1 Corinthians 12:4-13 – 6/2/2026
For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:13 (NRSVue)
One Spirit, one body, one baptism, these are the rapid fire images Paul uses to describe the unity of Christians in the church in Christ. Following Jesus is not a solo affair; it is living together in intentional community, a community that is brought together into that unity by God’s presence in it, the Holy Spirit that dwells in each of us.
This unity, the one body of Jesus followers, though transformed into One is still made up of individuals who do not cease to have their individual identity in being brought together into One. Paul in expressing the unity of a diversity of individuals picks out two identity oppositions to represent the diversity of humanity coming together in Jesus—Jews and Greeks; Slave and Free. The first pair picks out diversity of ethnicity. In the world of Corinth, to whom Paul was writing, Jew and Greek picked out everyone in town; either you worshiped the One God of Israel or you worshiped from the pantheon of God’s from the polytheistic Greek world. The second pair picks out social-economic status, either you had rights, privileges, social standing, and full access to the goods of the community or you were cut off from those things in total deference to another.
These two sources of identity, while not exhaustive of who were are as individuals (elsewhere Paul adds male and female to the pairs of identities), they stand in for all the ways we differ from one another in meaningful ways that have affects on our lives, how we see ourselves, and how we are seen by others. If instead of writing to Corinth in the 1st Century CE, Paul were writing today to your home church, he might have added, gay or straight, single or married, black or white, employed or unemployed, proletariat or Capitalist, native born or immigrant, etc. For all of these pairs of difference, no matter how divisive or different they are from one another, we are brought into unity in one baptism, one church, one body—a community united as One.
Even though we are brought into unity across difference, the differences do not cease to matter. For Paul the difference between slave and free might not have matter so much because Paul expected the return of Jesus any minute. Since Paul’s time we have had to learn to translate his insight and urgency to a world we have had to continue to dwell in for generations as we await Jesus’s return. So while the difference between slave and free might not have meant much to Paul, it means something to us who no longer have an expectation of Jesus’s immanent return. We are brought together across difference without erasing difference.
How then should we live if we are united across all difference into one, but the differences still matter? The commands to love one another and seek justice can guide us through difference. Does the difference allow for love and community? If yes, the difference can be affirmed. When people of different gender expressions or sexuality than our own come to our community, their love—who they love and the relationships they enter into—is compatible with our loves. Gay, straight, bi, or queer, we can all love well together across those differences.
If, however, the difference does not allow for love and community and indeed hinders them, seeking justice requires something else from us in our unity of one baptism. Across differences of this kind of unjust opposition there can still be unity of One Body, but being together in One Body in Christ demands of us that we resolve the difference that produces injustice. The Capitalist and the proletariat can come together as one, but that oneness recognizes the injustice done to the worker. Justice and love demand that we work through this difference to create a world more guided by love than the exploitation of capital.
Difference matters, and unity matters. Christianity, following Jesus, is truly a universal faith, in that everyone, no matter what identity is invited to unity in baptism. Differences between us do not cease to matter, even in that unity. We must be careful to see how those differences function so that justice and love can create a community that is truly for all, truly loving for all, and truly just for all.
Reflections of a Dionysian Lutheran, comments on the daily readings of the Revised Common Lectionary.
Dionysus on a Bike 
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