At Corinth there was much of the spirit of self assertion: "I," said one, "am for Paul!" "I," said another, "for Apollos!" "I," said a third, "for Cephas!" This was a selfish partisanship; and with it was conjoined a disposition on the part of many to magnify their own gifts and powers and to depreciate those of their neighbours and fellow members. To all this the apostle furnishes the true corrective. Let Christians but regard themselves in the true light, as Christ's body collectively, and as individually living members of that body, and then inconsiderateness, selfishness, envy, and jealousy will flee away.

I. COLLECTIVELY, CHRISTIANS FORM THE BODY OF CHRIST. Not, of course, the body of flesh and blood which he assumed and wore; not the bread and wine of the Eucharist, which he called his body and blood; but the human representation of his presence which he has left on earth.

1. This assertion cannot be made of any one outward, visible, organic society. All these, because composed of human beings and consequently of imperfect and faulty characters, and because doubtless including within their boundaries unspiritual persons and hypocrites, are themselves far from reaching the Divine ideal. If one "visible" Church cannot claim to be the body of Christ, neither, for the same reason, can any association of such communities. They may be admirable, and their existence may be most important for the conservation of the gospel and the evangelization of the world, but they are not to be confounded with the body of Christ.

2. But it is true of the Church as it exists in the view of the omniscient Lord. The spiritual Church, sometimes called invisible, because its boundaries cannot be traced by human eyes, is penetrated by Christ's Spirit, is a living witness to his mind and doctrine, and is ever offering a service of obedience to his will. In these respects it is the Body, of which Christ himself is the living, inspiring, directing Soul.

II. INDIVIDUALLY, CHRISTIANS ARE MEMBERS OF CHRIST.

1. This comes to pass through individual spiritual union with him. Though each Christian is indebted beyond measure to the teaching, influence, and spirit of the consecrated society in which he has been trained, still a spiritual process must, through the reception of the means of grace, take place in his conscious nature.

2. Each Christian has his several functions to discharge in the Church and for the Lord. There are diversities of gifts and consequent diversities of ministries; and this diversity is itself a witness to the individual, the personal nature of the membership of every one in him who is the Source of all true blessing and power.

3. All cooperate for the same end. That this is so is evident; and how can it be so, except as a result of such common subjection to the one Head as secures the mutual harmony and coordination of all the members? Each is selected for his own part and qualified for his own position. - T.

I. TRUE CHRISTIANS, AS THE BODY OF CHRIST, MANIFEST HIS PERSONAL PRESENCE AMONG MEN. In Christ incarnate "God was manifest in the flesh." Just as really is Christ manifest in His Church.

II. THE BODY OF CHRIST REVEALS THE MIND OF CHRIST. So closely do body and mind correspond, that the mind sometimes fashions the body to its own character. Essential characteristics, if not every thought and feeling, are revealed in gesture, gait, and countenance. The human body of Christ served the same purpose in expressing His mind. Now He has another manifestation. He is formed in us and thus expresses Himself as truly as once through flesh and blood. These "living epistles are known and read of all men," written over with Christ's thoughts, as those thoughts were once written on His own face. We are Christians only so far as we embody and reveal Christ to men.

III. THESE MEMBERS OF CHRIST'S BODY ARE THE INSTRUMENTS FOR THE EXECUTION OF HIS WILL. The body is the servant of the soul. Such was Christ's body on earth. It is now laid aside for other organs, even His Church, who are "members of His body, of His flesh and His bones". Here is the radical idea of Christian service. We are not independent to follow our own purposes, but the will of Christ. While the hands and feet are involuntary instruments moved by the soul, the organs of Christ's body act freely, although God worketh in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. Though not losing identity or individuality, they are so assimilated to each other and to Christ that they freely act together with the harmony of the most nicely adjusted machine. Again, Christ now is not limited to any spot at once, but is everywhere, in every Christian heart. Were He to get complete possession of all the members of His body and of all the agencies which they command, what rapid and sweeping successes would He achieve! When the Church is sanctified, when no member is paralysed or dormant or reluctant, but the whole are "clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners," how soon will the world be redeemed!

(H. Mead, D.D.)

