Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant.
Parallel Translations
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Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant.
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In spirituall thinges brethren I wolde not have you ignoraunt.
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Now concerning spirituall giftes, brethren, I would not haue you ignorant.
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to 1 Corinthians 12:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, by the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, by the same Spirit; and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits; to another different kinds of languages; and to another the interpretation of languages. But the one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing to each one separately as he desires.
- 1 Corinthians 14:1-18 Follow after love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in another language speaks not to men, but to God; for no one understands; but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries. But he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification, exhortation, and consolation. He who speaks in another language edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the assembly. Now I desire to have you all speak with other languages, but rather that you would prophesy. For he is greater who prophesies than he who speaks with other languages, unless he interprets, that the assembly may be built up. But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching? Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they didn’t give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who would prepare himself for war? So also you, unless you uttered by the tongue words easy to understand, how would it be known what is spoken? For you would be speaking into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of sounds in the world, and none of them is without meaning. If then I don’t know the meaning of the sound, I would be to him who speaks a foreigner, and he who speaks would be a foreigner to me. So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound to the building up of the assembly. Therefore let him who speaks in another language pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in another language, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Otherwise if you bless with the spirit, how will he who fills the place of the unlearned say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, seeing he doesn’t know what you say? For you most certainly give thanks well, but the other person is not built up. I thank my God, I speak with other languages more than you all.
- 1 Corinthians 14:37 If any man thinks himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him recognize the things which I write to you, that they are the commandment of the Lord.
- Ephesians 4:11 He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1. Now concerning spiritual things. He goes on to…
1. Now concerning spiritual things. He goes on to correct another fault. As the Corinthians abused the gifts of God for ostentation and show, and love was little, if at all, regarded, he shows them for what purpose believers are adorned by God with spiritual gifts — for the edification of their brethren. This proposition, however, he divides into two parts; for, in the first place, he teaches, that God is the author of those gifts, and, secondly, having established this, he reasons as to their design. He proves from their own experience, that those things in which they gloried, are bestowed upon men through the exercise of God’s favor; for he reminds them how ignorant they were, and stupid, and destitute of all spiritual light, previously to God’s calling them. Hence it appears, that they had been furnished with them — not by nature, but through God’s unmerited benignity.
As to the words; when he says — I would not that ye should be ignorant, we must supply the expression — as to what is right, or as to what is your duty, or some similar expression; and by spiritual things he means spiritual gifts, as to which we shall have occasion to see afterwards. In what follows there is a twofold reading; for some manuscripts have simply ὅτι others add ὅτε. The former means because — assigning a reason: the latter means when; and this latter reading suits much better. But besides this diversity, the construction is in other respects confused; but still, the meaning is evident. Literally, it is this — Ye know, that when ye were Gentiles, after dumb idols, according as ye were led, following I have, however, faithfully given Paul’s meaning. By dumb idols he means — having neither feeling nor motion.
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Let us learn from this passage how great is the blindness of the human mind: when it is without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as it stands in amazement at dumb idols, and cannot rise higher in searching after God; nay more, it is led by Satan as if it were a brute. He makes use of the term Gentiles here, in the same sense as in Ephesians 2:12.
Ye were at one time Gentiles, says he, without God, strangers to the hope of salvation, etc.
Perhaps, too, he reasons by way of contrast. What if they should now show themselves to be less submissive to God, after his having taken them under his care, to be governed by his word and Spirit, than they formerly discovered themselves to be forward and compliant, in following the suggestions of Satan!
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Ignorant to what purpose those gifts are given you.
Ignorant to what purpose those gifts are given you.
Now he entereth into the third part of this treatise, touching the right use of spiritual gifts, wherein he giveth the Corinthians plainly to understand that they abused them: for they that excelled, bragged ambitiously of them, and so robbed God of the praise of his gifts: and having no consideration of their brethren abused to a vain ostentation, and so robbed the Church of the use of those gifts. On the other side, the inferior sort envied the better, and went about to make a departure, so that all that body was as it were scattered and rent in pieces. So then he going about to remedy these abuses, willeth them first to consider diligently, that they have not these gifts of themselves, but from the free grace and liberality of God, to whose glory they ought to bestow them all.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 34 And if any man hunger, let him eat…
34 And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
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Ver. 1. I would not have you ignorant] To wit, of the only author and true end of them, "lest ye be vainly puffed up by your fleshly mind," Col 2:18. Ignorance breeds pride, Rev 3:17.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The word gifts is not in the Greek, but…
The word gifts is not in the Greek, but supplied by our interpreters. In the Greek is no more than concerning spirituals, which is equally applicable to spiritual offices, or administrations, operations, and gifts; of all which he afterward treateth something, but mostly concerning gifts, which are chiefly spoken of in this chapter: and our translaters agree with the best interpreters, in supplying the text with the word gifts. This church eminently abounded in these abilities to spiritual actions given them of God (for spirtual gifts signifies nothing else); and as they abounded in them, so they erred much in the abuse or ill use of them, as we shall afterward read in this chapter. Therefore the apostle tells them, that as to them, he would not have them
ignorant, either of the favour of God in enriching them with them, as he had said, 1Co 1:5, or yet in the due and right use of them, so as God might have glory from their good use of them: or of the errors that they had ran into, or might further run into, in the ill use of them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Our apostle begins this chapter with the resolution of…
Our apostle begins this chapter with the resolution of another case, concerning the nature and right use of spiritual gifts. Some that excelled in them, were proud of them, using them to vain ostentation: he therefore tells them he would not have them ignorant as touching spiritual gifts: not ignorant either of their Author from whence they came, the Holy Spirit of God; nor of their end and use, which is the benefit and edification of others. Gifts are for the good of others; but a man shall have the advantage and comforts of his own graces. Gifts are the gold which adorns the temple; but grace is the altar which sanctifies the gold.
Lord! how many have gone laden with gifts to hell! how many have prophesied in thy name, and yet perished in thy wrath! How many cast devils out of others, who yet were cast to the devils themselves! How many wrought miracles, and did many wonderful works, who yet perished for evil workers!
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Lord! let me never build upon this bottom (gifts) for eternity; these may make me glorious in the eyes of men, but grace renders me precious in the sight of God.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The apostle comes now to treat of spiritual gifts,…
The apostle comes now to treat of spiritual gifts, which abounded in the church of Corinth, but were greatly abused. What these gifts were is at large told us in the body of the chapter; namely, extraordinary offices and powers, bestowed on ministers and Christians in the first ages, for conviction of unbelievers, and propagation of the gospel. Gifts and graces, charismata and charis, greatly differ. Both indeed were freely given of God. But where grace is given it is for the salvation of those who have it. Gifts are bestowed for the advantage and salvation of others. And there may be great gifts where there is not a dram of grace, but persons possessed of them are utterly out of the divine favour. They are great instances of divine benignity to men, but do not by themselves prove those who have them to be the objects of divine complacency. This church was rich in gifts, but there were many things scandalously out of order in it. Now concerning these spiritual gifts, that is, the extraordinary powers they had received from the Spirit,
I. The apostle tells them he would not have them ignorant either of their original or use. They came from God, and were to be used for him. It would lead them far astray if they were ignorant of one or the other of these. Note, Right information is of great use as to all religious practice. It is wretched work which gifted men make who either do not know or do not advert to the nature and right use of the gifts with which they are endowed.
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II. He puts them in the mind of the sad state out of which they had been recovered: You were Gentiles, carried away to dumb idols, even as you were led, Co1 12:2. While they were so, they could have no pretensions to be spiritual men, nor to have spiritual gifts. While they were under the conduct of the spirit of Gentilism, they could not be influenced by the Spirit of Christ. If they well understood their former condition, they could not but know that all true spiritual gifts were from God. Now concerning this observe, 1. Their former character: they were Gentiles. Not God's peculiar people, but of the nations whom he had in a manner abandoned. The Jews were, before, his chosen people, distinguished from the rest of the world by his favour. To them the knowledge and worship of the true God were in a manner confined. The rest of the world were strangers to the covenant of promise, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and in a manner without God, Eph 2:12. Such Gentiles were the body of the Corinthians, before their conversion to Christianity. What a change was here! Christian Corinthians were once Gentiles. Note, It is of great use to the Christian, and a proper consideration to stir him up both to duty and thankfulness, to think what once he was: You were Gentiles. 2. The conduct they were under: Carried away to these dumb idols, even as you were led. They were hurried upon the grossest idolatry, the worship even of stocks and stones, through the force of a vain imagination, and the fraud of their priests practising on their ignorance, for, whatever were the sentiments of their philosophers, this was the practice of the herd. The body of the people paid their homage and worship to dumb idols, that had ears but could not hear, and mouths but could not speak, Psa 115:5, Psa 115:6. Miserable abjectness of mind! And those who despised these gross conceptions of the vulgar yet countenanced them by their practice. O dismal state of Gentilism! Could the Spirit of God be among such stupid idolators, or they be influenced by it? How did the prince of this world triumph in the blindness of mankind! How thick a mist had he cast over their minds!
III. He shows them how they might discern those gifts that were from the Spirit of God, true spiritual gifts: No man, speaking by the Spirit, calls Jesus accursed. Thus did both Jews and Gentiles: they blasphemed him as an impostor, and execrated his name, and deemed it abominable. And yet many Jews, who were exorcists and magicians, went about, pretending to work wonders by the Spirit of God (vid. Lightfoot's Horae in loc.), and many among the Gentiles pretended to inspiration. Now the apostle tells them none could act under the influence, nor by the power, of the Spirit of God, who disowned and blasphemed Christ: for the Spirit of God bore uncontrollable witness to Christ by prophecy, miracles, his resurrection from the dead, the success of his doctrine among men, and its effect upon them; and could never so far contradict itself as to declare him accursed. And on the other hand no man could say Jesus was the Lord (that is, live by this faith, and work miracles to prove it), but it must be by the Holy Ghost. To own this truth before men, and maintain it to the death, and live under the influence of it, could not be done without the sanctification of the Holy Ghost. No man can call Christ Lord, with a believing subjection to him and dependence upon him, unless that faith be wrought by the Holy Ghost. No man can confess this truth in the day of trial but by the Holy Ghost animating and encouraging him. Note, We have as necessary a dependence on the Spirit's operation and influence for our sanctification and perseverance as on the mediation of Christ for our reconciliation and acceptance with God: and no man could confirm this truth with a miracle but by the Holy Ghost. No evil spirit would lend assistance, if it were in his power, to spread a doctrine and religion so ruinous to the devil's kingdom. The substance of what the apostle asserts and argues here is that whatever pretences there were to inspiration or miracles, among those who were enemies to Christianity, they could not be from the Spirit of God; but no man could believe this with his heart, nor prove with a miracle that Jesus was Christ, but by the Holy Ghost: so that the extraordinary operations and powers among them did all proceed from the Spirit of God. He adds,
IV. These spiritual gifts, though proceeding from the same Spirit, are yet various. They have one author and original, but are themselves of various kinds. A free cause may produce variety of effects; and the same giver may bestow various gifts, Co1 12:4. There are diversities of gifts, such as revelations, tongues, prophecy, interpretations of tongues; but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations, or different offices, and officers to discharge them, different ordinances and institutions (see Co1 12:28-30), but the same Lord, who appointed all, Co1 12:6. There are diversities of operations, or miraculous powers, called energēmata dunameōn (Co1 12:10), as here energēmata, but it is the same God that worketh all in all. There are various gifts, administrations, and operations, but all proceed from one God, one Lord, one Spirit; that is, from Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the spring and origin of all spiritual blessings and bequests: all issue from the same fountain; all have the same author. However different they may be in themselves, in this they agree; all are from God. And several of the kinds are here specified, Co1 12:8-10. Several persons had their several gifts, some one, some another, all from and by the same Spirit. To one was given the word of wisdom; that is, say some, a knowledge of the mysteries of the gospel, and ability to explain them, an exact understanding of the design, nature, and doctrines, of the Christian religion. Others say an uttering of grave sentences, like Solomon's proverbs. Some confine this word of wisdom to the revelations made to and by the apostles. - To another the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit; that is, say some, the knowledge of mysteries (Co1 2:13): wrapped up in the prophecies, types, and histories of the Old Testament: say others, a skill and readiness to give advice and counsel in perplexed cases. - To another faith, by the same Spirit; that is, the faith of miracles, or a faith in the divine power and promise, whereby they were enabled to trust God in any emergency, and go on in the way of their duty, and own and profess the truths of Christ, whatever was the difficulty or danger. - To another the gift of healing, by the same Spirit; that is, healing the sick, either by laying on of hands, or anointing with oil, or with a bare word. - To another the working of miracles; the efficacies of powers, energēmata dunameōn, such as raising the dead, restoring the blind to sight, giving speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, and the use of limbs to the lame. - To another prophecy, that is, ability to foretel future events, which is the more usual sense of prophecy; or to explain scripture by a peculiar gift of the Spirit. See Co1 14:24. - To another the discerning of Spirits, power to distinguish between true and false prophets, or to discern the real and internal qualifications of any person for an office, or to discover the inward workings of the mind by the Holy Ghost, as Peter did those of Ananias, Act 5:3. - To another divers kinds of tongues, or ability to speak languages by inspiration. - To another the interpretation of tongues, or ability to render foreign languages readily and properly into their own. With such variety of spiritual gifts were the first ministers and churches blessed.
V. The end for which these gifts were bestowed: The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, Co1 12:7. The Spirit was manifested by the exercise of these gifts; his influence and interest appeared in them. But they were not distributed for the mere honour and advantage of those who had them, but for the benefit of the church, to edify the body, and spread and advance the gospel. Note, Whatever gifts God confers on any man, he confers them that he may do good with them, whether they be common or spiritual. The outward gifts of his bounty are to be improved for his glory, and employed in doing good to others. No man has them merely for himself. They are a trust put into his hands, to profit withal; and the more he profits others with them, the more abundantly will they turn to his account in the end, Phi 4:17. Spiritual gifts are bestowed, that men may with them profit the church and promote Christianity. They are not given for show, but for service; not for pomp and ostentation, but for edification; not to magnify those that have them, but to edify others.
VI. The measure and proportion in which they are given: All these worketh one and the same Spirit, dividing to every man as he will. It is according to the sovereign pleasure of the donor. What more free than a gift? And shall not the Spirit of God do what he will with his own? May he not give to what persons he pleases, and in what proportion he pleases; one gift to one man, and another to another; to one more, and another fewer, as he thinks fit? Is he not the best judge how his own purpose shall be served, and his own donatives bestowed? It is not as men will, nor as they may think fit, but as the Spirit pleases. Note, The Holy Ghost is a divine person. He works divine effects and divides divine gifts a he will, by his own power, and according to his own pleasure, without dependence or control. But though he distributes these gifts freely and uncontrollably, they are intended by him, not for private honour and advantage, but for public benefit, for the edification of the body, the church.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Now concerning spiritual gifts,.... Though the word "gifts" is…
Now concerning spiritual gifts,.... Though the word "gifts" is not in the original text, it is rightly supplied by our translators, as it is in the Arabic version: for the apostle does not mean spiritual graces, nor spiritual words, or doctrines, nor spiritual meats and drinks, nor spiritual men, each of which are mentioned before in this epistle; though the latter is thought by some to be here intended, and that the apostle's view is to show the difference between those that are spiritual, and those that are not; but as spiritual gifts are the subject of the apostle's discourse throughout this chapter, and the two following, they seem very manifestly to be designed here. The apostle having gone through various heads of discourse, which he either of himself, or at the request of others, wrote upon, proceeds to a new subject, that of spiritual gifts, which he seems to have been desired to give his thoughts upon, and advice about; since there were some in this church who were discouraged, because they had not the gifts which some had; and others that had them were elated and puffed up with them, and treated those below them with neglect and contempt; and with a view to both these the apostle writes as follows,
brethren, I would not have you ignorant; neither of the author of these gifts, who is the Spirit of God, who dispenses them according to his sovereign will and pleasure, and not according to the deserts of men, and are not acquired by the industry, or through the merit of any, but are his free grace gifts; nor of the nature of them, for there are differences and diversities of them, some have one, and some another, but no man all; nor of the design and use of them, which is the edification of the whole body; and every gift, though ever so mean, is of service; and therefore as, on the one hand, none ought to be discouraged, so, on the other hand, none should be lifted up with pride, or give way to a boasting spirit.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Now concerning spiritual gifts - The abundance of these…
Now concerning spiritual gifts - The abundance of these in the churches of Greece strongly refuted the idle learning of the Greek philosophers. But the Corinthians did not use them wisely, which occasioned St. Paul's writing concerning them. He describes,
1. The unity of the body, ver. 1-xxvii,
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2. The variety of members and offices, ver. 27-30,
3. The way of exercising gifts rightly, namely, by love, ver. 31, chap. xiii, 1. throughout: and adds,
4. A comparison of several gifts with each other, in the chap. xiv, 1. fourteenth chapter.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The apostle proceeds to the question of the Corinthians
CHAPTER XII.
The apostle proceeds to the question of the Corinthians
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concerning spiritual gifts, 1.
He calls to their remembrance their former state, and how they
were brought out of it, 2, 3.
Shows that there are diversities of gifts which proceed from
the Spirit, 4.
Diversities of administrations which proceed from the Lord
Jesus, 5.
And diversities of operations which proceed from God, 6.
What these gifts are, and how they are dispensed, 7-11.
Christ is the Head, and the Church his members; and this is
pointed out under the similitude of the human body, 12, 13.
The relation which the members of the body have to each other;
and how necessary their mutual support, 14-26.
The members in the Church, or spiritual body, and their
respective offices, 27-30.
We should earnestly covet the best gifts, 31.
NOTES ON CHAP. XII.
Verse 1. Now concerning spiritual gifts] This was a subject about which they appear to have written to the apostle, and concerning which there were probably some contentions among them. The words περι των πνευματικων may as well be translated concerning spiritual persons, as spiritual gifts; and indeed the former agrees much better with the context.
I would not have you ignorant.] I wish you fully to know whence all such gifts come, and for what end they are given, that each person may serve the Church in the capacity in which God has placed him, that there may be no misunderstandings and no schism in the body.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Co 12:1-2. Now concerning spiritual gifts — Miraculous gifts…
1Co 12:1-2. Now concerning spiritual gifts — Miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, bestowed on many believers in those times, for their confirmation in the faith, and the conviction of infidels. The abundance of these gifts in the churches of Greece, strongly refuted the idle learning of the Greek philosophers. But the Corinthians did not use those gifts wisely, which occasioned the apostle’s writing concerning them. In doing this, after putting the brethren at Corinth in mind that before their conversion they were worshippers of idols, which, being themselves dumb, could not impart to their votaries the ability of speaking foreign languages, as Christ had done to many of his disciples; and after giving the Corinthians a rule by which they might judge correctly of every one who pretended to possess those gifts by divine inspiration, He, 1st, Speaks of the diversity of the gifts, which God by his Spirit had conferred on his church, of the various administrations and offices appointed by the same Lord, and of the different operations of Him that worketh all in all, 1Co 12:1 to 1Co 11:2 dly, He describes the unity of the body, with its various members, and their uses, 1Co 12:12-30. 3dly, Shows the way of exercising gifts rightly, namely, by love, 1Co 12:31 to 1Co 13:13. throughout; and adds, 4thly, A comparison of several gifts with each other in chap. 14. I would not have you ignorant — Of the Author, nature, ends, and uses of these gifts. Ye know that ye were Gentiles — Idolatrous heathen, and were then destitute of all spiritual gifts. Whatever gifts, therefore, ye possess, ye have received them from the free grace of God; carried away — By a blind credulity; unto, and after, these dumb idols — The blind to the dumb: idols of wood and stone, unable to speak themselves, and much more to open your mouths, as God has done; even as ye were led — By the subtlety of your priests, or by some diabolical imposture, or pretended miracles.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Now concerning - it is now time that I…
Now concerning - it is now time that I should speak of spiritual endowments. He had no doubt been consulted in regard to them, and probably various questions had been proposed, which he now proceeded to answer.
Spiritual gifts - The word “gifts” is not in the original. The Greek refers to “spiritual” things in general, or to anything that is of a spiritual nature. The whole discussion, however, shows that he refers to the various endowments, gifts, or graces that had been bestowed in different degrees on the members of the church - including the distinctions in graces, and in degrees of office and rank, which had been made in the Christian church in general 1 Cor. 12, as well as the extraordinary endowments of the gift of tongues which had been bestowed upon many, 1 Cor. 14.
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I would not have you ignorant - The subject is of so much importance that it demands particular attention and special care; compare the note at 1Co 10:1. I would not have you ignorant in regard to the nature of those endowments; the spirit with which they should be received; the rules to which they who are thus favored should be subjected; and the feelings and views which should be cherished in all the members of the church in regard to them. Nothing is of more importance in the church than the doctrine respecting the influences and endowments of the Holy Spirit.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Concerning spiritual things. In the apostle’s time, the Christians…
Concerning spiritual things. In the apostle’s time, the Christians in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, many times received those graces and gifts of the Holy Ghost, by which some of them prophesied, others wrought miracles, and cured diseases, others spoke tongues, and different languages: now some among the Corinthians made not a right use of these gifts, especially they who had the gift of tongues, and made use of it through vanity, rather than for the profit of others. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain 1 Corinthians Chapter 12
1 Corinthians Chapter 12
The other branch of the truth, in reference to the assembly of God in general and to the assemblies, is the presence and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. These, as well as the Lord’s supper, are in connection with unity [15]; the individual being responsible in each. It is the subject of spiritual manifestations which the apostle takes up in chapter 12. The first point was to establish the distinctive marks of the Spirit of God. There were evil spirits, who sought to creep in among the Christians, and to speak or act pretending to be the Spirit of God, and thus to confound everything. Christians of the present day hardly believe in such efforts of the enemy as these. Spiritual manifestations are, no doubt, less striking now than at the time of which the apostle speaks; but the enemy adapts his means of deception to the circumstances in which man and the work of God are found. As Peter says in a similar case, “As there were false prophets among the people, so shall there be false teachers among you.” The enemy does not cease to act. “Forbidding to marry,” etc., was the doctrine of devils. In the last days his power will be manifested still more. God can restrain him by the energy of His Spirit, and by the power of the truth; but if he is not bridled, he still acts, deceiving men, and that by such things as one would suppose it impossible (if not deceived oneself) that a man of sober sense could believe. But it is surprising what a man can believe when he is left to himself, without being kept by God, when the power of the enemy is there. We talk of common sense, of reason (very precious they are); but history tells us that God alone gives them or preserves them to us.
