1 Corinthians 12:1-3

Butler's Comments

SECTION 1

Sovereign of Diversity (1 Corinthians 12:1-3)

12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved. 3Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says Jesus be cursed! and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:1 Purpose of Chapter: Although the chapter begins, Now concerning spiritual gifts. its main purpose is not to discuss the nature of miraculous gifts. Nor is its primary purpose the discussion of the place or purpose of miraculous gifts. If their purpose is mentioned in this chapter at all it is only because their purpose may have some bearing on the main problem. The main topic is the correction of faulty attitudes these Christians had toward miraculous gifts. This chapter (and the two Chapter s following) is as relevant as today's church affairs. Christians are still, today, expressing attitudes toward alleged miraculous gifts that disrupt the unity of Christ's church.

Actually, the word gifts is not even in the first verse. The Greek text has only the word pneumatikon which should be translated, spiritual things, or matters. Translators have supplied the word gifts in this first verse. It might very well have been translated, Now concerning the spiritual attitude you have toward spiritual gifts, since that is clearly the main point of this whole chapter.

A brief consideration of the purpose of miraculous gifts will help us understand this chapter. The primary purpose of miraculous gifts was evidential. Miraculous gifts were to confirm the deity of Jesus and to validate the message of the apostles as that of the Holy Spirit. Miracles were not granted to transform, convert or indicate the worker of such miracles had reached a higher phase of sanctification. In the infancy of the Church, when congregations everywhere were compelled to depend upon the oral instruction of the apostles and other evangelists, God saw fit to confirm the heavenly origin of their message with miracles (see Hebrews 2:3-4; 2 Corinthians 12:12; John 3:2; John 10:37-38; John 14:11; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 14:22, etc.). When the Church was still a child, it spake as a child (dependent upon confirmation of its message by the Father); but when the Church became a grown, integrated man, it put away childish things. When the body of Christ was fully formed and permanently established (incorporating both Jew and Gentile) with elders, deacons and evangelists, and when the Truth was fully revealed and propositionalized in the New Covenant scriptures, then the miraculous support by which it was sustained in its infancy was no longer needed and, therefore, passed away. This was according to the pre-ordained plan of God (see 1 Corinthians 13:8-13). Most certainly, the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit were not given to the primitive church to be used as toys for amusement and entertainment. The possession of a miraculous gift was not a signal from God that the possessor was to be elevated in importance above any other Christian brother, gifted or non-gifted. For expanded treatment of the purpose of miraculous gifts and their cessation see Special Studies at the end of this chapter.

There must have been wholesale discrimination and division going on in the Corinthian church over possession and non-possession of miraculous gifts from the Holy Spirit. Those few who had been given these gifts felt they were spiritually superior to those who had not received miraculous gifts. The gifted were even discriminating among themselves as to which gifts were more important and which ones were of very little value. Some of the gifted were even declaring that those without miraculous gifts to exercise could not prove they had the Holy Spirit dwelling in them! Paul's response to these egotistical Corinthians is certainly relevant for the twentieth century.

In 1 Corinthians 12:2 Paul reminds the Corinthians how they were led astray to dumb idols by pagan priests who pretended to have miraculous gifts and divine revelations from the gods. Archaeologists have found in the ancient city of Pompeii in the ruins of a pagan temple, a secret stair by which the priest mounted to the back of the statue of Isis; the head of the statue shows the tube which went from the back of the head to the parted lips. Through this tube the priest concealed behind the statue spoke the answers of Isis. These pagan priests usually tried to prove that only they had the spirits of the gods in them by ecstatic trances, pseudo communication with the gods by uttering unintelligible mutterings; by pretended prophecies; and by attempting to communicate with the dead. These pagan priests often contradicted themselves and represented the gods as cursing what they had once blessed. Heathen priests also promoted hatred, revenge, envy and immorality as part of the religion of the gods.

The Corinthian Christians were having difficulty determining whether pagan priests possessed the Spirit of God and spoke divine revelations or not. And, further, they were being confused by the self-appointed spiritual elite within the church as to whether the non-gifted Christian had the Holy Spirit or not. Paul sets out to clear up the confusion. He takes three Chapter s (12-13-14) to do so. He begins by stating that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, Jesus be cursed. All heathen religions would say that of Jesus. But the Holy Spirit would never contradict himself, and curse the Son of God. The Corinthians may know assuredly that no pagan priest speaks by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit!

Contrariwise, any person who says Jesus is Lord, and exhibits a life surrendered to the lordship of Jesus, does so in partnership with the Holy Spirit. Any person agreeing to be ruled by Christ has the Holy Spirit. One does not have to receive the miraculous gifts of the Spirit to have him within them. It is only through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit that any person is able to confess Jesus as Lord. The lordship of Jesus is revealed by the Father through the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 11:25-30; Matthew 16:17; John 14:1-31; John 15:1-27; John 16:1-33; Romans 8:1-17; 1 John 4:1-6), and the Holy Spirit documents the lordship of Jesus through the written word. The lordship of Jesus is not something which men may discover for themselvesit is something which God, in his grace, revealed to the world.

The primary purpose for miraculous gifts of the Spirit was to give the infant church an infallible guide by which to determine whether a preacher or teacher was speaking under the auspices of God and his Spirit or not. Before the New Testament scriptures were completed, and God's revelation to man was finalized, these miraculous powers were necessary. The spiritual gifts enabled the Corinthians to recognize pretenders in their day; the truth of the Bible enables the church to do the same today.

Part of the difficulty we have in understanding the problem in Corinth over miraculous gifts of the Spirit is due to the fact that such phenomena no longer exist. The pseudo miraculous gifts of modern Christendom are, at best, psycho-somatic, but for the most part, hoaxes. The gifts Paul discusses were unquestionably miraculous and unique. They were also transitory (see 1 Corinthians 13:8-13). John Chrysostom (345-407 A.D.) wrote that Paul's discussion of miraculous gifts was obscure, even to the church of his day, because of the fact that such phenomena no longer took place.

So, the proper attitude toward miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit is to acknowledge that the real test of the Spirit's presence is the total commitment of life to the lordship of Jesus. A person might have been given the power to do miracles and not have had the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit within. Judas Iscariot was empowered to work miracles right along with the rest of the apostles (see Matthew 10:1-8) and it is clear that he did not have the Holy Spirit in his heart for he was a thief from the beginning (John 12:6). It is apparent that some of these Corinthian Christians, while having power to do miracles, were dangerously close (if not at the point) to rejecting the lordship of Christ and doing despite unto the Holy Spirit by their proud and arrogant misuse of the gifts.

Paul wants these saints to know that now that they are Christians they must allow Christ to exercise total lordship in their lives. They must speak and act according to the Spirit of Christ whose revelation for life comes through the apostolic word. If they have enthroned Christ as the Lord of their hearts, they are not going to envy another's gift. They will be glad for every service that glorifies Christ. They are not going to call another Christian inferior because he has no miraculous gift.

There are no more miraculous gifts exercised in the church. They are no longer needed. They served their purpose. But there are functional gifts within the church today. Every Christian has some functional gift (see Special Study: Gifts and Miracles). So the principles of Paul's correction about attitudes toward gifts applies to the church for all time. Wrong attitudes, or worldly-mindedness, toward the gifts or abilities or circumstances with which God has blessed every Christian will lead to the same consequence in the church today as it did two thousand years agodivision and eventual destruction. There is great diversity and individuality in the gifts of God's gracebut there must be unity in Christian's minds and hearts!