1 CORINTHIANS 12. DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS BUT THE SAME SPIRIT. The question of spiritual gifts had apparently been raised in the church letter. The tendency at Corinth was to estimate gifts by their showy rather than their solid character. Paul reverses the scale of values, and argues that the true cri... [ Continue Reading ]
He begins by distinguishing true gifts of the Spirit from their counterfeit. Unhappily 1 Corinthians 12:2 is far from clear, and the text is perhaps corrupt. Paul may appeal to their experience of ecstasy in their heathen condition. You will remember how completely you were under control of the demo... [ Continue Reading ]
Having given a criterion for detecting the spurious, Paul proceeds to discuss the gifts. There are diversities in the manifestation but none in the source. The same Spirit is manifested in manifold gifts, the same Lord in manifold ministrations, the same God in manifold activities. Unity in the sour... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul now elaborates an illustration from the body and its members. Here we have organic unity with diversity of function and interdependence of the whole and its parts, interdependence also of the parts themselves. All are essential to the welfare of every other part and of the whole; none, however... [ Continue Reading ]