Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
29. Are all Apostles? It may indeed have happened, that one individual was endowed with many gifts, and sustained two of the offices which he has enumerated; nor was there in this any inconsistency. Paul’s object, however, is to show in the first place, that no one has such a fullness in everything as to have a sufficiency within himself, and not require the aid...
I. Here the apostle sums up the argument, and applies this similitude to the church of Christ, concerning which observe, 1. The relation wherein Christians stand to Christ and one another. The church, or whole collective body of Christians, in all ages, is his body.
Commenting on 1 Corinthians 12:27-31
Are all apostles?.... No some are prophets, as distinct from apostles; and some are teachers, as distinct from them both, and some are neither: are all prophets? no; some are apostles, above them, and some are teachers, inferior to them; and but very few there were who had that peculiar character and gift: are all teachers?