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Here the Spirit of God manifested Himself by the effects of His power, which broke forth in the midst of the assembly, attracting the attention even of the world. The enemy imitated them. The greater part of the Christians at Corinth having been poor Gentiles, without discernment, and stupidly led by the delusions of the enemy, they were the more in danger of being again deceived by this means. When a man is not filled with the Spirit of God, who gives force to the truth in his heart, and clearness to his moral vision, the seductive power of the enemy dazzles his imagination. He loves the marvellous, unbelieving as he may be with regard to the truth. He lacks holy discernment, because he is ignorant of the holiness and character of God, and has not the stability of a soul that possesses the knowledge of God (God Himself, we may say) as his treasure-of a soul which knows that it has all in Him, so that it needs no other marvels. If a man is not thus established by the knowledge of God, the power of the enemy strikes him-pre-occupies him; he cannot shake it off, he cannot account for it. He is a victim to the influence which this power exercises over his mind; the flesh is pleased with it, for in one shape or another the result is always liberty to the flesh.
Long led blindly by the power of evil spirits, the converted Gentiles were hardly in a state to discern and judge them. Strange to say, this demoniac power exercised such an influence that they forgot the importance even of the name of Jesus, or at least forgot that His name was not acknowledged by it The enemy transforms himself into an angel of light, but he never really owns Jesus Christ as Lord. He will speak of Paul and Silvanus, and would have his part with Christians, but Christ is not acknowledged; and at last it is the breaking up and ruin of those who follow him. An unclean spirit would not say Lord Jesus, and the Spirit of God could not say Anathema to Jesus. But it is a question here of spirits, and not of conversion, nor of the necessity of grace working in the heart for the true confession of the name of Jesus-a very true thing, as we know, but not the subject here.
We come now to positive instructions. Nothing more important, more distinctive, more marvellous, than the presence of the Holy Ghost here below in the midst of Christians; the fruit to us, of the perfect work of Christ, but in itself the manifestation of the presence of God among men on the earth. The providence of God manifests His power in the works of creation, and His government which directs all things; but the Holy Ghost is His presence in this world, the testimony that He bears of Himself, of His character. [16] He is among men to display Himself, not yet in glory, but in power and in testimony of what He is. Christ having accomplished redemption, and having presented the efficacy of His work to God, Sovereign and Judge, the assembly, being ransomed and cleansed by His blood, and united to Him as His body, became also the vessel of this power which acts in His members. Thus she ought to display this power in holiness-she is responsible to do so. But in this way, as to its exercise, man becomes in fact individually the vessel of this spiritual energy. It is a treasure committed to him. Now the Spirit is, in the first place, the link between the assembly and Christ, as well as between the Christian and Christ. It is by the Spirit that communion is realised and maintained, it is the primary function of the Spirit; and man must be in communion in order to realise the character and discern the will of God, and that, according to the testimony intended to be borne by the Spirit come down to earth.
But if the assembly does not maintain this communion, she loses her strength as the responsible witness of God on earth, and in fact her joy and her spiritual intelligence also. God is ever sovereign to act as He chooses, and Christ cannot fail in His faithfulness to His body; but the testimony committed to the assembly is no longer so rendered as to make it felt that God is present on the earth. The assembly is not, perhaps, aware of the estrangement, because she retains for a time much of that which God has given, which is far beyond all that was according to nature; and in losing strength she has also lost the discernment of what she ought to be. But God is never mistaken as to the assembly’s condition-”Thou hast left thy first love.” “Except thou repent,” says He, “and do the first works, I will take away thy candlestick”-a solemn consideration for the assembly, as to her responsibility, when we reflect on the grace that has been shewn her, on the fruits that have been-and those that ought to have been-manifested, and on the power given her to produce them.
The purposes of God for the assembly have their end and aim in heaven. They will be accomplished without the possibility of the least thing failing. All that is needful to bring her members there according to His counsels, Christ will do. They are redeemed by His blood to be His.
The ways of God are accomplished and unfolded on the earth for our instruction, both in the assembly and in individuals.
It is not only in His gifts that the presence of the Spirit of God is manifested. There are prophecies and miracles, men moved by the Holy Ghost, before the day of Pentecost. That which is attributed to faith in Heb 11:1-40 is often ascribed to the Spirit in the Old Testament. But the Spirit was promised in a special way in the Old Testament. He was never at that period the presence of God in the midst of the people, as He dwelt in the assembly. The glory came to take possession of the tabernacle or temple. His Spirit acted in sovereignty outside the order of His house, and could be with them when that glory was gone. But the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven to dwell in the disciples and in the assembly on earth, was the manifestation of the presence of God in His house, of God who was there by the Spirit. And this presence of the Spirit is so distinct, and so plainly noted as a thing known and realised by the first Christians, which demonstrated instead of being demonstrated, that it is spoken of in the word as being the Holy Ghost Himself. In Joh 7:1-53 it is said, “The Holy Ghost was not yet.” In Act 19:1-41 the twelve men say to Paul, “We have not so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost is.” It was not a question whether there was a Holy Ghost (every orthodox Jew believed it), but whether this presence of the Holy Ghost Himself dwelling here below, the new Comforter and Guide of the disciples, of which John the Baptist had spoken, had yet taken place. When come down, it was the presence of God in His spiritual temple on earth. The place in which the disciples were gathered together was shaken to shew that God was there. Ananias and Sapphira fell down dead before the apostles for having lied to God. Philip is caught away by His power from the presence of the man who had received the knowledge of Jesus by his means.
Such was the presence of the Holy Ghost. In our chapter, the apostle speaks of the manifestations of His presence in the gifts which were exercised by the instrumentality of members of the body, whether for the calling out and edification of the assembly, or in testimony to those outside. Before entering on this subject, he gives the Corinthians-whom the enemy would have deeply deceived-that which would enable them to distinguish between the manifestation of the Holy Ghost and the actings of an evil spirit. He then speaks of gifts.
Now there were not divers spirits, as in the case of demons; there was only one and the same Spirit, but diversity of gifts. This gives occasion to bring in the different relationship (for he speaks of the order of the relations of man with God-the practical energy of which is in the Holy Ghost) in which men, moved by the Holy Ghost, are placed with regard to God and to Christ. The Spirit, one and the same Spirit, acts in them by various manifestations. But in the exercise of these different gifts they were administrators, and there was one Lord, that is, Christ. It was not therefore in them an independent and voluntary power: whatever might be the energy of the Spirit in them, they did not cease to be servants and stewards of Christ, and they were to act in this character, acknowledging in their service the Lordship of Christ. Nevertheless, although it was power in a man, and that it was man who acted, so that he was a servant (and a Man who was Head and who was served, although He was Son of God and Lord of all), yet it was God who wrought, one and the same God who wrought all in all. It is not the Trinity, properly speaking, that is presented here in its own character, but one only Spirit acting in Christians, Jesus Lord, and God acting in the gifts.
The gifts are manifestations of the energy of the Spirit thus committed to men, under Christ who is Head and Lord; men were to use them as serving the Lord. Now Christ thought of what was profitable to His people, to those that were His; and the manifestation of the Spirit was given for the profit of souls, of the assembly in general. The apostle notices several of these gifts; but he reminds us again that it is the same Spirit who works in each case, distributing to every one according to His own will. Let the reader remark this passage. The apostle had said that God wrought all these things, and had spoken of the gifts as being manifestations of the Spirit. It might have been supposed that the Spirit was some vague influence, and that one must attribute everything to God without recognising a personal Spirit. But these operations, which were attributed to God in1 Corinthians 12:6, are here attributed to the Spirit; and it is added, that He, the Spirit, distributes to each as He will. It is not therefore an inferior Spirit. Where He works, it is God who works; but these operations in men are gifts distributed according to the will of the Spirit, the Spirit being thus presented as acting personally in this distribution and according to His will.
Some of the gifts may require a short observation. Wisdom is the application of divine light to right and wrong, and to all the circumstances through which we pass-an expression which has a wide extent, because it applies to everything with regard to which we have to form a judgment. The Holy Ghost furnishes some in a peculiar way with this wisdom, with a wisdom according to God-a perception of the true nature of things, and of their relationship to each other, and of conduct with regard to both, which, coming from God, guides us through the difficulties of the way, and enables us to avoid that which would place us in a false position towards God and man.
Knowledge is intelligence in the mind of God as it is revealed to us. Faith is not here simple faith in the gospel; that is not a distinctive gift which one believer may possess and another not. This is evident. It is the faith, the energy, given by God, which overcomes difficulties, which rises above dangers, which confronts them without being alarmed by them. The discerning of spirits is not that of a man’s condition of soul-it has nothing to do with it. It is the knowing how to discern, by the mighty energy of the Spirit of God, the actings of evil spirits, and to bring them to light if necessary, in contrast with the action of the Spirit of God.
The other gifts require no comment. We must now return to the unity of the Spirit, with which is connected that which the apostle says after having spoken of the gifts. The Spirit was one, he had said, working diversely in the members according to His will. The importance of His personality, and the immense import of His divinity (if we reflect that it is He who works in and by man) is very evident when we observe that He is the centre and the living power of the unity of the whole body, so that the individuals, in the exercise of their gifts, are but the members of the one and the same body divinely formed by the power and the presence of the Spirit. This point the apostle develops largely, in connection with the oneness of the body, the mutual dependence of the members, and the relationship of each one to the body as a whole.
The practical instructions are easily understood, but there are some important points in the general principles. The oneness of the body is produced by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and the connection of the members depends upon it. By one Spirit we have all been baptised to be one body. The Lord’s supper is the expression of this oneness; the Spirit is He who produces it, and who is its strength. The distinctive character of Jew and Gentile-and all other distinctions-was lost in the power of one Spirit common to all, who united them all as redeemed ones in one only body. The apostle in this verse (1Co 12:13) speaks of the baptism of the Holy Ghost; but the word suggests to him the supper, the second ordinance of the Lord, and he speaks of drinking into one spirit, alluding, I doubt not, to the Lord’s supper. He does not speak of the Holy Ghost: one spirit was the state of the believers, the word being used in contrast with one body, associated in one heart and mind by the Spirit-participating in Christ.
It is not faith which is union, nor even life, though both are the portion of those united, but the Holy Ghost. The baptism of the Holy Ghost, then, is that which forms Christians into one only body, and they are all made partakers of, are animated individually by, one and the same Spirit. Thus there are many members, but one only body, and a body composed of these members, which are dependent the one on the other, and have need of each other. And even those gifts which were the most shining were comparatively of the least value, even as a man clothes and ornaments the least honourable parts of his body, and leaves the more beautiful parts uncovered.
Another point which the apostle marks, is the common interest that exists among them in that they are members of the one and the same body. If one suffers, all suffer, since there is but one body animated by one Spirit. If one is honoured, all rejoice. This also depends on the one self-same Spirit who unites and animates them. Moreover this body is the body of Christ. “Ye are,” says the apostle, “the body of Christ, and members in particular.”
Observe, also, here that, although that assembly at Corinth was only a part of the body of Christ, the apostle speaks of the whole body; for the assembly there was, according to the principle of its gathering, the body of Christ as assembled at Corinth. It is true that at the beginning he speaks of all those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus; but in fact he addresses the Corinthian assembly. And the general expression shews that, in the walk of the assembly, and in its general interests, a local assembly cannot be separated from the whole body of Christians on earth; and the language employed here shews that, as to their position before God, the Christians of one town were considered as representing the whole assembly, as far as regarded that locality; not as independent of the rest, but, on the contrary, as inseparably united to the others, living and acting, with respect to that locality as members of the body of Christ, and looked upon as such in it, because every Christian formed a part of that body, and they formed a part of it likewise. From the verses that follow we see that the apostle, while looking upon the Christians there as the body of Christ, the members of which they were, has in his mind the whole assembly as the assembly of God. In the New Testament there is no other membership than that of Christ, except that they are members of each other,. as forming the entire body, but never members of a church; the idea is different. The word speaks of the members of a body, like that of man as a figure, never of the members of an assembly in the modern sense of the word. We are members of Christ, and consequently of the body of Christ; so were the Corinthians, as far as that body was manifested at Corinth.
Moreover the body of Christ, the assembly, is looked at here as a whole upon the earth. God has set in the assembly, apostles, prophets, etc.; miracles, healings, tongues. It is very plain that this is on the earth, as were the Corinthians, and that it is the assembly as a whole. Healings and tongues were not in heaven, and the apostles were not those of an individual assembly. In a word it was the Holy Ghost, come down from heaven, who had formed the unity of the body on earth, and who acted in it by the especial gifts which distinguished the members.
The apostle then points out these gifts, not to give a formal and complete list of them, but to mark the order and importance of those he mentions. Tongues, of which the Corinthians were so proud, are the last gifts named in the list. Some gifts then, were more excellent than others; they were to be estimated according to the measure in which they served for the edification of the assembly. Those which served this end were to be desired.
It is interesting to remark here the difference of this chapter and Eph 4:1-32. Here it is simply power, and men are told in certain cases to be silent, when the power was there; it was the Holy Ghost working as power. In Eph 4:1-32 it is Christ’s care as Head of the body. No gifts which are signs of power to others are mentioned; only what founds the assembly, edifies the saints, and builds the assembly up; and then there is promise of continuance till we all come. For Christ cannot cease to care for His body; but sign-gifts may disappear, and they have. Apostles and prophets were the foundation, and in that sense they were, when the foundation was laid, no longer in exercise.
Footnotes for 1 Corinthians Chapter 12
15: We have seen this with regard to the supper, in chapter 10: 17. Here, chapter 12: 13, we see it with regard to the Holy Ghost.
16: It is a very striking truth that God’s dwelling with men is the fruit of redemption. He did not dwell with Adam innocent; He could walk in the garden, but did not dwell there. He did not dwell with Abraham.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain C. The church in general, and the possessor of…
C. The church in general, and the possessor of spiritual gifts in their right estimate and application
1 Corinthians 12-14
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1. These gifts—their ground and aim and hence their unity in manifoldness, suitably to the organic character of the Church
1 Corinthians 12
1Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not nave you ignorant. Ye know 2that [when, ὅτε] 1 ye were Gentiles, [ye were] carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. 3Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed [says, ‘Cursed is Jesus:’ ’Ανάθεμα ̓Ιησοῦς],2 and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, [say ‘Lord Jesus,’ Κυρίοσ Ιησοῦς] but by the Holy Ghost. 4Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5And there are differences of administrations, but [ministries and, διαχονιῶν χαὶ] the same Lord. 6And there are diversities of operations, but it is [om. but it is, ins. and] the same God3 which worketh all in all. 7But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal [for some profit, πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον]. 8For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge 9by [according to, χατὰ] the same spirit; [But, δὲ] 4 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing [healings, ἰαμὰτων] by the same 5 [in the one ἐν 10τῷ ἑνὶ] Spirit; [But, δὲ] 6 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; [but, δὲ] to another the interpretation 7 of tongues: 11But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. 12For as the body is one, and [yet] hath many members, and [but, δὲ] all the members of that one 8 [om. that one, ins. the] 8 body, 13being [although] many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by [in, ἐν] one Spirit are [also were, χαὶ-ἐβαπτὶσθημεν] we all baptized into 9 one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles [Greeks, ’Ελληνες] whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into 14[om. into] 9 one spirit. For the body [also, χαὶ] is not one member, but many. 15If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it there fore not of the body? [it is not therefore not of the body]. 16And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? [it is not therefore not of the body]. 17If the whole body were an eye, where were the hear ing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? 18But now hath God set 19the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And [But, ςὲ] 20if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they [indeed, μὲν] 10 21many members, yet [om. yet] but one body. And [But, δὲ11] 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. 22Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more 23feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon [around περιτθεμεν] these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. 24For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered [combined, συνεκέρασεν] the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: 12 25That there should be no schism 13 in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for 26another. And whether 14 one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 27Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular [severally, ἐχ μέρους]. 15 28And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then 16 [after that, επείτα] gifts of healings, helps [helpings, ἀντιλήφεις] governments 29[governings, χυβερνήσεις] diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? 30Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? 31But covet earnestly [be zealous for, ζηλο͂υτε] the best [superior, χρείττονα] 17 gifts: and yet [moreover, ἔτι] shew I unto you a more excellent way [way according to excellence, χαθ’ ὑπερβολὴν].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
[“The ancient prophets had clearly predicted that the Messianic period should be attended by a remarkable effusion of the Holy Spirit (Joe_2:28). Our Lord, before His crucifixion, promised to send the Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, to instruct and guide His Church (John 14.). And after His resurrection He said to His disciples, “These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mar_16:17-18). And immediately before His ascension He said to the disciples, “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence” (Act_1:5). Accordingly, on the day of Pentecost, these promises and prophecies were literally fulfilled. The peculiarity of the new dispensation consisted, in the first place, in the general diffusion of these gifts. They were not confined to any one class of the people, but extended to all classes—male and female, young and old; and secondly, in the wonderful diversity of these supernatural endowments. Under circumstances so extraordinary, it was unavoidable that many disorders should arise. Some men would claim to be the organs of the Spirit, who were deluded or impostors; some would be dissatisfied with the gifts which they had received, and envy those whom they regarded as more highly favored; others would be inflated, and make an ostentatious display of their extraordinary powers; and in the public assemblies it might be expected that the greatest confusion would arise from so many persons being desirous to exercise their gifts at the same time. To the correction of these evils, all of which had manifested themselves in the church of Corinth, the Apostle devotes this and the two following chapters.” Hodge].
