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exact pattern or STRUCTURE may vary according to conditions, need
etc., but the PRINCIPLE of the organization MUST BE THAT OF GOD'S
GOVERNMENT, from the TOP, God, then Christ, on down, as CHRIST
has directed and chosen.
OPERATIONS, refers to functioning -- a doing or performing
of what involves practical application of principle or process;
the quality or state of being functional or operational; method
or manner of functioning.
The very fact that God has endowed different members in
His Church with additional spiritual gifts, added to their own
natural talents and abilities, in itself shows emphatically that
there is definite ORGANIZATION in His Church, and that the
ORGANIZATION must flow from a chain of authority, according to
the PRINCIPLE which GOD (our legislative branch), has set --
that is, AUTHORITY FROM THE TOP DOWN. That is the PRINCIPLE.
The OPERATIONS refers to functioning according to the practical
application of the PRINCIPLE of government given us by GOD.
The ADMINISTRATIONS in the Church refers to executive
performance and managerial responsibilities, NOT to policy-making.
In other words, adapting the method of functioning, according to
the PRINCIPLE which GOD (the Policy Maker and Law Giver), not we,
has laid down.
If you will put this 12th chapter of I Corinthians together
with Jesus' parable of the pounds (Luke 19) and the parable of
the TALENTS (Matthew 15), you will see that God gives special
spiritual gifts according to each one's natural talents or
abilities.
Because of these various administrations, and operations,
God shows in this chapter that He has bestowed VARIOUS spiritual
gifts added to the natural talents and abilities of various ones
to perform the many DIFFERENT functions required for the ORGANIZED
Work of God. For this purpose He compares the Church -- the BODY
of CHRIST -- to the human body, with its many members performing
the many functions. All members do not perform the same function.
God, through Paul, shows for example, that the hand performs a
different function than the foot does.
But the one individual "scholar" of Biblical research of
the dissenters seems to think we use this verse 15 to attempt to
prove that the right hand (a minister, for example) gives orders
to the left hand (church member). That might be funny if it were
not so pitifully stupid. That is not what Paul is saying, but
that the hand does not perform the same function as the foot. It
is speaking of different operations, different people having
different talents and abilities, to which God is adding various
spiritual gifts for better performance. In verse 16, Paul shows
that the ear does not perform the same function as the eye. The
whole body is not merely the eye (verse 17) or the person could
not hear. If it had only the ear it could not smell.
But (verse 18) God has set all these different abilities
for different functions AS IT HAS PLEASED HIM.