The life-giving Spirit is also washing and sanctifying the believers (1 Cor. 6:11). Every house, every building, needs some washing and needs some cleaning. All the peoples on this earth practice cleaning their houses to some degree. Even the church as the temple of God today needs the washing, and the life-giving Spirit does this washing.
The beginning of our church life experience was a honeymoon. After the honeymoon, some “dirt” began to accumulate little by little, requiring the need of some cleaning. When we first came to the church life, this was our honeymoon and everything was so pleasant. The church life was wonderful to us. After a while, though, when our church life honeymoon was over, we began to consider that the church life was not really that good. We might have said, “I considered the elders as the top angels when I came into the church life but now— aha.” This kind of thought shows that now you need the cleaning and you need the washing. When we turn to the Spirit, the Spirit cleanses and washes away our “aha.” If you do not turn to your spirit for one week, many “ahas” will pile up inside you. This will cause you to be unable to pray. You may even think that you should not go to the meetings. You may not want to go to the meetings because in the meeting you will see a certain brother whom you feel unpleasant about. All of this is dirt. Therefore, you need the washing and you need the cleaning. If you would turn to your spirit and pray for half an hour, you would jump and run to the church meeting. This shows us that the temple of God today needs the washing. The life-giving Spirit does this washing.
Also, the life-giving Spirit joins the believer to the Lord as one spirit (6:17). In this matter of joining, the life-giving Spirit joins us individually to the Lord as one spirit. This is a great blessing. After the washing comes the joining. Every time we are washed by the Spirit, we immediately have the sensation that we are one with the Lord. If I stay in a certain locality for only two weeks, I may feel that the leading ones in the church there are very good. If I stayed there for over half a year, however, the “aha” would begin. This “aha” separates me from the Lord. When I turn to the Spirit and stay in the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit washes me. Immediately after the washing, I begin to have the sensation that I am one with the Lord. The joining follows the washing. We need the washing all the time.
We must realize that there is not one elder who is so perfect that he can stand the “sharp watching” and observing of the saints. The leading ones in the church life are under a strict, thorough, and sharp watching and observing. People may look to see what kind of tie, jacket, or shoes the leading ones are wearing. All the saints are watching over the elders. Who can stand this kind of watching and observing? In the entire human race, only one man is so perfect who can stand the test of people’s watching and observing. This man is Jesus Christ. None of us can pass such a thorough and strict inspection. We cannot stand the watching, but we can enjoy the washing. The washing cleanses us, and the washing by the life-giving Spirit always brings us back to being joined to the Lord as one Spirit.
The life-giving Spirit is occupying the body of the believers, which is the temple of God, for God’s glorification (6:19-20). This means that the life-giving Spirit does not only remain in our spirit, but even indwells and occupies our body. Many Christians do things to shame the Lord, mainly by their body. For instance, if you gamble by playing cards, you are using your body to gamble. If you go to a gambling place, you use your two feet to go there. Most of the things that are done which are a shame to the Lord are done through the body. Your body, however, should be occupied by the indwelling, life-giving Spirit. We should not let our feet and our legs take us to sinful places, but they should always take us to the meetings of the church. If this is the case, our feet would always be occupied by the life-giving Spirit. This is a glory to God. Even when we gossip, we are using our mouth, a part of our body. Gossip does not glorify God. The Spirit has to occupy our mouth; then whatever comes out of our mouth would be a glory to God. This is the life-giving Spirit’s work.
The life-giving Spirit can also saturate the believers’ opinion (7:40). As brothers and sisters pursuing the Lord, I believe we all hate opinion. If I were to tell you that you were full of opinions, you would be offended. Paul, however, said he had an opinion in 1 Corinthians. In 7:25 Paul said that he had no commandment of the Lord, but he still gave his opinion. After telling us his opinion in 7:40 he says, “I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” This shows that the Spirit of God was in Paul’s opinion. This is the real spirituality. To have the Spirit of God should not merely be in our praying, singing, and speaking for God. Even in our opinion there must be the saturation of the life-giving Spirit. Paul was so saturated by the life-giving Spirit that even his opinion had the Spirit of God within it. The Spirit of God had penetrated and saturated his opinion. All of us can be like this.
The believers were baptized in this Spirit into one Body (1 Cor. 12:13a). As the Spirit is the sphere and element of our spiritual baptism and in such a Spirit we were all baptized into one organic entity, the Body of Christ, so we should all, regardless of our races, nationalities, and social ranks, be this one Body. Christ is the life and constituent of this Body, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. It is in this one Spirit that we were all baptized into this one living Body to express Christ.
The believers were also given to drink this one Spirit (12:13b). After being baptized, we need to drink of one Spirit. Let us all be immersed in this Spirit. We need to be saturated, permeated, and soaked in this Spirit. We should always live in this reality—whatever is outside of us is the Spirit and whatever is inside of us is the Spirit. We should all be wrapped up with the Spirit. This is the work of the life-giving Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 12 we see the gifts, the manifestation, of this Spirit in the Body of Christ (vv. 4, 7-11). The gifts are not mentioned until chapter twelve of 1 Corinthians to show us that to exercise them there is the need of the adequate growth in life and the full development of the growth of life. In this full development of life we can have the manifestation of the Spirit, the different gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul lists nine gifts as the manifestation of the Spirit: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, works of power, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. The last manifestation of the Spirit is tongues and interpretation of tongues. The topmost manifestation of the Spirit is the word of wisdom and next to this is the word of knowledge. Among the nine gifts of the manifestation of the Spirit, five are related to speaking—the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. The other four gifts that are mentioned are miraculous items—faith that can move mountains, gifts of healing, works of power (miracles), and the discerning of spirits. (See the notes in the Recovery Version of 1 Corinthians on verses 4 through 11 of chapter twelve.) Of the nine gifts mentioned by the Apostle Paul here, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues are listed as the last two, because they are not as profitable as the other items for the building up of the church (14:2-6, 18, 19). This is the life-giving Spirit working within us to make us the proper, functioning members in the Body.