“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.”

Varieties of gifts, ministries, and effects. Same Spirit, Lord, and God. That’s it in a nutshell. As this monologue unfolds, the balance is made.  Whereas diversity has been exalted, or rather, has been arrogantly appropriated as “my diversity,” Paul tips the scale back to the unity side. The Corinthians weren’t getting it allwrong; they had not become a homogeneous non-differentiated amalgamation of spiritual robots. They were individuals to be sure. But they experienced their diversity at the expense of unity.

Shortly Paul delineates some of the spiritual gifts, but here he emphasizes unity first. The grammatical construction gives the emphasis like this: “Though there are varieties of gifts, the important thing to stress is that they all come from the same Spirit.” These gifts can be used in many different ways to serve others, but all these ministries involve the same “Lord” (which we take in context as the Lord Jesus Christ). And all these ministries have differing results. But in the end, God is the unifier of them all, bringing all expressions of spiritual gifts together for the common good.

One can easily see the great diversity in the body of Christ. Some have the gift of teaching, for example, but it can be used in a wide variety of ways: teaching children, teens, or adults; congregational preaching on Sunday mornings; small group ministries; one-on-one teaching; Bible school; seminary; etc. Even within those particular ministries where the teaching gift is used, there can be a wide range of results. Some will have a greater impact over more people than others. Some will have “knowledge” results, some will have “practical” results, some “vocational,” and the list goes on.

We could go through all the gifts, and the possibilities would be endless. But spiritual gifts are not opportunities to build ourselves up in the expression of spirituality. Rather, we are simply elements in God’s design to build up the body of believers.

The Corinthians were failing at this. And we today fail at this when we use spiritual gifts for our own benefit, to build ourselves up or to foster spiritual elitism, sectarianism, or divisiveness of any kind. God did not save us to be our own individual islands of spiritual life. He saved us to be part of a whole, which Paul describes later as Christ’s body. And that is the joint work of the three persons of the Trinity.

Lord, help me keep in focus that You are the builder of Your body, the church.