1 Corinthians 12:28

Paul listed eight kinds of members with special functions. This list differs somewhat from the one in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 where he identified nine manifestations of the Spirit’s working. This list, as the former one, is selective rather than exhaustive.

The ranking of these gifted individuals is evidently in the order of the importance of their ministries. When Paul said all the members were essential earlier (1 Corinthians 12:21) he did not mean that some did not have a more crucial function to perform than others. He did not mention this distinction there because he wanted each member to appreciate the essential necessity of every other member. In another sense, however, some gifts are more important than others (1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 14:1).

God called and gifted the apostles to plant and to establish the church in places the gospel had not yet gone. Apostello means to send out, so it is proper to think of apostles as missionaries. Prophets were the channels through whom God sent His revelations to His people (cf. Ephesians 2:20). Some of them also wrote the books of the New Testament. Teachers gave believers instruction in the Scriptures. Teachers were more important in the church than the prophets who simply gave words of edification, exhortation, and consolation (1 Corinthians 14:3), but they were less important than the prophets who gave new authoritative revelation. The latter type of prophet is in view in this verse.

". . . a scholar will learn more from a good teacher than he will from any book. We have books in plenty nowadays, but it is still true that it is through people that we really learn of Christ." [Note: Barclay, The Letters . . ., p. 129.]

Workers of miracles and healers gave dramatic proof that the power of God was working in the church so others would trust Christ. They may have ministered especially to the Jews since the Jews looked for such indications of God’s presence and blessing (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:22). Helpers seem to have provided assistance of various kinds for people in need. Administrators managed and directed the affairs of the churches. Tongues-speakers bring up the rear in this list as being the least important of those mentioned. Paul said more about their relative importance in chapter 14.

"The shortness of the list of charismata in Eph. iv. II as compared with the list here is perhaps an indication that the regular exercise of extraordinary gifts in public worship was already dying out." [Note: Robertson and Plummer, p. 281, footnote. Cf. A Dictionary of the Bible, "Lord’s Day," 3:141, by N. J. D. White.]

The traditional view is that Paul wrote Ephesians (ca. A.D. 62) some years after he wrote 1 Corinthians (ca. A.D. 56).