Verse 28
And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues.
Apostles and prophets ... The preeminence of these is apparent in all Paul's writings. See Ephesians 2:19. There is a conscious ranking of offices and functions of the Lord's church in this passage, as indicated by "firstly ... secondly ... thirdly ... then." It is significant that teachers of God's word are ranked next to the highest. It is of no consequence that the order of "miracles" and "healings" is reversed, due to their similarity.
Helps ... governments, divers kinds of tongues ... Dummelow thought that "helps" refers to the office of deacons and "governments" to that of the presbytery. It is significant that "divers kinds of tongues" is placed last. That which had so captured and carried away the Christians at Corinth was here made to be the lowest in God's scale of values.
Governments ... This reference to church government should not be downgraded nor overlooked. Church organization was not something that people contrived and added in the post-apostolic era. "God set some in the church," including elders of the church. Acts bears witness to the fact that apostolic churches did not exist without elders, except for the briefest time after their founding (Acts 11:29; 14:23).
The "miracles" in view in this passage ceased; but from this it might not be inferred that the office of elders also ceased. As Hodge said, "The evidence that an office was intended to be permanent was the command to appoint to the office."[29] those possessing the qualifications. No such continuity pertains either to the miracles, the apostles, the prophets, the healings, or the speaking in tongues.
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