1 Corinthians 12:1-11--Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:1-11
English Standard Version

Spiritual Gifts
12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

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Let's do our best to focus on this passage today in the context of the letter that it is written in.  Remember that the issue confronting the Corinthian church was largely one of selfishness as well as trying to make some amalgamation of Christianity with paganism so that they could continue to be controlled by their flesh and fulfill their carnal lusts, and a lack of understanding of their true identity and nature in Christ--for example, things like the certainty of the resurrection and that they would have a resurrection body (we'll get there in 1 Corinthians 15 when we talk about the resurrection of Christ and the saints).

How do spiritual gifts tie into all this?  Well, some people were using their spiritual gifts for personal gain or as a point of division to say that they had received a better gift--somehow making it out that either they were a better Christian or God loved them more.  Can you hear the kind of sibling rivalries that are going on here just like happen in our families?  Everyone wants to know who is the favorite child and they look to anything and everything they can to use as leverage against their siblings to convince them and themselves that somehow mommy and daddy have a favorite.  Now, in some families this is very true--it was abundantly clear in my family for instance that my grandparents had done this for my aunt who couldn't have her own children and her two adopted children.  In my family, my sisters would probably argue that I got special treatment due to my medical condition, and being the youngest, I probably was a bit spoiled and didn't have to do a lot of the things they had to do.  So, it is our carnal "human" nature to act this way, but should this be our nature if we are filled with the Spirt?  Absolutely not--we'll talk more about that in the next chapter when we probably get to one of the most well-known chapters in the entire Bible.

Paul starts off by reminding these believers that once they were led astray into error and paganism, but if they know the truth now, then they should not be able to make that decision with their eyes wide open.   They cannot with the same mouth worship Christ saying, "Jesus is Lord" and worship false gods and idols saying, "Jesus is accursed."  This makes no sense at all.  This makes about as much sense as going to fig tree and finding grapes to go back to Jesus' teaching about "by their fruits you will know them" in Matthew 7.

​As we let the Spirit live in and through us like the sap moving in and through the branches of a tree or a vine, it will naturally produce fruit.  The type of fruit that it produces depends on the nature of the tree.  There is much argument as to how many gifts of the Spirt (I prefer to think of it this way than "spiritual gifts" because it reminds me that the source of these gifts and the work done through them is by the Spirit of God and it keeps me in check so that I don't make some of the same mistakes as the Corinthians).  While we will talk a bit about these points, I'd like to focus mostly on the reason for the gifts of the Spirit that Paul addresses here.

Paul talks first about a diversity of gifts but a single people with a single mission.  Like any organization, each person has their own unique responsibilities and it takes all kinds of people with all kinds of skills for the organization to work.  But is that what Paul is talking about here?  Is Paul talking about something that we see in the natural world where some people seem "wired" a particular way and have a certain aptitude?  I think the answer may be both "yes" and "no," but mostly "no" here.  These gifts of the Spirit that Paul is talking about here are clearly given by the Spirit to the members of the Body of Christ for the purpose of glorifying Christ, accomplishing the mission He has put us on, and for edifying and building up the Body.  If we somehow use these gifts to worship other gods or to create division among the Body, then we are are not using them as the Holy Spirit intended--as we see one of His main roles is to glorify the Son (Jesus Christ) as one of the primary roles of the Son was to glorify the Father.  It is my argument that one of the main jobs of the Church though is to glorify the Spirit as we live in and through His power.  As the Spirit is the author if Scripture, we are not going to see much self-glorification by the Spirit there just as we don't see this from Jesus as He spent most of HIs time glorifying the Father and said it would be the Spirit that would glorify the Son and one day the whole world would do so as the Father would announce "The is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" and give Him the throne and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.  So, even in worshiping the Son, we will still be glorifying the Father.

Why spend so much time on this point?  Because I think this is the main point that the Corinthian church got wrong.  Their problem was not one of knowing which gifts existed, but they used the gifts to glorify themselves and feel that they were somehow "super-Christians" if they had one of the visible gifts that we might call the "sign" gifts in some circles today.  This type of thinking still exists in the Pentecostal church and the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) both of which are full of error and heresy.  That is not to say that I haven't seen some people genuinely come to Christ through in spite of the false gospel that many of these preachers preach, but much has been done to damage the true gospel and the reputation of Christ and all Christians by these movements and others like them that have abused the gifts of the Spirt.

You can read the list of gifts for yourself.  As I said earlier, it's not my desire right now to go into naming and explaining all the gifts as I don't think that's the point of this passage.  I think Paul' is using the same idea as "one Body, many parts with many different functions" that we see in the next few verses--it's all one big idea, the headings and chapter divisions were all added later.  I'm just following these divisions to split these articles up into manageable chunks, but I think we better understand the teaching on gifts of the Spirit and those giftings and their purpose of those gifts as we understand the metaphor of "one Body, many parts."

Today, let's focus on the fact that these gifts are not to be used to glorify yourselves, fulfill our own lusts or be used to glorify false gods.  These are all issues that were happening in the Corinthian church that we should not be repeating today in our own lives and local congregations (though we know it does happen), and these gifts should create unity, not division.  If people are using their gifts in a way that is causing division, then that is because of sin and indulgence of the flesh by one or both parties involved and is not the result desired by the Holy Spirit, as he desires to work in a way that brings the most glory to Christ and that happens when like John the Baptist, we can say, "He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

If you have questions about specific spiritual gifts, please let me know.  We can talk about this in direct message or personal message or in an email.  There's a lot of wrong teaching out there so I would point you to the Bible and not to any sermons or books.  Be careful to not substitute the clear teaching of the Word of God with books, YouTube videos, podcasts, etc--especially be careful about looking for "truth" that makes you feel good and that you agree with.  Bring yourself into agreement and alignment with the Word of God, no matter how you feel about it, and make sure that in all things you glorify God--"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:17)