Last week, we saw how Jesus’ teaching on status reversed worldly values and paved the way for the early community of believers, who came from vastly different backgrounds, to be united through their love of the Messiah.

This new unity out of diversity, however, was not achieved without difficulty. Although the record in Acts does not make much of it, there are indications of stress even in the early days of the Jerusalem church; as, for example, when the believers of Hellenistic background felt their widows were being unfairly discriminated against by the Judean believers. This difficulty was faced and overcome by the prompt action of the Apostles (Acts 6:1-7).

Similar tensions occurred over the incorporation of Gentile converts, on Peter’s visit to Cornelius at Caesarea. Even though Peter had been told by divine revelation that he had to go and take the gospel to Cornelius, the Roman centurion, he and the other Jews with him were astonished when they saw evidence of the Holy Spirit coming upon the Gentiles, “For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God” (Acts 10:46).

The Teaching of Paul

Paul saw the significance of Jew and Gentile being made one in Christ. He saw that, through Christ, God had “destroyed the barrier; the dividing wall of hostility” between them (Eph 2:14). He saw that Christ’s purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the Cross (Eph 2:15-16). He saw that the age-old enmity between Jew and Gentile had come to an end through the reconciling death of Christ and they were brought together in a new unity.

Consequently, he was able to say to the Gentiles, “You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” (Eph 2:19). The term ‘fellow citizens’ implies an equality of status within the community of believers that was a practical expression of the oneness in Christ experienced among them.

The new status within the community was a direct result of the work of Christ himself. Paul told the Corinthians that Christ had “died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor 5:1.5). This is an indication of the key to equality. The greatest desire of each of the believers was to live in such a way as would be pleasing to Christ.

The common factor of life within the community of believers was the loyalty of each one to Christ, which overrode all other loyalties. Paul saw this as the pure work of God, something entirely new: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17).

Paul saw that the age-old enmity between Jew and Gentile had come to an end through the reconciling death of Christ and they were brought together in a new unity.

New Creation

The new creation was to be seen not only in individual lives transformed by Christ, but in the corporate life of the community of believers. Paul declared that there was only one status within the new community: that of ‘sons of God’. He said, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” It followed, therefore, that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26, 28).

Paul saw the significance of what God had done through Christ in creating a new community of believers. He said “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Gal 4:4-5). Many commentators feel that the NEB translation, “in order that we might attain the status of sons”, more truly reflects Paul’s meaning by alluding to the status given to adopted sons in Greek and Roman law.¹

Gifts in the Body

The greatest threat to the equality of status that was part of God’s new creation lay in the distribution of gifts among the believers — ministry gifts (listed in Ephesians) and manifestations of the Spirit (listed in 1 Corinthians) as well as ‘natural’ gifts (listed in Romans).² The exercise of a variety of gifts within the community presented a threat to the acceptance of one another on the basis of complete equality.

Tensions due to these different giftings were clearly to be seen in Corinth, where divisions and quarrelling among the members produced severe rebukes from Paul. He went to some lengths to explain to them, through the analogy of the body, that “God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to those parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body but that its parts should have equal concern for each other” (1 Cor 12:24-25).

Paul emphasised that those parts of the body that appeared to be the weaker were in fact indispensable, the ‘unpresentable’ needing to be treated with special modesty and those parts that were considered ‘less honourable’ treated with special honour. So it should be within the Body of Christ.

The greatest threat to the equality of status in the community of faith lay in the distribution of gifts among the believers.

No Hierarchy!

The fact that there was equality of status in the New Testament Church does not imply anarchy or a lack of authority, order and discipline among the believers.

Paul asked a series of rhetorical questions, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” (1 Cor 12:29, 30). Clearly the expected answer was ‘No!’ Obviously there were many different members of the Body, but Paul here was not implying any kind of hierarchy which would carry differences in honour. He was referring to differences in function, rather than in status.

This is reinforced by his statement in Ephesians 4:12 that the ministries are for service. They are to serve the whole Church. It is notable also that Paul referred to the apostles and prophets as the foundation of the Church (Eph 2:20) – foundations are always at the base of the building, not at the top! Their function is to support and give stability to the whole building.

It is in this context that many commentators interpret Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12:31 as a rebuke to the members of the Corinthian church who were ‘eagerly desiring the greater gifts’ - probably the gifts that they considered greatest or even the most ‘spectacular’, in order to give themselves the greatest status. But Paul goes on to show them the most excellent way of all — the way of love — the one essential quality in a community where only Christ as Head had higher status than all the other members.

Questions

1. Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts implies an equality of status within the Church, yet tensions often arise due to different giftings, as for example in Corinth where there was division and quarrelling. What lessons can we draw from this for the Church today?
   
2. The ‘ministries’ are the gifts carrying the greatest responsibility and the greatest honour within the Church, yet Paul says they are for service (Eph 4:12). What does this mean for status within the Church?

Notes

1 Greek and Roman laws of adoption gave an adopted son more security in the father's family than a blood relative. Once the adoption papers were signed, the adoptive father could not renounce his adopted son - whereas, a son born to the man could be disinherited by his father. Paul was probably thinking that a Gentile believer adopted into a covenant relationship with God through the blood of Jesus was actually more secure than a man born as a Jew who refused to accept Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

2 Read Monica Hill’s full teaching series on the spiritual gifts here.

This article is part of a series on the early Church. Click here for previous instalments.