1Co_12:1-3. His instructions in regard to spiritual gifts, especially in regard to such discourses as proceeded from the special influence of the Spirit, Paul introduces by a statement of the chief token by which any genuine spiritual utterance may be known, viz., ‘the acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord.’ Whether he had been particularly questioned on this point, as in the instances mentioned 1Co_7:1 and 1Co_8:1, [and which are by some supposed to be continued here; or whether this is the second of the points alluded to in 1Co_11:16, concerning which he had heard,] is uncertain. At any rate, what he is laboring for is the removal of abuses which had crept into the didactical and lyrical portions of Divine worship, occasioned by these extraordinary phenomena (comp. 14.). “The Corinthians having turned aside from a plain, practical Christianity, were employing the gifts of the Spirit without regard to church edification, putting the greatest value on their most striking features, and prizing most such as were best calculated to impress the senses. Hence Paul felt constrained to instruct them in the ‘true end and right use of these gifts, and to warn them against confounding a genuine inspiration with fanatical excitement.’ ” Neander. These abuses have, without good reason, been put in connection with the party divisions at Corinth, mentioned in chap. 1. Baur and Räbiger reckon those who prophesied among the followers of Paul, and those speaking with tongues among the followers of Peter; while Dähne regards the latter as Alexandrine fanatics of the Christ-party.—Now concerning spiritual things.—τῶν πνευματικῶν is to be construed as neuter, according to the analogy of 1Co_14:1; and is not to be interpreted solely of the gift of tongues [as Billr., de Wette, Stanley], concerning which he is not now speaking exclusively; but of spiritual things generally, i.e., of such effects as were wrought by the Holy Ghost, whether ordinary graces and virtues, or supernatural phenomena proceeding from Him and belonging within His sphere. What is said in 1Co_14:37 [to which Grot., Ham., Locke, allude], might seem to sustain the masculine construction here, making the word apply to inspired persons in general (πνεῦμα ἔχοντες), or those speaking with tongues (γλώσσαις λαλοῦντες), provided the Corinthians had been wont to designate them especially by this term. But the predominant reference is, on the whole, to the phenomenon itself (comp. 1Co_12:31; 1Co_14:1; 1Co_14:39); and to restrict it to one class of persons is demanded neither by the allusion to dumb idols in 1Co_12:2, nor by the drift of the whole paragraph, which aims to correct the excessive estimation of that gift.—brethren, I would not have you ignorant.—Comp. on 1Co_10:1. He here gives them to understand both the subject of his instructions, and also that they needed enlightenment respecting the nature, origin, worth and use of these operations of the Spirit. To this necessity he points in the following verse, where he reminds the Corinthian converts (who formed the main body of the Church) of their former heathen state—a state of inexperience in regard to the revelation of the living God and the Spirit’s influences, and of a blind passivity in religious things—a state which disqualified them for an accurate judgment respecting these new experiences, unless carefully instructed. Burger states the connection thus: ‘the power which once influenced you as heathen is now broken; another influence has now poured itself forth upon you, of which you are made aware by these gifts of the Spirit. And now, be it understood, that this Spirit has fixed and uniform purposes and signs, and does not scatter itself in a variety of discordant relations and services such as you were involved in amid the distractions of heathenism. The one abiding centre of all spiritual operations is Jesus.—Ye know that when.—In the best authorities the reading is or ὄτι ὄτε, that when. If we adopt this, we must either suppose an anacoluthon here, on the assumption that after writing ὄτε, when, Paul lost sight of the ὄτι, that, and proceeded directly with the following words in connection with ὄτε, when; so that the construction would be—ye know that when ye were Gentiles, carried away to dumb idols as ye were led—(ὡς ᾶν ἤγεσθε, where the ᾶν indicates what ordinarily happens; comp. Passow I., p. 156). Or, with Bengel, we may construe the ὡς ᾶν, as in 2Co_10:9, by tanquam, quasi, as it were, thus softening the strong expression ἤγεσθε,were led, which would then be taken in connection with ὄτι, that, as the predicate of the main clause; while ἀπαγόμενοι would come in as a side qualification, indicating that they suffered themselves to be thus led. In this case the sentence would read—‘that ye, when ye were Gentiles, were in a manner led away to dumb idols.’—[Alford supposes an ellipsis of τόν χρόνον, the time, while ὄτι virtually drops away as a part of the formula, οἴδατεὄτι, q. d., ‘ye remember the time when ye were’]. At all events, the word ἤγεσθε [which here expresses the main point to which he would call attention] indicates a power foreign to one’s own conscious self-determination, whether it be that of a blind enthusiasm, or of some impulse of nature not as yet overruled by what is truly Divine, or even of demoniac influence. The last agrees well with 1Co_8:5; 1Co_10:20; Eph_2:2, and can be assumed to co-exist with blind enthusiasm and natural impulse. To imagine any reference to the blinding influence of priestcraft would hardly do, since there was very little of this apparent in the religion of the Greeks. In the expression, ἀπαγόμενοι, being carried away, we are not to suppose any figurative allusion, either as to a criminal led to execution, or to a victim reluctantly dragged to the slaughter, thereby showing the worthlessness or the unluckiness of the sacrifice. It is not to this that the context points, but rather to the readiness with which they allowed themselves to be led aside from the right into the wrong way—a matter which needed not to be directly stated in the context, but which lies in the very nature of the case, as the Apostle regards it, and as he teaches those whom he instructed to regard it. So the term is used also in classic writers (comp. Passow I., p. 292). The idols to whose altars and temples they were led, whether to sacrifice, or to pray, or to consult, are termed ἄφωνα voiceless, dumb (comp. Hab_2:18 f.; Psa_115:5; Psa_135:16) in contrast with the living God who reveals Himself by word, and through His Spirit imparts the gift of speaking in prophecy.—Wherefore—i.e., suitably to their necessities. In order that they may form a correct judgment in relation to the Spirit’s operations, especially in relation to utterances proceeding from this source, he gives them the chief token of speaking by the Holy Ghost; and first, negatively,—no man speaking by the Spirit of God saith, ‘cursed is Jesus,’—i.e., speaking in the Spirit excludes all cursing of Jesus; hence, where this takes place, there can be no speaking in the Spirit; next positively,—no man is able to say ‘Lord Jesus,’ save in the Holy Spirit.—The confession of Jesus as Lord is to be attributed to the Holy Spirit as its source, since only in Him is such a thing possible (comp. 1Jn_4:2 ff.). The distinction between the text here and that in John, according to Bengel, is that Paul furnishes a token of the true inspiration as against the heathen; but John, as against false prophets. The expression “in the Spirit,” ἐν πνεύματι (comp. Mat_22:43; Mar_12:36) indicates the conscious exercise of our faculties in the element of the Spirit—a thorough pervading of the soul by the Spirit in the act of speaking. “’Ανάθεμα ’Ιησοῦν, anathema Jesus, is an expression of the fanatical rejection of Christ, such as might occur in moments of devilish excitement in Jews or heathen.’ Ανάθεμα, in its original signification, is the same as ἀνάθημα, any thing devoted; but it is especially used in a bad sense, denoting that which is devoted to destruction by God, just like חרם in the O. T., and sacer among the Romans. In the synagogue it designated that which was doomed to utter excommunication; hence its meaning is accursed.” Neander. [“He says, not Christ, which term designates the office, and is in some measure the object of faith, but Jesus, the personal name designating the historical person whose life was matter of fact. The curse and the confession are in this way far deeper”]. The idea that in the latter clause it was Paul’s intention to avert contempt from those speaking with tongues, is a groundless assumption, since no trace of such contempt appears; and it belongs with the arbitrary supposition that he here had especially in mind the gift of tongues. In 3 Ed. Meyer says: “It is possible that amid the various forms and even distortions of spiritual discourse at Corinth, public opinion may have varied as to who could be properly regarded as the speaker of the Spirit, and who not. Over against all arbitrary, ambitious and exclusive judgments on this point the Apostle expresses himself the more forcibly the broader he makes the specific sphere of spiritual discourse to appear, and the more simply and definitely he lays down its specific characteristic.” The expression “anathema Jesus” may be taken either as a wish, ‘let him be anathema,’ or as a declaration: ‘he is anathema,’ thus referring to the fact that He suffered death upon the cross as one accursed (comp. Gal_3:13). Then it would essentially agree with the term “blaspheme” in Act_26:11. The contrast with this extreme of unbelief is given in the key-word of faith “Jesus is Lord,” wherein the Messiahship of Jesus is acknowledged, and that too as a dignity divine (comp. Rom_10:9). [“The confession includes the acknowledgment that He is truly God and truly man. What the Apostle says is, that no man can make this acknowledgment, but by the Holy Ghost. This of course does not mean that no one can utter these words unless under special Divine influence; but it means that no one can truly believe and openly confess that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, unless he is enlightened by the Spirit of God. This is precisely what our Lord Himself said when Peter confessed Him to be the Son of God. “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven,” Mat_16:17. Hodge].
1Co_12:4-7. He here enters upon the more definite exposition of his subject. After having presented a true test of a genuine utterance by the spirit, he points to the diversity of the spirit’s operations, which yet converge to one end, even as they all have but one actuating principle. The advance in his argument, or perhaps, also, the contrast between the diversity he is about to speak of with the one fundamental characteristic mentioned in 1Co_12:3, is denoted by a δἐ.—But there are distributions.—By διαιρέσεις is meant either distributions (comp. διαιροῦν 1Co_12:11) which would make this clause imply that one gift was imparted to one person, and another to another; or distinctions, diversities (comp. Rom_12:6, χαρίσματα διάφορα). Both renderings amount to about the same thing. The former, however, which ought to be preferred on account of 1Co_12:11, involves the latter. [This expression is repeated three times in connection with three different classes of objects—χαρίσματα, διακονίαι, ενεργν́ματα severally rendered gifts, ministries, operations]. But what are we to understand by these terms? Much the same thing? as though the Christian virtues, of which he speaks afterwards, were contemplated from three different points of view; first, as gifts of divine grace, as elements of the new life which, with all its varied capacities, is mediated by the indwelling Spirit of God; secondly, as ministries,—means or instruments by which one member contributes to the good of another; or, as Meyer says, wherewith Christ is served—“that same Lord to whom service is thus rendered,”—contrary to the analogy of the other clauses; thirdly, as effects in which the gifts manifest their efficiency? Or thus, that the second and third classes are subordinated to the first—“services” and “operations” being the two characteristic forms in which the “gifts” are exercised, and in which these exhibit themselves, viz., as services in their relation to Christ, and as operations in relation to their effects, whether miraculous or not? (Meyer).—Or does the Apostle allude to various sorts of the Spirit’s operations, such are afterwards particularly specified in 1Co_12:8 ff.—so that by “gifts” we are to understand “the word of wisdom and of knowledge, prophecy, divers kinds of tongues,” and the capabilities belonging thereto, and intended for instruction; and by “services,” “the helps and governments,” &c., appertaining to the management and polity of the’ church (1Co_12:28); and by “operations,” the miraculous powers mentioned in 1Co_12:10, and the faith of 1Co_12:9, among which we find the gifts of healing reckoned, but which are expressly referred back to the first class of “gifts,” showing by this very circumstance the arbitrariness of the interpretation? Since the first of these methods of construction has also its difficulties, and “ministries” cannot be included under the head of “gifts,” another mode of interpretation and arrangement is required. The χαρίσματα, gifts are qualifications or capabilities peculiar to Christianity (comp. on 1Co_1:7)—[“Eminent endowments of individuals in and by which the Spirit dwelling in them manifested Himself:—and these either directly be stowed by the Holy Ghost Himself, as in the case of healing, miracles, tongues, and prophesying, or previously granted them by God in their unconverted state, and now inspired, hallowed, and potentiated for the work of building up the church, as in the case of teaching, exhortation, knowledge. Of all these gifts faith working by love was the necessary substratum or condition.” Alford].—” And here we must distinguish between such gifts as are repeated throughout all time, and such as involved the supernatural also in form according to the peculiarity of the first century. Hence we see the erroneousness of Living’s stand-point by whom the restoration of all the gifts collectively was desired for the regeneration of the church, just as they existed in the apostolic period. But we, at any rate, will recognize in those gifts the types of such as shall exist always in the Christian church, only, indeed, in another form.” Neander. The διακονίαι, ministries, are the manifold offices or functions in the church, (understood in their widest sense) in which these “gifts” were employed, and which indicate a division in the spheres of labor corresponding with these “gifts.” [“These must not be narrowed to the ecclesiastical orders, but kept commensurate in extent with the gifts which are to find scope by these means, see 1Co_12:7-10.” Alford]. Finally the ἐνεργήματα, operations are the various effects resulting from the exercise of the “gifts” in these particular “ministries.” [“These are not to be limited to miraculous effects, but understood commensurately with the gifts of whose working they are the results.” Alford]. Very instructive is the reference of the first of these classes—the gifts—to the Spirit as the principle which reforms the inward man, and qualifies and disposes our natural endowments for carrying forward the objects of God’s kingdom, awakening, developing, and sanctifying them for their several uses—but the same Spirit,—sc., ὁ διαιρῶν comp. 1Co_5:11, who distributes them as He will; and so also the reference of the various ministries or offices to Christ as the Head of the Church from whom its organization and regulation proceed (comp. Eph_4:11),—but the same Lord,—sc., ὁ διαιρῶν, who appoints and assigns individuals to them as He will; and not less that of the operations to the all-working God,—but the same God.—And He in consistency with the term “operations” (ἐνεργήματα) is represented as the one who worketh (ὁ ἐνεργῶν) all things in all.—This clause may be taken in its widest sense, as referring to God’s activity in the universe; or it may be interpreted more restrictedly, in relation to the gifts and ministries above specified; or, which might be more correct, in relation solely to the operations spoken of in this clause; since God is the efficient cause of all the effects which are produced by those who, by virtue of the gifts of the Spirit, work in the various offices of the church. What is here affirmed of God is not in conflict with that asserted in 1Co_12:24, where God is said to be the one who tempers the body together; since it is God who ordains and fixes all things, even what the Spirit inwardly works, and what Christ ordains in the church. Nor, in like manner does that which is said of Christ in Eph_4:7., that “grace is given to every one according to the measure of the gift of Christ,” derogate from what is here ascribed to the Spirit. Christ is the one who commissions the Spirit (Joh_15:26) and all the effects of the Spirit refer back to Him. [“Thus we have God the Father, the First Source and Operator of all spiritual influence in all; God the Son, the Ordainer in His Church, of all ministries by which this influence may be legitimately brought out for edification; God the Holy Ghost, dwelling and working in the Church, and effectuating in each man such measure of His gifts as He sees fit.” Alford. “Once are these Three known thus solemnly to have met, at the creating of the world. Once again, at the Baptism of Christ, the new creating it. And here now the third time, at the Baptism of the Church with the Holy Ghost. Where, as the manner is at all baptisms, each bestoweth a several gift or largess on the party baptized, that is, on the church; for whom and for whose good all this dividing and all this manifesting is. Nay, for whom and for whose good the world itself was created, Christ Himself baptized, and the Holy Ghost visibly sent down.” Wordsworth]. Having thus set forth the diversities and the one fixed ground of these gifts, he proceeds to point out the one chief end of the manifold operations of the Spirit.—But to each one,—i.e. , who is endowed. This stands first by way of emphasis. With this, again, the idea of diversified allotments is again taken up, but only as related to the unity of purpose. That which is given to each one He calls—the manifestation of the Spirit,—by which the unity of the actuating principle is again specified. But it is doubtful whether the Spirit is to be regarded as manifesting Himself, or as being manifested. The latter accords with the use of the word in 2Co_4:2, the only place where φανέρωσις elsewhere occurs in the New Testament. That in this way too much would be conceded to human self-activity, is a groundless objection, which is already set aside by the use of the verb “is given,” with which also the other construction better suits. What is meant is, that each one manifests the Spirit dwelling and working in him through the exercise of gifts. [Wordsworth unites both ideas. “These spiritual gifts are the manifestations of the Spirit actively, because by these the Spirit manifesteth the will of God unto the church, these being the instruments and means of conveying the knowledge of salvation unto the people of God. And they are the manifestations of the Spirit passively too; because where any of these gifts, especially in any eminent sort, appeared in any person, it was a manifest evidence that the Spirit of God wrought in him. As we read in Act_10:45-46, They of the circumcision were astonished when they saw that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. If it be demanded. But how did that appear? It followeth in the next verse, For they heard them speak with tongues, etc. The spiritual gift, then, is a manifestation of the Spirit, as every other sensible effect is a manifestation of its proper cause”].—for the common profit.—συμφέρον denotes: the good of the Church, its edification. [“This is the common object of all these gifts. They are not designed exclusively or mainly for the benefit, much less for the gratification of their recipients; but for the good of the Church. Just as the power of vision is not for the benefit of the eye, but for the man. When, therefore, the gifts of God, natural or supernatural, are perverted as means of self-exaltation or aggrandizement, it is a sin against their giver, as well as against those for whose benefit they were intended.”—Hodge]. πρός as in 1Co_7:35.
1Co_12:8-11. He here proceeds to unfold in detail what is said in 1Co_12:7, appealing to facts as they existed in the Church. Hence the γἀρ, which is explanatory.—For to one indeed.—In ᾧ μέν=τῷ μέν the old demonstrative use of ὁς appears (comp. passow. II, p. 1545). In what follows the expressions denoting the various parties to whom the distribution has been made, occur interchangeably. We have ἐτέρωδέ and ἀλλω̣δὲ. Since the former indicates a stronger difference than the latter, there is a disposition to mark out the chief divisions according to these, so as to make three classes of gifts in the enumeration (see Meyer). [I. Gifts having reference to intellectual power: 1, the “word of wisdom;” 2, “the word of knowledge.” II. Gifts conditioned on an exalted faith: 1, faith itself; 2, practical workings of faith—viz.: a. healings; b. powers; 3, oral working of the same—viz.: prophecy; 4, critical working of the same—viz.: the discernment of Spirits. III. Gifts having reference to tongues: 1, speaking with tongues; 2, interpretation of tongues18]. But shall we assign prophecy and the discernment of spirits to that class of gifts which are conditioned on a heroic faith? This will hardly do. We will here state in advance our ideas of whether and how the classification can be made. First, we have two gifts evidently belonging together, or nearly related, viz.: “the word of wisdom” and “the word of knowledge.”—Λόγος thus rendered “word” means lit. discourse; according to the sense here, a capacity for discoursing; and the words in connection denote the subject matter of discourse. But there is a difficulty in distinguishing between wisdom and knowledge. Certainly we cannot admit the view which takes λόγος σοφίας, the discourse of wisdom, as=to σοφία λόγου, the wisdom of discourse, 1Co_1:17, and which interprets λόγος γνώσεως as meaning knowledge communicated in the simplest style. Rather, we might take the distinction between these two to be that of theoretical and practical knowledge. But then it would be doubtful by which term the one and the other was denoted. Paul’s usage declares for our taking γνώσις, knowledge, theoretically (in opposition to which the practical import is plainly to be assumed in 1Pe_3:7; 2Pe_1:5 f.); but σοφία, wisdom, can by no means be understood in a practical sense; in support of which only Col_4:5 may possibly be adduced, and also the adjective “wise” (σόφος) in Rom_16:19; 1Co_3:10; Eph_5:15. According to Meyer, σοφία denotes the higher Christian wisdom in and for itself, which is not to cease, even at the coming of our Lord; while γνώσις (1Co_13:8), knowledge, denotes a speculative insight into truths, their philosophical exposition through the processes of the intellect. According to Osiander, “wisdom” is the apprehension of Divine truth in its totality—of the aims and purposes of God, of the plans and operations of salvation, of the entire scheme of redemption in its inward connection as a well organized Divine system; but “knowledge” is the clear apprehension of particular things Divinely imparted through an inward appropriation and experimental acquaintance (comp. Joh_6:69; Joh_17:3; Php_3:8)—the former being rather the objective, extensive, all-comprehensive form of knowledge, the latter the subjective, intensive, and special form. Adhering now essentially to both these interpretations, we take “wisdom” to denote the direct intuition into Divine mysteries, and “knowledge” as that kind of apprehension which is gained by reflection, and which therefore belongs only to the present dispensation. [So substantially Hodge and Alford. “According to Neander, ‘wisdom’ is the skill which is able to reduce the whole practical Christian life into its due order, in accordance with its foundation principles (see Plant. and Train., p. 444, 445); ‘knowledge,’ the theoretical insight into Divine things; and similarly Olsh. and Billroth. But Bengel, et al., take them conversely—‘knowledge’ for the practical, ‘wisdom’ for the theoretical. Both, as de Wette remarks, have their grounds in usage. ‘Wisdom’ is practical, Col_1:9, as is ‘knowledge’ in Rom_15:14, but they are theoretical respectively in 1Co_1:17 ff; 1Co_8:1. Estius explains ‘the discourse of wisdom,’ gratiam de iis quæ ad doctrinam religionis ac pietatis spectant disserendi ex causis supremis,—as 1Co_2:6 f.;—and ‘the word of knowledge,’ he says, ‘gratia est disserendi de rebus Christians religionis, ex iis quæ sunt humanæ scientiæ vel experientiæ.” Alford].—To another—ἐτερῷ δέ—faith.—Not that faith which receives salvation in Christ, i.e., justifying faith, but a strong confidence in the Divine omnipotence, or in the power of Christ, as able to make itself manifest in extraordinary deeds, or to afford and insure help of a supernatural kind; or, in other words, a confidence which shall enable a man to perform these deeds or to afford this help (comp. 1Co_13:2; Mat_17:20; Mat_21:21). Osiander says, “the fides miraculosa, which could display itself in fervent effectual prayer, also in extraordinary joyfulness and confidence amid dangers and sufferings, or in readiness to undergo the same. Bengel defines it as “a very earnest and most present apprehension of God, chiefly in His will as to the effects particularly conspicuous either in the kingdom of nature or of grace.” [Alford says, “a faith enabling a man to place himself beyond the region of mere moral certainty, in the actual realization of things believed, in a high and unusual manner.” Hodge: “A higher measure of the ordinary grace of faith. Such a faith as enabled men to become confessors and martyrs, and which is so fully illustrated in Heb_11:33-40. This is something as truly wonderful as the gift of miracles ”].—To another—ἄλλω δὲ—the gifts of healings,—i.e. , for healing divers diseases, hence the plural ἰαμάτων, of healings. In one a capacity for healing one class of diseases, and in another for healing another class, by word and prayer, and the laying on of hands (comp. Mar_16:18; Act_4:18, ἐν).—and to another—ἀλλω̣ δὲ—the workings of miracles.—ἐνεργήματα a passive noun, which, if construed strictly, would denote the things wrought by miraculous power; Hodge translates the clause, effects which are miraculous, and here the effect is put for the cause, viz., the ability to work miracles]. The miracles here are of a still different kind from those of healing, such as the expulsion of devils, raising the dead, and, according to Calvin and others, judicial inflictions also, as in Act_5:5; Act_5:9; according to Olshausen, operations as in Mar_16:18; Act_28:5 [the safe handling of serpents and deadly things]. Meyer understands it of miraculous effects of all kinds (comp. Act_4:30), and not simply healings. How a speculative rationalism interprets these charisms or gifts, may be seen from Dr. Baur’s Paulus, p. 559 f. “Faith,” he explains as a peculiarly strong trust in Providence; “gifts of healing” mean no more than the ability to pray with peculiar power and earnestness in behalf of the sick, with more or less assurance of their recovery, if they please God; and the “operations of miracles,” are the proofs of extraordinary strength of soul and vital power in respect to the deeper things of Christianity. The relation of these three charisms to the Spirit is expressed by three different prepositions: διά, through; κατά, according to; ἐν, in. The phrase—through the Spirit—then designates the Spirit as the power which mediates the Divine bestowments,—according to the same spirit—as the power which disposes and regulates them,—in the same spirit—as the power in which the charism is founded.—Distinct from these three Charisms are the two following,—and to another prophecy, and to another discerning of spirits,—the latter corresponding with the former. These cannot in any case be referred, as by Meyer, to a heroic faith; for the prophecy alluded to in Rom_12:6, “whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the analogy of faith,” is of a different sort. Prophecy here (comp. 1Co_11:3) means the announcement of things hidden by means of a Divine revelation or inspiration—in other words, the ability obtained by the illumination of the Spirit, or through the opening of the spiritual vision by Him, to unfold the onward progress of the kingdom of God,—especially its future developments, or even to open up the mysteries of the inner and outer life. The inspiration in this case is not a blind rhapsodic excitement, but one united with a clear self-consciousness and the free exercise of the faculties (comp. 1Co_14:32 f.); and the discourse is carried on in an exalted and earnest, yet perfectly intelligible strain. By the side of this enlightening (1Co_14:24), awakening, invigorating, inspiring operation of the Spirit, there stands a judicial and critical power, “discerning of Spirits,” i. e., an ability to distinguish true prophecy from the false, in the same or in different subjects,—to discern between the pure inspiration of the divine Spirit and the impure excitements either of the natural man or of demoniac agencies—an ability which includes in itself a susceptibility for prophecy and an ability to enter into prophetic ecstasy. The demand for such discrimination is indicated in 1Th_5:21; 1Jn_4:1. “[It appears, especially from the epistles of the Apostle John that pretenders to inspiration were numerous in the apostolic age. He therefore exhorts his readers, “to try the Spirits, whether they be of God; for many false prophets are gone out into the world.” It was therefore of importance to have a class of men with the gift of discernment, who could determine whether a man was really inspired, or spoke only either from the impulse of his own mind or from the dictation of some evil Spirit.” Hodge]. The plural “spirits” is to be referred either to different agencies at work in prophecy, viz., the divine, the human, the demonic; or to the manifold operations of the Spirit and by metonymy, to those inspired by the Spirit. The correct interpretation is problematical. The enumeration concludes,—and to another, divers kinds of tongues and to another the interpretation of tongues.—By γένη, kinds, he indicates the diversity there was in the tongues—a diversity of race, family, species and modes. But what is meant by the word “tongues” (γλῶσσαι) is much disputed. I. The older exposition proceeds from the definition language, and appeals for support to the promise of Christ, Mar_16:17 “they shall speak with now tongues” and to the miracle of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2. It understands this gift to be an ability to speak in various unacquired foreign languages under the influence of the Spirit which for the moment dissolved all bounds of language, and transported the subjects of it into a state of ecstasy, thereby symbolizing the universality of the Gospel. This view later commentators have modified; some explaining the circumstance to be a speaking or worshipping in acquired languages, falsely regarded as a charism (Fritzsche); and others asserting that by the power of the Spirit these Christians had been qualified to speak in the original language—a language which contained the elements or rudiments of the various historical languages, and was the type of the broad general character of Christianity (Bilroth).—Others, who reject the older interpretation as not well sustained, partly because of the impossibility of the thing itself, or at least because it was wholly uncalled for by the circumstances of the Corinthians, and partly because irreconcilable with the various expressions and statements of our paragraph (comp. on chap. 14.), have abandoned the meaning language, on the assumption either that the phenomenon at Pentecost was different in kind from that here spoken of [that being evidently a speaking in foreign languages, intelligible to the hearers, while this needed interpretation], or that the account in Acts [being much later than our epistle] was a perverted tradition of the original facts. But these interpreters themselves start from different significations of the word in question. II. Some take it to mean glosses, i.e.., highly poetic words and forms that are obsolete or provincial, [(a sense in which the term is used by the Greek grammarians; see Arist. Rhet. iii. 2. § 14)] (Bleek); or, uncommon and striking expressions, differing from common usage and partly taken from foreign languages, employed to assist the utterance of the Spirit which was struggling for expression under the stress of overflowing feelings (Baur)—an interpretation which is certainly foreign to the New Testament, and which in particular passages is fraught with great difficulties. III. Others, hold fast to the other fundamental meaning of the term, viz., tongue as the organ of speech. In their view the gift implied the special use of this organ for expression, 1. either in its cruder form, as the babbling of inarticulate tones [where the tongue moved and not the lips] (Eichhorn and others); or 2. as an ecstatic speaking in low, scarcely audible, inarticulate words, tones, sounds, whereby the inspired Spirit gave vent to itself (Wieseler)—a view which is decisively opposed by 1Co_14:18; or 3. as an act of worship by means of ecstatic exclamations, and snatches of hymns of praise and other outbursts of prayer, where the tongue no longer served as an organ of conscious intelligence, but moved independently and involuntarily under the impulse of the Spirit (Dr. Schultz, de Wette, Meyer and others); or 4 as an inspired utterance in which the conscious intellect was held in abeyance and the spirit of the worshipper overpowered and ravished by the might of the Spirit, gushed forth in words and sentences involuntarily forced upon him, which were unintelligible to those of his hearers who were not possessed of the same inspiration. We shall revert to this point hereafter, [see chap. 14]. Since this speaking with tongues was unintelligible to the congregation, it was necessarily supplemented by another gift, viz., “the interpretation of tongues.” This was the ability to translate this unintelligible utterance into a language known to all, and so to explain its meaning—an ability which implied the power of bringing the understanding (υοῦς) to bear upon the meaning of the things wrought by the Spirit, and thus to consciously apprehend them. This charism belonged either to the person himself who spoke with tongues (comp. 1Co_14:5; 1Co_14:13), or, as one passage intimates, to a distinct class.