The chemist mixes his various elements together in the battery, and when they are brought together, and the conditions are fulfilled, electricity is there. He does not summon electricity from some remote distance; but already dormant in these elements was the electric power, and when they are combined, instantly the electric power springs into existence. So Christ says, "In each one of you Christians there is a dormant power. I am in you, but there is more of Me in all of you together than there is in any one of yon separate and individually; and when you have combined around My banner and My name to do My will, there springs into existence, not merely the strength that comes from union, but the Diviner help that comes from this, that I am in the midst of that organisation, the spirit that inspires the body." It becomes at once more than human — it becomes Divine — the body of Christ.

(Lyman Abbott.)

God has chosen the most familiar objects to be the emblems of Christ and His Church — tree, rock, house, wheat, bread, and here the human body. In the "body."

I. ALL LIFE IS IS THE HEAD. If you separate the smallest particle of the body from it, that moment it dies. And so the Church is in such union with Christ that if you wilfully break the union by sin or unbelief, you are, spiritually, as dead as an amputated limb!

II. ALL FEELING AND ALL SPRINGS OF POWER AND ACTION LIE IN THE HEAD. When any spot in the body is injured, a nerve communicates the fact to the brain, and there is the suffering. And then, from the brain, a nerve communicates back to the injured place what is to be done under the circumstances. And so whatever touches any living member of the Church, either for weal or woe, it goes up at once to Christ; and from Him again there flows down to you the never-failing cords of His sympathy, guidance, and power.

III. THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF OUR BODY ARE ALL HELD TOGETHER BY THEIR MEETING IN THE ONE HEAD. So there is no real unity of Christians, except as they all meet and unite in the one Christ. Christ is, and must be, the centre piece of the arch of unity. If that centre piece is not there, the arch will fall!

IV. NO ONE PART OF THE BODY CAN COMMUNICATE WITH ANOTHER EXCEPT THROUGH THE HEAD. My right hand cannot touch my left but through the head. Just so it is in the Church. All true service and charity must be through Christ. If I have been kind to any one it is the Head has done it, from first to last.

V. SOME MEMBERS ARE COUNTED "MORE HONOURABLE" AND SOME LESS, BUT ALL BELONG TO THE SAME "HEAD," AND SO SHARE IN THE SAME DIGNITY. So it is with the Church. The poorest, meanest man that walks this earth, if he be a "child of God," is in the Head. You meet him there; he is equal with you there. Conclusion:

1. Away with all selfishness, pride, isolation! We are all one body.

2. This principle reaches beyond this world. In heaven itself there is "the Body of Christ." And there is nothing greater than that. The saints in glory are my fellow-members in it.

(J. Vaughan, M.A.)

I. THE CHURCH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST (cf. Ephesians 1:22, 23; Ephesians 4:12; Colossians 1:24).

1. Note the resemblances.(1) As the body reveals the soul, so the Church reveals Christ. What we love is in our friends, not the body. That is but the casket. But we know nothing of their souls except through the body. They are revealed to us by the glance of the eye, the tone of the voice, the deeds of love. So Christ is never seen directly. The salvation of men depends on the Church's revelation of Christ.(2) As the soul acts by the body, so Christ acts through the Church. The soul is the seat of the affections and motives, but the body must carry out its purposes. The soul of the parent goes out after the children who are scattered over the world. The body must write with pen and ink the messages of love. A neighbour longs to help some sick one. The body must be robbed of sleep that the neighbour may be helped. So Christ, the soul of the Church, loves and desires to save all men. But wherever men are saved, it is usually by the action of "His body, the Church."(3) As the soul speaks through the body, so Christ speaks by the Church (1 Corinthians 6:1-5; Matthew 18:17, 18).

2. If all this be true —

(1)How great is the honour which Christ has put upon us!

(2)How great is our responsibility!

(3)How important that we should see to it that we do not become a body without a soul — a Church without Christ!

II. INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIANS ARE MEMBERS IN PARTICULAR, i.e., each in his appointed place. The teaching of the previous verses is —

1. That we are all members or parts of the body of Christ. We may have nothing that brings us into prominence, and yet we are component parts of the body. Without us it would be incomplete.

2. That we all have a part in the work of the body. No part of a living body is without a function which it alone can perform. So in the body of Christ our office may be a humble one, but it is one to which we are Divinely appointed.

