I. THE WAY IN WHICH CHRISTIANITY RECOGNIZES SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS. These are suggested by the "eye," the "hand," the "head," and the "feet." The distinctions that exist among men are of various kinds—natural and acquired, essential and conventional. There are distinctions intellectual, moral, educational, national, official, circumstantial. All these are recognized in some way or other by the religion of Christ. But they do not receive from it precisely the same recognition. They are not recognized by it to the same extent. There are certain social distinctions that are far too deeply rooted in the instinctive tendencies of our nature, or in the moral necessity of things, ever to be obliterated. If they could be levelled in one age they would inevitably rise again in the next. If levelled in a violent and repressive way, they only spring up afterwards in some exaggerated and extravagant form. The French Revolution began with glorious dreams of "liberty, fraternity, and equality;" it ended in a "Reign of Terror" in which every man's hand was against his brother, in a military despotism that crushed the hopes and energies of the people in the dust, in social separations broader and deeper than had been known before. The religion of Christ is in no way antagonistic to those radical and natural tendencies—it does but mould and regulate them. It seeks to control, but not to crush them, wisely to direct the current, but not to stay its course. Revolutionary as it is in its purpose and workings, it is truly conservative, gradually transforming the whole life of man, but demanding no violent changes, developing the form of the nobler future out of the crude, imperfect, and misshapen past. Hence what seems to some the strange silence of apostolic teaching in reference to many of the dark facts and phases of the social life of the world as then existing—slavery, polygamy, military tyranny, oppressive laws, etc. The chief lesson for us here, however, is this—that in the body politic, the living frame of society, each man according to his distinction has his own special function and special work to do. There is the eye—the discerning, perceptive, observant power; the head—the regulative, guiding, governmental power; the hand—the operative faculty, the power that does the finer and more skilful work of the world; and the feet—the part of the frame that bears the heavier burdens, does the drudgery, endures in the way of physical toil the more painful pressure of life. Each member has its own particular work to do, and which another cannot do. The eye cannot handle, the hand cannot see, the head cannot bear the heavy burdens, the feet cannot direct. There are men of fine speculative, philosophic thought, but who have little practical capacity; a nice discernment of the truth of things, but no power to embody even their own ideas in real and substantial forms. Again, there are men of great administrative ability, quick for all the practical business of life, "born to rule" or to manage affairs; place them where you will they will soon assert their power, and others will recognize it and follow their leading. While there are also men to whom physical toil is a natural instinctive delight, and whom the educational influences of life never have fitted or, perhaps, could fit for any other function. Distinctions that grow thus in a natural way out of radical qualities in men Christianity recognizes. Also those that belong to the parental and family relations, or that may be necessary to assert the majesty of law (Romans 13:1-6). But as to any further distinctions, any that rest upon a purely fictitious and conventional basis, having no foundation in nature, which merely feed the lust of power and the pride of life, it would seem to acknowledge none.
II. THE LAW OF MUTUAL DEPENDENCE THAT GOVERNS ALL PARTS OF THE SOCIAL FRAME. The conditions of our life in this world involve us all, in a thousand subtle ways, in the obligation to serve one another, and subject us all, whether we will or not, to the law of self sacrifice. All nature, in its purely physical aspects, is framed on this principle.
"Nothing in the world is single,
All things, by a law Divine,
In another's being mingle."
Every form of physical existence draws its life from those beneath it, and in its turn has to surrender its life to them. The lower forms exist for the higher, the highest can never assert its freedom from the law of dependence on the lowest. So in the complex system of human life, no grade in the social scale, no order of faculty, no kind of "interest," can claim exemption from the common bond. Take e.g. the relation that exists between the men of thought and the men of action, the theoretical and the practical. They are apt to think and to speak slightingly of each other; the one intolerant of being brought continually to a merely utilitarian test, the other always ready with the charge of speculative dreaming. This is a mistake. God has set the one over against the other, "that the one without the other should not be made perfect." Thought without action is worthless. Yet it is thought that rules the world, and if there were no "eye" to guide it the labour of the "hand" would soon cease. So also of social conditions. The tendency sometimes seen in those upon whom the burdens of toil and privation press most heavily, to look up enviously, suspiciously, and even defiantly towards those who occupy a higher level, may be very senseless; but, on the other hand, what more false and irrational than the tone of lofty superiority that social distinction sometimes assumes? Can the head, then, say to the feet, "I have no need of you"? What would become of the loftiest dignities of the world if there were none to bear the heavier burdens and do the rougher work of life? From what do the fairest forms of our civilization spring, our comforts and indulgences, and all the thousand pleasant associations of our life? of what are they the fruits, but of patient, life consuming labour in field and factory and mine? All the bright and beautiful things of the world, all the pride and glory of man's existence in it, have their roots more or less directly in the base earth. The eye and the head, with all their fine sensibility and lofty faculty, can do nothing without the hands and the feet. Christianity gives the utmost sanctity and force to this lesson. It is in the light of the incarnation, the sympathetic humanity, the lowly life, the beneficent ministry, the sacrificial death, of the Lord Jesus that we see what a wondrous bond of brotherhood it is that unites the whole human family together, and that we learn to understand the great law that God has formed us all to "live not unto ourselves." The gospel makes us more keenly sensible of our obligations than of our rights, of what we owe to others than of what they owe to us. It inspires us with the spirit of him who was "among us as one that serveth" and who "gave his life a ransom for many."
