23 Let us hasten to what remains. “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same God who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal.” And again: “As the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” But he precludes you from saying that the different members of the one body have the same rank; for he immediately describes the orders of the Church, and says: “And God has set some in the Church, first, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers; then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, various kinds of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And a still more excellent way show I unto you.” And after discoursing more in detail of the graces of charity, he added: “Whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”
And afterwards we read: “But now abides faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. Follow after love; yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.” And again: “I would have you all speak with tongues, but rather that you should prophesy: and greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues.” And again: “I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all.” Where there are different gifts, and one man is greater, another less, and all are called spiritual, they are all certainly sheep, and they stand on the right hand; but there is a difference between one sheep and another.
It is humility that leads the Apostle Paul to say: “I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain: but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” But the very fact of his thus humbling himself shows the possibility of there being apostles of higher or lower rank, and God is not unjust that He will forget the work of him who is called the chosen vessel of election, and who laboured more abundantly than they all, or assign equal rewards to unequal deserts.
Afterwards we read, “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be now alive. But each in his own order.” If each is to rise in his own order, it follows that those who rise are of different degrees of merit. “All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead.” Like a learned commentator, you have explained this passage by saying that the spiritual differ from the carnal. It follows that in heaven there will be both spiritual and carnal persons, and not only will the sheep climb there, but your goats also. “One star,” he says, “differs from another star in glory”: this is not the distinction of sheep and goat, but of sheep and sheep, star and star.
Lastly, he says, “there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon.” But for this, you might maintain that the phrase one star from another star covers the whole human race; but he introduces the sun and moon, and you cannot possibly reckon them among the goats. “So,” says he, “is also the resurrection of the dead”— the just will shine with the brightness of the sun, and those of the next rank will glow with the splendour of the moon, so that one will be a Lucifer, another an Arcturus, a third an Orion, another Mazzaroth, or some other of the stars whose names are hollowed in the book of Job. “For we all,” he says, “must be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad.”
And you cannot say that the mode of our manifestation before the judgment-seat of Christ is such that the good receive good things, the bad evil things; for he teaches us in the same epistle that he who sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Surely he who sows more and he who sows less are both on the right side. And although they belong to the same class, that of the sower, yet they differ in respect of measure and number.
The same Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says: “to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God.” You observe that it is a varied and manifold wisdom of God which is spoken of as existing in the different ranks of the church. And in the same epistle we read, “Unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the grace of Christ”: not that Christ's measure varies, but only that so much of His grace is poured out as we can receive.
Source: Against Jovinianus (New Advent)