1 Corinthians 12

1 My friends, you know that the Holy Spirit gives special power to Christians. We want to tell you more about this, so that you will understand it properly.

2 Remember this. Before you knew God you listened to other people that don’t know God, and you did what they did. You used to respect those statues that you thought were gods, but you know, they are just dumb statues, they can’t say anything.

3 Now listen, we want you to understand this. If God’s spirit is inside somebody they can never say, “Jesus, get away from me.” And the only people that can really say, “Jesus is my leader,” are the people that have God’s spirit inside them.

4 You know, the Holy Spirit gives us special powers to do things. These powers are gifts that he gives us. There are different kinds of gifts, but they all come from the same Holy Spirit.

5 We work for God in a lot of different ways, but all of us work for Jesus.

6 Different people can do different things, but it is the same God that gives each person the power to work for him.

7 It’s like this. The Holy Spirit works in each one of us. He gives us these gifts so we can help each other.

8 The Holy Spirit gives one person the power to say a wise message for somebody, and he gives another person the power to know something special.

9 The same Holy Spirit gives another person the power to believe God strongly for something. And he gives another person the power to make sick people better.

10 The same Holy Spirit gives another person the power to do great things. And he gives another person the power to tell messages straight from God. The same Holy Spirit gives another person the power to know if something comes from God’s spirit, or from bad spirits. He gives another person the power to talk in special languages, and he gives another person the power to say what those special language words mean.

11 It is the same Holy Spirit that does all these things. He decides which gifts he will give to each person.

12 You know, a human body has a lot of parts. All those different parts make only one body. And it is like that with Jesus Christ too. We Christians are like his body.

13 Some of us are Jews, and the rest of us are not Jews. Some of us are free, and some of us are like prisoners that have to work for no pay. But no matter who we are, God’s spirit baptised all of us to join us together into one body, and we all have that same Holy Spirit in us.

14 A human body doesn’t have only one part. It has a lot of different parts.

15 Suppose a foot thinks to itself, “I’m not a hand, so I don’t belong to this body.” That doesn’t change anything, it is still a part of the body.

16 Or suppose an ear thinks to itself, “I’m not an eye, so I don’t belong to this body.” Hey, it is still a part of the body no matter what it thinks.

17 Suppose the whole body was an eye, it wouldn’t hear anything. Or suppose the whole body was an ear, it wouldn’t smell anything.

18 Suppose each part of the body was the same, it wouldn’t really be a body. But, you see, God put all the different parts in the body just like he wanted them.

19 Yes, there are a lot of parts, but they make only one body.

20 And a body needs every part. Its eye can’t reckon, “I don’t need that hand.” And its head can’t reckon, “I don’t need those feet.”

21 A body needs every part, even the parts that we think are weak.

22 And there are some parts of our bodies that we think are not very nice and we don’t want anyone to see them, so we carefully look after those parts and cover them up.

23 But we don’t need to cover the beautiful parts of our bodies. God has joined all these parts together to make one body. We might think some parts are not important, but God has made them really important.

24 So, all the parts of our bodies live quietly together and help each other.

25 If one part of a body hurts, every other part hurts with it. Or if one part of a body is feeling good, every other part is happy with it.

26 You see, you are all like Jesus Christ’s body. Each of you Christians is a part of his body.

27 And God gives people different jobs in his church, and he gives them the power to do those jobs. – First, there are those people that God sends to other places to be his special workers and leaders. – Second, there are those that God uses to tell his special messages. – Third, there are those that can teach people. – After that, there are those that have the power to do great things. – Then there are those that have the power to make sick people better. – And there are those that can help people. – And those that can lead people. – And there are those that can talk in special languages.

28 Did God send all of you out to other places to be his special workers and leaders? No, of course he didn’t. Did he give all of you the power to tell his special messages? No. Did he give all of you the power to be teachers? No. Did he give all of you the power to do great things? No, he didn’t.

29 And he didn’t give all of you the power to make sick people better. He didn’t give all of you the power to talk in special languages, and he didn’t give all of you the power to say what those special language words mean.

30 You see, God doesn’t give every kind of power to every Christian. So you have to really want the best kind of power from God. But there is another really good way, so now I will tell you about that way. It is the best way.