It cannot refer to water baptism, for Paul had already told the Corinthians that water

baptism did not form part of His Christ-directed ministry (I Cor. 1: 17), and no kind of

water baptism would ever effect this spiritual unity of the believer with God. Nothing

less than the Holy Spirit's work could do this. Such a unity certainly did not depend

upon the work of man in carrying out any external ritual.

In proceeding with the illustration of a human body, Paul stresses the inter-dependence

of the various members. We have seen that this usage of the word `body' was not

confined to the Scriptures. In spite of a superficial likeness, the Apostle is not describing

the Body of Christ, yet to be revealed in all its fullness after the Acts in Ephesians and

Colossians.  At this time it was still a secret, hid in God from all past ages and

generations of people (Eph. 3: 9 R.V., Col. 1: 26 R.V.) and there is not a hint in these

Corinthian epistles, or for that matter in any epistle written during the Acts, that such a

secret of God is being unfolded. If we carefully note the language of I Cor. 12: and

Rom. 12:, we shall note differences from Ephesians. One which should be obvious is

that the one Body of Ephesians is distinguished from Christ as the Head. The likeness of

the Corinthian church to a human body and its members, speaks of eyes, ears and nose,

all members of the human head and illustrative of those in the Corinthian church (17-24).

Every member of the Body of Christ in Ephesians is "accepted in the Beloved", but the

body of I Cor. 12: has "uncomely" parts which certainly is not true of the former. If

Paul is teaching here Ephesian truth, then he is using the figure of a human body in a very

careless way and we cannot accept this for a moment.

Moreover, he asserts in Ephesians that the Church related to the Mystery is a

"joint-Body" (sussoma), a unique word (3: 6). No such body, where every member is

equal in size and importance had ever existed before, either naturally or spiritually. It

never occurs in any Acts epistle, and in fact could not be used while the position at this

time symbolized by the olive tree (Israel) and the wild grafts (Gentiles), was true

(Rom. 11: 16, and note verses 18 and 22). We should also realize that the gifts set by

God in the Corinthian assembly are different from those of Eph. 4: 11, insomuch that

gifts of healing, helps, governments and diversities of tongues are omitted in the

Ephesian list, healings and tongues being specially linked, as we have seen again and

again, with the earthly kingdom ministry of which Israel is the centre and form no part of

the heavenly calling of Ephesians. Apostles, prophets, and teachers are repeated after

Acts 28: which shows clearly that there is a definite selection by the Holy Spirit,

repeating what was continuous, and leaving out that which was transitory, for so many of

these Acts gifts were such, and never intended to be permanent (I Cor. 13: 8).

The whole point of Paul's argument concerning these gifts is that no one is

responsible for the kind of gift he has, and even if some are more important, all are

necessary for the proper functioning of the assembly in Christian witness. None should

feel any sense of superiority or inferiority whatever gift he possesses, and all should lead,

above all, to unity. After showing the diversity in unity of the human body, he says: