Dual Panel1Now, my brothers, I want to give you some further information in spiritual matters.
2You have not forgotten that you are gentiles, following dumb idols just as your impulses led you.
3Now I want you to understand, as Christians, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God could say, "a curse on Jesus", and no one could say, "Jesus is Lord", except by the Holy Spirit.
4Men have different gifts, but it is the same Spirit who gives them.
5There are different ways of serving God, but it is the same Lord who is served.
6God works through different men in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his purposes through them all.
7The spirit openly makes his gift to each man, so that he may use it for the common good.
8One man's gift by the Spirit is to speak with wisdom, another's to speak with knowledge.
9The same Spirit gives to another man faith, to another the ability to heal,
10to another the use of spiritual power. The same Spirit gives to another man the gift of preaching the word of God, to another the ability to discriminate in spiritual matters, in another speech in different tongues and in yet another the power to interpret the tongues.
11Behind all these gifts is the operation of the same Spirit, who distributes to each individual man as he wills.
12As the human body, which has many parts, is a unity, and those parts, despite their multiplicity, constitute one single body, so it is with Christ.
13For we were all baptized by the one Spirit into one body, whether we were Jews, Greeks, slaves or free men, and we have all had experience of the same Spirit.
14Now the body is not one part but many.
15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand I don't belong to the body," does that alter the fact that the foot [is] a part of the body?
16Or if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye I don't belong to the body," does that mean that the ear really is no part of the body?
17After all, if the body were all one eye, for example, where would be the sense of hearing? Or if it were all one ear, where would be the sense of smell?
18But God has arranged all the parts in the one body according to his design.
19For if everything were concentrated in one part, how could there be a body at all?
20The fact is there are many parts, but only one body.
21So that the eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" nor, again, can the head say to the feet, "I don't need you!"
22On the contrary, those parts of the body which seem to have less strength are more essential to health:
23and to those parts of the body which seem to us to be less admirable we have to allow the highest honour of function. The parts which do not look beautiful have a deeper beauty in the work they do,
24while the parts which look beautiful may not be at all essential to life! But God has harmonised the whole body by giving importance of function to the parts which lack apparent importance,
25that the body should work together as a whole with all the members in sympathetic relationship with one another.
26So it happens that if one member suffers all the other members suffer with it, and if one member is honoured all the members share a common joy.
27Now you are together the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it.
28And in the Church God has appointed first some to be his messengers, secondly, some to be preachers of power, thirdly teachers. After them he has appointed workers of spiritual power, men with the gift of healing, helpers, counsellors and those with the gift of speaking various "tongues".
29As we look at the body of Christ do we find all are his messengers, all are preachers, or all teachers? Do we find all wielders of spiritual power,
30all able to heal, all able to speak with tongues, or all able to interpret the tongues?
31You should set your hearts on the best spiritual gifts, but I will show you a way which surpasses them all.