Some stuff we need to know basically. 'Concerning spiritual gifts...' They needed some help to understand the 'body' of Christ and how it worked.
Body building was the image that came to mind on reading this text. But actually, that soesn't completely help, because I recall visiting a gym years back and all you saw were those huge mirrors and people looking at themselves as they flexed their muscles on the weights.Rather, I think Paul may prefer some exercise that isn't so self-centred. I also think that the nature and purpose of spiritual gifts for the building up of the body is intended in such a way that there are deeper matters such as respecting each other simply because we are 'members of the same body', not because of our particular gifts. Sometimes we are in danger of cur=bing otrhers gifts because we have such a body-building image that is so focussed upon the 'ME' alone sort of stuff, whereas my gifts are only any use when placed alongside others as a whole. When the body of the church exercises in this way the body is built up and made more and more complete as there is space and room and need for other parts still to be added.
1 Corinthians 12:
Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:
wise counsel
clear understanding
simple trust
healing the sick
miraculous acts
proclamation
distinguishing between spirits
tongues
interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
12-13You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
