Clark Theological College

Aolijen: Mokokchung, Nagaland

Paper Presentation

Subject: Text of the New Testament: 1 Corinthians

Topic: The Theology of 1 Corinthians: Major Themes
b. Unity and Diversity
Presenter: Eyingthung Tsanglao
Respondent: Khup Thawn Pau
Facilitator: Dr. Renbi Rangthang

Introduction
The Christian community of Corinth have created among themselves a sense of
competitiveness and division. This was regarding the use of spiritual endowments they have
diversely received. Apparently, some Corinthian Christians have been maintaining that
certain gifts of the Spirit were better than others, were striving for so-called higher gifts, and
even claiming that speaking in tongues was a sign for unbelievers, and that prophecy was
meant for believers.1 In response, Paul stresses the diverse manifestations of the Spirit and
their unique (one) divine source so that the diversity of gifts may not become detrimental or
hurtful to the unity of the community. Paul further used the body metaphor in 1 Corinthians
12 to underscored both the unity and the diversity of the body." The two parts in his summary
description of the body indicate that he intends to stress both its diversity, its "many
members," and its unity; it is "one body." 2 Inorder to address the issue of diversity and unity,
Paul relates or identifies the unity of Christians by identifying it to “Christ” and “the Body of
Christ.”3 Thus, this paper will highlight Paul’s usage of the metaphor of body and his
teaching on unity and diversity in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 as the Body of Christ.

1.Paul’s usage of the metaphor of Body:

Paul's exhortation to the Christian assembly at Corinth is the classic Christian use of the
metaphor of the body as a symbol of social unity. He used the traditional topos or theme in
the context of an extended plea for unity within the assembled community (1 Cor. 12-14).
Paul's use of the body image was, nonetheless, different from that of the classical topos or
theme insofar as Paul attributes the diversity of the various members of the body and the
order among them to God (theos, vv. 18,24) rather than to nature (physics). Another
1
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
(London: Yale University Press, 2000), 454.
2
Raymond F. Collins, First Corinthian (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1999), 458.
3
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary…, 454, 463.

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difference is that Paul used the metaphor to urge all members to utilize their gifts for the
common good rather than to urge the subordination of some members to others for the good
of the whole. He employed the image to advocate the interdependence of all bodily members
(vv. 21, 25-26). Thus, Paul states that it is the supposedly weaker (and presumably less
honorable) members of the body that are to be honored and that this is in accordance with the
divine ordinance in arranging the body.4

2.The Theme of Unity and Diversity in 1 Corinthians:

In 1 Corinthians 12:12 ff., Paul develops an extensive analogy with body parts to emphasize
their organic unity. It is a short step from claiming that believers are one spirit wit Christ
(6:17), and that their bodies are a dwelling-place of God’s Spirit (6:19), by claiming that they
make up his body (12:12). But Paul often uses the image in his exhortations for unity
regarding diverse gifts, and it was a familiar image for urging a divided state to unity. Paul
uses it to emphasize equality.5

Verses 12-13 provide a transition between Paul's listing of the gifts of the Spirit in 12:4-11
and his exploitation of the body metaphor in vv. 14-26. Paul intends to speak both of the
unity of the body and of the diversity of its several members as well as of the
interrelationship between the one and the many. Reference to the one Spirit in v. 13 links the
image of the body with the exposition of the gifts of the Spirit. These transitional verses
provide a two-tier explanation as to how there can be unity in diversity and diversity in unity.
The first level of explanation is Paul's use of the theme classically employed to speak of the
unity of the body politic (v. 12). His second level of explanation is the reality of Christian
baptism and the celebration of eucharist (v. 13). When Paul speaks of these Christian rituals
as unifying realities in the Corinthian’s own experience, his language provides the linguistic
links for his argument. Baptism "into one body " links the Christian experience to the
rhetorical theme of the body politic. A twofold reference to the "one Spirit" links baptism and
eucharist to the charisms about which he had written in 12:4-11.6

2.1. The Church as Body of Christ

Paul elaborates his view of the integration of charismatic gifts in the organism of the body of
Christ. He takes up the imagery of the human organism that was widespread and popular in
antiquity and applies it to the situation of the church in Corinth: as the body is one even
though it has many members, so the church has many members but is still one body. But not
only does the church stand in some relation to the body of Christ; it is itself the body of
4
Craig S. Keener, 1-2 Corinthians: New Cambridge Commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2005), 102.
5
Craig S. Keener, 1-2 Corinthians: New Cambridge Commentary…,102.
6
Raymond F. Collins, First Corinthians…,458-459.

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Christ (Ὑµεῖς δέ ἐστε σῶµα Χριστοῦ: you are the body of Christ, 12:27). It is this
identification that first permits the full application of the organism imagery, for its ethical
implications function only by equating the one body with Christ himself. It is not the case
that the church must form the body of Christ by its conduct; rather, the church’s conduct must
conform to the reality of its being already in his body. The organism metaphor provides an
excellent image for the development of this metaphor, for with its help both the church’s
relation to Christ and, based on this, the relation of individual Christians to each other can be
presented, the point of which is not the similarity of members but that they are all of equal
value.7 All members of the body are equally important and equally necessary; they are
coordinated with one another and depend on one another.