III. THE GROUND ON WHICH WE OUGHT TO PAY SPECIAL HONOUR TO OUR FELLOW MEN. The Law of Christ teaches us to reverence our common humanity in all its conditions. "Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king" (1 Peter 2:17). These utterances would seem to embrace all the points of Christian duty in this respect. But the whole drift of the apostle's teaching, in this as in so many other places, is to the effect that special honour is due to the faithful discharge of personal responsibility. Whatever station men occupy, whatever function they perform, it is the profitable use of faculty for the common good that confers upon them the noblest distinction.
"Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part; there all the honour lies."—W.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
1 Corinthians 12:1-3
The presidency of the Spirit.
This passage does not direct us to this general topic, but to one particular point in relation to it. The presidency relates to, covers, and hallows every feature and every expression of Christian life and worship and fellowship. The whole life of the regenerate man is directly and fully within the Spirit's lead, so that he cannot even speak—if he be a Christian indeed—without the inspiration, the guidance, the toning, of the indwelling Holy Ghost. The apostle is giving these Christianized Gentiles a test by which they might know whether they had indeed the sealing and sanctifying gift of the Spirit. They could tell even by the character of their utterances. These found expression for the cherished feeling; and such was the natural depravity of man that they might be sure no man cherished admiring and loving thoughts of Christ, and found expression for them by saying, "Jesus is Lord," save as he was inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost. If it be true of so simple an expression of the Christian life as that, it is surely true of all other expressions. It is even the glory of the Christian man that nowhere and in nothing is he independent. The "Great heart Guide" is always with him. He speaks, he acts, as moved by the Holy Ghost. St. Paul is ted to the impression of this point by the false notion that might be so easily taken up—the notion that only great gifts and talents are under the presidency of the Spirit; that he bears no immediate and precise relation to the common life. The question of practical concern for each one of us is this—How much of daffy life can we recognize as being in God's lead, and under the Spirit's presidency? In answer we may say—
I. THE SPECIAL THINGS OF A MAN'S LIFE ARE IN THE SPIRIT'S LEAD. This may be opened by dwelling on:
1. The special things of personal experience.
2. Of Christian employment and use of gifts.
3. Of relationship and opportunity.
4. Of confession and witness, as in the case of apostles and martyrs.
II. THE COMMON AND LITTLE THINGS OF A MAN'S LIFE ARE IN THE SPIRIT'S LEAD. The "three fourths of life which is made up of conduct." Our sayings, our doings in home and in business. Every act which can express character is of interest to the sanctifying Spirit, and may be done, should be done, in his leadings and inspirations.—R.T.
1 Corinthians 12:4-6
Diversity and sameness.
"Although conversion is identical in every case, yet afterwards there are spiritual gifts which vary according to individual capacity and character, but they all come from the one Spirit. There are varieties of ministration in which those spiritual gifts are employed, and the same Lord is served by these various ministries." Nature shows us the diversified forms and expressions of the common life. Science admits the diversity, and seeks to recognize the one great principle, the life, that lies within them all. The diversity lies in the expression in our human spheres. The sameness lies in the source, for all things are of God.
I. DIVERSITY IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. There are:
1. Diversities in endowments, or "gifts." Meyer's division of the early Christian gifts is suggestive.
(a) the word of wisdom;
(b) the word of knowledge.
(a) the faith itself;
(b) operating in deeds, healings, miracles;
(c) operating in words, as in prophetic utterances;
(d) operating in distinguishing true and false spirits.
(a) speaking with tongues;
(b) interpreting tongues.
2. Diversities in the service required, or in "ministrations" (margin, ministeries), that is, forms in which service may be rendered to Christ and his members by his disciples.
