2026 Easter Devotions
Friday, May 22
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
3b No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, 5 and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
“… For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ …”
When we think of the body of Christ, we usually envision the church. After all, ecclesia, the Greek word often used to the describe the church literally means “gathering”. Koinonia, also a Greek word often used to in reference to the church is best defined as “fellowship”. Together, they outline the requirement for the church as a gathered community in relationship with one another in love.
Paul expands on that description by referencing that gathered community as the body of Christ. While most consider Paul’s term figurative (as Paul himself often uses it), it also has a more literal meaning. It represents the indivisible unity of the community of faith. As in any body, all the parts are critical to its functioning (living) well, so too it is with the members of Christ’s body. Only when everyone is working together as one is the body capable of fulfilling its mission and purpose.
Taking it one step further, some would argue that Paul’s body image of Christ is not only figurative but also literal. In other words, the gathered people of God, sharing a common fellowship through the Spirit, are the actual body of Christ in the world. Rather than a single unit confined to a specific location and time, the church as the body of Christ is revealed in multiple places across both time and space.
When we gather as followers of Jesus in the community instituted by the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ is. That’s at the heart of Paul’s teaching.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You have said that where two or three are gathered in Your name, You are in the midst of them. Through the coming of the Spirit, that promise is given life now and always. Amen.