The church exists in and as the body of Christ because its individual members have been
incorporated into his body by baptism (12:13). The body of Christ existed before its
individual members; it is not brought into being by human decisions and mergers or to
become combined into one but is a given reality existing before them and providing their
basis. Baptism does not constitute the body of Christ, but it is the historical position for
incorporation into this body and the concrete expression of the church’s unity, grounded in
Christ. Those who are baptized are incorporated into the body of Christ, whose reality and
unity is established by Christ; the believer is to live up to this reality. In Corinth, baptism and
the possession of the Spirit had triggered individualism, divisions, and seeking after glory;
Paul opposes to these centrifugal and destructive tendencies, his concept of the unity of the
church maintained in Christ, appropriated in baptism, a given unity that is to be preserved in
the church’s life. 8

Paul takes up traditional motifs (cf. Gal. 3:26– 27) to interpret the church’s unity, given in
baptism and made present in the Spirit. The Jews have no advantage based on salvation
history, the Greeks are not preferred on ethnic-cultural grounds, and in the Christian
community the distinctions that have determined world history no longer exist—the
distinctions between servant and lord, slave and free, oppressed and oppressor. Rather, in
baptism all were given the one Spirit to drink, the Spirit that makes the given unity of the
church a concrete reality in the present and whose visible expression is the abolition of those
distinctions. The church, as body of Christ, lives from the closeness of God, which created its
unity, in baptism and from the presence of Christ in the Spirit, which maintains this unity. It

7
Hans Conzelmann, First Corinthians: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible, ed.,
George W. MacRae (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974), 213-214.
8
Udo Schnelle, Apostle Paul: His Life and Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 240-241.

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is only through a common life beneficial to all and serving the community of faith as a whole
that the Corinthians live up to the new being established in baptism.9

2.2. The Goal - Building Up the Church:

The Spirit that proceeds from God and is effective in Christ is manifest in a variety of ways,
but it is always “one and the same Spirit” (12:4, τὸ δὲ αὐτὸ πνεῦµα). It leads into a wealth of
diversity but not into the poverty of division. It belongs to its essence to establish unity,
because it is itself one spirit (ἕν πνεῦµα). The Spirit’s unifying work is seen especially in the
fact that it generates what benefits the church i.e., the common good and what serves its
edification or building up (12: 14). All charismatic gifts must be measured by this
fundamental principle: Let all things be done for building up (14:26). Those who speak in
tongues and have received the ability to praise God in the language of angels should pray that
they can interpret such heavenly language to the church, for only this leads to building up the
church. Glossolalia, a charisma obviously highly valued in Corinth and limited to this church,
is not rejected by Paul but is bound by him to the critical goal of edification or building up
and thus can no longer be the means of individualistic showmanship. If glossolalia is
translated, it has the same significance as prophecy: it strengthens the brothers and sisters in
the faith (14:16–17), serving the church and the individual Christian. Like the Corinthians,
Paul treasures the gifts of the Spirit. At the same time, he emphasizes that the Spirit wants to
work through the elements of order—of sober or abstinent self-restraint and lining up with
the interests of the church—and through consideration for others and mutual help. The gifts
of the Spirit are, then, only present in the church if they can be shared. But Paul offers the
Corinthians an even more excellent way: the way of love which was further explained in
chapter 13.10

Evaluation
The importance of Paul’s theology or theme of Unity and Diversity in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
is the recognition that in the charismatic body of Christ Paul has given the church of all times
a definitive model of unity and diversity. A unity which grows out of the shared experience
of grace, a unity which is dynamic and not static, a unity which expresses ever anew the fresh
experiences of grace of each new generation. Of a unity which recognizes the givenness of
grace, the consequent and constant dependence on that grace, and that charisms are not a
possession, not a right, but a responsibility, for the benefit of others, acts of service and not of
self-indulgence. Of a unity which would be stifled by ministry or by ministry too narrowly
conceived, a unity whose effectiveness depends on the ministry of the whole people of God

9
Udo Schnelle, Apostle Paul: His Life and Theology…, 241-42.
10
Udo Schnelle, Apostle Paul: His Life and Theology…, 243-244.

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being fully recognized and implemented in a degree which has not been in evidence for the
great bulk of Christian history.11 In short, Paul’s vision of the body of Christ is of a unity
which consists in diversity, that is, a unity which is not denied by diversity, but which would
be denied by uniformity, a unity which depends on its diversity functioning as such — in a
word, the unity of a body, the body of Christ.

Conclusion
From the above discussion we have learnt that the metaphor of body used by Paul in 1
Corinthians is to deal with the issues of diversity and unity. This usage points to the diversity
of the members of a body and of a unity being apart of one body. There is inter-dependency
among the members of the body, each fulfilling a unique function. Paul likens this to the
community of Corinth endowed with different spiritual gifts and clarifies the divisions
created by misconceptions. Paul emphasized on a unity of spirit and the church as the body of
Christ. Thus, Paul shows that the gifts of the Spirit are varied but that each is meant to
contribute to the common good, and insists that love must be the indispensable motivation of
all of them.

Bibliography
Collins, Raymond F. First Corinthian. Sacra Pagina. Collegeville: Liturgical, 1999.
Conzelmann, Hans. First Corinthians: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible.
Edited by George W. MacRae. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974.
Dunn, James D. G. The Theology of Paul the Apostle. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1998.
Keener, Craig S. 1-2 Corinthians: New Cambridge Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005.
Schnelle, Udo. Apostle Paul: His Life and Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005.
S.J, Joseph A. Fitzmyer. First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary. London: Yale University Press, 2000.

11
James D. G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1998), 564.