3. Diversities in the modes of fulfilling the service, or in the ways in which individual character and ability may find expression in carrying out various Christian duties. If many Christian men are engaged in the same form of service, each one will impress his individuality upon his method of doing it. No two workmen work exactly alike. In Christ's Church there is full, free room for all kinds of diversity and variety. No man's personal peculiarities need be crushed; all may be of use; only each man must see to it that the expression of his individuality, and the use of his gift, do not become in any way a hindrance or an offence to his fellow workers. Diversity is fully compatible with harmony and unity.
II. SAMENESS IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. There is one source of all Christian gifts; one president over the using of all Christian gifts; and one end to be served by the employment of all Christian gifts. "The unity of the source is strongly insisted upon, to put an end to the mutual jealousy of the Corinthians. And it is remarkable that each person in the blessed Trinity is introduced to emphasize the argument, and in contrary order (as Estius remarks), in order to lead us step by step to the one Source of all. First, the Spirit, who bestows the 'gifts' on the believer. Next, the Lord, to whom men render service in his Church. Lastly, God the Father, from whom all proceeds, whose are all the works which are done to him and in his name." The following, points may be illustrated—There is sameness
Impress that the whole attention of the Christian should be occupied with the one motive and the one source of inspiration. All other motives and inspirations can but fulfil—can but be modes of operation for the one great motive and inspiration, which is that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us sealing us as Christ's, teaching us all truth, and leading us in all duty.—R.T.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
The law of order in the human body.
For other cases in which this simile is employed, see Romans 12:4, Romans 12:5; Ephesians 4:16; Ephesians 5:30; Colossians 2:19. The human body presents a very striking illustration of
I. IT IS A WHOLE. Evidently for it there was a plan, an ideal. It is a complete thing. It has its appointed parts; nothing whatever can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it. Though it may be unrealized as yet, God sees his Church to be, as perfect, a whole.
II. IT IS A VARIETY. The sides of the body seem to match, but even the left and the right have their special functions. Every limb and member and joint has its individual mission. And so in the Church of Christ. No two of its members are really alike, and each has his fitted place and appointed work.
III. IT IS A SET OF RELATIONS. No member having any powers or abilities by itself; doing its own particular work only with the aid of all the other members. The whole being set in mutual dependence and helpfulness.
IV. IT IS A HARMONY. So long as each part and portion does its own particular work efficiently and well. Schism in the body is disease, common helplessness, and the beginnings of death.
V. EACH MEMBER CAN ONLY DO ITS PART BY VIRTUE OF THE COMMON LIFE. Use our Lord's illustration from the vine and the branches. The member must abide in the body, and the branch in the vine. Apply in each case to the Christian Church, and impress that, in the body and in the Church, there can be
1 Corinthians 12:26
The common bearing of a Christian Church.
"Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." "This is a matter of the most ordinary experience in the human body. A pain in any portion, even the most remote from the seats of life, affects the whole. A glance at history will show us that it is the same with the body politic. Whatever is physically, morally, or spiritually injurious to any one portion of society, or of the Church of Christ, is sure in the long run to produce injury, moral and spiritual deterioration, to the rest." "So whatever tends to exalt the character and purify the aims of any one class in society, is sure in a greater or less degree to affect every other. If the one thought is calculated to alarm us by calling our attention to the infinite mischief which may be wrought by one act of thoughtlessness or selfishness, it is an immense encouragement to be reminded by the other that no work for good, undertaken from unselfish motives and carried out in an unselfish spirit, can possibly be without effect." Chrysostom says, "When a thorn enters the heel, the whole body feels it and is concerned; the back bends, the belly and thighs contract themselves, the hands come forward and draw out the thorn, the head stoops, and the eyes regard the affected member with intense gaze." John Howe says, "It is a most unnatural thing to rejoice in the harm of another. In the body, when one member is suffering, all the members suffer with it. And to delight in the harm of others is as contrary to the spiritual nature which is diffused in the true body of Christ, as if the head or any other member should rejoice that the hand or foot is in pain." Two points may be fully treated.
1. As suffering in any part of the body disturbs the whole frame, exciting sympathetic feeling in the most distant parts, so suffering, and even more truly sin, in the lowest and lowliest member of a Christian Church, affects, injures, and grieves the whole. Every member ought to suffer and sympathize with the sufferer or the sinner.
2. As pain elsewhere in the body is really a sympathetic effort to relieve local pain, so sympathetic pain in other members of the Church finds its proper use in the help afforded, and relief given to the suffering or sinning member.—R.T.
