First Epistle to the Corinthians - The New Testament

¹ About the gifts of the Spirit, brothers, I want you to be quite certain.

² You remember that, when you were pagans, you were irresistibly drawn to inarticulate heathen gods.

³ Because of that, I want to make it quite clear to you that no one who says 'A curse on Jesus' can be speaking in the Spirit of God, and nobody is able to say, 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit.

⁴ There are many different gifts, but it is always the same Spirit;

⁵ there are many different ways of serving, but it is always the same Lord.

⁶ There are many different forms of activity, but in everybody it is the same God who is at work in them all.

⁷ The particular manifestation of the Spirit granted to each one is to be used for the general good.

⁸ To one is given from the Spirit the gift of utterance expressing wisdom; to another the gift of utterance expressing knowledge, in accordance with the same Spirit;

⁹ to another, faith, from the same Spirit; and to another, the gifts of healing, through this one Spirit;

¹⁰ to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the power of distinguishing spirits; to one, the gift of different tongues and to another, the interpretation of tongues.

¹¹ But at work in all these is one and the same Spirit, distributing them at will to each individual.

¹² For as with the human body which is a unity although it has many parts -- all the parts of the body, though many, still making up one single body -- so it is with Christ.

¹³ We were baptised into one body in a single Spirit, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as free men, and we were all given the same Spirit to drink.

¹⁴ And indeed the body consists not of one member but of many.

¹⁵ If the foot were to say, 'I am not a hand and so I do not belong to the body,' it does not belong to the body any the less for that.

¹⁶ Or if the ear were to say, 'I am not an eye, and so I do not belong to the body,' that would not stop its belonging to the body.

¹⁷ If the whole body were just an eye, how would there be any hearing? If the whole body were hearing, how would there be any smelling?

¹⁸ As it is, God has put all the separate parts into the body as he chose.

¹⁹ If they were all the same part, how could it be a body?

²⁰ As it is, the parts are many but the body is one.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' and nor can the head say to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'

²² What is more, it is precisely the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest which are the indispensable ones.

²³ It is the parts of the body which we consider least dignified that we surround with the greatest dignity; and our less presentable parts are given greater presentability

²⁴ which our presentable parts do not need. God has composed the body so that greater dignity is given to the parts which were without it,

²⁵ and so that there may not be disagreements inside the body but each part may be equally concerned for all the others.

²⁶ If one part is hurt, all the parts share its pain. And if one part is honoured, all the parts share its joy.

²⁷ Now Christ's body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole.

²⁸ And those whom God has appointed in the Church are, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers; after them, miraculous powers, then gifts of healing, helpful acts, guidance, various kinds of tongues.

²⁹ Are all of them apostles? Or all prophets? Or all teachers? Or all miracle-workers?

³⁰ Do all have the gifts of healing? Do all of them speak in tongues and all interpret them?

³¹ Set your mind on the higher gifts. And now I am going to put before you the best way of all.