1 Corinthians 12:18-22 - Just as He wanted them to be

12:18-20

“God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted”. This looks back to the gifts coming from God. We do not have a gift because we created it, we have it because God gave it to us. And God gave it to us as He wanted, in order that the body of Christ can function all the better. It would be ridiculous for a body to be made up only of feet, or eyes. So it would be ridiculous for a church to have only preachers, or worship leaders. The church has many parts, but is one body. It is perhaps useful to note that Paul here is talking in terms of gifts and roles. He is not talking about different denominations or groupings.

12:21,22

Paul continues with this theme, but now moving on to the fact that some parts seem to be better than others. First of all he points out that the different parts of the body need each other, then saying that even the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary. 

1 Samuel 23:14-18 - God did not give David up

23:14

The “strongholds” that David stayed in would not be fortified towns, but natural strongholds, i.e. areas that were hidden and could be defended. Saul searched for David day after day, but without success because “God did not give David into his hands”. The message of the Bible is that God is in control of everything. This is why it sometimes speaks of God sending an evil spirit, as it did with Saul. Likewise, in John’s gospel the religious leaders were not able to get Jesus until “the hour had come”.

23:15-18

David learnt that Saul was searching for him, wanting to take his life. The fact that Saul was after David’s life was not new. However, Jonathan came out to find David. Jonathan encouraged David and “helped him to find strength in God”. That is a key element in how we should help one another. Doing so will involve practical help, but also helping each other “find strength in God”. Jonathan declares that his father will not succeed, and that David would one day be king. He also sees himself as second to David. This latter aspect would not be fulfilled. The two of them made a covenant and then Jonathan returned home. This would be the last time that Jonathan would see David.

1 Corinthians 12:14-17 - The body is made up of many parts

12:14

“So the body is not one part but many.” We look at each other and see that we do different things, we have different roles and gifts. We might then think that we are in competition with each other, or even opposed to each other, or going along different tracks. All these thoughts are wrong.. We are all part of the same body, and the body has many parts.

12:15-17

Paul now expands on this point. The foot and the hand are different, but it would be ridiculous for the foot or the hand to claim they were not part of the same body. Likewise, the eye and the ear perform different functions, but are part of the same body. Indeed, a foot, or an eye on its own has no value whatsoever. They are only valuable because they are part of the body.

1 Samuel 23:7-13 - Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him?

23:7,8

Saul learnt that David was in Keilah. Saul’s first thought was that “God has delivered him into my hands”. Note that he is unconcerned about Keilah having been saved. Instead he thinks that David is now trapped in Keilah and he has the chance to kill him. So Saul summons “all his forces” and goes down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.

23:9-13

David learnt of Saul’s plan and summons his priest. David tells the Lord what he has heard and what he fears. Then he asks the Lord if the people of Keilah would surrender him to Saul, and if what he had heard was true. God tells him that Saul was indeed coming to Keilah, and the people of Keilah would hand David over.As noted earlier, this was rather ungrateful of the people of Keilah. However, sieges could be terrible times. So David and his men left Keilah and kept moving from place to place. David is in a much worse situation than Saul from a human point of view. However, David was with the Lord, and that changed everything. On hearing that David had escaped Saul returned home.

1 Corinthians 12:11-13 - All are the work of the same Spirit

12:11

Paul ends the section by reiterating his main point. All the gifts come from the same Spirit. And He distributes them as He chooses. We need to be God centred when considering the gifts, as we need to be in all things.

12:12

We now come to a section where Paul likes the church to a body in order to demonstrate the need and role of the variety of gifts. Another important point is that it is the body of Christ. The body is an example of diversity and unity. The body has many different parts, fulfilling different functions. Yet they are all working towards the same end, they are all working to enable the body to function as a whole.

12:13

This verse can be translated two ways: HCSB has “for we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body”, ESV has “for in one Spirit we were all baptised into one body”. HCSB (and NIV and others) has the Spirit doing the baptising, ESV is more passive, and has Christ doing the baptising. I am not sure that the difference matters that much, the point here is that we are baptised into one body. Paul then makes the point he has made elsewhere, that it does not matter whether we are Jews or Greek, slave or free, we are all part of one body. And we all “drink of one Spirit”. 

1 Samuel 23:1-6 - Save Keilah

23:1,2

David is on the run, and in this chapter we read of three incidents. The first involves David rescuing Keilah. Keilah was an Israeli town.  The Philistines were attacking the place and “looting the threshing floors”, this means they were taking the harvest. David inquired of the Lord, asking if he should go and attack the Philistines. There is a repeated contrast between David and Saul. Saul acts out of his paranoia and lostness, David seeks the Lord. The Lord tells him to go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.

23:3-6

David’s men were not so sure. They feared Saul because they were in Judah. When God directs us to do something, there will often be those “on our side” who fear. David’s men feared that saving Keilah would increase the risk. David responded by again asking of the Lord. The Lord repeats His instruction, assuring David that He would give the Philistines into his hand. We are not told if the men’s misgivings were assuaged at all, but they went with David and fought the Philistines. They carried off the livestock, and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Philistines. 23:6 tells us how DaviD “inquired of the Lord”. Abiathar the priest had brought the Ephod with him, and probably the urim and thummim. Keilah was saved, but soon we will see that they were not very grateful to David. God sometimes rescues those who are profoundly ungrateful.

1 Corinthians 12:10 - Various gifts

12:10

We now get quite a long list of gifts: performing miracles , prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation. Performing miracles seems to speak for itself. There are those, cessationists,who claim the gifts were only for the time of the apostles. I have to say I can see no Biblical evidence for this view whatsoever. Moreover, it seems to be placing a restriction upon God and what He can do! Now there are undoubtedly abuses of the gifts, but that is no reason to say they aren't for today. There are abuses of preaching every Sunday, but I have not heard anyone say we should not preach!

Prophecy in the New Testament is frustrating, for there is very little information on how it functioned. There are those, including Schreiner, who say it functions exactly like Old Testament prophecy, but this view does not seem to take into account the full renage of Old Testament prophecy. When we think of Old Testament prophets we think of Isaiaj, Jeremiah, Amos etc. But there were also prophets like Elijah and Elisha. With Isaiah and the like we are primarily concerned with what they said, with Elijah and Elisha we are more concerned with what they did. Then there were other prophets as well. 

Distinguishing between spirits, or discernment, is definitely needed. Satan sometimes appears as an angel of light. Sometimes it is very straightforward to distinguish between what is good and what is not. At other times spiritual discernment is required.

There is debate about whether tongues are limited to speaking in actual human languages, as had happened in Acts 2, or whether it can include other languages. I would have to day that the Biblical evidence supports the latter. Paul will have more to say about this later. Presently he is merely demonstrating the great variety of gifts that exist. There can also be interpretation of tongues. This is something that Paul considers to be quite an important gift, but one that is rather neglected today.