Having thus enumerated the several gifts, he once more refers in 1Co_12:11 to the one original principle from which they proceeded, the oneness of which is brought out emphatically in the expression “the one and the same.”—All these things works one and the same Spirit.—What he asserted of God in 1Co_12:6, he here ascribes to the Spirit,—ἐνεργεῖ, he works, so that the Spirit here appears as a creative power—as the Spirit of God working divinely. As in this verb we have the import of the prepositions “in” and “through” (1Co_12:9; 1Co_12:8) again brought out, so that of the other preposition “according to,” 1Co_12:8, is again resumed in the participial clause,—distributing, etc.—The Spirit is here represented as a voluntary regulating power, in terms which show Him to be not a blind energy, but a self-conscious, intelligent agent.—As he wills—not arbitrarily, but, in perfect consistency with classic usage, according to a rational and discriminating self-determination which decides its action upon the grounds and purposes of a divine wisdom and love.—to each one severally,—in so far as He imparts to each one something special, so that each one has a charism of his own by which he is distinguished from others with their endowments. This is in accordance with that principle of individualization which pervades the whole economy of creation. The divine idea pours itself forth in a rich variety of forms which again combine to supplement each other in the exercise of that same divine love which ruled in their creation. This is what the apostle further sets forth in an instructive analogy, whereby it would seem he aimed to counteract alike the disparagement as well as the overestimate of particular gifts—shall we add also, the misapprehension of the divine principle therein? At any rate there is no argument here against referring the gifts to a variety of originating causes or principles (Mosheim).
1Co_12:12-13. He here proceeds to explain or confirm what is stated in 1Co_12:11. The unity of the in-working Spirit in the variety of His gifts to the Church corresponds to the unity of the Church itself in the variety of its members as typified in our physical organization.19 [This thought is again further developed in 1Co_12:14, so as to exhibit the organic character of the spiritual gifts, and their supplementary connection with each other. First, the organic unity of the church is likened to that of the body, showing that the unity is one which does not exclude diversity, and, on the other hand, diversity as not conflicting with unity.—For as the body is one, and yet.—By reason of the contrast between the one and the many the καί should be rendered, and yet,—has many members, and all members of the body.—The word “body” is here repeated by way of emphasis, in order to indicate in advance the unity of the members amid the plurality,—(although) being many—πολλὰ ὄντα—is to be translated concessively,—are one body.—Short and pregnant is the concluding clause,—so also is Christ,—not Christ in His distinctive personality, but as including the church in Himself as His living organism. As Augustine says, totus Christus caput et corpus est. “The whole Christ includes both head and body.” “What the state is in its own sphere as a moral person possessed of corporate rights, that the church is in its sphere; and the name of its collective personality is Christ.”. W. F. Besser. “In the view of the Apostle, Christ is the archetype of a new and glorified humanity as it is developed in the church. Hence the development of the Christian Church is nothing less than the progressive development of the image of Christ.” Neander. (Comp. Eph_1:23; Eph_5:30). That here the plurality constitutes a unity is exhibited by a reference to the facts by which a church-life is constituted. The first and foremost of these is baptism (comp. Eph_4:5)—a transaction which involves also the dispensation of the Spirit. (Comp. Joh_1:33; Joh_3:5; Tit_3:5).—for also—The καί belongs either to the whole clause, or to the words immediately following, q. d., ‘the union is not simply by external bonds, but also through the Spirit.’ (Meyer).—in one Spirit have we all been baptized.—The Spirit is here represented as the element into which the baptized have been transferred, and in which as the result of their baptism they ever after live and move (Act_2:38; Act_19:5-6).—A further consequence of this is the formation of one body;—into one body—i.e., ‘so as to become one body;’ or, ‘in order to become one body;’ thus stating the object for which the Spirit wrought in it. The latter is to be preferred as the simpler form.—whether Jews or Greeks, bond or free.—Here the strongest contrasts of national, religious, and social life are specially mentioned as illustrating the mighty unific power of the Spirit in abolishing them.—“The higher unity designated is an all comprehensive one. It does not destroy the distinctions of race and condition, but it assigns to them a suitable order, and overcomes them in their sharp and selfish antagonisms. Jews and Greeks are to remain Jews and Greeks, yet they are to subordinate their national peculiarities to a higher Christian unity.” Neander.—and we all were made to drink one Spirit.—[ε͂ν πνεῦ μα ἐποτίσθημεν, for the construction of the ace, with a passive verb, see Jelf. § 545, 8, or Winer, P. III. § 32, 3; for the omission of the εἰς into, see critical notes]. This statement is parallel to the former. Accordingly some think they discover here a reference to the mystery of the Holy Supper as associated with baptism, [and helping to blend believers into one body], (comp. 1Co_10:4; 1Co_11:2). This reference is to be recognized in the reading εἰς ἕν πνε͂μα and ἕν πόμα. The objections to this are: 1, the praeterite ἐποτίσθημεν, were made to drink, [which denotes a past event],—and cannot be regarded as the aorist of custom, since it must be taken analogously with ἕβαπτίσθημεν were baptized; (so Billroth, Olsh. [Hodge]). 2, the contents of the clause itself; since nowhere else do we read of the Lord’s Supper, and still less of the drinking of the cup, as a means of partaking of one Spirit:—But if a union with Christ is effected in the Supper, and if the communion of His bodily life offered up for us cannot be separated from the communion of His divine life, then must there be in it also an imparting of the Spirit as in baptism; and, moreover, since the Spirit is exhibited to us under the figure of a flowing stream, e.g., ‘the outpouring of the Spirit,’ Acts 2; ‘the living water which Christ gives,’ Joh_7:37, ff. (comp. 1Co_4:14) it was natural that Paul should select this part of the supper, and not the eating of the bread as specially indicating our participation in the Spirit. If this explanation holds, we must then suppose the aorist ἐποτίσθημεν to have been used in conformity with the parallel ἐβαπτίσθημεν, and because he was speaking of the participation in the Spirit not as a continuous act, but as something which, together with baptism, had already served to found the collective life of the church. Both are completed facts, by means of which the union of the church has been constituted in the Spirit. And here we may also distinguish between the operation of the Spirit laying the foundation of the work in baptism, and the intimate appropriation of the Spirit through the supper (comp. Osiander). If we reject the idea of an allusion to the supper, then we either lose the parallelism with the verb “were baptized,” or we must surrender also the idea of any allusion to the rite of baptism even here, and explain it simply of the copious effusion of the Spirit.20 But, at any rate, it is strange that after he had spoken of the one Spirit as that on which our being baptized into one body is founded he should again so emphatically speak of participating in the same (as Meyer: “The reception of the one Spirit in baptism is once more emphatically expressed ”). “It is clear from this passage that Paul considers the unity of the church not as something formed from without, but as fashioned from within.” Neander.
1Co_12:14-26. The proposition that the unity of organization includes, rather than excludes, a plurality of membership, is next carried out in relation to the human body, and that too in a way to suggest practical instructions in respect to the organization of spiritual gifts in the church. The first lesson is a dissuasive against discontent on account of the smallness of the gift, and against a consequent disposition to withdraw from the church either in jealousy or in self-disparagement, as though persons so feebly endowed could do nothing towards integrating the body. The several members are here introduced as holding colloquy to this effect in a highly dramatic style. Something like this is to be found in the apology of Menenius Agrippa; Livy, II. § p. 32.—For the body is not one member, but many.—[“The word ‘member’ means a constituent part, having a function of its own. It is not merely a multiplicity of parts that is necessary to the body; nor a multiplicity of persons that is necessary to the church; but, in both cases, what is required is a multiplicity of members in the sense just stated. No one of these is complete in itself. Each represents something that is not so well represented in the others. Each has its own function to exorcise, and work to perform, which could not so well be accomplished without it. It is only when the hand undertakes to turn the foot out of the body that the foot is bound in self-defence, and for the good of the whole, to defend its rights.” Hodge].—If the foot shall say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body. The final clause οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο οὐκ έ̓στιν ἐκτοῦ σώματος may be either taken as a question [Alford, Hodge]; in which case the double negative would be equivalent to a single one, [Winer § 59, 8 b.], and this would indeed be a more lively way of constructing the sentence; but whether grammatically allowable is doubtful. Or it may be taken as an affirmative clause, in which case, then, the οὐκέ̓στιν would form a distinct idea: ‘it is not on that account not of the body.’ [So Stanley, Lachm., Billr., Rück.].—παρὰ τοῦτο [instead of the more common διὰ τοῦτο] on this account, or more literally, ‘alongside of this.’ [Jelf. Greek Gr. , § 637, III. 3, d.]—If the ear shall say because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, it is not therefore not of the body.—As in comparison with the foot the hand is the nobler member, so is the eye in comparison with the ear. It is the hegemonical (ἡγεμόυικοι) or directing part of the body. The hand and foot denote the higher and lower gifts of service; the eye and the ear, the intellectual gifts. Particular explanations here are in any case questionable. [“The obvious duty here inculcated is that of contentment. It is just as unreasonable and absurd for the foot to complain that it is not the hand, as for one member of the church to complain that he is not another; that is, for a teacher to complain that he is not an apostle; or for a deaconess to complain that she is not a presbyter; or for one who had the gift of healing to complain that he had not the gift of tongues. This, as the Apostle shows, would destroy the very idea of the church.” Hodge]. That this undervaluation of the lesser gifts, and this excessive or exclusive estimate of the more notable gifts was altogether improper, is next shown from the fact that were the latter to exist alone, the body of Christ would lack some of its most essential functions.—If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? A gradation is here observed from the higher to the lower. In the terms “hearing” and “smelling” the organs are designated according to their functions; [or perhaps we might better say the functions are specified in order to set forth the importance of the organ through which they are performed. “The application of this idea to the church is plain. It also requires for its existence a diversity of gifts and offices. If all were apostles, where would be the Church?” or where the diaconate, or where the eldership?] In contrast with the condition of things arising from this, one-sided estimate of particular gifts he next exhibits the nature of a true organization as ordained by God.—But now,—i.e., as the case actually stands,—God set—έ̓θετο, not ‘made,’ but set, i.e., gave them a position, and a destination in accordance with it. The divine purpose here presents a silent contrast to the proud and selfish views and wishes of men as being one of perfect love and wisdom.—the members each one of them,—the latter expression is added in order to cut off all thought of exception in any particular.—in the body, as it hath pleased him.—[i.e., it is not man’s fancy that here rules, but the will of Him whose wisdom and right are unquestionable. In rebelling therefore against our place and appointment we are virtually rebelling against the Creator and rightful Disposer of all things].—And if they were all one member, where were the body?—The exclusive maintenance of one organ virtually destroys the whole organism; [and this naturally reacts to the prejudice of the organ itself: for where is the use or even the dignity of the organ without the body to which it is attached?]—But now are they indeed many members, but one body.—This is the character of all proper organization—plurality in unity.—He next in 1Co_12:21 rebukes the pride of the more highly gifted, and refutes their vain conceit of the dispensableness of the lesser gifts to them.—and the eye cannot.—οὐ δύναται, not “may not,” but absolutely cannot, because the hand is really indispensable to the eye,—say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you,—[He here exhibits “the mutual dependence of the members of the Church. The most gifted are as much dependent on those less favored as the latter are on the former. Pride, therefore, is as much out of place in the Church as discontent.” Hodge]. In contrast with the negative he next sets forth the positive side of the fact.—Nay, much more, those members of the body, which seem to be weaker, are necessary:—The adverbial phrase “much more” does not belong to the adjective “necessary,” q. d., ‘much more necessary,’ as this would involve an unsuitable thought; but to the whole clause, and carries the logical sense of far rather. The specific class of members here alluded to it is neither possible nor necessary to decide upon. [“They are best left undefined, as the Apostle has left them.” Stanley]. He certainly cannot mean the eye or the head, because of what is said in 1Co_12:21; neither could he intend to term the hands and the feet as seemingly weaker than the eye or the head. Other suppositions, such as that the brain and vitals were here alluded to [Hodge], are wholly uncertain; [at least, they are not naturally suggested]. To translate ἀσθενέστερα by smaller, is unwarrantable. [Afford understands by the phrase in question, “those members which in each man’s case appear to be the inheritors of disease, or to have incurred weakness. By this very fact their necessity to Him is brought out much more than that of the others.” But whatever may have been the specific thing had in view by the Apostle, the lesson is plain. The very weakliest in the Church—whether it be in body, mind, or estate—have their use, and are not to be despised or overlooked. The sick, if they cannot work, can pray. The poor are needful to the eliciting of charity. And the children, however helpless, cannot be spared from the fold, for they are the hope of the future].—and those members which we think to be more dishonorable.—It would be natural here to think of the arms, feet, and ears which people are wont to adorn with all kinds of ornaments. [But is there not an emphasis laid on the expression ‘we think,’ and a force in the term ἀτιμότερα, which point to other parts of the body which sin only has associated with a sense of shame, and which we are therefore more careful to honor by concealment?]—on them we bestow the more abundant honor,—i.e., by means of clothing or adornment. [“It is observed by Raphelius that τιμὴν περιτιθέναι signifies in general to give honor; but in this passage by a metonymy, to cover over with a garment that which, if seen, would have a disagreeable and unseemly appearance, and this is a kind of honor put upon them”]. The word περιτιθέναι often denotes dress (Mat_27:28; Gen_27:16 ff. [“by which passage τίμην may possibly have been suggested since it is here used by the LXX. for a covering of eyes.” Stanley]).—and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.—What are here meant cannot be doubted. [If the second explanation given above be the true one, we have here simply an expansion of the statement just preceding]. Our uncomely parts receive a more decorous regard than the other members, inasmuch as they are more carefully clothed as a matter of propriety. With all this he gives us to understand that the lesser gifts in the Church are not to be lightly esteemed and neglected; but should be treated with the greater consideration and care, because they are indispensable to the whole body, and the honor of the Church depends no less on the proper care of these than does the honor of the body upon the adorning of the less honorable, or the veiling of the uncomely members. [“It is an instinct of grace to honor most those members of the Church who least attract admiration.” Hodge]. By way of completeness he adds,—For our comely parts have no need:—i.e. , to have such care bestowed on them. [They are in fact in a measure neglected. The face goes uncovered, the hands and often the feet are left bare, because their exposure involves no disgrace].—But God hath tempered the body together,—There are two constructions here: 1. That of Lachmann and Meyer, who take this clause as directly antithetic to what precedes, and put only a comma after έ̓χει. In this case ἡμῶν would be dependent on οὐ χρείαν έ̓χει and stand in contrast with ὀθέος, so as to read: ‘our uncomely parts have no need of us; but God hath,’ etc. Such a construction, however, would not conform to the analogy of τὰ ἀσχήμονα ἡμῶν [and it is rejected by Alford, Stanley, and Wordsworth.] Or 2, which is preferable, a period may be put after ἐχει, and the clause may be regarded as a more comprehensive statement of the relation of the members to each other in their higher destination and composition, in contrast with the view previously taken of them separately, and presenting the whole from a teleological stand-point. Ἀλλὰ, but, would then have a strongly adversative meaning.—[In his reference to the work of “God” he takes us back to the original creation of man, and points to the primitive constitution of things]. Συνεκέρασεν indicates such a mutual adjustment of the parts in the body as shall counterbalance differences, so that one part shall qualify another. So κεράννυμι is used to denote a tempering of parts by mixture; then, a pleasant harmonizing of contrasts bringing out from them an agreeable manifoldness and interchange, (compare Passow I. 2, p. 1707).—By way of more exact definition he adds,—having given more abundant honor to that which lacked.—i.e., by making the uncomely parts essential to the well-being of the rest, and by diffusing a common life to all the members, so as to bring them into close sympathy one with another, and awaken in each an interest for all according to their several characters and conditions.—The object of this is next stated.—in order that there may be no schism in the body;—i.e., through the neglect of the inferior members on the part of the superior ones; or by the separation of the subordinate ones from the ruling members, because of their not receiving that consideration and care which is due to them as members of one body. There is an allusion here to the schisms in the Corinthian Church, whose influence was felt also in the matter of the gifts in so far as they served to undermine or weaken the common fellowship.—but that the members should care one for another.—The use of the plural μεριμνῶσιν after a neut. plural nominative, is owing to the fact of his having personified the members.—The same, τὸ αὐτό, i.e., in a harmony that is opposed to all schism by virtue of which each member has the same interest in charge, viz., the well being of all the rest. This thought is expressed still further by setting forth the mutual participation of all in the good or bad condition of the others severally, (comp. Rom_12:15).—And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it;—The verbs here fall away from their dependence on ί̓να, so as to indicate that the divine purpose before spoken of has already been realized. The conjunction “and” joins this lightly and yet closely to the final clauses, and to the main verb preceding, as a consequence resulting of itself, or establishing the truth of the case. The sympathy here spoken of implies not merely a common sense of the injury inflicted upon any one, but also an active effort to abate the pain and remove the cause. In this way the care, which one should take for the other, is properly carried out.—or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.—The honor here may be that which is conferred by apparel and ornament, and the like, as well as by the recognition of the beauty, strength, or utility thus obtained, on the part of the others (Meyer).—The ‘rejoicing’ is that satisfaction and sense of common well-being which arises by virtue of the organic connection between the members. But from this it does not follow that δοξάζεσθαι is=bene et feliciter haberi, “to be in prosperity and happiness” [Calvin]. Rather we might here suppose him to mean that fine development which ensues as the result of human care and divine providence (Osiander). On the whole, however, we had better abide by the common interpretation which well suits the personification employed, and the more so, because he is just passing over to the practical application. The Romish expositors with great impropriety deduce from the expression ‘rejoice with’ the doctrine of an overflow of merit from the saints upon the rest of the Church.—It is obvious from what has been said that Paul here meant to mortify the pride of the Corinthians who boasted of their more noted gifts, and did not take to heart the welfare or the suffering of the Church and its members.