3. That the meanest offices are often most important. How the disorder of one small obscure part of the body hinders the whole; — pleurisy or tic! So in the body of Christ. If the Church is hindered we need to make it a personal matter. "Lord, is it I?" Again, the less prominent offices in the Church are just now more necessary. We have had much preaching; we want religion lived in little things.

(J. Ogle.)

There are several analogies between our bodies and the Church as the body of Christ, viz. —

I. THESE ARE OUR BODIES BECAUSE OUR SPIRITS POSSESS AND ANIMATE THEM. So Christ's spirit vitalises the Church.

II. OUR PHYSICAL AND PSYCHICAL NATURES ARE SO CLOSELY JOINED THAT THEY CONSTITUTE A VIRTUAL UNITY. So Christ says of His Church, "As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us."

III. OUR SPIRITS ARE IN MOST SENSITIVE SYMPATHY WITH ALL PARTS OF OUR BODIES. If any part is cut or bruised, to that at once goes the mind in painful consciousness. So Christ bears all our sorrows, and carries our grief in His sympathetic spirit.

IV. OUR SPIRITS ARE ALERT THAT THEY MAY DEFEND AND OTHERWISE HELP THE BODILY MEMBERS. If a missile comes near, it is the soul that, looking through the eyes, sees it and warns the nerve to spring the muscle that moves the proper part of the body to avoid it. Such is Christ's watchfulness for His people.

V. OUR SPIRITS FREQUENTLY, IN THEIR DEEPER WISDOM, ORDER THE BODY TO RECEIVE PAIN — e.g., to present a hand to the surgeon's knife, to endure fatigue, etc. So Christ ordains suffering for the discipline of His people.

VI. OUR SPIRITS IMPART THE STRENGTH OF THEIR COURAGE TO OUR BODIES, THAT THEY MAY ENDURE PAIN without flinching, the resolute will holding the shrinking nerve; moral courage the source of truest physical heroism. So Christ's grace is sufficient for us,

VII. OUR SPIRITS ARE CONSTANTLY TRAINING OUR BODIES TO EASY, almost unvolitional OBEDIENCE, e.g., we learn to do, as if instinctively, many things that at first are performed only with difficulty — to strike the notes on a piano, to read without definite thought of the letters, all that we mean by "second nature." So Christ is training our souls to obey His precepts with liberty, without constant pressure of the sense of duty. Perfect sainthood will be as natural as the processes of physical motion.

VIII. OUR SPIRITS ARE CONSTANTLY MODIFYING THE ASPECT OF OUR BODIES, stamping character upon the countenance, and expressing disposition by manner and mien. So Christ, by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, sanctifies us.

IX. OUR SPIRITS KEEP OUR BODIES ALIVE SO LONG AS THEY ARE ASSOCIATED. There can be no death until the soul is withdrawn; then only does the tabernacle of the flesh fall. So Christ is the life of all the members of His body. And as His promise is, "Lo, I am with you alway," we can never die. "Because I live ye shall live also."

(J. M. Ludlow, D.D.)

I. THE UNION OF CHRIST WITH HIS CHURCH. This is sometimes illustrated by images borrowed from the relations of domestic life: those of master and servants, parent and children, husband and wife; sometimes by images derived from works of art, or from natural history: He Himself represents it by the union of the vine with its branches. The Scripture idea of Christ represents Him as identified with the Church, which is called the fulness or complement of Christ: so that Christ would want something essential to Him, without the Church. In the text believers are styled His body, which implies —

1. The participation of a common nature. In the former part of this chapter the apostle had spoken of the union of Christians, and those who participate of one Spirit. Christ makes them all His own, by the communication of His own Spirit; just as the natural members are united with the head. They receive, out of His fulness, grace for grace. Notwithstanding the difference of nature and of office between Him and them, yet the graces of Christians are of the same origin, and nature, with His. Every real Christian is animated by the same views, desires, tempers, principles of conduct, with his Divine Master. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." The difference between Christians and men of the world is not a difference in degree; it is a difference in nature.

2. The direction which Christ has over His Church. He is the supreme authority who prescribes all our duties. All religion emanates from Him as Lord of all. It is the work of the Spirit to establish His authority in the heart: a sceptre by which He gently, yet effectually, subdues His people.

