1 Corintios 12:12-31

Un cuerpo con muchos miembros

12 De hecho, aunque el cuerpo es uno solo, tiene muchos miembros, y todos los miembros, no obstante ser muchos, forman un solo cuerpo. Así sucede con Cristo.

13 Todos fuimos bautizados por^[a] un solo Espíritu para constituir un solo cuerpo —ya seamos judíos o gentiles, esclavos o libres—, y a todos se nos dio a beber de un mismo Espíritu.

14 Ahora bien, el cuerpo no consta de un solo miembro sino de muchos.

15 Si el pie dijera: «Como no soy mano, no soy del cuerpo», no por eso dejaría de ser parte del cuerpo.

16 Y si la oreja dijera: «Como no soy ojo, no soy del cuerpo», no por eso dejaría de ser parte del cuerpo.

17 Si todo el cuerpo fuera ojo, ¿qué sería del oído? Si todo el cuerpo fuera oído, ¿qué sería del olfato?

18 En realidad, Dios colocó cada miembro del cuerpo como mejor le pareció.

19 Si todos ellos fueran un solo miembro, ¿qué sería del cuerpo?

20 Lo cierto es que hay muchos miembros, pero el cuerpo es uno solo.

21 El ojo no puede decirle a la mano: «No te necesito». Ni puede la cabeza decirles a los pies: «No los necesito».

22 Al contrario, los miembros del cuerpo que parecen más débiles son indispensables,

23 y a los que nos parecen menos honrosos los tratamos con honra especial. Y se les trata con especial modestia a los miembros que nos parecen menos presentables,

24 mientras que los más presentables no requieren trato especial. Así Dios ha dispuesto los miembros de nuestro cuerpo, dando mayor honra a los que menos tenían,

25 a fin de que no haya división en el cuerpo, sino que sus miembros se preocupen por igual unos por otros.

26 Si uno de los miembros sufre, los demás comparten su sufrimiento; y si uno de ellos recibe honor, los demás se alegran con él.

27 Ahora bien, ustedes son el cuerpo de Cristo, y cada uno es miembro de ese cuerpo.

28 En la iglesia Dios ha puesto, en primer lugar, apóstoles; en segundo lugar, profetas; en tercer lugar, maestros; luego los que hacen milagros; después los que tienen dones para sanar enfermos, los que ayudan a otros, los que administran y los que hablan en diversas lenguas.

29 ¿Son todos apóstoles? ¿Son todos profetas? ¿Son todos maestros? ¿Hacen todos milagros?

30 ¿Tienen todos dones para sanar enfermos? ¿Hablan todos en lenguas? ¿Acaso interpretan todos?

Ustedes, por su parte, ambicionen^[b] los mejores dones.

El amor

31 Ahora les voy a mostrar un camino más excelente.

1 Corintios 12:12-31 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CORINTHIANS 12

In this chapter the apostle discourses concerning spiritual gifts, showing the author, nature, use, and excellency of them; compares the church to an human body, and in a beautiful manner sets forth the symmetry and subserviency of the members of it to one another, being set in different places, and having different gifts; and enumerates the several offices and gifts in the church, and yet suggests there is something more excellent than them. He intimates, that spiritual gifts are valuable things, and should be taken notice of; nor would he have the saints ignorant of them, and therefore gives the following account, 1Co 12:1 and yet he would not have those that have them be proud of them, and lifted up with them; for which reason he puts them in mind of their former state in Heathenism, to make and keep them humble, 1Co 12:2 and points out such who have the Spirit of God, the author of all gifts and grace; not such who call Jesus accursed, but they that call him Lord, 1Co 12:3 which Holy Ghost, who is called Spirit, Lord, and God, is the author of the different gifts bestowed upon men, 1Co 12:4-6 the end of bestowing which gifts is the profit of others, 1Co 12:7 of which gifts there is an enumeration in nine particulars, 1Co 12:8-10 of each of which the Spirit of God is the worker and giver, according to his sovereign will and pleasure, 1Co 12:11 and which are all for the good of the whole community; which is illustrated by the simile of an human body, which as it consists of many members, and is but one, so Christ mystical, or the church, though it consists of divers persons, yet they are all one in Christ, and all their gifts are for the service of each other, 1Co 12:12 which unity is proved and confirmed by the saints being baptized by one Spirit into one body, the church, and by drinking of him, or partaking of the same grace, 1Co 12:13 and in order to show the usefulness and profit of every spiritual gift, even the meanest, to the churches of Christ, and that none might be despised, he enlarges upon the metaphor of the human body he had compared the church to, and by it illustrates the unity of the church, and the members of it, 1Co 12:14 and shows that the inferior members should not envy the superior ones, or be dejected because they have not the same gifts: and conclude from hence, that they are not, or deserve not, to be of the same body, 1Co 12:15,16 seeing it is convenient and absolutely necessary that there should be many members, and these set in different places, and have different gifts and usefulness; and particularly what should make them easy is, that God has placed them according to his will and pleasure, 1Co 12:17-20. And, on the other hand, he shows, that the more noble, and excellent, and useful members, ought not to despise the lower, meaner, and more ignoble ones, partly because of the usefulness and necessity of them, they cannot do without them, 1Co 12:21,20 and partly because of the honour put upon them, 1Co 12:23,24, and all this is so ordered, that there be no schism, but that there should be a mutual care of one member for another, and that they should sympathize with each other, 1Co 12:25,26. This simile the apostle more plainly and particularly accommodates and applies to the church, the body of Christ, and the members of it, and of one another, 1Co 12:27 and gives an enumeration of the several officers and offices in the church, set there by God himself; and there are no less than eight of them, some greater than others, most of them proper and peculiar to the primitive church, though some perpetual, and which still continue, 1Co 12:28 but in the times in which they were all of them in being and use, every member of the church was not possessed of them, only some, though all had more or less the advantage of them, 1Co 12:29,30. Wherefore, he concludes with an exhortation to the saints to covet the best of those gifts; and yet observes that there was something more excellent than them, and preferable to them, which he was about to show them, 1Co 12:31 and hereby he makes an easy transition to the next chapter, in which he recommends charity, and prefers it to gifts.

Footnotes

• [a]. "por" . Alt. "con" , o "en" .
• [b]. "ambicionen" . Alt. "ambicionan" .