1Co_12:27-28. He goes on to apply what has been said concerning the human body to his readers as a church of Christ, composed of individual members.—Now ye are the body of Christ—σῶμα χριστοῦ not a body of Christ, as though the churches were severally regarded as distinct bodies of Christ; rather each church is taken to represent the body of Christ, i.e., the whole of Christendom. Analogous to νάος θεοῦ, 1Co_3:6 [see Winer, § XIX. 2 b.]. The figure of the church as Christ’s body frequently occurs, Eph_1:23; Eph_2:16; Eph_4:4; Eph_4:12; Eph_4:16; Eph_5:23; Eph_5:30; comp. Col_1:18; Col_1:24; Col_2:19; Col_3:15. Of this body Christ is the ruling and quickening Head.—and members in particular.—This he adds to distinguish the individuals from the whole church collectively; since they, in their several capacities only, could be regarded as members. The expression ἐκ μέρονς may be rendered either individually in particular, as elsewhere κατὰ μέρος and ἐπὶ μέρους; or, as a more exact qualification, proportionately, according to the share which each one has in the body of Christ, according to his place and function in the collective organism (Meyer and Osiander). The former rendering is obviously the more correct. To explain this clause of local churches as parts of the whole church, or of those more spiritually endowed, as if they exclusively were members of the church, is altogether untenable. This general application is now unfolded in detail. Passing from the simple division expressed by οὓς μὲν to a statement of orders in their several gradations; hence no οὓς δέ follows (as in Eph_4:11).—And some God set in the church—i.e., the church as a whole, because of the mention of Apostles who were preëminent over the whole body.—first apostles—being possessed of the fulness of all gifts. These occupy the highest rank (comp. on 1Co_1:1). They include not merely the original twelve, but Paul also, who, in consequence of the direct calling of Christ, occupied the same position towards the churches converted from heathenism, which the others did towards the churches converted from the Jews. But whether Barnabas and the like are to be included also, is less certain. [These have no successors, not even in the bishops, who are supposed to be their spiritual lineage. “They were the immediate messengers of Christ, rendered infallible as teachers and rulers by the gift of plenary inspiration.” Hodge]. Next follow those who are limited to particular gifts, and are only indirectly called—secondly prophets, thirdly teachers.—These are distinguished just as the gift of inspired utterance through a direct revelation (comp. on 1Co_12:9) affording deeper glances into the spirit world, is distinguished from the acquired ability for calmly unfolding Christian truth and furthering its comprehension. While, as a general rule, the prophets (as well as the evangelists, Eph_4:11) occupy a more extended sphere of labor, standing in this respect more nearly to the Apostles (comp. Act_15:32), the teachers usually discharged their functions in particular churches (Eph_4:11). We find the two classes also associated in Act_13:1; but here those are included under the term teachers, who were called to a more comprehensive range of duty. Out of the above mentioned gifts the teacher possessed preëminently “the word of knowledge.”—From the concrete he next passes over into the abstract, designating not persons, but offices (reversing Rom_12:6 ff.); not because there was a lack of concrete terms, but for the sake of change. Neander says, however: “because the gifts he proceeds to enumerate were not so definitely and continuously connected with certain persons,” [“but were granted promiscuously to all orders in the church.” Alford].—after that miracles,—sc. ̓ έ̓θετο in the sense of έ̓δωκεν, gave.—after that gifts of healings,—See on 1Co_12:9.—helps, governments,—The mention of these supplements and fills out the catalogue of 1Co_12:8 ff. The things themselves belong to the more practical departments of church life. The former (comp. 2Ma_8:19; Sir_11:12, and the verb Luk_1:54; Act_20:35) denotes such assistance as is rendered by the diaconate for the relief of the poor and sick, etc.; and the second, the functions of church administration and polity as discharged by elders, bishops, pastors, rulers, presidents, or moderators. To refer the former to the higher department of government, because it stands first [as Stanley does, who says: “ἀντιλήψις, as used in the LXX., is not (like διακονὶα) help ministered by an inferior to a superior, but by a superior to an inferior (see Psa_89:18; Eccles. 11:12; 51:7)”], comports neither with the meaning of the word, nor with the circumstances of the primitive church; besides, the order of rank was given up, when the employment of abstract terms began.—lastly divers kinds of tongues.—This is mentioned last, not for the purpose of assigning the overestimated gift to the lowest place; for, as just said, the order of rank is not strictly followed in the enumeration; but rather because of its singularity (Meyer), or because he has to deal with this especially in his subsequent exposition (Osiander).—He passes over the gifts of ‘interpretation of tongues’ and ‘discernment of spirits,’ but mentions them again in 1Co_12:30, where, however, ‘helps and governments’ are omitted. Were it desirable now to classify the gifts and offices specified in this chapter, we might arrange them thus: 1. The gifts of knowledge, of word and of doctrine, viz., “the word of wisdom,” “the word of knowledge,” “teachers,” “prophets,” and “the discerning of spirits;” 2. Gifts of power and deed, viz., “miracles” and “healings,” with their root, “faith;” 3. Gifts of practical life, viz., “helps” and “governments;” 4. Gifts of ecstatic inspiration and utterance, viz., “divers kinds of tongues” supplemented by “the interpretation of tongues.” We might perhaps put under the same head “prophecy” and “speaking with tongues,” together with the gifts belonging to these, viz., gifts of direct inspiration manifesting itself, partly with a clear self-consciousness, as in prophecy, supplemented with the power of discernment for its eclaircissement and the maintenance of its purity; and partly, in ecstasy with unintelligible utterance, i.e.., speaking with tongues, supplemented with interpretation for the purpose of church edification, and so for the attainment of the great end for which all gifts were given—the general profit. To reckon the Apostles among the first class (Meyer), is hardly fit, since, in accordance with their high comprehensive position in the church, they embraced all the gifts in their possession. It must be affirmed, however, that more or less uncertainty must always attend this matter of classification, since there must have been a combination of different gifts oftentimes in the same person, e. g., the word of wisdom and prophecy.21
1Co_12:29-31. He continues his application, pronouncing still further against all exclusive regard for particular gifts; since it was impossible for all to have one alone, but diversity or distribution were necessary.—Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all miracles?—It is debated whether the last (δυνάμεις) is in the nominative or objective governed by have (έ̓χουσιν) in the next clause, which, were this so, would occupy a remarkable place in the series of questions. If, however, it be nominative, it is the abstract term for the concrete—‘workers of miracles’ (comp. Act_8:10; Col_1:16; Rom_8:38), just as we call men of great power, powers.—do all speak with tongues? do all prophesy? [“As in the body all is not eye, or all ear, so in the church all have not the same gifts and offices. These God distributes as He pleases; all are necessary and the recipients of them are mutually dependent. None must be discontented, none must boast.” Hodge]. Next follows an exhortation.—But—i.e., though all gifts have their value and are conferred by God, yet some are more valuable than others,—be zealous for—such can only be the meaning of the verb ζηλο ῦτε, as in 1Co_14:1; 1Co_14:39.—the better gifts,—or according to another reading (see critical notes)—the greater gifts.—By these he means those best suited to the attainment of the object of all gifts (1Co_12:7). This is a remarkable injunction when viewed in the light of 1Co_12:11, where the Spirit is said to “distribute unto each man severally as He will.” To reconcile the seeming inconsistency some interpret the ‘gifts’ here to mean moral Christian virtues, such as faith and love, which ought to be sought by all; but this is contrary to the use of the word in this epistle, and also to the context and the exposition which follows. Others interpret ζηλοῦτε as denoting zeal in improvement of the gifts bestowed, contrary to 1Co_14:1; 1Co_14:39 (Joe_2:18; Zechariah 1, 14; Zec_8:2; 2Sa_21:2, do not belong here). Others, again, translate this verb as in the indicative, q. d., ‘ye in your opinion are seeking;’ others, as a question continuous of that in ver.29, and regarding both as implying rebuke. But this does not suit; since in what follows nothing is set over against the thing rebuked; for the conjunction which follows is καὶ not δέ. Nor yet is there any need of such a construction. Neither can we construe the verb as implying merely a wish, desire or prayer; for this is contrary to the meaning of the word.—Paul is here speaking of the duty of cultivating in ourselves those powers and qualities which may be sanctified and exalted into charisms by the power of the Spirit, [“and we may notice that the greater gifts, those of prophecy and teaching, consisted in the inspired exercise of conscious faculties, in which culture and diligence would be useful accessories.” Alford]. This of course is far different from the effort which the Pantheists make to turn the exercises of their own spirits into a sort of divine revelation. What is inculcated is simply the preparation of the mind which fits it for the divine blessing, just as tillage prepares the soil for the genial influences of the sky. “Paul everywhere presupposes that the divine operation can never take place in man without a cooperating receptivity on his part.” Neander. That this endeavor should not be directed out of vanity to gifts less valuable because less subservient to the one great end of edification, but rather to those which are preëminent in this respect, does not conflict with that unenvying contentment which he had inculcated above; and it is in any case more in conformity with the meaning of the word ζηλοῦτε than if we said with Osiander, that it referred more to the exercise of the gifts already had, than to the seeking for them, whether we regard the exhortation as directed to the church as a whole which regulated the employment of the gifts, or to the individuals, endowed with them.—In this endeavor for the best gifts a vigorous spiritual life and a pious zeal for furthering the common welfare are apt to show themselves. This is indicated in what follows, when we are told that this zeal is displayed in the way of love which is the true guide of all these endeavors. As Neander says: “Paul shows us that the best way for discovering the better gifts is through love. In his estimation love is the standard by which the worth of the gifts is to be determined.”—And yet—besides exhorting you to be thus zealous—I show unto you a very excellent way.—καθ ὑπερβολβολὴν belongs to ὁδὸν, way, in the sense of ὐπερέχουσαν, superior, very excellent, as explained by Chrys. and Theoph., entirely in accordance with Greek usage. Bengel says: viam maxime vialem. If we connect it with the verb as in some versions, it yields no fitting sense, whether we translate it ‘abundantly,’ or ‘in a remarkable manner;’ it would be a rare compliment to his own mode of instruction;—nor yet can we take the phrase comparatively ‘more excellent,’ as exalting love above the charisms (Rückert [and the E. V.]), or as implying something superior to being zealous for the best gifts. For this the context affords no warrant. [“The idea is not that he intends to show them a way that is better than seeking gifts, but a way par excellence to obtain those gifts.” Hodge. So also Alford.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1.Christianity superior to heathenism in the matter of truth and its tests. In heathenism there rules a dark and soul-darkening power by which its devotees are blindly impelled. There they have no revelation—no Spirit diffusing life and light, but only beguiling error and the treachery of priest-craft and soothsaying, of oracles and magic. There everything tends to keep down the people in a state of childish ignorance and benighted dependence. Precisely the opposite of this is seen in Christianity—the truth and radiance, the light and life of the Divine Spirit; hence also an elevation to maturity and independence; hence the free offer of tokens by which to test the truth. For a Christian is one who is said to know why and in whom he believes; who does not suffer himself to accept the fair show of higher powers without ascertaining the real character of what thus challenges his confidence and seeks to influence him—what it aims at, and whence and with what authority it comes. He is one furnished with a sure token of truth in the relation which anything sustains to Christ—that Being from whom all spiritual light and life descend. Whatever tends to disparage Christ, or His words, or His merits, or His exclusive availability for our religious well being—whatever tends to set aside His person as He was originally exhibited to us, and as He insists on being regarded both by His own declaration and that of His accredited heralds—whatever tends to the denial of His absolute worth for us, and of His unrivalled dignity in Himself, can never proceed from the Spirit of God. On the contrary, whatever tends directly to glorify Christ and to confirm His truth, and to maintain His saving power—whatever exalts Him as the all-sufficient Savior and the absolute trust-worthy Lord—whatever conducts to Him and ascribes to Him the honor in all things—this is of the Spirit. By such tokens are the operations of the Spirit of God ascertained; to these can we confidently hold fast and thus be furthered in knowledge and in all true piety.
[Herein we see the perfect concurrence between Christ and the Holy Ghost, and how they bear witness to each other. The Holy Ghost testifies of Christ, and the genuineness of His testimony is ascertained by its relation to what we already know of Christ in His Word].
2. Nature and grace essentially harmonious and analogous. If by nature we understand human life as withdrawn from the controlling power of the Divine Spirit, and hence as godless and sinful (as the word is sometimes used), then is there between this and grace the strongest antagonism. But they stand together in most perfect correspondence when we consider nature as creaturely life, disposed and ordered by the Creator’s will. This, so far as it is organized and develops itself in the power of that will, furnishes a fit substratum for all renewing and sanctifying influences that are to fashion it in harmony with the Divine idea. Of these influences the chief is that which we denominate grace, i.e., Divine love in its redeeming and healing power; and this in its relation to nature is a salutary and not a destructive or disturbing force. This truth is clearly manifested in the gifts of the Holy Ghost. In these we discover a spiritual organization which has its proper analogon in our physical organization. Here there is one whole—a totality consisting of various parts, mutually supplementing and serving each other, all harmoniously articulated by one common principle, and working for one and the same end—the preservation of our natural life. And so, too, is that spiritual organization one perfect whole, consisting of manifold powers which, with their functions and operations, have all the same vital principle, viz., the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God; and they operate for the same end, viz., the increase of the body of Christ. For this reason they are joined together in mutual supplementation and subserviency, as are likewise those who exercise them—persons endowed with manifold capacities of soul and body. These, by virtue of that one Spirit actuating them from within, are all members of the church,—each one indeed constituting with his own specialty one self-included whole; yet by the energy of the Divine love, which is shed abroad through them all, each is united with the rest, so that each specialty with its own peculiar qualities quickened by the Spirit, serves and helps the others, forming together with them one higher complex life. This specialty consists in the peculiar activity or spontaneous movement of one particular kind of natural talents, while the rest remain in a passive or recipient state; so that in respect to the former there is a direct proffer of good, a furnishing of aid, while in respect to the latter there is a need of help, and a condition to partake of the good which the others have to bestow through their particular advantages. In this way a rich manifold spiritual life is produced. The advantage which each one possesses belongs in like manner to all the rest.
In this communion the apparently insignificant member is raised by a fellowship with the higher, since it partakes of the gifts which the higher enjoys, according to its own capacity; and it in turn comes to their aid, and is by them acknowledged and esteemed as indispensable. Thus a beautiful temperamentum—a balancing of parts—ensues which gives to the whole a harmonious character. The high looks not down scornfully upon the low; nor does the low look up enviously at the high, or fling itself away in self-contempt. But each rejoices in the society of members whom it can in some way assist with its own gift.
In this spiritual organization, however, that mutual concurrence which in the natural body goes on instinctively and unconsciously, is maintained with a clear, intelligent self-determination, and in the exercise of a conscious love, and through a sense of church union, that goes on unfolding itself in wishes and efforts for the common good, all having their common principle in that faith which recognizes and honors God’s gifts wherever seen, and seeks to improve them according to the Divine intent.
3. Spiritual gifts—their distinctive character. In these gifts our natural dispositions and talents are so possessed by the Spirit as to recover their original condition and use, as formed in accordance with the Divine image. This possession by the Spirit results, partly, in giving to any talent already cultivated only a new direction towards the highest end, viz., the kingdom of God, so that its capacities are exercised within this sphere; thus the matter on which it acts is changed, and its form also somewhat modified; and, partly, in arousing a slumbering talent to action, so that it appears as something new which the Spirit of Christ has for the first time summoned forth. In thus awakening and sanctifying our natural talents, the Spirit acts as a voluntary agent, according to His own free will, directed with reference to the necessities of the church or of the individual, so that no one deemed worthy of so gracious a gift, can pride himself by reason of it, and no one on whom a lesser gift has been bestowed, has occasion to complain of himself.
The various endowments, however, stand related to the manifold forms and powers of our natural life. In one person an intuitive knowledge is awakened and fashioned into an ability to apprehend profoundly and comprehensively the plans and purposes of God’s providence. In another, a capacity for investigation and scientific statement is awakened and directed towards the highest problems of human thought. In another, the shaping power of imagination—an ability to speak in a vivid and glowing style, is employed and sanctified to set forth the mysteries of the kingdom of God and its future developments, or the hidden experiences of the inward life. In another, the critical, analytic power is so enlightened that it is enabled to separate between the true and the false in religious things, discerning between genuine spiritual influences, and spurious excitements. In another, the energies of the will are roused, so that by taking hold believingly on the Divine omnipotence as proffered in the promises, it can, through prayers and strong consolations, work out superhuman results, heal diseases, relieve infirmities, and create or remove whatever needs to be established or put away for the glory of God and the interests of His kingdom. To these we may add a talent for all sorts of charitable service in rendering timely and suitable aid to the poor, the sick, and the distressed. And finally, a talent for governing within a greater or lesser sphere with all circumspection, and power, and energy, and patience, according to the requirements of times and persons. In all this there exists a wealth of spiritual operations and a copiousness of moral tasks, through the performance of which the highest ethical work of art is brought to its completion. There is here a Divine operation running through every thing and determining our natural life in its manifold capacities, which, however, as the operation of a personal God in beings destined to a personal life, is one which develops a free individual action, and is glorified by it.
[4. One peculiarity of the Gospel, as contrasted with the law, is, that church offices presuppose spiritual endowments; the office falling not, as of old, to the next casual successor, but to those qualified for it; and the qualifications springing directly from Christ, present by His Spirit in the midst of His people. The warrant for exercising the office is, in the first instance, and before it is any thing else, the possession of the gifts of the Spirit, who, in this matter, refuses to be tied to any external prescription, and divideth to every man severally as He will. See Litton, Church of Christ, p. 372 ff.].
[5. Gifts and offices not commensurate either in number or kind. The gifts were numerous, bestowed in accordance with the necessities of particular times and circumstances. Some were transient and some permanent, but the offices, with the exception of that of the Apostles, are permanent; and what they are is to be ascertained from other portions of Scripture. Hence it must be supposed that several gifts were conferred upon the same individual, and that they were exercised often by private persons, without any official authority, but under the simple warrant of possessing the gift].
[6. The gifts with which the early believers were endowed were all earnests of the promised Redemption,—pledges presented to the church at its very start, of the final victory which it will achieve over the whole realm of nature, when its true idea as the kingdom of God shall be fully realized, and all things shall be made subject to it in Christ. They were at the same time designed to be signs unto the world of the presence of a Divine power in the church, demanding of it faith and homage; and must ever be had in the church according to the exigencies of her position—some permanent, some transient. See Edward Irving’s Discourse on The Church with its endowment of Holiness and Power. Collected writings, Vol. V. p. 450 ff.].
[7. The doctrine of the Trinity. In this chapter, especially in 1Co_12:3-4; 1Co_12:6; 1Co_12:12-13; 1Co_12:27-28, we have the three factors of the Christian Godhead plainly brought to view: I. in their diversity, under separate names and functions; II. in their personality as acting with conscious intelligence; III. in their unity, as testifying of each other, performing parts of the same great work, and all carrying the attributes of divinity, yet in such a way that there are not three Gods, but one God. Thus we have God the Father, the first Source and Operator of all spiritual influences, and in relation to Him these influences are called “operations;” God the Son, the Lord of the Church, and the Ordainer of all the ministries therein by which these influences are brought into exercise; and in relation to Him they are termed “ministrations;” God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father through the Son, dwelling in and animating and sanctifying and binding together the whole church into one body—one living organism, and imparting to each member such measure of power and grace as pleases Him; and so in relation to Him these influences are termed “gifts.” Thus we have the Trinity in unity shown to underlie the whole work of Redemption in its original plan and continued execution].
Obs.:—The subject of speaking with tongues is reserved for further inquiry, and has not therefore been taken under consideration in these comments.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Starke:
1Co_12:1. Gifts of miracles, and gifts for sanctification are to be distinguished; with the former not only apostles, but also many believers have been endowed for the sake of winning unbelievers; but the latter are necessary for all, in order to faith, love, and the worthy exercise of all Christian virtues.
1Co_12:2. Well is it for him who knows what he has been, what he is, and what he shall be.—To think of our origin, and our former state, incites to humility, and keeps us from becoming elated with the gifts we have received (1Co_4:7; Gen_32:10).
Hed:
1Co_12:3. He who honors and confesses Christ, and shuns no danger for His sake, gives strong evidence of his sincerity. Nevertheless we must distinguish between saying and doing, boasting and performing. Many have only the show and speech of Christians; it is all nothing, their aim and action betray them. Rub the coin, and you will see the copper.
1Co_12:4. If there is one Spirit, why enviest thou? It is a shame for those who work on the same building to take it ill, because one builds above and another below. Let each one pass for what he is worth. Be thou nothing in thine own eyes, but faithful in thy work, according to the extent of thine ability. O, that the members might once agree! What an amount of good would then ensue! But no, the devil sunders all through envy, and avarice, and ambition.
1Co_12:5. Divine grace is the true cornucopia out of which we can obtain all blessings, yea, a superabundance of gifts, and powers, and goods.
1Co_12:7. All gifts and aptitudes are conferred for the benefit of the church. He who perverts them to his own honor and use, perpetrates a sort of church-robbery, and is deserving of punishment (Eph_4:15).
1Co_12:8. The glory of the Lord shines forth out of the gifts wherewith He has endowed one in preference to another. Hast thou great gifts, boast not; through small gifts God can accomplish great things. Hast thou small gifts, be not impatient and envious; God knows how much oil suits thy little cruse. The faith of miracles helps nothing towards salvation. Art thou blest with a sanctifying faith, thank God for this glorious gift (2Th_1:3).
1Co_12:10. Watchful men, who have understanding to prove all things, are to be highly regarded as a gift of God; and they must withstand the introduction of false prophets into the church of God for true ones.
1Co_12:11. He who is not content with his gift, finds fault with the all-wise God, and vexes himself about it in vain.
1Co_12:12. As the head is united with the body, so is Christ united with his faithful ones (Col_1:18).
1Co_12:13. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper should remind us of our brotherly union. Through the former we become Christ’s members; through the latter we are ever more closely united with His body; and the longer it is observed, the more do we partake of the Spirit of God.
1Co_12:14. Let the number of thy bodily members awaken in thee much holy astonishment, much gratitude, and much care not to offend thy Creator with any one of them.
1Co_12:15-20. As in the human body each member has a special function for the good of the whole, so has every Christian a special gift from the Holy Spirit for the use and edification of Christendom. As one member has a larger and higher capacity than another, so also among Christians, one has more and richer gifts than another.
1Co_12:21. Those who have a keen insight into divine things (eyes) cannot dispense with those who hold practical offices (hands); the rulers (the head) cannot dispense with those who above all others bear the burdens of the church (feet).—The number, variety, and needs of the members and servants of the church, are in their inter-dependence necessary to it.—The highest of all needs the lowest of all, and so vice versa (Php_2:25).