1 Corinthians 12:27
The Church Christ's body.
Recall our Lord's own figure of the vine. The branches are the body through which the vine life finds its expression. Compare the human body which our Lord took upon him in his incarnation, which was the means of showing the Son of God to men, and setting him in relation with men, with the Church body which our Lord took when he ascended from this world, and became a living and spiritual Christ, which is the means of showing Christ to men now, and maintaining his relations with them. Illustrate the two following points by the comparison of the human body with the Church body of Christ:—
I. EVERY PART OF CHRIST'S BODY SHOULD MAKE ITS OWN IMPRESSION. Dealing with the human Christ, we show how every part, every feature and phase of his earthly manifestation, had its own power and influence. We are obliged to separate part from part for consideration. Sometimes we dwell on his moral character, or on his habits, or on his speech, or on his actions, or on his endurances. Taking his life piece by piece, we find meaning, mission, use, everywhere. And so with the Church, as Christ's body or earthly manifestation now—each part, each person, has characteristic place and influence. Each must make its or his own impression. From this impress the demand which Christ makes for loyal service from each part of his Church body; every member must be a faithful member.
II. THE CHURCH BODY, AS A WHOLE, MUST MAKE ITS IMPRESSION. Besides any precise impression produced by dwelling on any phase of the human life of Christ, there is a special impression which the whole figure of Christ makes upon us. Illustrate by the feeling of Christian people on seeing Dore's full-sized picture of "Christ leaving the praetorium." So the Church can get its proper impression on men only as it becomes a full unity, the one catholic and apostolic Church. For the securing of the Church wholeness, and its presentation to the world as Christ's complete body on earth, all earnest hearts will ever strive and pray.—R.T.
1 Corinthians 12:28-30
The order of offices in the Christian Church.
"Apostles" are set in the first place or rank, because they were called to their office by the Lord Jesus Christ himself; they had immediate personal knowledge of his life and character and teachings; and they were the actual founders and practical rulers and referees of the Church. Next come the "prophets," who were not persons merely endowed with the power of foretelling future events, but persons to whom direct revelations and communications from God came, and so were empowered to enlighten the Church upon the mysteries of the faith and upon the claims of duty. Compare the older Jewish prophets as directly inspired teachers. Then "teachers," regarded as those with ordinary powers of intellect, and the natural gifts of instructing others, who educated and trained the Church in Christian doctrine. After that "miracles," or the power of working miracles. This is set on a new and lower range, perhaps, because only exercised occasionally, and so not comparing with the more regular and orderly arrangements for the Church's culture. "Miracles" are distinguished from" gifts of healings," which we are to suppose were traceable to personal power on nervous systems, of which there seem to be modern instances. "Helps" may refer to such minor services as succouring the needy, tending the sick, etc. What the apostle meant by "governments'' is very difficult to decide. Stanley thinks that reference is intended to the faculty otherwise known as "discerning of spirits." The word used, however, means "guiding the helm of affairs," and reference may be to those officers who managed, or ruled, the temporal affairs of the Church, and answered, in some measure, to the elders, or rulers, of the synagogue. "Tongues" St. Paul puts last; for, from other passages, we know that he did not greatly value the mere power to express Christian feeling in ecstatic and incomprehensible language, or in some foreign and unknown tongue. He thought that it could bear a very feeble relation to the Church's edification unless it were properly interpreted. St. Paul constantly urges the variety of the gifts entrusted to the Church, and the common honourableness of them all; but he as earnestly impresses upon us that, from the human standpoint, and in view of the preservation of order and efficiency in Church relations, the gifts must set men in different positions, and bring on them different forms and degrees of responsibility. Three things may be unfolded.
I. SOME GIFTS NECESSITATE POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY. The man of gifts, as an apostle or as a ruler, can only use his gifts in offices of authority. So now a man may have the gift of organizing or of managing men, or the gift of mastership and business; then such men we must all be willing to set in the high places.
II. OTHER GIFTS AS TRULY NECESSITATE POSITIONS OF DEPENDENCE. They are gifts of dependence and service. They can only be put to use in lowly places. Those having them can only be faithful in what men may call lesser places. Ambition in men is limited by their gifts. A right ambition leads a man to press for the position in which he can use his gifts. A wrong ambition sets a man upon seeking offices and positions for which he has no gifts.
