1 Corinthians 12:1-3

Recognizing God's Spirit

It must be remembered that the people of Corinth were primarily Gentiles who had served idols all their lives. They were ignorant of God's will. Spiritual gifts were given by God to alleviate the problems produced by such a background. Lipscomb says these gifts "carried with them ability to know and to make known the will of God, and to confirm it by signs and wonders." In idolatrous worship, the Corinthian brethren would have been accustomed to giving their mind, emotion and will up to an experience. They would have practiced many irrational things. This they did in worshiping an unspeaking idol. If ecstatic, or unintelligible, utterances are mentioned, it was in conjunction with such idolatrous worship (1 Corinthians 12:1-2).

Teachers can be tested 1) by reason, 2) by scripture, and 3) by fruits. Paul began his explanation by showing, through reason, how to determine if a spirit, or spiritual gift, was from God. Such a spirit would not say Jesus was "devoted to destruction," but would say he was Lord. One would have to have known what a person was saying to use this test. The utterances could not have been ecstatic (1 Corinthians 12:3).