An Exegetical Glimpse into the Pauline Usage of Charismata and Oikodomen in 1 Corinthians 12:1-7: A solution for Ecclesiastical Disunity in 21st Century
Exegesis of the Text Concerned
No book of the Bible was written in a vacuum. They were all written to meet certain situations. some were written to commend the audience, others to correct or instruct certain teachings and others as a biography. It is therefore an exegetical misdemeanor to interpret any biblical text without considering the context with which it was written. According to Paul Enns, there are three contexts to be examined for proper exegesis of any biblical text, viza viz, immediate context, more remote context, and the context of the entire book.[14] Enns’ hermeneutical hypothesis is appropriate to our current task, that is the task in this paper.
Context of I Corinthians 12
According to Leon Morris, the immediate occasion of Epistle to the Corinthians was the letter which Paul had received from Corinthian church, and to which a reply was necessary. Accordingly, he wrote, answering the questions that had been put to him, questions about marriage and celibacy, about food offered to idols, holy communion, probably also about public worship and spiritual gifts. Paul was troubled about the division in the church. Parties had been formed attaching to themselves the names of Paul or Apollo or Peter or even of Christ. Some of the issues that were dealt with by Paul in this epistle include, the problem of sexual impurity and sensuality, the problem of quarrelsome, the misuse of charismata, the debate about christian resurrection and others. The result of this, as argues by Leon Morris, is an inexhaustible mine of Christian thought and life. Nowhere else in the New Testament is there a more many-sided embodiment of the imperishable principles and instincts which should inspire each member of the body of Christ for all time.[15]
As the capital of the Roman province of Achaia, Corinthians was populous, wealthy, and morally corrupt. The church in Corinth was also infested with a multitude of problems, such as immorality, instability, divisions, jealousy, and envy, lawsuits, marital difficulties, sexual immorality and misuse of spiritual gifts. Paul wrote the book of first Corinthians to them to curb the Spiritual problem in the church, to correct the misuse of spiritual gift and to answer certain questions in the church.[16] Chapter 12-14 of the letter focus on the Corinthians’ attitude toward and their misuse of spiritual gifts. They seem to accord respect to some gifts at the expense of others. In chapter 12, Paul writes about the manner in which the spirit bestows gift upon believers, how it results in interdependence and unity with diversity, and the divine purpose of the gift.
The Corinthians were envying each other in their factionalism (1 Cor. 3:3). Their zeal and improper attitude toward spiritual gifts certainly stirred up envy and self-centeredness.[17] They had ‘corinthianized’ the ministry and expression of Holy Spirit.
According to Gordon Fee, the rhetorical and sometimes polemical, nature of the argument in 1 Corinthians 12, suggests that Paul’s purpose is primarily corrective and not instructive. In his effort to curb the Corinthians misguided zeal, Paul first argues for the necessity of diversity, if the community is to be built up. It is obvious that Paul was very enthusiastic about the urgent need to correct the Corinthians” selfish notion about spiritual Gift. The urgency with which Paul wished to correct this problem of misuse of spiritual gifts becomes clear if one considers the last verse of 1 Corinthians 11 and the first verse of 1 Corinthians 12 with objective mind:
And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest (of your problems on which you have requested solution) will I set in order when I come. 1. Now concerning spiritual [gifts], brethren, I would not have you ignorant. (1 Corinthians 11:34, 12;1 words in bracket are mine)
What does that mean? Paul is saying, “…the rest will I set in order when I come, but concerning spirituals, I do not want you to be ignorant.” The Corinthians could not wait for Paul to come in order to settle some of the issues. There was too much at stake. It needed to be dealt with at the moment.
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