III. EVERY MAN IN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST SHOULD HAVE HIS OFFICE BY VIRTUE OF HIS GIFTS, AND NOT OF HIS CLAIMS OR OF HIS AMBITIONS, The true idea of selection for office is the discovery of the men among us with the gifts related to the office. The injury of the Church comes by the pressing of men into offices upon other than this ground. God provides the fitted ones; we too often fail to wait on him for the right men, and foolishly fill Church offices on other than Divine grounds. The inquiry for each one to put to himself is first this: "What are the gifts entrusted to me?" And then this: "What is the sphere in which I may find exercise for these gifts?" The most honourable place that any man can occupy is that which is precisely fitted to his gifts, whether to man's view it seem to be lowly or seem to be high.—R.T.
1 Corinthians 12:31
The comparison of gifts and graces.
The most important aspect of religion is the practical one. It is a power working for good upon the whole of our human natures, effecting vital changes, and moulding our conduct and conversation to the pattern of a new model; a Divine power, quickening every right and good faculty our natures may possess, and consecrating to God their exercise; a power seeking to crush and kill all wrong within us and about us, checking every form of evil influence. The great Redeemer takes possession of our natures that he may fit them to be his own abode. And no view of Christ's work should be so precious to us as that which represents him, amid daily scenes and by daily sanctifyings, changing the desolated mansion of our nature into a palace of divinest purity and beauty, wherein the King of kings may dwell. This gracious work may be represented as the culture of the Christian graces, and our text reminds us how much more important for us are the graces of Christian character than the gifts of Christian ability. By a "gift" we understand something which enables us to do; by a "grace," something which enables us to be, A gift is something, as it were, put into our hands, that can be used by us; a grace is some change effected in our very natures, which makes us unquestionably better men and women. We observe the distinction more clearly in the similar words, "talent" and "character." Our text suggests that graces are better than gifts—they are "the more excellent way;" and even gifts are worth very little save as they are united with graces. It is very remarkable that St. Paul should be the one to set graces above gifts; since in personal endowments he surpassed all the other apostles.
I. WHAT HAVE GRACES AND GIFTS IN COMMON?
1. They have a common Divine origin. The apostle said of himself, inclusive of his great mental powers and cultivated capacities, and also inclusive of his beautiful moral qualities and high spiritual attainments, "By the grace of God I am what I am."
2. Graces and gifts have a common purpose to effect. Both are for the use of "edifying." That word is made from a Latin term which means "to build up," and it brings before us the Pauline figure of Christian life as a Temple in course of construction. We seem to see the gathered stones and material; we watch the toiling workmen; we discern some indications of the design of the eternal Architect; and, whether we be men of gifts or men of graces, we must not be mere lookers on; we must be adding something, either to the stability or the beauty of that uprising building. If we have gifts, we are to put them to use in kindly and wise actions, helping our brothers to carry their burdens, or teaching them how best to lay stone upon stone. If we have graces, then we are enabled to exercise a holy influence on those around us, inspiring and inspiriting their souls; throwing a Divine fragrance, like that from the flowers of paradise, over all our intercourse with others; helping our fellows to work more heartily and bear more cheerily.
3. Graces and gifts are alike in this—they both can grow and both can suffer loss.
II. WHAT HAVE GRACES WHICH GIFTS HAVE NOT?
1. Graces have power to come to all and enrich all. In any very large sense gifts can only come to the few. We almost feel as if we could count up the men and women who, in each department of gift, have risen high above their fellows. We have a special name for such—we call them "geniuses," and. we know that real genius is very scarce. But we may all have great graces; they are like the beams of God's sweet sunlight, that fall alike on the castle that crowns the hill and on the cluster of cottages that gathers at its foot.
2. Graces are better than gifts, because they last for ever. The things which we have must one day drop out of our hands; the dead hand holds nothing. What we are in ourselves we must be for ever, we cannot cease to be when death severs the mortal from the immortal.
3. Graces are better than gifts, because they have the power of working always. Gifts are dependent on men's wills, and those wills are so often wholly self ruled. We very seldom can get the full benefit of the gifts of the gifted. If a man be a gracious soul, he cannot help working for his fellow men and for Christ. The glory of our graces is just this—they are either independent of our wills, or they are simply and gloriously triumphant over our wills. Be beautiful, be gentle, be humble, be true, be generous, in a word, be Christ like; let only your soul be filled with the graces of the Spirit, and you will become, you cannot help becoming, one of God's most constant and most efficient workers, in nursery and kitchen, in home and friendship, in office and shop, in society and in the Church. Could we see deeply into the reality of things, we should be ready with one voice to acknowledge that goodness is the true greatness, and our supreme concern would be to become beautiful for Christ.—R.T.
1 Corinthians
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