1 Corinthians 12:18-27

Here is a second question that is quite relevant to the Body of Christ today.

Ø Are Christians who have had the experience of speaking in tongues (or some other miraculous gift such as physical healing) in some way better or more spiritual than those who have not? (12:18-27)

Even if you are Pentecostal or Charismatic you may have an initial negative response to this question.  Of course there are no inferior/superior believers in Christ’s body!  But I would like to state the practical truth from one who has sat among Pentecostal/Charismatic brothers and sisters (may I say friends for that is what they are to us).  The effect of the stories they tell of amazing healings, levitations, calming of storms, raising the dead and so forth have this exact effect: to cause others who have not experienced these things to consider themselves inferior.  If they are not grounded in Scripture the conclusion they will come to is that they are missing something.  They may have the feelings expressed in today’s passage, that they are not needed (v21), weaker (v22) or less honorable (v23).  

I confess to having had such struggles in the early years of my walk with Christ.  UNTIL God brought me to the truth of what it means to be in Christ.  The significance of the believer is completely bound up in being in Christ and every believer IS, in fact, in Christ.  And in Christ we have every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3), we have ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4) and we are COMPLETE (Col. 2:10).  To deny any of this is to deny who Christ is, the One in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9).  I praise God greatly for bringing me to this simple understanding.

May I say as well that I know the blessing of seeing God’s sovereign work in matters of healing (in answer to prayer as we are instructed in James 5:12-18) and providential financial provision.  But these are not the “holy grail” that some make it out to be.  The evidence of true faith and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, as 1 Corinthians has made clear, is that they are changed in their lives; they are not what they used to be (1 Cor. 6:9-11).  Paul lived this way when he said that he had learned to be content in all things, to live with a little or a lot (Phil. 4:10-13).  And again, when he noted that God refused to take away his thorn in the flesh (which many consider to be some physical affliction, 2 Cor. 12:7-10).  He struggled financially and physically but it was not a reflection on his relationship with Christ.

I do not mean to be contentious.  In fact I have dwelt on this because of my concern and compassion for young believers who are tempted by these arguments.  We desire to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Col. 1:28).  I encourage you to consider these truths.  Who we are is bound up in Christ and not in the supposed excellencies of our gifts or ministry positions in the Body.