1Co_12:22 f. Those members in the spiritual body which are the weakest, and from which the church derives the least honor, should for this reason be maintained with the greatest care and patience.
1Co_12:24. God has wisely ordained that each one should abide in his own order; but men disturb the order, and dishonor the members which might and ought to be held in the highest honor, and adhere to others with a foolish pride, even when they have but little need of them (1Co_6:15; 1Co_6:18; Isa_3:18 f).
1Co_12:25. The humblest Christian has as much in Christ, and is as truly a member of His body as the most distinguished. For this reason also there ought to be no divisions among Christian believers, but rather a loving union (Eph_4:3; Eph_4:15).
1Co_12:26. This is the true communion of the spiritual body of Christ, when we feel and experience its weal and its ill, the one to our joy, and the other to our sorrow (Rom_12:15 f).
1Co_12:27. Believers are all members of Christ, have one Head, and stand together in the unity of the faith and of the Spirit, so that they serve themselves of each other, and take part in each other’s joys and sufferings. But each one is a distinct member who has his own peculiar gifts and qualifications, and with these he should serve the others.
1Co_12:28. The office of teacher is the most universal, and the most lasting, and embraces in itself, in part, professorships of the the higher and lower schools, wherein the teachers themselves are trained, and, partly, the office of pastor in the churches. Their position ought even at this day to give evidence of its divine character, in the true spiritual qualification and fidelity they exhibit, and in their simple obedience to the divine call, not running unless sent.
1Co_12:29 ff. Because no one has everything, but each has need of another, it becomes all to use their own gifts for the service of others in humility, self-discipline, order, and love.
1Co_12:31. A church-minister, indeed every Christian, may well bestir himself to excel others in gifts, provided he only use such gifts well and piously for the good of the church.
Spener:—This “excellent way” is a simple, true-hearted love, which in the eyes of many lofty spirits is a contemptible thing; yet it leads to the highest gifts, winding up a height so gradually that it takes a man at last to the loftiest summits without the slightest danger; while, on the contrary, those who are resolved on mounting straight up the rocks, fall headlong for the most part, or at last, cease from climbing, and find themselves obliged to choose the more gradual path.
Berlenb. Bibel:
1Co_12:1. Such spiritual gifts afterwards became altogether unknown; yet this same God is still Lord over all, and just as gladly distributes His spiritual gifts, provided only faithful recipients can be found, who would use them in love and fidelity, and put them to interest for the general good. Man readily pounces on that which strikes the eye, and hence is very apt to leave out of account those gifts which belong to the very essence of Christianity.
1Co_12:2. What is leading you now? Whither are ye bound? Take care lest under the name of Christianity you be betrayed into devious paths.—Man precipitates himself into idolatry, and even makes an idol out of himself.
1Co_12:3. If the Spirit of the crucified Saviour does not speak out of thee, then is all thy speech a disgrace to Him. The true knowledge of Jesus Christ in Spirit is the chief gift which will serve you as a proper sign. Other gifts without this even the devil may use for his own kingdom; but the Holy Spirit does not lead to the achievement of great things of which a man can boast, but to the humility of Jesus, who walked in the midst of sufferings. An infinite blessing is it, if the soul first recognizes Jesus as its Lord through the Holy Spirit; for as it is the Spirit Himself in us that confesses Christ to be a Lord, so does He fill us with faith, and love to Him. This is the blessed commencement of salvation.—1Co_12:4-6. God gives Himself to the church in manifold ways; but Satan seeks to pervert everything which God does.—If God confers extraordinary gifts, take them and learn to use them in subordination,—just as the Apostles did who abode in the Spirit of God, walked in His presence, meant well with the people, and so were in condition to oppose all abuses.—The various officers of the church should conspire to one result, for it is the same Lord on whom they all depend.—There may be never so many matters in hand, and never so many instrumentalities, yet all issue from the same God from whom the Spirit proceeds, and by whom the Son is begotten. The power of the Spirit works by the command of God in the name of Christ.—The more we allow our working to yield to His working, the greater will be our successes. It is idle to suppose that we can mark the presence of the Spirit in a little religious knowledge and in a few efforts though good in themselves; there must be in us a new spiritual life to give assurance of this. We must yield entirely to the influence of the Spirit, if we would have our work found perfect toward God.—Our growth is conditioned on holding fast to God by His Spirit. Those who have received Him, already understand this mystery, and see how it is that the Spirit always asks and receives in believers.
1Co_12:7. Let us, first of all, take care that we be found pure and well qualified before God, so that He may trust us with what is right. Above all things, let us remain humble and in the exercise of the best gifts; for it is not the gifts which make us blessed, but faith which works by love. Therefore let every one see that he is made properly a partaker of Christ himself, the highest gift. The incidental gifts will then come to us as supplemental. That which God finds ready in the soul, He can purify and elevate and make useful for His service. He works what and how He wills with our own peculiar endowments, so as to evoke our praise in view of His own wonderful doings.—Something good lies with every one by which he may serve God and his neighbor, and also earn to himself a good degree in the future. But it requires industry and constant self-watchfulness to be able to observe and trace out the object to which the dear God calls and draws us, and discover what His motive, His gift is, which works in us.
1Co_12:8. As wisdom is the gift of insight that enables us to look profoundly into things: knowledge on the contrary goes to the right appropriation of all the various divine doctrines, disciplines and testimonies.—As in God there is a depth of riches, both of wisdom and of knowledge, so there will also flow such power into the sucklings of his wisdom as to make them luminous within.
1Co_12:9. That saving faith, which seeks for mercy and purification through the blood of Jesus in the Holy Spirit, we all must have. But with this we can enter courageously upon everything, since the power of the Spirit waxes so strong in the soul through the new birth, that it is able to do all things in Christ, yea, even bind and constrain God Himself in faith, that He may show the wonders of his Omnipotence, Holiness, Wisdom, Goodness, in any particular matter, and in all circumstances in which His honor is involved. To this it may be added that by means of earnest prayer, many “a spirit of infirmity” may be driven out in faith.
1Co_12:10. In as much as there is such a diversity of spirits and powers, and the evil one gets up so many strange shows, and practises such trickery both before and in men, especially where something good exists, or is just coming to light, it is very needful to have the gift of testing and distinguishing between them. And this gift is imparted to many friends of God. Yet it becomes every Christian also to pray for something at least of this gift, in order to guard himself from treacherous men, who even transform themselves into angels of light.—By the gift of tongues the Spirit snatches again from Satan’s hand the plurality of tongues. Indeed, it is favor enough to be able to express the mind of the Spirit, and the divine mysteries, ways and purposes according to their proper grounds.
1Co_12:11. The chariot of God has several wheels; but it is one Spirit which drives the wheels and works all in all.—The Spirit leaves none empty save those whom it finds incapable and closed against His influences. In this matter He deals “as He will;” but He wills no otherwise than as He finds good and needful for each one.—If we would enjoy the true source and compendious summary of all divine gifts and powers, we ought continually to beseech God for His holy love, which is the inexhaustible treasure of all good. He who seeks this, hits the thing most surely, and continues guarded against the temptations which accompany all the higher gifts.
1Co_12:12. The members together with the Head form one Christ (Gal_3:28). Christ stands for all. On this account His personality is preserved and the singular number maintained.
1Co_12:13. The two sacraments, i.e., the objects themselves which they represent, should so unite Christians that they will never suffer themselves to be separated from one another in regard to particular powers.—1Co_12:14-27. Do not be envious because thou canst not be as active as others. The question does not turn upon the magnitude of the work done, or upon thy sharp-sightedness or keenness of wit, but upon the state of thy heart and the quality of thy faith. Attend to thy business and be satisfied with thy lot. God will reward according to His will.—Since the church is a Lazaretto, we have most to do with the weakest. Nevertheless no man there exists in vain. The more humble and lowly a man is, the more does he deserve our esteem. Many a man whom the world despises, does greater works in secret than some great saints who parade themselves before the eyes of men. The wretched should be looked after. Those members which are the most needy, should be most cared for.—Members of one body should hold together in joy and sorrow. Insensibility is the mark of a putrefied or dead member. A true heart is not satisfied at having things go well with itself alone; hence it is wont to intrude unsolicited upon the wretchedness and sorrows of others. Those who maintain the appellation “Christ’s body and members” in truth, are of one heart and mind with the Head, follow Him wherever He goes and do what He wills.
1Co_12:28 ff. All must have the will to be helpers; but, in actual practice, some are better equipped for help than others.
1Co_12:31. All proper gifts come to us through the cross, or must be preserved by means of it.—Knowledge is not the best gift. God is love, and this is the first and most distinguished among the gifts of the Spirit. (Gal_5:22).
Rieger:—1Co_12:1-3. The spirit of the world has sometimes observed that it can never crowd Christ, and His kingdom, and the truth of His gospel entirely from the earth; for this reason it endeavors to introduce its spirit and work into Christianity. Hence the necessity, at all times, for proving false spirits and separating from them. The world of to-day has become so impatient and incredulous in respect to any great advantage arising from spiritual knowledge, gifts, operations, and experiences, that it is disposed to deride and bring into contempt everything which cannot be included under the law of nature and reason. The labor of proving much, and the danger of being betrayed strip it of everything. But on this very account does it plunge into the greatest self-deception. O Lord Jesus! whether I live or die, my communion with Thee is my boasting and my hope. This have I learned from Thy Holy Spirit, and in this truth do I ever desire to be led onward.—1Co_12:4-11. From the one fountain of the Spirit, opened through Jesus, ought we to learn to draw manifold streams, preserving the unity in the variety of the distribution. By means of gifts, offices, and powers, the Spirit commits Himself to the church for the common endowment of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ, and these things stand related to each other, and help towards the attainment of a common end. This mutual coöperation of powers, offices, and gifts, it is the more necessary to observe, the more secretly grace works, and imparts its blessings through the employment of our natural powers. Grace and its gifts certainly improve and elevate nature, but do not altogether change or absorb it. People of great natural powers often remain without grace, and hence without the gifts of the Spirit. With others the natural powers are comparatively small; but grace, and the gifts of the Spirit abundantly compensate for the defects. By wisdom we learn to recognize and experience the truth in its broader scope, and in its emancipating power. Knowledge occupies itself more with the truth in faith and act, and with instruction unto salvation, and draws more from the word of God than from all the works of God, and the wisdom manifest therein. As it regards the gifts of the Spirit, nothing can be merited, nothing affected, nothing forced. The Spirit gives and works as He will.—1Co_12:12-31. Men of the world love to overshadow the gifts of others by their own. Christians love to serve each other with the gifts which God has given them. The manifold necessities of our condition require a diversity of gifts. For the poor and the suffering, there is needed pity, and the ability to sympathize; for the sick, the old and weak, hands to give, and feet to carry; for the young, the ignorant, the erring, teachers who are furnished with eyes, and who are furnished with tongues, to speak at the right time; for those who are still afar off, but whom God will nevertheless call, those who are ready to proclaim the gospel; for those who are desirous of wisdom, help is furnished by still other gifts.—No one should undervalue himself, and still less should any one contemn another’s practice; all the members should care for each other, should rejoice and suffer in common. Away with that self-loving, self-pleasing creature, who thinks to make himself independent of his brethren! Away with all exultation in another’s fall, with whispering and slandering, with everything which leads to provocation, and jealousy, and separation, and confusion.—We strive after the best and most useful gifts when we approach the dear God with humility, faith, and prayer, beseeching Him that He will never suffer either His church, or ourselves to be wanting in good spiritual gifts, or in obedience, or in aptness to devote self to the common good; and when, to this end, we put out of the way everything which tends to produce contempt, and envy, and offence. There is more utility in the most perfect love than in all the highest gifts without it. Ah, Lord Jesus, show Thy living power in me, so that I may be found a steadfast, friendly, and useful member in Thy body!
Heubner:—1Co_12:1-11. The unity of all spiritual gifts.
1Co_12:1. Spiritual gifts may further much, and also do much damage. There is need of warning to prevent our being misled by gifted ones.
1Co_12:2. The living God only speaks and reveals Himself by His Spirit. He who does not know the true God and Christ is, nevertheless, betrayed, bewitched, or blinded by some idol. Satan leads men blindfold; they are compelled to go, with eyes bound, whithersoever sin leads them.
1Co_12:3. He who is truly inspired, can never doubt the truthfulness, the Word, or the divine mission of Jesus; he must entirely agree with the Word of Jesus. Where the church is in general repute, there men do not openly curse and anathematize it; but the secret hostility in the depths of the heart remains the same. Where Jesus is evil-spoken of, there a good spirit is wanting. The more sympathy exists with Christ, and the more harmony with the gospel, the more there is of the Spirit of God. In order to believe on Jesus with the whole soul, there is needed a heart enlightened and purified by the Holy Ghost.
1Co_12:4. In the various spiritual gifts vouchsafed by Divine grace, or pervaded by the Holy Spirit, and destined for the service of the church, God glorifies Himself just as wonderfully as in the manifold works of nature.
1Co_12:5. In the call to any office there is this holiest and most constraining thought, the Lord chooses thee for His servant. This alone makes the office great; not external honor, and glory, and influence. A faithful school-master has just as high an office as the highest spiritual bishop.
1Co_12:6. In the office everything is wrought by means of the gifts. Of these God is the primal source. Thou canst not stir a finger except God wills.
1Co_12:8. Even the gift for inquiry and speculation must proceed from the Holy Spirit, otherwise it leads away from the truth.
1Co_12:9. It is not every believing Christian that has faith’s courage. Melancthon believed as much as Luther did in the atonement through Christ, but Luther’s heroic spirit he had not.
Besser:—1Co_12:4-6. As the sevenfoldness of the Spirit of God (Rev_1:4; Rev_4:5; Rev_5:6; Zec_4:10) does not break up its unity, but is only an image of the manifold fulness which lies included in that unity, and which works itself out in a series of revealing acts, so the distinction or division in the gifts of grace does not destroy the unity of their origin and end; rather the personal unity of the Giver as well as the united membership of those endowed with the gifts, are thereby made known, so that the various gifts are parts of one whole, the one pointing to the other, and each completing each. The triune control of the three Divine persons runs through the church in the matter of its edification (although sanctification is in particular the work of the Holy Spirit); the Spirit kindles the fire of the gifts of edification, the Son orders the rays of the offices for edification, and the Father creates the warmth of the powers for edification. Inseparable in being, the triune God rules His church; what a crime then is it to produce schism therein.
1Co_12:7. Woe to the selfish and the carnal (1Co_3:3), who employ for schismatic ends that which was given them to subserve the general good of the whole body! And woe to that idle servant who buries his talent!
1Co_12:12. Christendom is not a collection of individual Christian persons who walk beside each other, each one for himself in his own way; neither is it a union of Christian friends, who have arbitrarily or voluntarily associated themselves after that they had separately become possessed of Christianity. But they are in a spiritual way, what the body is in a natural way;—one whole consisting of many parts that exist for each other, and subsist through each other.
[Scott:—1Co_12:15-25. “Our kind Creator hath effectually provided that there should be no schism in our natural body, but He has for wise reasons seen good to make trial of the members of the mystical body of Christ in this respect and through the remainder of error and sin in real Christians, through the intrusion of hypocrites and the artifices of the enemy; many disgraceful and lamentable divisions still prevail, which we should pray against, and endeavor to heal to the utmost of our power and with persevering earnestness”].
1Co_12:1-11. Pericope for the seventh Sunday after Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the highest of all God’s gifts: 1. In Himself, because the fountain of all true life; a. for without Him, man is far from God, a slave of the evil spirit (1Co_12:2); b. through Him, man first learns to believe in Christ and to worship Him (1Co_12:3). 2. Through His particular operations; a. He is the cause that everything serves for one end, viz., the glory of God and the salvation of men (1Co_12:4-7); b. He awakens the gifts and powers residing in each individual, and sanctifies them (1Co_12:11). The manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men: 1. In general, by regeneration and renewal; a. turning from sin and idolatry; b. turning to Christ. 2. In particular, by imparting various powers for the use of the Christian church; a. He arouses spiritual activity; b. He designates each one to his office; c. He makes each one an instrument of God; d. renders him. a blessing to the congregation.—1Co_12:12-31. The perfect unity of Christians is grounded in Christ, and is preserved through Him. The church is a spiritual body: 1. One whole like the body; 2. Pervaded by the Spirit of its Head, as the body is by one living power; 3. Diversity of powers and functions, as of members; 4. All serving one as all members work toward one object; 5. Mutual imparting of the powers of life,—edification, (health),—contamination, (disease); the more sound blood in the rest, the more ready healing of the sick; 6. Combination, even for particular objects, societies, brotherhoods, which may not, however, sever themselves from each other, but must remain united in one whole,—Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the means of union, their efficient principle, the Spirit.—Neither lowliness nor exaltedness of station releases from obligation to the church. Every legitimate and necessary calling forms a member of the same; a sorry notion is it to think of withdrawing oneself under certain pretexts from taking part in laboring for its welfare.—All love is service, living for others. This pre-supposes manifoldness; without manifoldness there is no society, the very essence of which is the union of the manifold for one end. What each one should be and do, that God has ordained; to each one has He appointed his position and calling and activity and worth. No one prescribes to Him aught. Let each one only learn what God wills of him. He who is dissatisfied with this arrangement, quarrels with God. The glory of each one consists in being that for which God has called, endowed, and created him.—Without a variety of members, the body would be one formless lump.—No member should think that he stands in no need of another.—The mutual influence of the members is grounded upon the most intimate sympathy. The life of a Christian church should be a constant spiritual intercourse, a circulation of spiritual blood. The more intimate this mutual participation is, the more perfect the life and soundness of the whole. Should stagnation occur, the whole suffers. Each person can be only one thing, and should therefore not desire to have another office.—The office, not even though it be the highest, gives no claim to salvation. Only the absolute gift, that of love, of the pure heart ensures this. The most excellent way is not that which leads to eternal preferment, but that which gives the highest value to the heart.
[Harless, Serm.:—1Co_12:1-11. The blessings accruing from the communion in Christ. I. It delivers us from the dumb idols which we serve. II. This it accomplishes through the unity of the Spirit—which, III. teaches us to serve in the manifoldness of our gifts, offices and powers—4., the one Lord Jesus Christ.
South:
1Co_12:4. The Christian Pentecost, or the solemn effusion of the Holy Ghost in the several miraculous gifts conferred upon the Apostles and first Christians. I. What those gifts were. II. What is imported and to be understood by their diversity. 1. It includes variety. 2. It excludes contrariety. III. What are the consequences of this emanation of so many and different gifts from one and the same Spirit. 1. We infer the deity of the Holy Ghost. 2. We infer the duty of humility in some, and contentment in others.
3. We have here a touchstone for the trial of spirits.
Robertson:—The dispensation of the Spirit. I. Spiritual gifts conferred on individuals. 1. Natural—i.e., those capacities originally found in human nature elevated and enlarged by the gift of the Spirit. II. Supernatural—e. g., gift of tongues and of prophecy. Obs. 1. The highest of these not accompanied with spiritual faultlessness. 2. Those higher in one sense were lower in another. 2. The spiritual unity of the church—“the same spirit.” 1. All real unity is manifold. 2. All living unity is spiritual, not formal—not sameness, but complexity. 3. None but a spiritual unity can preserve the rights both of the individual and the church. 4. The sanctity of the individual character respected.
Owen:
1Co_12:11. Ministerial endowments the work of the Holy Spirit. I. Our Lord hath promised to be present with His church unto the end of the world. II. He is thus present principally and fundamentally by His Spirit. III. This presence of the Spirit is promised and given by an everlasting covenant. IV. Hence the ministry of the Gospel is “the ministry of the Spirit.” V. The general end why the Spirit is thus promised. VI. Particular proof of the proposition that the Holy Ghost thus promised, sent, and given, doth furnish ministers with spiritual abilities in the discharge of their work. VII. Spiritual gifts as bestowed unto this end are necessary for it. VIII. That there is a communication of spiritual gifts in gospel ordinances supported by experience. Prac. Obs. 1. The ministry of the gospel most difficult ministration, and great as difficult. 2. A glorious work. 3. The only effectual ministry.
Baxter:
1Co_12:12. The true Catholic and Catholic Church described, Doct. The universal church being the body of Christ, is but one, and all true Christians are members of which it doth consist. 1. Diversity of membership as to, 1. Age, or standing in Christ. 2. Strength. 3. Gifts. 4. Mental complexion. 5. Spiritual health. 6. Usefulness. 7. Office. 8. Employment. 9. Title to be loved and honored. 10. Glory. II. The unity of the membership. 1. All have one God the Father. 2. And one Head and Saviour Jesus Christ. 3. One Holy Ghost dwelling in, illuminating and sanctifying them. 4. One principal, ultimate end. 5. One gospel. 6. One kind of faith. 7. One new holy nature. 8. The same objects of affection, and the same affections. 9. One rule or law. 10. One and the same covenant. 11. The same instrumental founders of his faith under Christ. 12. Membership in the body. 13. Habitual love to every other member. 14. Special love to the whole body of the Church. 15. Special love towards the nobler sort of members. 10. An inward inclination to hold communion with fellow-members, so far as they are discerned to be members indeed. 17. An inward inclination for the means of grace. 18. The same holy employment. 19. An inward enmity to what is destructive to itself or to the body. a. to sin in general; b. to all known sin in particular; c. specially to divisions, distractions, and diminutions of the church. 20. The same crown of glory, the same blessed God, the same celestial Jerusalem, the same services of joy and praise. Application: 1. To those who deny the very being of the Catholic Church. 2. To those who are perplexed to know which is the church. 3. To the several sects that would appropriate the church to themselves only. 4. To the papists that ask for a proof of the continued visibility of our church, and where it was before Luther.
Melville:
1Co_12:21. The least of service to the greatest].
