1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I inform you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can call Jesus Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are different gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different ministries, but the same Lord. 6 There are different ways of working, but the same God works all things in all people. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in various tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who apportions them to each one as He determines. 12 The body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given into one Spirit to drink. 14 For the body does not consist of one part, but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact, God has arranged the members of the body, every one of them, according to His design. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.” Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts we consider less honorable, we treat with greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty, 24 whereas our presentable parts have no such need. But God has composed the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it. 28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, and those with gifts of healing, helping, administration, and various tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But eagerly desire the better gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
1 Corinthians · Majority Standard Bible
1 Corinthians 12 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (30)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Corinthians 12:4–11; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 14:1–18; 1 Corinthians 14:37
- 2 1 Peter 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; Psalm 115:5; Galatians 4:8; Ephesians 2:11–12
- 3 1 John 4:2–3; Matthew 16:16–17; Romans 10:9; 2 Corinthians 3:5; John 13:13
- 4 1 Peter 4:10; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Romans 12:4–6; Hebrews 2:4; 1 Corinthians 12:8–11
- 5 Ephesians 4:11–12; Romans 14:8–9; Romans 12:6–8; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Matthew 23:10
- 6 1 Corinthians 3:7; John 5:17; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Hebrews 13:21; Ephesians 4:6
- 7 1 Peter 4:10–11; Romans 12:6–8; 1 Corinthians 14:19; 1 Corinthians 14:12; 1 Corinthians 14:17
- 8 Proverbs 2:6; 1 Corinthians 2:6–10; Ephesians 1:17–18; 2 Corinthians 8:7; Psalm 143:10
- 9 James 5:14–15; Ephesians 2:8; 2 Corinthians 4:13; Hebrews 11:33; Matthew 17:19–20
- 10 1 Corinthians 14:39; 1 John 4:1; Mark 16:17; 1 Corinthians 12:28–30; Joel 2:28
- 11 Hebrews 2:4; 1 Corinthians 12:4; 2 Corinthians 10:13; 1 Corinthians 12:6; Ephesians 4:7
- 12 Romans 12:4–5; Colossians 3:15; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:15–16; Colossians 2:19
- 13 Ephesians 4:5; Colossians 3:11; Galatians 3:28; John 7:37–39; Romans 6:3–6
- 14 1 Corinthians 12:27–28; 1 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 4:25; 1 Corinthians 12:19
- 15 Judges 9:8–15; 2 Kings 14:9
- 16 Romans 12:3; Philippians 2:3; 1 Corinthians 12:22; Romans 12:10
- 17 Psalm 139:13–16; Psalm 94:9; Proverbs 20:12; 1 Corinthians 12:21; 1 Corinthians 12:29
- 18 1 Corinthians 12:28; Romans 12:3; 1 Corinthians 12:11; 1 Corinthians 3:5; Luke 12:32
- 20 1 Corinthians 12:14; 1 Corinthians 12:12
- 21 Nehemiah 4:16–21; Ezra 10:1–5; Job 29:11
- 22 Proverbs 14:28; Ecclesiastes 9:14–15; Ecclesiastes 4:9–12; Ecclesiastes 5:9; 2 Corinthians 1:11
- 23 Genesis 3:21
- 24 Genesis 3:11; Genesis 2:25
- 25 2 Corinthians 13:11; 1 Corinthians 1:10–12; John 17:21–26; 2 Corinthians 8:16; 2 Corinthians 7:12
- 26 Romans 12:15; Galatians 6:2; Hebrews 13:3; 1 Peter 3:8
- 27 Ephesians 4:12; Ephesians 5:30; Romans 12:5; Colossians 1:24; 1 Corinthians 12:12
- 28 Ephesians 4:11–13; Romans 12:6–8; 1 Corinthians 12:18; 1 Corinthians 12:7–11; 1 Timothy 5:17
- 29 1 Corinthians 12:4–11; 1 Corinthians 12:14–20
- 30 1 Corinthians 12:10
- 31 1 Corinthians 13:1–14:1; 1 Corinthians 14:39; Philippians 3:8; Matthew 5:6; 1 Corinthians 8:1
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place. And why do they not happen now?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 12 (1889)
Let us take our body for an example. The head is nothing without the feet, and the feet are nothing without the head; yea, the very smallest members of our body are necessary and useful to the whole body.
For although the Spirit of the Saviour that is in Him "searcheth all things, even the deep things of God," yet as to us "there are diversities of gifts, differences of administrations, and diversities of operations;" and we, while upon the earth, as Paul also declares, "know in part, and prophesy in part." Since, therefore, we know but in part, …
But I am not such a one, "for I am a sinful man." Yet do I also magnify Thy name; and He who hath "overcome the world" maketh intercession to Thee for my sins, accounting me among the "feeble members" of His body, because Thine eyes saw that of him which was imperfect; and in Thy book all shall be …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
"But covet earnestly," saith he, "the best gifts: and yet show I unto you a more excellent way." And when he was to declare this "way," he spoke not of raising the dead, not of cleansing of lepers, not of any other such thing; but in place of all these he set charity.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)