God Set Some in the Church 1 Corinthians 12:28

Paul the apostle told the church members in Corinth, “you are the body of Christ, and members in particular”, and in chapter twelve and verse twenty-eight of First Corinthians, Paul shared with the Corinthian church about how, “God has set some in the church”, where we read:

And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

The verse begins, “And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers,...”. Paul began with the words, “And God” which refers to “the Godhead bodily and trinity which is comprised of God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit” “has set some” which means “has certainly and indeed put or placed” “in the church” which means “within the assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting”, “first” or “the principal or chief in rank” “apostles” which refers to “delegates, messengers or ones sent forth with orders”, “secondarily” or “afterward and in second place” “prophets” which refers to “men filled with the Spirit of God who by God's authority and command in words of weight pleads the cause of God and urges salvation of men”, “thirdly” or “third in place” “teachers” which refers to “those who in the religious assemblies of the Christians who undertook the work of teaching with the special assistance of the Holy Spirit”. God placed within the church men who were “delegates and messengers”, those who “were filled with the Spirit of God and pled the cause of Christ” and those who “undertook the work of teaching with special assistance of the Holy Spirit”.

The verse goes on to say, “... miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” Paul continues with the word, “miracles” which means “strength and power for performing supernatural works”, “then gifts” or “favor with which one receives without any merit of his own” “of healings” or “means of remedy and medicine”, “helps” which means “aid and relief”, “governments” or “pilotage, directorship and the act of governing”, “diversities” which means “divers stock, tribe and nation” “of tongues” or “languages or dialect used by a particular people distinct from that of other nations”. In addition to “apostles, prophets and teachers”, Paul shared about “miracles, gifts of healing, helps, governments” and “divers languages”.

When we think through these words from Paul, we see how there are not only supernatural “gifts” of “offices” within the “church of Jesus”, but also supernatural gifts that go beyond the natural ability of a person. All these “gifts” of God's Spirit are for the functioning of Christ's body, the church, as as they function according to the dispersement of the Holy Spirit, the church is “edified”. When the church is “built up”, it is enabled to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to the unsaved world, and with that mission in mind, we should always welcome any of the spiritual “gifts” the Lord desires to extend.

Next time Paul asks the church members, “Are apostle, prophets, teachers and workers of miracles?”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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