Footnotes:
[1]1Co_12:2.—The Rec. has ὅτι ἔθνη &c. But the omission both of ὃτε and of ὅτι [K.] may be explained by the attempt which was made to remove the anacoluthon in the original. [Griesbach, Lachmann (who however brackets ὃτε) Scholz, Tischendorf and Alford edit ὅτι, ὅτε before ἓθνη with A. B. C. D. E. L. Sinait. about 50 cursives, the Vulg. Syr. (later), Sahid. Aeth. (both), Arm. Slav, and very many Greek and Latin Fathers. The Rec. (Elz.), which gives ὅτι alone after ὄιδατε and before ἔθνη, is sustained by F. G., a number of cursives, the Syr. (Pesch.) Copt. Arab. (Erp.), Oecum. Ambrst. In addition to K. ὅτι (alone) has in its favor two copies of the Slav. Theodt. (comm.) Damasc. Oecum. (comm.) and Augustine C. P. W.] The authorities in support of ὅτι ὅτε are decisive.
[2]1Co_12:3.—The Rec. has κυρίον ’Ιηοουν, and also ἀνάθημα ’Ιησοῦν. The best MSS. have these nouns in the nominative. [Lachmann, Tisch. and Alford favor the nominative form, not only because the external authorities (A. B. C. Sinait. 4 cursives, and a number of versions and Fathers) are on their side, but because the accusative form seems an evident attempt to avoid the oratio directa. A few MSS. including the Vulgate have ’Ιησ. in the Genitive, and Κυρ. ’Ιησ. in the accusative.—C. P. W.]
[3]1Co_12:6.—Tischendorf, after B. L. et. al. has καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς θεὸς ὁ, but the Rec. has ὁ δὲ αὐτός ἐστι θεός. But not only is there a disparity between the two phrases ὁ αὐτὸς δε͂ and ὁ δὲ αὐτός, but the most decisive authorities are against ἐστι, [The author would imply that it is hardly possible that καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς should have been an alteration from ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς, so as to conform to the previous phrases, especially when the first of those phrases (τὸ δὲ αὐτὸ) remained unchanged; and that ἐστι, being manifestly spurious, throws additional doubt over the whole reading. Without the εστι however, ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς has the support of A. K. L. Sinait., the Ital. Vulg. Syr. (both), Sahid. and several of the Greek Fathers.—C. P. W.]
[4][1Co_12:9.—The first δὲ is omitted by B. D. E. F. G. Sinait. the Ital. Vulg. Syr. (Pesch.) Clem. Orig. Ens. and the Lat. Fathers, but it is inserted by A. C. D. (2d and 3d hand) K. L. Sinait. (3d hand) many cursives, the Copt. Sahid. Syr. (later) Arab. (Par.) Slav. and nearly all the Greek Fathers.—C. P. W.]
[5]1Co_12:9.—The Rec. has αὐτῷ instead of ἑνὶ following A. B. [5 cursives, the Vulg. Didym. and a considerable number of the Latin Fathers.] But the αὐτῷ was substituted so as to conform to the preceding clauses, [It has however for it D. E. F. G. K. Sinait. the Syr., (both), Copt. Clem. Chrys. Theodt.—C. P. W.]
[6][1Co_12:10.—In each cage in which δὲ occurs in 1Co_12:10, some good MSS. are found to omit it, but the weight of authority is decidedly in its favor.—C. P. W.]
[7]1Co_12:10.—Lachmann has διερμηνεία, but it is not sufficiently sustained. [Alford thinks it a mistake occasioned by the preceding δὲ. The substantive ἑρμηνεία occurs once again in this epistle (1Co_14:26), but the verb usually takes the form of διερμηνεύω (1Co_12:30; 1Co_14:5; 1Co_14:13; 1Co_14:27-28). Hence perhaps the change. A. D. (1st hand, which also has confusedly διερμηνεία γένη γλωσσῶν) have διερμενια; B. 109 omit ἄλλῳ δὲ ἐρμ. γλωσσῶν; and C. D. (3rd hand) E. F. G. K. L. Sin. and the Greek fathers have ἑρμηνεία—C. P. W.]
[8]1Co_12:12.—Rec. has το͂υ ἑνὸς after σώματος, but against the most decisive authorities.
[9]1Co_12:13.—Rec. has εἰς ἓν πνεῦμα, but εἰς is not sufficiently sustained. It was evidently occasioned by the first member of the sentence. The reading πόμα ἐποτίσθημεν originated in an attempt to make the meaning more evident, [Meyer says: According as the sense of the words was made to refer to the Lord’s Supper or not, sprung up the reading πόμα (with or without εἰς) instead of πνεῦμα, and ἐφωτίσθημεν (spoken according to the usage of the Greeks of baptism) instead of ἐποτίσθημεν. The reading ἕν πνεῦμα ἐποτίσ. is sustained by B. C. D. F. Sinait. some copies of the Vulgate, by the Syr. (Pesch.) Copt. Goth. Aeth. and most of the Greek writers. Instead of ἐποτίσ. A. has simply ἐσμεν.—C. P. W.]
[10]1Co_12:20.—A. C. D. (2d and 3d hand) E. F. G. K. L. Sinait. have μὲν, and it is adopted by Tischendorf and Alford; but it is omitted by B. D. (1st hand), two cursives, the Gothic and Augustine.—C. P. W.]
[11][1Co_12:21—Tischendorf and Alford insert δὲ, following B. D. K. L. Sinait. the Syr. (Philox.) Goth and most of the Fathers.—C. P.W.]
[12]1Co_12:24.—Lachmann has ὑστερουμένῳ with A. B. C. [Sinait. 17, 57, 67, Melet (in Epiph.) Damasc] Nearly all the remaining MSS. have ὑστεροῦντι. [B. has τι περισσοτέρον δοὺς instead of περ. δ. τιμήν.—C. P. W.]
[13]1Co_12:25.—D. F. G. L. Sinait. and a number of versions and Fathers have σχίσματα, but the preponderance of authority is in favor of σχίσμα.—C. P. W.]
[14]1Co_12:26.—Lachmann has εἴ τι, but his authorities are not sufficient. [The first ἔν is omitted by A. and Orig., and the second by A. B. Sinait. The evidence for them is abundant.—C. P. W.]
[15]1Co_12:27.—Some MSS. have μέλους; Meyer. It was an error of some transcriber or from not understanding ἐκ μέρους.
[16]1Co_12:28.—Rec. has ἐ͂ιτα. The weight of authority is in favor of ἔπειτα. [Alford thinks the Rec. a correction to a more usual form, and the entire omission of the word which some respectable MSS. show, an attempt to throw all into one catalogue.—C. P. W.]
[17]1Co_12:31.—Tischendorf, and others edit μείζονα with A. B. C. [Sinait., eleven cursives, the ancient Syr. (Pesch.) and perhaps the later Syr. Aeth. and some Greek Fathers]; but the Rec. has κρείττονα which Meyer prefers. Very probably a change was made because κρείττονα seemed unpleasant, and on account of 1Co_13:13; 1Co_14:5. [Bloomfield, Lachmann, and Alford however agree with Tischendorf that the weight of evidence is in favor of μείζονσ.—C. P. W.]
[18] [The following classification following the distinction implied in ἑτερῷ and ἄλλῳ is suggested by Dr. Henderson as tending to show the “beautiful symmetry” of the passage:
I. To one, the word of wisdom.
2. to another, the word of knowledge.
II. To another, faith.
1. to another, gifts of healing.
2. to another, working of miracles.
3. to another, prophecy.
4. to another, discerning of spirits.
III. To another, divers kinds of tongues.
2. to another, interpretation of tongues.
Thus the first class includes “the word of wisdom” and “the word of knowledge.” Under the head of faith—that is, the faith of miracles—four kinds of gifts are enumerated: “gifts of healing,” “working of miracles,” “prophecy,” and “discerning of spirits;” while the third class includes “divers kinds of tongues,” and “the interpretation of tongues.” See Henderson on Inspiration, pp. 185–187].
[19] The proper definition of an organism is, a whole consisting of parts which exist and work each for all and all for each; in other words which are reciprocally related as means and end. But such a constitution can only be effected by the creative power of some vital principle working from within in accordance with its own specific law or norm. This it is which assimilates the material of which the organism is composed into one substance, preserves its identity amid all changes of form, and its unity through all diversity, and establishes and maintains the reciprocal action of the parts combining them in a sympathetic relation, and making them tributary both to the well-being of each other severally, and of the whole. In this respect an organism is essentially differenced from mechanism, which is somethingfashioned and put together by a power operating from without.
Now, since it is of the nature of all life to organize, there exists a striking analogy between all true organizations; and one serves well to illustrate another. The figure, therefore, Which runs throughout this chapter, rests on an essential analogy. The life of nature as operating in that most perfect of organisms, the human form very properly typifies the working of the Spirit of life in constituting the body of Christ, which is His Church. As might be expected, however, the latter organization, in proportion as it is higher, is more complex and far richer in its combinations and results. It is not for this reason any the less a real body, and all that may be asserted of the former holds literally good of the latter. The main difference lies in the nature of the vital principle which assimilates, shapes, and joins together the Church of God. The Spirit of life here is a Spirit of love, yea, is love itself, and the law which regulates its operations is the divine Word. He who lives in the Spirit loves;—The two words are no less identical in their root, than are the things which they describe. And love is from its very nature organic. It binds persons together in one vital communion; and being an intelligent principle, it hinds them together according to their distinctive qualities and gifts for the same holy end. Thus does it constitute the body of Christ,—one complex and glorious whole, countlessly diversified in its membership, yet fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, and growing up into Him in all things which is the Head, even Christ].
[20]So Hodge, who argues strenuously against supposing any allusion in this passage to either of the sacraments. And it must be confessed that the thought of such an allusion does not readily occur to the mind of a common reader. Scripture abounds in such figures as are here used without any possible reference either to the rite of baptism, or, of the Lord’s supper (comp., Mat_3:2; Joh_1:33 : Joh_7:37). Yet the fact must be noted that the great body of ancient and early modern commentators, e. g., Luther, Beza, Calvin, Henry,’ Scott, interpret as Kling does, and all later ones of Sacramentarian proclivities like Wordsworth. Alford maintains an allusion to baptism only, in both the expressions in accordance with Chrys. Theoph. Bengol, Rückert, de Wette, Meyer, and others; while Barnes denies this, or maintains only the allusion to the supper in the second. The case hardly admits of being decided by argument, and will continue to be determined in accordance with the feelings and original preferences of different individuals. See Schleusner’s Lex. II., p. 671].
[21]Schaff proposes “a psychological classification, on the basis of the three primary faculties of the soul—they all being capable and in need of sanctification, and the Holy Ghost in fact leaving none of them untouched, but turning them all to the edification of the church. With this corresponds also the classification according to the different branches of the church life, in which the activity of one or the other of these faculties thus supernaturally elevated predominated. This would give us three classes of charisms: (1) those which relate especially to feeling and worship; (2) those which relate to knowledge and theology; (3) those which relate to will and church government. To the gifts of feeling belong speaking with tongues, interpretation of tongues, and inspired prophetic discourse; to the theoretical class, or gifts of intellect, belong the charisms of wisdom and of knowledge, of teaching and of discerning spirits; to the practical class, or gifts of will, the charisms of ministration, of government and of miracles. Faith lies back of all, as the motive power, taking up the whole man and bringing all his faculties into contact with the Divine Spirit, and under His influence and control”].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. Of gifts—their true place and value, 1Co_12:1-31.
1. Of gifts—their true place and value, 1Co_12:1-31.
a. The source of these varied gifts, the One Spirit, 1Co_12:1-11.
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1. Now—As there is no reference in this triad of chapters to any inquiries made by the Corinthians, it is probable that this piece is based on information.
Ignorant—As just-converted Gentiles, with their ideas of Christian morality but imperfectly shaped, little acquainted with the Old Scriptures, and the New not as yet having been fully written, it is no wonder the Corinthians were ignorant. Paul seeks here to efface from their minds some traces of their old polytheism by impressing them with the truth that all their variety of gifts is from one Spirit, the Infinite Unity. Ten times in thirteen verses does he trace their varied gifts to one Spirit.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. concerning spiritual gifts] Rather (1) spiritual persons, or…
1. concerning spiritual gifts] Rather (1) spiritual persons, or better (2) spiritual matters, agencies. The word gifts is not in the original.
I would not have you ignorant] See note on ch. 1Co_10:1.
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Ch. 1Co_12:1-11. Spiritual Gifts; their origin and character
“We have often to remind ourselves that this Epistle was addressed to a Church in a state of faction. One cause of rivalry was the merits of their respective teachers; another was the endowments of various kinds given to the members of the Church.”—Robertson. This and the next two chapters are concerned with the great outpouring of spiritual energy which followed the preaching of the Gospel. St Paul deals with it in his usual manner. He characteristically lays down broad principles in this and the next chapter before he proceeds to the details of ch. 14. He is specially solicitous to do so here because of the danger, so often since experienced in the Church (see ch. 1Co_14:32), of the belief that a condition of great spiritual exaltation absolved men from the necessity of consulting their reason. The Apostle teaches that spiritual gifts are no less to be restrained in their exercise by considerations of decency, of order, of what is due to others, than gifts of a more ordinary kind. Therefore he takes occasion to shew (1Co_12:1-11) that all gifts proceed from one source, and that miraculous powers are no more gifts of the Spirit than some others not supposed to be miraculous, and then (1Co_12:12-30) that neither he who possesses them has any right to despise him who does not, nor he who does not possess them to envy him who does, since ‘each has his own proper gift of God.’ He goes on further (ch. 13) to point out the ‘more excellent way’ of love, and finally, in ch. 14, proceeds to lay down the regulations necessary for the preservation of order in the Christian assemblies.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Now concerning spiritual gifts.—Again the sequence of the…
XII.
(1) Now concerning spiritual gifts.—Again the sequence of the topics treated of is probably decided by the subjects contained in the letter from Corinth (see 1Co_7:1; 1Co_8:1), and the Apostle replies to inquiries regarding the comparative value and importance of certain spiritual gifts. In this early age the Church was full of the divine energy of spiritual youth. From the indwelling Spirit of God resulted certain marvellous “gifts,” some of which ceased with the apostolic age—some of which seem to have lingered for centuries, even to our own day—declaring themselves intermittently in times of profound religious awakening. The party spirit with which the Corinthian Church seems to have been saturated naturally led to diverse views as to the relative importance of certain of these gifts—some were unduly exalted, some unduly depreciated. The truth that these gifts are valuable as evidence of the indwelling Spirit, and so far as they could be useful for the Church, was forgotten. The Apostle reserves for consideration in more detail (see 1 Corinthians 13) the special gift of tongues, which was, perhaps, the gift most exaggerated and most misunderstood at Corinth, and deals in this chapter with the subject of spiritual gifts generally. The subject of the chapter is The Source, Object, and Value of Spiritual Gifts, and the chapter may be thus subdivided:—
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1Co_12:1-3. The confession of Christ as Lord is the true evidence of the Spirit.
1Co_12:4-11. The gifts of the Spirit are diverse in character, but the origin is the same.
1Co_12:12-30. The analogy of the human body shows that the spiritual Body (the Church) is not a collection of independent parts, but a living organism consisting of mutually interdependent members.
I would not have you ignorant.—Better, I do not wish you to be ignorant.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain CH. 11Co 10:1) The Corinthians had doubtless inquired in…
CH. 11Co 10:1) The Corinthians had doubtless inquired in their letter as to the views of the apostle on this important and difficult subject.
Vers. 1-31.
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The Christly assembly.
concerning spiritual gifts," etc. All throughout this chapter refers to the Christly assembly. I use this word in preference to the word "Church," for what are now called Churches are not always assemblages of genuine Christians. Overlooking the more minute parts of this remarkable chapter, and taking a broad glance at the whole, there are three important subjects very suggestive and capable of amplification, which are discoverable. These are that every member of this Christly community has passed through a radical change; that every member has received special endowments from God; and that every member should regard these endowments as parts of a vital whole.
I Every member of this Christly community has PASSED THROUGH A RADICAL CHANGE. "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led." The change here spoken of, it is to be observed, is a change from the spirit of the Gentiles, or the world, to the Spirit of Christ. The most radical change that can take place in a man is a change in his predominant disposition, or moral spirit. Such a disposition is in truth man"s moral heart. This change is here described:
1. Negatively. No man who has experienced it has anything irreverent or profane in his spirit towards Christ. "No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed.
2. Positively. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." "Can say," not of course merely the words, for all could easily do that, but with the heart and life. This change is the production of the Divine Spirit of "the Holy Ghost." Now, no man is a member of the true Church who has not experienced this transformation; who has not renounced the spirit of the world and come under the control of the Spirit of Christ. There are such who are found in connection with no conventional Church, and there may be conventional Churches where no such are found. All such, however, wherever found, belong to the Church of the "Firstborn written in heaven.
II Every member of this Christly community has RECEIVED SPECIAL ENDOWMENTS FROM GOD. "NOW there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit," etc. (vers. 4, 12). Without pausing to interpret the meaning of these endowments, I simply remark that they seem capable of being divided into three classes:
(1) Those of intellect. "Wisdom," "knowledge," etc.
(2) Those of "faith, operating faith in words, in deeds, and in "discernment.
(3) Those of language. "Tongues," speaking and interpreting,
Now, all responsible men have intellect of some kind and amount. All men have faith of some sort. Man has an instinctive tendency to believe; hence his credulity is proverbial. And he is necessitated to believe; he could not carry on the business of life without faith. All men also have a language of some kind or other. What, then, do we mean when we say that the endowments here refer to intellect, faith, and language? Simply this, that the man who has come into possession of the Christly Spirit and purpose, and is thus a member of the genuine Church, will receive
(1) a new force and elevation of intellect;
(2) a new object and energy of faith;
(3) a new style and emphasis of expression a new tongue. This great variety of endowments reveals:
1. The sovereignty of the Spirit. Why did he bestow any at all? Still more, why so different to different men? The only answer is because it pleased him so to do. "He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
2. The affluence of the Spirit. All these great and varied spiritual and mental endowments came from him. He is the inexhaustible Fountain, not only of all life, but of all spiritual endowments.
3. The benevolence of the Spirit. All these varied endowments bestowed for what purpose? To "profit withal." All for the highest usefulness; spiritual happiness is the end of the creation. Since all our endowments are the free gifts of God, there is no reason for those of the humblest to be dissatisfied, nor for those who have the most splendid to be exultant.
III Every member should regard these endowments as PARTS OF A VITAL WHOLE. The whole is here called the "body of Christ." As the soul resides in the body, directs the body, reveals itself in the body, so Christ in the true Church. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ," etc. Great is the variety in the various faculties, organs, and parts of the human body. Some are larger and more comely than others, but each, even the most insignificant and uncomely, are equally essential. "Those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary," etc. How preposterous would it be for one vital part of the body to contend with another for importance and supremacy! Yet not more absurd than for one member of a Church to contend with another. This is Paul"s argument against the divisions that were rampant in the Corinthian Church.
What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread, Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head? What if the head, the eye, or ear repined To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim To be another, in this general frame: Just as absurd to mourn the task or pains, The great directing Mind of all ordains. All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and God the soul." (Pope. )
HOMILIES BY C. LIPSCOMB.
Vers. 1-31.
Spiritual gifts.