3. The affectionate union which subsists between both. The Church is loved by Christ as His body, endeared to Him by the most tender ties. In love to it He descended from His throne to the Cross. Such love as the Father has to Him He has to the Church. And, by analogy, we ought to have the same love to Him, manifested by walking in His steps, consecrating ourselves to Him who so loved us. Like loves like; and if Christ is the pattern and friend of His people, how entire, intense, and constant, ought to be our devotedness to Him!

II. THE UNION OF CHRISTIANS WITH EACH OTHER. "We are members in particular."

1. Every member of the natural body, however mean, feeble, and obscure, is a member; so should no Christian be overlooked, however humble, since he stands in a sacred relation to Jesus Christ. To despise the image of God in the natural man implies a profane disregard of that God who made man in His own image; but to despise this image in the spiritual man is a higher species of impiety.

2. There exists an affection and sympathy between all the members. In the system of animal life, which is probably a modification of the spirit that animates the whole, the functions of all the rest are affected by one. Thus Christians are to feel for each other, "bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ"; they are not to say, as Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

3. There is no schism in the body, so long as it is in a natural and healthful state; otherwise it tends to decay. Thus, for one member of Christ to envy others, is as unnatural and destructive as a division in the animal system.

4. There are different offices in the body; some parts are organic, as the eye, the ear; these are instruments of sense, and peculiarly important. Thus, in the Church, some are apostles, some evangelists; but all are not such, yet each has his own place and use; each may contribute his portion to the general good.

(R. Hall, M.A.)

"A member of Christ." Now, what "member" will you be? If you are "a member of Christ," you must do the member's part. If you say, "I will be like the hand," what will you do? You must work usefully with your hand, you must work for God, you must give to God. Or, with your feet, you must run with messages. Be very useful. Think, "Perhaps I shall be a missionary, with my feet beautiful on the mountains, to the heathen. I will do it for Christ's sake." Or, "I will always listen to good things." Be the ear. Or, with the eye, look at the beautiful things from heaven. Or, like the tongue, speak of God, of goodness, and of happiness. Then you are a useful "member of Christ." Remember, if you have got Christ in your heart, then you are "a member" indeed.

(J. Vaughan, M.A.)

Corinthians, PaulCorinthBody, Christ, Christ's, Individually, Members, Particular, Separate, Severally, Thereof1. Spiritual gifts,
4. are diverse,
7. yet to profit all.
8. And to that end are diversely bestowed;
12. as the members of a natural body tend all to the mutual decency,
22. service,
26. and helpfulness of the same body;
27. so we should do for one another, to make up the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:27

     1670   symbols
     6756   union with Christ, significance
     7024   church, nature of
     7032   unity, God's people
     7142   people of God, NT
     7923   fellowship, in gospel

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

     5409   metaphor
     8210   commitment, to God's people

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

     7110   body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:14-31

     7924   fellowship, in service

1 Corinthians 12:17-30

     5886   individualism

1 Corinthians 12:25-27

     7110   body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:26-27

     6214   participation, in Christ

1 Corinthians 12:27-28

     7026   church, leadership

1 Corinthians 12:27-30

     4018   life, spiritual

1 Corinthians 12:27-31

     5325   gifts
     5832   desire
     8422   equipping, spiritual

Tenth Sunday after Trinity Spiritual Counsel for Church Officers.
Text: 1 Corinthians 12, 1-11. 1 Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 2 Ye know that when ye were Gentiles ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might be led. 3 Wherefore I make known unto you, that no man speaking in the Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema [accursed], and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

List of Bible Passages
Address. Page. Genesis iv, 9 LXX 176 Exodus xx, 1-7 LXXXIII 207 Deut. xxxiii, 27 XXXIII 83 I Ks. xix, 1-13 LXXV 187 II Kings vi, 17 XC 212 Mat. ii, 1-11 XXIX 74 iv, 1-11 XLVIII 171 v, 3 XXII 58 v, 4 XXIII 60 v, 5 XXIV 62 v, 6 XXV 64 v, 7 XXVI …
Francis Greenwood Peabody—Mornings in the College Chapel

May the Twenty-Ninth Many Gifts --One Spirit
1 CORINTHIANS xii. 1-13. There is no monotony in the workmanship of my God. The multitude of His thoughts is like the sound of the sea, and every thought commands a new creation. When He thinks upon me, the result is a creative touch never again to be repeated on land or sea. And so, when the Holy Spirit is given to the people, the ministry does not work in the suppression of individualities, but rather in their refinement and enrichment. Our gifts will be manifold, and we must not allow the difference …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

