HOLY
SPIRIT: SPIRITUAL GIFTS; BODY OF CHRIST; CHURCH: HOLY SPIRIT’S WORK

The clear, emphatic teaching of the great apostle is that Christ is the Head of the Church which is His body.…

As a normal man consists of a body with various obedient members with a head to direct them, so the true Church is a body, individual Christians being the members and Christ the Head.

The mind works through the members of the body, using them to fulfill its intelligent purposes. Paul speaks of the foot, the hand, the ear, the eye as being members of the body, each with its proper but limited function; but it is the Spirit that worketh in them (1 Cor. 12:1–31).…

The intelligent head can work only as it has at its command organs designed for various tasks. It is the mind that sees, but it must have an eye to see through. It is the mind that hears, but it cannot hear without an ear.

And so with all the varied members which are the instruments by means of which the mind moves into the external world to carry out its plans.

As all man’s work is done by his mind, so the work of the church is done by the Spirit, and by Him alone. But to work He must set in the body certain members with abilities specifically created to act as media through which the Spirit can flow toward ordained ends. That, in brief, is the philosophy of the gifts of the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:14–16; Colossians 1:18

Keys to the Deeper Life, 43, 44.