IX. ON SPIRITUAL GIFTS. CHAPS. 12-14. We have here one of the richest and most interesting parts of our Epistle. These Chapter s are to us like a revelation of the power of that spiritual movement which went forth from Pentecost, and of the wonderful spiritual efflorescence which at the outset sign... [ Continue Reading ]
“Now as to spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 2. Ye know that when ye were Gentiles, ye were carried away unto dumb idols, even as ye were driven. 3. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God sayeth: Jesus accursed! and that no man can say:... [ Continue Reading ]
Of the three readings given in the note, the first, that of the T. R. (ὅτι alone), is not admissible; would it not be superfluous to say to Corinthian readers, “Ye know that ye were Gentiles”? Holsten answers that the emphasis is not on the predicate _Gentiles_, but on the explanatory appendix: _car... [ Continue Reading ]
With this diabolical, capricious, and blind impulse, Paul contrasts the new breath with which the Holy Spirit penetrates the Church, a breath which has a fixed and glorious object, the Lord Jesus, and which, acting on the depths of the consciousness, gives rise to a new utterance in him who is anima... [ Continue Reading ]
“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5. And there are differences of administrations, and the same Lord. 6. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” Paul here mentions three principal diversities to which correspond three princi... [ Continue Reading ]
2. THE UNITY OF SPIRITUAL FORCES IN THEIR DIVERSITY. VERS. 4-12. The first and most profound diversity which strikes the mind as it contemplates the display of Divine power within the Church, is the difference between the Divine _gifts, ministries_, and _operations._ More than this: in each of thes... [ Continue Reading ]
But there exists in the Church a second kind of Divine manifestations; _charges_, namely, or ministries, διακονίαι. This word denotes, not like the preceding, inward aptitudes, but external offices, with which certain individuals are put in charge. There are different kinds of them; some may be rela... [ Continue Reading ]
A third kind of varied manifestations: manifold _operations_ due to the exercise both of those gifts and those offices. The term ἐνεργήματα, _operations_, denotes the powers realized in acts; the real effects Divinely produced either in the world of body or of mind, as often as the gift or the offic... [ Continue Reading ]
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each man for the common advantage.” Each receives an aptitude from the Spirit, but not for himself; what each possesses is intended for the good of all. The genitive τοῦ πνεύματος, _of the Spirit_, cannot be, as Meyer and others will have it, an obje... [ Continue Reading ]
“For to the one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to the other the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9. to another faith by the same Spirit; to the other the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10. to the other the workings of miracles; to the other prophecy; to the other dis... [ Continue Reading ]
If we hold that the substitution of ἑτέρῳ for ἄλλῳ is not accidental, the gifts which follow should have a different character from the two preceding, and this new character ought to reappear identically in the five gifts enumerated down to the following ἑτέρῳ (end of 1 Corinthians 12:10). Now it is... [ Continue Reading ]
The _miraculous operations_, ἐνεργήματα δυνάμεων, have a very natural connection with the two previous gifts. Paul has in view the power of working all sorts of miracles other than simple cures, corresponding to the wants of the different situations in which the servant of Christ may be placed: resu... [ Continue Reading ]
“But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.” That _one:_ in opposition to the plurality of believers; the _same:_ in opposition to the diversity of gifts. The partic. διαιροῦν, _dividing_, has no expressed object; the emphasis is on the act... [ Continue Reading ]
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body: so is it with the Christ.” The apostle has just stated a Divine fact, which is the secret of the Church's life: the unity of the Divine force, which animates it in the variety of its manifestat... [ Continue Reading ]
“And indeed, by being baptized by one Spirit, we have all become one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free.” The καὶ γάρ, _and indeed_, relates to the last words of the foregoing verse: _So is it with the Christ_, the demonstration of which it announces. The καί indicates a second fac... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle impresses this idea by taking up again the figure of the body which he had used to describe the unity of the Church; to this end it is enough for him to reverse the figure. In 1 Corinthians 12:12: many members, but one body; in 1 Corinthians 12:14: one body, but many members. This notio... [ Continue Reading ]
“If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it not, in spite of that, of the body? 16. If the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it not, in spite of that, of the body? 17. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the who... [ Continue Reading ]
The object of this exposition is manifest. The Corinthians were disposed to exaggerate the value of certain gifts, which, from their extraordinary character, were fitted to strike the senses, in particular of the gift of speaking in tongues. From this prejudice there followed two evils: On the one h... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse is more easily connected in the second sense of the word τοῦτο. If, from the fact that the foot is not the hand, etc., it followed that it did not form part of the body, the admirable variety of the senses would be excluded, and the perfection of the human organism destroyed. There now f... [ Continue Reading ]
“But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. 19. But if they were all one member, where were the body? 20. But now are there many members and one body.” The reality (νυνί, _now_) contrasting (δέ, _but_) with the condemned supposition. A fine paronomasia,... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 19 expresses once more the idea of 1 Corinthians 12:17: “If God had acted otherwise, what would have become of the body?” Instead of this admirable organism, we should have a being endowed with a single sense, as is found, for example, in the lowest grade of animalism. Then 1 Corinthians 12:20... [ Continue Reading ]
“But the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 22. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.” The δέ, _but_, is sufficiently supported by the documents. As in 1 Corinthians 12:18 Paul... [ Continue Reading ]
Nay more, the instant we reflect, we are convinced of the absolute _necessity_ of the members which seem to play an altogether secondary part, more secondary even than the hand or the feet. These _weak_ parts are no doubt the sensitive organs which are protected by their position in the body, the lu... [ Continue Reading ]
But, as to functions which of themselves honour those who fill them, there is nothing to add to this intrinsic honour. They resemble the beautiful parts of the body, which would be wronged were they covered. Transparent as the meaning of this parable is applied to the Church, the apostle does not go... [ Continue Reading ]
“And whether one member suffer, all the other members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the others rejoice with it.” Καί : _and really._ “This mutual care cannot be wanting for the body, for in fact...” The shame or contempt which overtakes one of the members of the body exercises a dep... [ Continue Reading ]
“Now ye are a body of Christ, and members in particular.” This verse gives the reason why the parable of the human body may be applied to the readers. They are a _body of Christ_, not _the_ body of Christ; the apostle takes care not to put the article exactly as in 1 Corinthians 3:16: “Ye are a tem... [ Continue Reading ]
“And God hath set some in the Church...first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues.” The phrase ἔθετο ὁ θεός, _God hath set_, identical with that in 1 Corinthians 12:18, shows the correspondence between the... [ Continue Reading ]
“Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all powers? 30. Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” God has given to believers a certain spiritual endowment (1 Corinthians 12:28); but side by side with this endowment He has left a blank in each of... [ Continue Reading ]
“But covet earnestly the best gifts, and moreover I will show you a supremely excellent way.” Theodoret has taken the first proposition interrogatively. In that case it would contain a rebuke, either in the sense: “Are you careful to seek the most useful gifts? No, you seek the most brilliant;” or i... [ Continue Reading ]