1 Corinthians 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 53-55
Location
Corinth, a major port city in Roman Achaia (southern Greece)
Audience
The Christian church in Corinth, comprising both Jewish and Gentile converts
Situation
Paul addresses divisions and confusion in the Corinthian church regarding spiritual gifts, particularly tensions over which gifts were more valuable or prestigious. Some members were apparently elevating certain spectacular gifts like speaking in tongues while devaluing others.
Key Background
Corinth was a wealthy, cosmopolitan city known for religious diversity and numerous pagan temples with ecstatic worship practices. The new Christians were bringing competitive attitudes and pagan concepts of spirituality into the church, creating disunity. Paul wrote this letter from Ephesus to correct their misunderstandings about how spiritual gifts should function in a unified body of believers.
Now about from the and — I don't want you to be uninformed.
You know that when you were you were somehow swept away to led astray however it happened.
So I want you to understand that no one speaking by the of says "Jesus is and no one can say "Jesus is except by the of
Now there are different kinds of but the same gives them.
There are different kinds of but the same is behind them.
And there are different kinds of but the same God all of them in everyone.
Each person is given a to the for the of
To one person, the Breath gives a of To another, the same Breath gives a of
To another, the same Breath gives To another, that one Breath gives the to
To another, the ability to do To another, the ability to what has To another, the ability to the To another, the ability to in other And to another, the ability to those
But one and the same produces all of these, them to each person individually, exactly as the
Think of it like a human — it's but it has many parts, and even though there are many parts, they all make up That's exactly how it is with the
Because we were all by into body — whether Jewish or non-Jewish, whether or free — and we were all given to
After all, the body isn't made up of one part — it's made up of many.
If the foot said, "Because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body," that wouldn't make it any less part of the body.
And if the ear said, "Because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body," that wouldn't make it any less part of the body either.
If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear anything? If the whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
But as it is, God has each part in the body exactly where he wanted it.
If everything were the same part, where would the body be?
But there are many parts, and yet one body.
The eye can't say to the hand, "I don't need you." And the head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you."
Actually, the parts of the body that seem are the ones we can't do without.
And the parts of the body we think are — we treat those with extra respect. The parts that aren't get treated with special care,
while the presentable parts don't need that. But God has the in a way that gives greater honor to the parts that lacked it,
so that there would be no in the body, but instead all the parts would have the same for each other.
If one part every part with it. If one part is every part with it.
Now you are the of the and each of you is an of it.
And has people in the like this: first, those out with a second, those who what has third, then those who do powerful things; then those with the ability to heal; then those who then those who and then those who in other languages.
Not everyone is sent out with a message, are they? Not everyone speaks what God has revealed, do they? Not everyone is a teacher, are they? Not everyone does powerful things, do they?
Not everyone has the ability to heal, do they? Not everyone speaks in other languages, do they? Not everyone interprets those languages, do they?
But be the greater gifts. And now I'm going to show you the most of all.