Baptized by One Spirit

 DEVOTION

1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

BAPTIZED BY ONE SPIRIT

1 Cor 12:12-13

12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

NIV

Ah yes, the Holy Spirit who does all the work in us. This is one of those verses that has caused some division among some of the churches. Because the phrase that Paul uses here about, we are all baptized by the one Spirit, it makes it open to some different interpretations. This "baptized by” can also be used, “baptized into” as the Greek word can be used both ways. This gives some of the denominations the thought that once someone accepts the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then they need to be baptized into the Spirit, or by the Spirit as a second separate event. While this may be seen this way, it also can be interpreted that is it the Spirit who baptizes us into Christ. The reason is the fullness of what is said here. The Spirit baptizes all of us into one body, which is Christ. It does not matter our background or the ethos that we live within for we are all parts of one body with Jesus being the head. This occurs in our life when we respond to the convicting power of the Spirit who leads us to Christ and through the power of the Spirit, we are baptized in this one body. From this text it is clear our first contact with God is through the Spirit and then Jesus who leads us or provides us a way to the Father. This is what is known as a transcultural truth. It bears true in every country, or culture, in every time, and in every person. The other truth also bears some thought is the fact that we are each a part of the body of Christ. Paul uses the analogy of the human body and how it has many parts, but makes up one complete body, and so it is with Christ and His church. We all have our own personalities, our own culture and social settings, as well as our own personal positions in life, financially or materially, yet in Christ, through the power and working of the Spirit, we are all one body. In the natural course of the body, it functions as one complete unit using all its parts for one singular purpose, to live, although it is God who sustains our lives. Nevertheless, all the parts of our human body do not war against each other, nor are jealous of envious of each other, they work as one body. Of course, there are exceptions when something within the body becomes broken, or has some kind of malfunction, but that is not war, as the rest of the body fights to heal that malfunction for the purpose of protecting life. This is the function of the body of Christ. We are told when one member malfunctions, we fight, in love of course, to restore that member to health, as least we should, as one body of Christ because we all have been baptized by the same Spirit.