1 Corinthians 12:13 says “For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.”
This is an elementary doctrine: a building block upon which we mature and grow. Not “elementary” as in “childish”, rather as first steps to understand the will of God.
This baptism, completed by the Spirit of God, Who knows the spirit of each person, is about knowing our destiny in God, known from the foundations of the world. This destiny is how God intends to live through us in time and space.
Understanding this, we would never have wondered if we had a ministry, we would have always known that we had a ministry and we would not simply settle for an adjunct of somebody else’s ministry. We would have always understood, then, that the leadership did not exist to articulate a ministry into which we could “fit”. But instead the leadership would exist to help us discover the ministry that God has for us and to assist us to take up that ministry and to walk in it. That being so, if we had seen that the baptism by the Spirit is our unique placement, by the Holy Spirit, into the body of Christ consistent with the will and plan of God, known for us from before the foundations of the world, then we would have also always known that there was only one body. And we would never consent to the division of the body because we would know that our personal role would be greatly enhanced, indeed would be fundamentally dependent upon, everybody else being who God made them to be.
In Jeremiah 1:4 this is written: “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Paul would write: “But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man…”
Even Jesus would say “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
And about us it is written “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
The point is that our lives are determined by God and, according to the principle of “one body”, dependent upon the whole body for our maturity and growth.
This is the point of the passage of 1 Corinthians as Paul corrects divisions in the church
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”
And a bit later: “But God has put the body together…”
So, that placement of the members into the one body is completed by God via the Holy Spirit. Now, how can this be known?
By the Spirit also. Just like when the teachers and prophets were praying and the Spirit said “separate unto me Saul and Barnabas”…. and they became apostles and were recognized as apostles by the group.
Some times a person’s place is confirmed by another, as Paul did with Timothy and Titus. This is typically confirmed by the laying on of hands… another elementary doctrine.
That’s a good outline for now. I am limited to a tablet which makes it cumbersome to type. Perhaps I will add more tommorrow.
Grace and Peace
This is an elementary doctrine: a building block upon which we mature and grow. Not “elementary” as in “childish”, rather as first steps to understand the will of God.
This baptism, completed by the Spirit of God, Who knows the spirit of each person, is about knowing our destiny in God, known from the foundations of the world. This destiny is how God intends to live through us in time and space.
Understanding this, we would never have wondered if we had a ministry, we would have always known that we had a ministry and we would not simply settle for an adjunct of somebody else’s ministry. We would have always understood, then, that the leadership did not exist to articulate a ministry into which we could “fit”. But instead the leadership would exist to help us discover the ministry that God has for us and to assist us to take up that ministry and to walk in it. That being so, if we had seen that the baptism by the Spirit is our unique placement, by the Holy Spirit, into the body of Christ consistent with the will and plan of God, known for us from before the foundations of the world, then we would have also always known that there was only one body. And we would never consent to the division of the body because we would know that our personal role would be greatly enhanced, indeed would be fundamentally dependent upon, everybody else being who God made them to be.
In Jeremiah 1:4 this is written: “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Paul would write: “But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man…”
Even Jesus would say “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
And about us it is written “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
The point is that our lives are determined by God and, according to the principle of “one body”, dependent upon the whole body for our maturity and growth.
This is the point of the passage of 1 Corinthians as Paul corrects divisions in the church
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”
And a bit later: “But God has put the body together…”
So, that placement of the members into the one body is completed by God via the Holy Spirit. Now, how can this be known?
By the Spirit also. Just like when the teachers and prophets were praying and the Spirit said “separate unto me Saul and Barnabas”…. and they became apostles and were recognized as apostles by the group.
Some times a person’s place is confirmed by another, as Paul did with Timothy and Titus. This is typically confirmed by the laying on of hands… another elementary doctrine.
That’s a good outline for now. I am limited to a tablet which makes it cumbersome to type. Perhaps I will add more tommorrow.
Grace and Peace
how is one baptized by the spirit ? This basic and simple thing you’re saying can you say it simply and basic ? Because I can’t make any sense out of what your saying there as to what I was asking
did jesus and his apostles partake of incorrect baptism ? And did Philip and Peter also practice a wrong baptism ?
i totally agree that baptism is ultra basic and well explained in scripture multiple times