure that follows:
A The body as one but with many members
(12:12–14)
B The necessary diversity of members within the body (12:15–20)
B´ The necessary interdependence of members of the body (12:21–26)
A´ The body as one but with many members
(12:27–31)[4]
Paul is going to develop the theme of
diversity but show that the Church, the Body of Christ is not just a collection
of differing gifts but that each exists dependent and interdependent on the
other. From his opening sentence in
verse 12, he then makes this complicated statement in verse 13. The aim of this study is to establish what
Paul is communicating.
Text
"For in one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to
drink of one Spirit." (ESV)
Greek
Interlinear
"καὶ γὰρ ἐν ἑνὶ πνεύματι ἡμεῖς πάντες εἰς ἓν σῶμα ἐβαπτίσθημεν,
For also by one Spirit
we all into one body were baptized
εἴτε Ἰουδαῖοι εἴτε Ἕλληνες, εἴτε δοῦλοι εἴτε ἐλεύθεροι,
whether Jews or Greeks whether bondmen or free
and all one Spirit were
to drink
Alternate
Translations
“For by one Spirit we were all baptized
into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all
made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13, NASB95)
“For we were all baptized by one Spirit
so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all
given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinthians 12:13, NIV)
Main Verbs
There are two main verbs in this verse that
will prove to be determinative regarding the interpretation:
Were baptized (ἐβαπτίσθημεν) verb, aorist, passive, indicative, first person, plural
Were to drink (ἐποτίσθημεν) verb, aorist, passive,
indicative, first person, plural
Interpretation
With the assertion
that the body is one with many parts, Paul provides the theological basis for
that. We know that by his use of the word
"for". " In Paul’s view what makes the
Corinthians one is not just their common article of faith, but especially their
common experience of the Spirit, the very Spirit responsible for and manifested
in the great diversity just set before them (vv. 4–11)."[6]
We notice that Paul uses parallel phrases:
“we were all
baptized into one body."
______________________________
"all were
made to drink of one Spirit."
"Some interpret
this in terms of a reference to water baptism."[7] They would say that "the text implies these ordinances and the New Testament church could
hardly have conceived that followers of Christ would remain unbaptized or
refrain from participating in the Lord’s Supper."[8] But that is clearly assumed
into the text. It is eisegesis[9].
As Dr. Fee points out, this act of
baptism, in the text, is associated with the Spirit, not with water.[10] An additional problem
appears to be the second parallel statement: "all were made to drink of
one Spirit." Again there is a view
that sees this pertaining to the Lord's Table and drinking the cup of
blessing. Others view this as being
filled with the Spirit (“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be
filled with the Spirit,” (Ephesians 5:18, ESV)). Again that appears to be a forced
interpretation. Nowhere in the New Testament does it suggest that at the Lord's
Table we drink the Holy Spirit; and the command "be filled" is
active, not passive.
The repeated words of
"all" and "one" are clearly decisive. "The 'all' is
repeated for emphasis, and the basis of their unity is their common experience
of the one Spirit."[11]
The one and the same
experience that every Christian has is their confession of faith and the
conversion. Conversion unites us to
Christ (“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by
baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3–4, ESV), which by Paul's extension unites us to
His Body.[12]
Paul often
called the church “the body of Christ” (e.g., Romans 7:4).
The clearest expression of drinking the
Spirit is found in John 7, where we read:
“On the last day of the feast, the great
day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and
drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart
will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit,
whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not
been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37–39, ESV).
Here "drinking" is equated to
believing, with a direct connection to the Holy Spirit. In Spirit baptism the believer is being acted
upon. The believer is passive. In any expression of the New Testament
ordinance the believer is active. Paul
clearly uses passive verbs in this passage communicated the reality that all
Christian believers experience this "baptism" and
"drinking" as applied to them by the Holy Spirit. It is not something we do, it is an event
that is done to us.
Conclusion
The clearest understanding of this verse as
stated by Fee is ". . . Paul is referring to their common experience of
conversion, and he does so in terms of its most crucial ingredient, the
receiving of the Spirit."[13] "The point is that
every Christian has been made a part of one body and immersed in (or by) the
Spirit . . . that the Spirit saturates the church body and that all Christians
are imbued with the same Spirit. It occurs at their conversion when they
confess Jesus as Lord and are placed by the Spirit in Christ’s body, in which
they become interdependent limbs and organs."[14]
THEREFORE: I would paraphrase 1 Corinthians 12:13 this way:
“Every single Christian, upon
faith in Christ was immersed into His Body, the Church – no matter who we are –
and we all manifest the Spirit's work of an ever-flowing grace proceeding from
our hearts."
"The oneness of
the body, the church, predicated on the fact that all its members have been
baptized in one spirit into this body, is now applied to the problems in
Corinth."[15] Any elitist group that suggests superiority
based upon gifted is reduced to humble gratitude. All the gifts are determined and dispensed by
the Spirit and all are necessary and significant due to the gracious Source and
the obligatory interdependence.
[1] Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians (p. 558). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
[2] Fee, G. D. (2014). The First Epistle to the Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F.
Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green, Eds.) (Revised Edition., p. 645). Grand
Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[3] Fee, G. D. (2014). The First Epistle to the Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F.
Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green, Eds.) (Revised Edition., p. 664). Grand
Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[4] Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians (p. 589). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
[5] Holmes, M. W.
(2011–2013). The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition (1 Co 12:13). Lexham Press; Society of Biblical Literature.
[6] Fee, G. D.
(2014). The First Epistle to the
Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F. Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green,
Eds.) (Revised Edition., p. 668). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[7] Zondervan. The
NIV Zondervan Study Bible, eBook: Built on the Truth of Scripture and Centered
on the Gospel Message (Kindle Location 266865). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
[8] Pratt, R. L., Jr. (2000). I & II Corinthians (Vol. 7, p. 218).
Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[10] Fee, G. D. (2014). The First Epistle to the Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F.
Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green, Eds.) (Revised Edition., p. 669). Grand
Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[11] Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians (p. 590). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
[12] Notice in Acts 9:4 that at Paul's conversion he was
made aware of the fact that Christ and His Body, His Church are inseparable (“And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he
said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:5, ESV)
[13] Fee, G. D. (2014). The First Epistle to the Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F.
Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green, Eds.) (Revised Edition., p. 671). Grand
Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[14] Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians (p. 591). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
[15] Carson, D. A.. Showing the Spirit: A Theological
Exposition of 1 Corinthians, 12-14 (Kindle Locations 717-720). Baker Book Group
- A. Kindle Edition
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