In this chapter, Paul intermingles a discussion of the role of spiritual gifts with that the various roles within the church body.
On gifts, Paul starts by discussing the importance of the Holy Spirit. In fact, everyone's faith starts with the Holy Spirit for no one can that "Jesus is Lord" without that faith coming from the Holy Spirit.
Having established the necessity of it, Paul then launches the famous list of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, power, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues). All of these are given by the Holy Spirit as he determines.
Immediately after this, Paul uses the analogy of the human body to describe how each role within the church is indispensable to the church body itself. Likewise, not everyone can play the same role and there must be diversity within the church body for it to function with health.
When I read this, I think of the various churches around the world that have a different cultural take on Christianity. They do a lot of things differently - they play different music with different music, conduct services in different languages, do the Lord's Supper at different intervals, etc...but all of that is part of the church body and we cannot claim to be superior.
Likewise, the textual proximity to the Holy Spirit gifting suggests that the Paul anticipated that the churches would apply the Holy Spirit differently. Some pursue the Holy Spirit more actively than others, while others stop at the initial faith declaration of Christ.
Paul concludes the chapter by discussing the various administrative roles of the people of church. Interestingly, "apostles" are listed first, then prophets. This could either mean that apostles are more important than prophets. Alternatively, it could be a chronological list, but that would leave open the question of the Old Testament prophets that appeared before Jesus.
Looking ahead, it kind of raises an interesting question about church succession. In particular, the Apostle John outlived the other Apostles, but he did so in exile on Patmos. Did the church leadership pass to him, but yet he was in exile?
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