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1 Corinthians 12:1

1 Corinthians 12:1 (MSG)
What I want to talk about now is the various ways God's Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often mis-understood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn't know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It's different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say "Jesus be damned!" Nor would anyone be inclined to say "Jesus is Master!" without the insight of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:2

1 Corinthians 12:2 (MSG)
Remember how you were when you didn't know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It's different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can.

1 Corinthians 12:3

1 Corinthians 12:3 (MSG)
For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say "Jesus be damned!" Nor would anyone be inclined to say "Jesus is Master!" without the insight of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:4

1 Corinthians 12:4 (MSG)
God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: wise counsel clear understanding simple trust healing the sick miraculous acts proclamation distinguishing between spirits tongues interpretation of tongues. All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

1 Corinthians 12:5

1 Corinthians 12:5 (MSG)
God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:6

1 Corinthians 12:6 (MSG)
God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all.

1 Corinthians 12:7

1 Corinthians 12:7 (MSG)
Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people!

1 Corinthians 12:8

1 Corinthians 12:8 (MSG)
The variety is wonderful: wise counsel clear understanding

1 Corinthians 12:9

1 Corinthians 12:9 (MSG)
simple trust healing the sick

1 Corinthians 12:10

1 Corinthians 12:10 (MSG)
miraculous acts proclamation distinguishing between spirits tongues interpretation of tongues.

1 Corinthians 12:11

1 Corinthians 12:11 (MSG)
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

1 Corinthians 12:12

1 Corinthians 12:12 (MSG)
You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

1 Corinthians 12:14

1 Corinthians 12:14 (MSG)
I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

1 Corinthians 12:15

1 Corinthians 12:15 (MSG)
If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so?

1 Corinthians 12:16

1 Corinthians 12:16 (MSG)
If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body?

1 Corinthians 12:17

1 Corinthians 12:17 (MSG)
If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell?

1 Corinthians 12:18

1 Corinthians 12:18 (MSG)
As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

1 Corinthians 12:19

1 Corinthians 12:19 (MSG)
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

1 Corinthians 12:20

1 Corinthians 12:20 (MSG)
What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own.

1 Corinthians 12:21

1 Corinthians 12:21 (MSG)
Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"?

1 Corinthians 12:22

1 Corinthians 12:22 (MSG)
As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way-the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach.

1 Corinthians 12:23

1 Corinthians 12:23 (MSG)
When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons.

1 Corinthians 12:24

1 Corinthians 12:24 (MSG)
If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

1 Corinthians 12:25

1 Corinthians 12:25 (MSG)
The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

1 Corinthians 12:26

1 Corinthians 12:26 (MSG)
the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.