May the Thirty-First Connection and Concord
"By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." --1 CORINTHIANS xii. 12-19. It is only in the spirit that real union is born. Every other kind of union is artificial, and mechanical, and dead. We can dovetail many pieces of wood together and make the unity of an article of furniture, but we cannot dovetail items together and make a tree. And it is the union of a tree that we require, a union born of indwelling life. We may join many people together in a fellowship by the bonds of a formal creed, …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

June the First the Beauty of Variety
1 CORINTHIANS xii. 20-31. God's glory is expressed through the harmony of variety. We do not need sameness in order to gain union. I am now looking upon a scene of surpassing loveliness. There are mountains, and sea, and grassland, and trees, and a wide-stretching sky, and white pebbles at my feet. And a white bird has just flown across a little bank of dark cloud. What variety! And when I look closer the variety is infinitely multiplied. Everything blends into everything else. Nothing is out of …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Making and Breaking Connections.
Many Experiences, but One Law. In mechanics power depends on good connections. A visit to any great machine shop makes that clear. There must be good connections in two directions--inward toward the source of power, and outward for use. The same law holds true in spiritual power as in mechanical. There must be good connections. These nights we have been together a few things have seemed clear. We have seen that from the standpoint of our lives there is need of power, as well as from the standpoint …
S.D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on Power

The Universal Gift
'The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.'--1 COR. xii. 7. The great fact which to-day[1] commemorates is too often regarded as if it were a transient gift, limited to those on whom it was first bestowed. We sometimes hear it said that the great need of the Christian world is a second Pentecost, a fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God and the like. Such a way of thinking and speaking misconceives the nature and significance of the first Pentecost, which had a transient …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

The True Gentleman
1 Cor. xii. 31; xiii. 1. Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. My friends, let me say a few plain words this morning to young and old, rich and poor, upon this text. Now you all, I suppose, think it a good thing to be gentlemen and ladies. All of you, I say. There is not a poor man in this church, perhaps, who has not before …
Charles Kingsley—Sermons for the Times

Public Spirit
Preached at Bideford, 1855.) 1 Corinthians xii. 25, 26. That there should be no division in the body; but that the members should have the same care, one of another. And whether one member suffer, all suffer with it; or whether one member be honoured, all rejoice with it. I have been asked to preach in behalf of the Provident Society of this town. I shall begin by asking you to think over with me a matter which may seem at first sight to have very little to do with you or with a provident society, …
Charles Kingsley—Sermons for the Times

Sponsorship
1 Cor. xii. 26, 27. Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or whether one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. I have to tell you that there will be a confirmation held at . . . on the . . . All persons of fit age who have not yet been confirmed ought to be ready, and I hope and trust that most of them will be ready, on that day to profess publicly their faith and loyalty to the Lord who died for them. …
Charles Kingsley—Sermons for the Times

The Dispensation of the Spirit.
Preached Whitsunday, May 19, 1850. THE DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit."--1 Corinthians xii, 4. According to a view which contains in it a profound truth, the ages of the world are divisible into three dispensations, presided over by the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In the dispensation of the Father, God was known as a Creator; creation manifested His eternal power and Godhead, and the religion of mankind was the religion of Nature. In the …
Frederick W. Robertson—Sermons Preached at Brighton

Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity
(From the Epistle for the day) Admonishing each man to mark what is the office to which he is called of God, and teaching us to practise works of love and virtue, and to refrain from self-will. 1 Cor. xii. 6.--"There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." ST. PAUL tells us in this Epistle that there are different kinds of works, but that they are all wrought by the same Spirit to the profit and well-being of man. For they all proceed from the same God who …
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler

Antipathies
(Tenth Sunday after Trinity.) 1 Cor. xii. 3, 4, 5, 6. Wherefore, I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. We are to come to the Communion this day in love and charity …
Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons

The Judgments of God.
LUKE XIII. 1-5. There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I …
Charles Kingsley—Westminster Sermons

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles.
The work of the Holy Spirit in apostles and prophets is an entirely distinctive work. He imparts to apostles and prophets an especial gift for an especial purpose. We read in 1 Cor. xii. 4, 8-11, 28, 29, R. V., "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.... For to one is given through the Spirit wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to another workings …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

