We opened our study of 1 Corinthians 12 a few weeks ago by considering this: Jesus has guaranteed that His body would move forward in the world under the power of the Holy Spirit. It is His will that everything truly special and substantial, powerful and pervasive about the church, would be rooted in the work of the Spirit. I used an image of a passenger ferry between Pier 50 and Seacrest Park, West Seattle, powered not by 278 exhausted passengers flapping oars in Elliott Bay, but by the unseen push of a mighty engine. The Church is powered not by the feeble work of individuals, but by the steady push of the Holy Spirit.
That said, Jesus is pleased for the Spirit to operate in ways that are manifested, revealed, visible, and made known. This is what makes the purposes of God so mysterious. The Spirit, though invisible, strives to make Himself visible to those in the church. As our confessions say, the Spirit is manifested in the reading and preaching of the Word, in the convincing and converting of sinners, the sacraments of the church, and in the building up the people of the church in holiness and comfort (Westminster Shorter Catechism, 89, 91).
All of us should recognize the paradoxical chasm between the work of an all-powerful Holy Spirit and the ordinary evidence of that work in the life of the church. Contemplate this for a moment: the very powerful Spirit is revealed in ordinary manifestations. It is so common for believers to claim that their ability to study and understand Bible, their commitment to the gospel, and their overall progress in personal holiness are rooted in effort. It isn’t. Our life in Christ is a life driven by the Holy Spirit and manifested in ordinary ways.
The manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church body at Corinth was diverse (see verses 8-10). The manifestation of the Holy Spirit is also diverse here at Covenant. This is clearly taught in Scripture; evidence for this diversity of manifestation is what fills the end of 1 Corinthians 12 and what motivates Paul’s image of a human body (verses 12-31). God’s deliberate purpose to image something of Himself in human creation, to Paul, is similar to God’s deliberate purpose to image Himself in the body of the church. The human body is rich in diversity as foot and hand and ear and eye cooperate for the common good, namely, to sustain and enjoy life. In the church, diverse members cooperate for the united purpose of the sustaining and enjoyment of the life of the church body.
As a part of many congregations in my Christian life, I have witnessed and benefitted from the Holy Spirit’s work in other people’s lives. That work in and through others has sustained me in my walk and added to my enjoyment of the church. This has sometimes been in the form of teaching and counsel, but it has sometimes been in the form of a well-timed note or smile or hug, an offer of companionship, hard labor to lessen my own labor, a willingness to listen, a gift of money or time or food or beauty, a thought that I do not expect, a prayer that I do not hear, a kind commendation to others that I do not deserve, or silent presence I would never ask for. In all honesty, the work of the Spirit in the life of the church is everywhere, virtually impossible to avoid. Like the two young fish in David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement address who have no idea what water is, more often than not we Christians forget the water in which we swim. The life that is sustained and the joy that we experience in the church body is nothing short of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and it’s everywhere!
As Paul continues his metaphor of a body in 1 Corinthians 12, we are reminded that God’s design is not for individual participants in the church body to covet these manifestations in others, but be richly content with their own ordinary ways of caring for the body (see verses 14-20). Similarly, individual participants are not to condemn or judge or demote these manifestations in others, but commend the ordinary for what it truly is - a valuable Holy Spirit manifestation meant to sustain the body (see verses 21-24a). Finally, individual participants must not isolate themselves from these manifestations as if they are unimportant, or unneeded, but receive and embrace every offering of service in the life of the body (verses 24b-26). What are we fish swimming in if it is not the water of Holy Spirit manifestation?
Nineteenth-century French pastor, Adolphe Monod says, “What is important, then, is to approach everything we do with a great, exalted spirit that always looks toward God and that does all things in light of Him and of eternity. Thus, by carrying God everywhere in our hearts, we would also carry Him everywhere in our words and in our work, so that there might be nothing petty or earthly or transitory in our entire lives” (see his Les Adieux sermon in Living in the Hope of Glory, 163).
This is just the point. The engine driving the church forward in the world is the same engine pulsing and vibrating in the life of the church as brothers and sisters care for one another in ordinary ways. Since nothing is petty or earthly or transitory, in God’s grace, evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work is, and should be, impossible to ignore.
