Work Together
|
Key Verses: “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit … And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” Selected Scripture: |
THE APOSTLE PAUL INDICATES that there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but they all come from the same Spirit. There are different ways to serve the Lord and we can each do different things yet the same God works in all of us and helps us in everything we do. For instance, on the Day of Pentecost, when the apostles and disciples were miraculously filled with the Holy Spirit, each of those assembled from surrounding countries “heard them speak in his own language.”—Acts 2:1-6
Some who had received the gift of the Spirit either spoke or translated in a language of which they previously had no knowledge. Paul said: “There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” “One is given … the word of wisdom; To another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing …; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues.” (I Cor. 12:6,8-10) All these Divinely-provided works were indispensable for the establishment of the Early Church, but many gifts passed away as no longer needed after the apostles died.
Paul points out that all the variations in the manifestations of the Spirit did not mean different spirits, but the one Spirit, working in the entire church, with the one purpose of building them all up as various members in the one body of Christ. (vs. 7) We are all baptized by one Spirit into one body. The picture is that of a human body of many members operating together for the general good and the accomplishment of one general purpose. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”—I Cor. 12:12
Those being called during the present Gospel Age receive a begetting of the Holy Spirit. They are baptized by the one Spirit into the one body. Christ’s body members are to be fellow sharers in the suffering of the present time. They are to be joint-heirs in the glories that are to follow in the millennial kingdom.
Paul said there is no division in the human body, yet one hand is separate from the other hand; and there is a separation between the hand and the foot. But there is a work for every part of the body to do. The hand and the foot are connected through the head. The brain is in touch with all parts of the body through the nerves. One member cannot say to another, ‘You are not needed;’ for “God hath set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” (vs. 18) The instructions which are received from the head, our Lord Jesus, are that all members are needful.
The Divine family is bound together in one bond of love and fellowship, confidence, sympathy, harmony and common interest. The honor and glory of one is the honor and glory of all. As Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”—John 17:21