» 1 COR 12:1-3
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

With the phrase “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren,” Paul answers the next question that the Corinthian Christians asked him in their letter (7:1).

By saying that no one with the Spirit can say Jesus is cursed and that no one without the Spirit can say Jesus is Lord, Paul surfaces the Holy Spirit’s purpose. In John 14:26, Jesus promised that the Father would send the Holy Spirit “in My name,” that He would teach Jesus’ disciples “all things,” and that He would cause those disciples to “remember all that I said to you.”

The Holy Spirit exalts Jesus Christ. Everything He does is toward that end. Clearly, anyone who says Jesus is cursed is speaking under the power of a different spirit altogether.

I don’t personally know anyone who would just outright say “Jesus is cursed.” I am, however, much more likely to encounter someone who would say Jesus was just a man. But mankind is under the curse of Adam’s evil (Hebrews 5:12; Galatians 3:13)! So grouping Jesus into the same category as the rest of mankind is the same as calling Him cursed.


Jesus Christ is the center and object of our faith. A church which places its emphasis on the Holy Spirit is sadly mis-focused. The Holy Spirit doesn’t emphasize Himself. He points always to Christ. He draws us to Christ and lives inside us to make us acceptable to Christ.

Similarly, after the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ, Christ always draws us to the Father. We don’t have direct access to the Father right now. That is why Christ is our mediator.

But some day we will. There will be a day when the current roles the Holy Spirit and Christ currently fill will fade. In that day, the Father will finally become the direct object of our faith because we will have direct access to Him. That’s where future history is moving us and that’s where it will end. “God will be all in all,” as 1 Cor 15:28 says. We’ll study more about that several lessons from now.
» 1 COR 12:4-7
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

It would be a grave mistake to breeze past two foundational truths in the above verses.

1. “The same God works all things in all persons” (v.5)
2. “The manifestation of the Spirit [is given] for the common good” (v.6)
   

Everything within the church flows out of the nature of God Himself. Even the structure of the church reflects God. There is one church but it has many members, just as the one God is made up of multiple parts (the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus, and The Father God). Yet God functions as one body and has called the church to do likewise. This foundational truth is also the foundation upon which Paul explains the rest of this section.

1. There is a variety of GIFTS, but one Holy Spirit provides them.
2. There is a variety of MINISTRIES, but one Lord Christ who provides those ministries.
3. There is a variety of EFFECTS of those ministries, but one Father God produces them.
   

A single God in three persons is the source of the gifts, the application of those gifts, and the effects of those gifts!

We tend to think of our “talents” and “skill” and “experience” and “ability,” but not so much our “gifts.” We’re used to job applications and resumes. A skill is something you’ve worked hard to develop and hone. But a gift is something given to you by someone who wants you to have it.

Your skills and talents are certainly useful in God’s Kingdom. But you must realize that God intentionally gives you certain other abilities. They are given to you by the Spirit on purpose, because God wants to do certain things through you. When you are in tune with that, you begin to realize there’s more to doing God’s work than knitting because you know how to knit or teaching because you know how to teach. You realize that service to God begins with a sincere question to God: “What have You given me” (not what have I acquired for myself) “and what do You want me to do with it?” We depend upon God to provide the ability, to decide what it’s used for, and to make us effective with it.

v. 7, My church states its purpose as “Pursuing God For The Benefit Of Others; Being The Church Wherever We Do Life” [ www.newhopechristianchurch.net ]. The first half of that statement ties right into verse 7.

We don’t receive spiritual gifts for our own benefit. We receive them for the benefit of others. “To each the manifestation of the Spirit is given FOR THE COMMON GOOD.”

As has come to the surface over and over as we’ve studied this letter, we must not live for ourselves as Christians. 2 Cor 5:15 says: “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” So the first priority is living for Christ.

A few verses later, v.19 brings it back around to earth, saying that God reconciled us to himself so that we can reconcile others to Him.

Nothing about our lives as Christians is for our own sakes. Refusing to empty ourselves is refusing to be like Christ.

» 1 COR 12:8-11
8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

vv. 8-10 don’t contain an exclusive list of spiritual gifts. Others are mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament (e.g., even the gift of celibacy in 1 Cor 7:7). Nor is there any indication in scripture that God has endowed you with a finite set of gifts and that’s the way you’ll always be gifted.

God gives us the gifts He needs us to have to do the work He needs us to do. He enables us to His calling.

One more observation from these verses: There are no gifts of “wisdom” and “knowledge” mentioned. The gifts are a “word (message) of wisdom” or a “word (message) of knowledge.”

[See Jesus’ statement to Peter after Peter answered “Who do you say that I am.” Also see 1 Corinthians 2:14.]

In other words, God doesn’t gift a person by making him or her wise or knowledgeable. His gift is allowing him or her to receive messages of God’s wisdom and knowledge. That is a crucial difference!

v. 11, Finally, these gifts are given to each of us by the same Holy Spirit. The Spirit chooses which gifts He will give and to whom He will give them. I believe Paul brings this out here because if they have the same source, they will never be in competition with the other – and he’s about to address that very issue with these Corinthians in the next section.