The Government of the Church.
"No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."--1 Cor. xii. 3. The last work of the Holy Spirit in the Church has reference to government. The Church is a divine institution. It is the body of Christ, even tho manifesting itself in a most defective way; for as the man whose speech is affected by a stroke of paralysis is the same friendly person as before, in spite of the defect, so is the Church, whose speech is impaired, still the same holy body of Christ. The visible and invisible …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Spiritual Gifts.
"But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And a still more excellent way show I unto you." --1 Cor. xii. 31 (R.V.). The charismata or spiritual gifts are the divinely ordained means and powers whereby the King enables His Church to perform its task on the earth. The Church has a calling in the world. It is being violently attacked not only by the powers of this world, but much more by the invisible powers of Satan. No rest is allowed. Denying that Christ has conquered, Satan believes that the time …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Dr. Martin Luther Concerning Penitence and Indulgences.
In the desire and with the purpose of elucidating the truth, a disputation will be held on the underwritten propositions at Wittemberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Monk of the Order of St. Augustine, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and ordinary Reader of the same in that place. He therefore asks those who cannot be present and discuss the subject with us orally, to do so by letter in their absence. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1. Our Lord and Master …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

The First Wall.
Let us, in the first place, attack the first wall. It has been devised, that the Pope, bishops, priests and monks are called the Spiritual Estate; Princes, lords, artificers and peasants, are the Temporal Estate; which is a very fine, hypocritical device. But let no one be made afraid by it; and that for this reason: That all Christians are truly of the Spiritual Estate, and there is no difference among them, save of office alone. As St. Paul says (1 Cor. xii.), we are all one body, though each member …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

Continuation of the Discourse on the Holy Ghost.
1 Corinthians xii. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, &c. 1. In the preceding Lecture, according to our ability we set before you, our beloved hearers [2095] , some small portion of the testimonies concerning the Holy Ghost; and on the present occasion, we will, if it be God's pleasure, proceed to treat, as far as may be, of those which remain out of the New Testament: and as then to keep within due limit of your attention we restrained our eagerness (for there is no satiety …
St. Cyril of Jerusalem—Lectures of S. Cyril of Jerusalem

On the Article, and in one Holy Ghost, the Comforter, which Spake in the Prophets.
1 Corinthians xii. 1, 4 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant....Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, &c. 1. Spiritual in truth is the grace we need, in order to discourse concerning the Holy Spirit; not that we may speak what is worthy of Him, for this is impossible, but that by speaking the words of the divine Scriptures, we may run our course without danger. For a truly fearful thing is written in the Gospels, where Christ has plainly said, …
St. Cyril of Jerusalem—Lectures of S. Cyril of Jerusalem

But this is So Great, that Certain Understand it to be the Fruit An...
46. But this is so great, that certain understand it to be the fruit an hundred-fold. [2190] For the authority of the Church bears a very conspicuous witness, in which it is known to the faithful in what place the Martyrs, in what place the holy nuns deceased, are rehearsed at the Sacraments of the Altar. [2191] But what the meaning is of that difference of fruitfulness, let them see to it, who understand these things better than we; whether the virginal life be in fruit an hundred-fold, in sixty-fold …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

Hence Too is Solved that Question, How is it that the Martyrs...
19. Hence too is solved that question, how is it that the Martyrs, by the very benefits which are given to them that pray, indicate that they take an interest in the affairs of men, if the dead know not what the quick are doing. For not only by effects of benefits, but in the very beholding of men, it is certain, [2760] that the Confessor Felix (whose denizenship among you thou piously lovest) appeared when the barbarians were attacking Nola, as we have heard not by uncertain rumors, but by sure …
St. Augustine—On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

Epistle vii. To Peter, Domitian, and Elpidius.
To Peter, Domitian, and Elpidius. Gregory to Peter, Domitian, and Elpidius, Bishops [1688] . I rejoice exceedingly that you welcomed with great joy the ordination of the most holy Cyriacus, my brother and fellow-priest. And since we have learnt from the preaching of Paul the apostle that If one member rejoice, all the members rejoice with it (1 Cor. xii. 26), you must needs consider with how great exultation I rejoice with you in this thing, wherein not one member, but many members of Christ have …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

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