1 Corinthians 12:29,30

“Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all powers? 30. Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” God has given to believers a certain spiritual endowment (1 Corinthians 12:28); but side by side with this endowment He has left a blank in each of them, and so a want which does not allow him to separate himself from the rest. It is obvious that the questions are put so as to lead to the result which was expressed in regard to the members of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:14-17. No individual ought to pose as self-sufficient. The body, as a whole, only exists on the condition that each member needs all the rest. The questions, all beginning with μή, all expect a negative answer: “All are not, however, apostles?” None of those, therefore, who are not such, will be able to dispense with the brethren whom God has made apostles. And if this is true regarding apostles and prophets, it is also true in regard to all other gifts and offices.

It is unnecessary to understand ἔχουσιν before δυνάμεις, powers. This substantive may very well be the predicate of the subject. The power of working miracles is identified with its possessor (1 Corinthians 12:28).

Helps and governments are omitted in this second list, probably because they did not greatly excite the ambition of believers.

It follows, therefore, from this application to the Church, 1 Corinthians 12:27-30: (1) that no one ought to regard himself as being unnecessary to the whole, since he has been placed there with his gift by God Himself (1 Corinthians 12:28); (2) and consequently, also, that no one ought to consider himself as possessed of self-sufficiency or as combining in himself all that is necessary for the life of the Church of which he is a member (1 Corinthians 12:29-30).

From these general principles the apostle might pass immediately to the practical applications he has in view. But, before entering on this subject, which will be treated in chap. 14, he here inserts a meditation on the fundamental disposition of the Christian life, charity without which all gifts, whatever they may be, become useless, but which, on the other hand, gives them all their true consecration and alone assures their effectual and beneficent exercise (chap. 13). To our 1 Corinthians 12:31, which forms the transition to this episode, there obviously corresponds chap. 1 Corinthians 14:1, whereby the apostle returns from this digression to his principal subject.