A transition occurs here to a class of topics most important and interesting, since they involve the character and glory of the new dispensation. It was the special economy of the Holy Ghost which St. Paul was now to consider. All along we have had an insight into mistakes and disorders, into disputes and wranglings and, at times, into shameful vices. A quarter of a century had little more than passed since Christ ascended to the throne of the Father as the God Man of the universe, and the Spirit had descended as the promised Paraclete. Yet what strife and confusion! The marvellous gifts were strangely misunderstood. Once these Corinthians so the apostle reminds them had been Gentiles, "led away unto dumb idols, howsoever they might be led." But for them the age of "dumb idols" had ended and the great dispensation of speech had opened. No man sharing this speech from heaven by the Spirit of God could call "Jesus accursed;" and only such as were enlightened and directed by the Holy Ghost could say from the heart of love and faith that "Jesus is the Lord." At the outset, this principle is laid down as fundamental to the economy of gifts; it is a Divine economy; it is the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. Something was gained whoa this was made clear. Inspiration was no wild, spasmodic, frantic thing. It was not individuality unloosed and driven into gross eccentricity. Whatever mysteries were connected with these manifestations, there was a grand system to which they appertained, and it was upheld, applied, administered, by the Holy Ghost. Such, then, is the position assumed, and it commands the whole question. This done, the places occupied by different parties, the diversity of gifts, their number and multiformity, the relativity of each to a controlling general idea, and the unity sought as a final end, could be ascertained. Naturally, then, diversities of gifts would be the first to attract attention. Difference between objects begins our perceptive education, difference in our moods of mind cultivates our consciousness, difference must be seen before the higher intellect can perform the processes of abstraction and generalization. Accordingly St. Paul starts with "diversities of gifts." It was not a new idea. The Prophet Joel had it substantially, along with the conception of universality, when he spoke of prophesyings, of dreams, of visions, and declared that servants and handmaids should rejoice in the possession of this power. Christ had closed his earthly revelation of the Father by unfolding the manifoldness of the Spirit"s office. Pentecost had made good the promise, and had shown as the firstfruits of the harvest the recovery of the world"s languages to the service of Christianity. St. Paul, however, handles the idea in a way altogether new. Genius passes old truths through its transforming brain, and they charm the world as fresh and wondrous disclosures. Inspiration honours individuality; nothing treats the personality of the man with such respect; and hence St. Paul"s specialization of the fact of diversity. Mark how he treats it. Gifts themselves, as relative to men who are their recipients, are very unlike. Capacity in each case is a preexistent fact of providence, and the Spirit consults providence. But in the next place, gifts are ministries, and the diversities (distributions)are for various spheres. Functional work is of many kinds, offices have each its speciality, and, as earthly industry must achieve its results by division of labour, so the economy of the Holy Ghost must differentiate one form of energy from another. Ministers are servants, and these ministries are serving forces. And again, the gifts are represented as operations by whose effects, as incorporated in society, the kingdom of God is built up. "These are not to be limited to miraculous effects, but understood commensurately with the gifts of whose working they are the results" (Alford). If, in other passages of Scripture, the person of the Father or of the Son is prominently displayed, the personality of the Holy Ghost, as proceeding from the Father and the Son, is here set forth with a distinctness and emphasis characteristic of his relations to the plan of salvation. Just before (ver. 3), St. Paul had declared the presence of the Holy Ghost in the confession of Jesus as Lord, and the name, by which he was known among men (Jesus of Nazareth) and recognized in his trial, condemnation, and crucifixion, is borne up from earth and glorified in his exaltation. And here he is the "same Spirit" in the opening thought, "diversities of gifts." There are "differences of administrations," but the "same Lord;" "diversities of operations," but the "same God that worketh all in all;" nor will the apostle specify the fulness of the Spirit"s gifts and the greatness of his presiding agency over the Church without connecting him with the Father and the Son. The mystery of the Trinity remains. But the doctrine becomes a very real and practical fact, and, as such, assimilable in Christian experience, when thus identified with grace in all its workings through the Church. And so true is this that the very mystery is essential to the effect the doctrine produces, by forming an infinite background, against which the fact stands in relief. Under these circumstances, mystery commends itself., not simply to reverence, but to experimental appreciation. Reason, if made conscious of its own instinct, finds a basis for itself and a vindication of its functions in the exercise of faith, and, by means of this illumination, reason is assured that the faculties of the human mind have their laws and are bound in obedience thereunto, because the law of mystery is the primal law whence they draw their lift and support. No marvel, then, that the apostle presents God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit with such prominence in the initial stage of his argument on spiritual gifts, Most closely is the doctrine identified with the experimental and. practical truths he was about to enforce. From no lower source than the mystery of all mysteries will he bring the awe, the sense of responsibility under trust, and the greatness of Church duties arising from the diversities of gifts. It is not this or that gift alone, nor this or that office bearer alone, nor this or that outwrought result alone, but their union in one economy and their combination in a totality, which he wished to emphasize. Most impressively is this done by presenting Father, Son, and Spirit as the one God of these diverse gifts, the Trinity itself being the very ground and source of the diversification. The broad scope of the diversities in the Church is indicated in the statement that the "manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." The character of the Divine communication to "every man" is defined by the word "manifestation," which expresses the agency of the Spirit in these human instruments. First of all, the Spirit is manifested to the man and then through the man. As a condition precedent to his office, the man has an experience, and it consists in his own conscious knowledge that God has come to his soul and imbued it with the Spirit. Herein, herein only, lies his capacity for usefulness; herein his safeguard against failure. And the measure of the one manifestation is the measure of the other; for in the degree that a man feels his own soul alive to God will he impart vitality to his ministrations. Preacher, Sunday school teacher, Bible reader, tract distributer, Paul on Mars" Hill or in the prison at Rome, Bunyan writing in gaol, Hannah More at Barleywood, John Pounds with his ragged school; no matter what the manifestation, as to where made and bow modified by individuality, it is divinely human to its subject before it is made divinely human in him as an instrument. Finally, the broad scope (every man. ) and the quality of the influence (manifestation) are carried forward to the object and end, viz. to profit withal. For the common advantage these gifts were bestowed; the greater the bestowment, the nearer its human connections; and the more of a recipient the man, the more of a man must he be in the outgoings of his intelligence, love, and zeal in behalf of others. "Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" Such was the argument (ch. 4.) to check partisanship in the Corinthian Church; but in this passage, "to profit withal" is exhibited in its positive aspect as the inspiration of motive and purpose and end of all Christian working. Is it not, then, remarkable that Christianity approaches man at a point where he is most sensitive to self, and where he is quickest and boldest to assert his unyieldingness to the claims of others, and at this very point to demand of him "the common profit"? Make any analysis of human nature you please, pride of intellect is the most lordly of all its imperious qualities. Particularly in the case of fine gifts, men who are the possessors of them are instinctively disposed to assert a despotic sway over others, or, if not that, to indulge a feeling of self gratulation and its counterpart of self isolation because of their superiority. Yet it is just here Christianity requires humility and enforces the claims of a most vigorous sympathy. How this "common profit" is to be subserved, St. Paul proceeds to show in vers. 8-11. There is no large accumulation in one man, no fostering of the spirit of self aggrandizement no such exaltation of one as to prove a humiliation to another. Talents are divided out, and each talent bears the seal of God, and comes authenticated, not to the intellect, but to the spiritual sense of a redeemed man hood. Go through this catalogue as drawn out by the apostle; dwell on the significance of each specification; avail yourself of the helps afforded by our most critical scholars in the explication of wisdom" as intuition, of knowledge" as acquired information, of "faith as transcending its ordinary limits as the grace of salvation, of the gifts of healing as adapted to various diseases, of the working of miracles as time and occasion called for, all these charisms proceeding from the same Spirit; continue the enumeration that includes "prophecy or the illumination cf the mind by the Spirit and the exalted activity of its faculties, after that the eye of watchful judgment, discerning of spirits, so as to discriminate between genuine inspiration and its alloys and counterfeits, then the "divers kinds of tongues, and the power to interpret or translate the unknown language; and all these the works of "one and the selfsame Spirit" that distributes the charism to each one in harmony with the law of individuality, and, at the same time, exercises the Divine sovereignty so that the distribution is made "severally as he will" (Alford, Hodge, Lange); and when you have thus expanded your views to the dimensions of this spiritual provision for the Church and the exquisite symmetry of its organism tell us if any interest possible to man"s present attitude, if any craving of true life in its mortal and immortal relationships, if any outreachings toward the infinite when body, soul, and spirit have interblended their instincts, and become one in the heirship of an eternal inheritance, have been left neglected or meagrely provided for? To bring this variety and unity more vividly before the Corinthians, St. Paul employs a most apt illustration taken from the human body as an organism. Already he had argued the diversity of gifts in adaptiveness to the capacities and wants of the Church. Left at that point, the argument would have been incomplete. It was needful to see what the Church itself was as an organization, and how its wholeness stood related to its individual parts. In the earlier portion of the Epistle he had combated the unhappy tendency towards an excessive individualism. Theoretic speculations had been kept out of sight, and practical questions, lying within immediate range and urgently demanding treatment, had been scrutinized. Was the work done when domestic morals had been pleaded for, when social companionships were set in a true light; when the betrayals of a lax and over accommodating sympathy in public intercourse were exposed; when the corruptions growing out of an abuse of love feasts and extending to the Holy Communion had been faithfully dealt with; when, in addition thereunto, he had expounded the Divine import and sacredness of the Lord"s Supper? Was the work done when he had opened the treasures of grace and taught his brethren how the Divine munificence had enriched their souls? Was he content to stop after delineating the correspondence between the bestowments of the Spirit in his multiformity of gifts, and the complexity of the Church as the witness to the Trinity? By no means was the subject exhausted. Specific as he had been direct, resolute, pungent how much remained to be said (as we shall see hereafter), to reflectback on what had been said, and bring out half latent meanings of truths stated which the argument, in its direct connections, did not exact of his logic at the instant! At this point, then, he introduces a felicitous illustration. It is done in a business like style. Image it can scarcely be called, since it has no poetic element addressed merely to the aesthetic sense, and is quite as much the product of the reason as of the imagination. We have spoken of St. Paul as one who studied the human body and was profoundly interested in considering its present and prospective condition in the light of the Christian revelation. The illustration here used extends through a large portion of the chapter, and, as a figure, is for him elaborated with unusual fulness and painstaking. Evidently it is not a creation of the moment, for there is not a mark of sudden impulse. Tracing the analogy between the Church and the human body, and recognizing the Spirit of the earlier creation in this later and more glorious one, the inspired author evinces that delight in similarity of relations which is the infallible sign both of high endowment and broad culture, and he proceeds with a quiet and steady gait till the ground has been fully traversed.
1. The human body is an organism. It is "one, and hath many members." By an organism we understand "a whole consisting of parts which exist and work each for all and all for each; in other words, which are reciprocally related as means and end" (Dr. Kling). The principle of life is a principle of organization, weaving a form for itself, shaping that form to itself, and impressing thereupon its own distinctive image. The principle assumes various organizations simple in some, complex in others and, in every case, the life power is the animating and determinative force. "So also is Christ" (ver. 12). In the Church, which is his body, Christ is the constituting Power. He is its Life, and without him it is nothing. Through the Spirit he maintains those operations which impart vitality to all the institutions and agencies of the Church. "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (ver. 13), whether "Jews or Gentiles;" such is the almighty energy of the Holy Ghost in begetting vitality and transforming national and race distinctions into its own likeness, that they are made one. This is also true of "bond or free." The characteristics of individuality as to races and social positions remain, but whatever is incapable of unity is removed and the organism subdues to itself every element and constituent it adopts. All are made "to drink into one Spirit." Viewed externally, we see Jews and Greeks, bond and free, with their peculiarities derived from the past and respected as the signs of Providence in the ages preparatory to Christ"s advent. A rich and picturesque mosaic is thus presented by the Church. Along with this, the Church is also a type of the future man, from whom all selfish antagonisms have gone and over whom the sentiment of brotherhood is supreme.
1. The human body has various correlated parts. "For the body is not one member, but many (ver. 14). Each constitutent or "member" must be recognized as something in itself, as having an autonomy, as created for a distinct function and ordained to do its own special work. Not else could the body be worthy of its place as the head of the physical world and represent the mind of man. In this wondrous organism, which may be likened to a community, every cell is an independent activity, a citizen with rights of its own and entitled to protection against all hostile influence. The fable of Menenius is introduced, and the classic reader of our day is reminded of Coriolanus as the representative of the haughty patricians and yet more of the haughtier statesman, and of the fierce contempt felt for the people. St. Paul has given due prominence to this idea of each organ as performing its functions and as essential to the whole. If the unity is brought about from within, then it follows that every member must share the animating principle. Food must be provided for blood, blood must
2. nourish the organs, the organs must be tributary in specific ways to the organism, or the organism must perish. So in the Church, different men are different organs. Such are the numerous offices of the Holy Ghost as the Executive of Father and Son; such are his relations as Remembrancer, Testifier, Convincer; that there must needs be much diversity of gift; and hence there are gifts of healing, helping, governing, extraordinary faith, and "divers kinds of tongues." Light is distributed in colours, and colours in tints and hues, and tints and hues multiply themselves in minute differences. Sound breaks up in notes. Form assumes multitudinous shapes and attitudes. The ocean rolls in restless lines and the earth curves to a curving sky. "Not one member, but many," and the manifoldness in the magnificence of the universe is repeated, as far as may be, in the complexity of the human organism, and, in turn, this exists for the Church. But:
3. Reciprocity of action must be fully maintained. The organs of the body are distinct but not separate, since they combine in one organism and are subordinate to a unitary result. They are supplied with blood by the same heart and they are all dependent on nerves running from nervous centres. Spinal cord, medulla, cerebellum, cerebrum, are local in position, but not local in function. Not an organ, though independent in structure and functional operation, can insulate itself and be independent of the whole. Our pleasures and pains alike testify to this dominant mutuality. A beautiful landscape is not limited to the retina; a musical sound enters the rhythm of heart and lungs, and the ear is only a fragment of the joy; so that localized sensibility, however intense, becomes generalized feeling. The special senses exist for a sensorium. St. Paul regards the body, therefore, as an assemblage or confederation of organs, and enlarges (vers. 15-26) on the idea in its several aspects. The section has been fitly spoken of as a colloquy in a highly dramatic style." The body itself is thoroughly dramatic. It represents and interprets mind. It acts the soul. Downward it may go and imitate the beast, even descend below the beast. Upward it may go, and go so high that the faces of Moses and St. Stephen glow with a light never on shore or sea. Now, this colloquy presents one member of the body arrayed against another and vainly asserting its independence. If a discontented foot envy the hand, or the ear envy the eye, "is it therefore not of the body," participating in its fights, enjoying its privileges, ennobled by the organism? They are for the sake of each other, so that "the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you? Furthermore, in the case of feeble organs, does the body turn vindictively against them? in the case of those less honourable, are they despised? in the case of the uncomely parts, are they treated with contempt? Nay, in the well ordered commonwealth of the body, where the instincts, endowed by the Almighty with a measure of his sovereignty, retain their sway, parts that are feeble, less honourable, less comely, appeal to pity and sympathy and taste to be cheered and comforted. The whole glandular system, though assigned to the functions of secretion and excretion, is yet a wonderful provision for emotion, not only for emotion as respects others, but as self regarding and self relieving. A whispered. need of assistance from the very humblest organ is heard in every recess of the corporeal structure. Temple it is even in ruins, and its ministers, inhabiting dim vaults and mysterious crypts, hear the prayer for compassion and aid, and hasten to give sympathy and assistance. Beyond all this, what vicarious work the organs do in their considerate kindness to one another? No doubt we are open to the charge of reading between the apostle"s lines and of going beyond his intended meaning. Be it so; on the lines or between them, no matter, if the philosophy and spirit of the thought he observed. St. Paul"s inspiration was for our day as well as his own, and perhaps it would not be very extravagant to say that the Christian scholarship of the nineteenth century sees depths in some of his conceptions that he never saw. For it is the nature of inspiration to be ever unfolding its manifoldness of meaning, holding tenaciously to its original ground, and yet pressing back its horizon to embrace fresh territory, and thus making itself a specially quickening power to successive ages. One thing, however, is very clear, namely, St. Paul saw the analogy between the Church and the human body. By virtue of the connection of its organs, he takes occasion to urge on the Church very weighty and solemn duties. Mutual forbearance, respect, honour, must be sacredly cherished. The organic life of the Church makes it Christ"s body. "Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." The main thought is restated and re-enforced as to apostles, prophets, etc. (vers. 28-30); and surely nothing has been left unsaid which could convince and persuade the Corinthians that their spiritual organization was not a thing to take care of itself, nor to be trusted to haphazard, nor to be surrendered to self-appointed leaders. It was a life, a sphere, a discipline and culture, a joy and blessedness, for all. Were the weakliest among them to be overlooked as useless? If there were poor widows with only two mites to cast into God"s treasury, they had their place and vocation. If there were little children, their looks and ways told of the kingdom of heaven. Were there uncomely parts? Grace was strong enough to do them abundant honour. One of the invaluable blessings of Church life is to show respect and regard for such as society excludes from its esteem, and alas! too often treats with disdain, and thereby dooms them to a fate more wretched than poverty. In honouring them, the Church teaches these persons to honour themselves, and that, once secured, improvement outward and inward is made far easier. In brief, wherever anything was lacking, there "more abundant honour" should be bestowed. And why all this? That none be neglected, that all be partakers of one another"s sufferings and pleasures, and that the community be indeed a communion of one heart and mind. "That there should be no schism." This was the dread that hung over St. Paul: "schism;" this was the terror that darkened his path far more than the enemies and persecutors that pursued his steps. "Members should have the same care one for another." Brotherhood should sanctify individuality, and consummate and crown all the gifts of the Divine Giver. What a wonder this, to set before a city like Corinth! What an ideal to lift up in its resplendent glory in a period such as the first century! And this by the "ugly little Jew," a wandering tent maker, who had nothing and would have nothing to commend him to the carnal philosophy and popular tastes of the age, and who could only speak from his own soul and the Spirit in that soul to the souls of men. Yet the doctrine of Christ"s headship of humanity was his stay and strength, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost were his tokens and pledges of victory for his cause. He would have others share his assurance and participate with him in the infinite blessedness. Therefore, he argues, "covet earnestly the best gifts," and the best way to secure these best gifts he will proceed at once to show them. L.
HOMILIES BY E. HURNDALL Vers. 1-11.
The spiritual gifts of the Church.
I THESE ARE VERY VARIOUS. In the early Church there were many supernatural gifts, in fulfilment of the prophecy, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions", (Joe_2:28) and of the more remarkable utterance of Christ, "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my Name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover". (Mar_16:17, 18) We have in this passage an enumeration of some of these gifts. The "word of wisdom further disclosure of Divine wisdom in redemption. The "word of knowledge ready utterance of truth already revealed. "Faith not for salvation, but for the performance of miracle in any special case. "Gifts of healing restoring the sick miraculously. "Working of miracles generally, or those of more striking character. "Prophecy here probably not inspired teaching of matters already revealed, but the foretelling of events. "Discerning of spirits power to determine between God"s operation and Satan"s or man"s. Peter"s dealing with Ananias and Sapphira furnishes an illustration. "Kinds of tongues speaking various languages or in the "unknown" spiritual language (ch. 14:2). "Interpretation of tongues interpreting the foregoing. In the modern Church there are many spiritual gifts, though we do not speak of them as supernatural. As the former were fitted for the needs of former days, so the latter are for the requirements of the present age. The variety of the gifts in each case is stamped with Divine wisdom and is of large advantage; for
(1) there are various positions to be filled;
(2) various work has to be done; and
(3) one gift often supplies the defect of another.
II THEIR OBJECT IS ONE PROFIT." (Ver. 7.) They are not:
(1) For mere display.
(2) For personal aggrandizement.
They are:
(1) For the welfare of the Church.
(2) For the welfare of the individual members.
(3) For the welfare of the world.
The Church has a large mission to those outside her pale. She is made rich very largely that she may make them rich. She is placed in a world parish, that she may carry the gospel of the grace of God to all within the bounds. Her strengthening and enrichment are for the world"s weal; her special endowments fit her for this grand enterprise.
(4) For the glory of God. This is the ultimate object. As the Church"s endowments come from God, so should they return to him. The Church is for itself, is for the individual, is for the world, but these only comparatively; supremely and specially the Church is for God. And all her gifts and graces should redound to the Divine honour and glory.
III THEIR ORIGIN IS ONE GOD. They should be used, then:
1. With reverence. Our qualifications for Christian service as truly come from God as the ancient gifts of tongues or miracles. We feel that the latter should have been used very reverentially; not more so than the former: both are equally of God. We are God endowed now as truly as were any of the early Christians, and God endowments should be used with utmost reverence.
2. With care. Lest the good gift be perverted by ill use. Our gifts may do as much harm if wrongly used, as good if rightly used.
3. With diligence. The value of the earlier gifts we can easily perceive; we need to realize that modern gifts are equally valuable for modern times. If we felt the value of that which is entrusted to us, we should be more likely to use it diligently. "Stir up the gift of God which is in thee". (2Ti_1:6)
4. With the thought that they will have to be accounted for. These are talents, and the reckoning day will surely come. The time is short in which they car, be used. The need of their employment is stupendous. Let none suppose that they are unendowed. "To every man his work;" and never yet was work given without gift for the work.
IV THEIR DISTRIBUTION IS OF ONE OF GOD. (Ver. 11.) The choice of our spiritual gifts does not rest. with us. What rests with us is the right employment of those we possess. To murmur because we are not endowed as others are is worse than foolish; it is criminal, for it impugns the wisdom and the goodness of God. Some five talent men will do nothing because they are not ten talent men. They mourn and complain because of what they lack, and certainly they appear to have a large lack of common sense. We are not the Lord; we are servants, and the great Spirit "divideth to every man severally as he will." Let us take our talents thankfully, use them diligently, and never wrap them up in the napkin of repining and discontent. Our condition was once akin to that of the Corinthians, who were carried away unto "dumb idols "(ver. 2). From the idolatry of sin we have been brought into the Church of the Redeemed, and made the worshippers and servants of the true God. Abounding gratitude should leave no room for the faintest murmur. In truth we have nothing to murmur over, but everything to be devoutly thankful for.
V THEIR TEST IS ONE. They are tested by their relation to Christ (ver. 3). Spurious gifts may appear, or good gifts may be perverted. In early days the test of utterance was, "What saith it of Christ?" Did it declare him to be anathema accursed? Then it declared itself to be not of God. "By their fruits ye shall know them." And this test applies to all spiritual gifts ancient and modern. Unless they tend to the exaltation and honour of Christ, they are not what they profess to be. If genuine, they are under the control and administration of the Holy Ghost, and he who was sent to glorify Christ (Joh_16:14) will never abase and dishonour him. If men have all other credentials, yet cast reproach upon the Head of the Church, we must instantly reject their testimony and regard them as charlatans. Here is the supreme end of our spiritual gifts he may be glorified." "Try the spirits.
VI THEIR CONTROL AND EXERCISE ARE ONE. They came from God and they are still in the hands of God. They are very various, but they are unified in the One who gave them and the One who directs their use. "Diversities,... but the same Spirit, the same Lord,... the same God" (vers. 4-6). The control and exercise of spiritual gifts are of the Triune Jehovah "Lord," "Spirit." When our spiritual gifts are rightly employed, God works through us. As we have the gifts from God, so it is only as we have God with the gifts that they can be rightly and usefully employed. We are channels for Divine power to run in. Our impotence apart from God is strikingly shown in ver. 3, "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by or, "in the Holy Ghost." We may use the words, but we cannot feel their power, receive their truth, or bear the effective witness to Christ, apart from the Divine Spirit. How ennobled and inestimably precious do spiritual gifts appear in this light! How careful should we be not to resist the working of God through us! And we may profitably remember that he uses the smaller gifts as well as the larger; nay, sometimes uses the former the more. The more dazzling gifts are not always the most useful. H.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Vers. 1-3.
The presidency of the Spirit.
This passage does not direct us to this general topic, but to one particular point in relation to it. The presidency relates to, covers, and hallows every feature and every expression of Christian life and worship and fellowship. The whole life of the regenerate man is directly and fully within the Spirit"s lead, so that he cannot even speak if he be a Christian indeed without the inspiration, the guidance, the toning, of the indwelling Holy Ghost. The apostle is giving these Christianized Gentiles a test by which they might know whether they had indeed the sealing and sanctifying gift of the Spirit. They could tell even by the character of their utterances. These found expression for the cherished feeling; and such was the natural depravity of man that they might be sure no man cherished admiring and loving thoughts of Christ, and found expression for them by saying, "Jesus is Lord," save as he was inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost. If it be true of so simple an expression of the Christian life as that, it is surely true of all other expressions. It is even the glory of the Christian man that nowhere and in nothing is he independent. The "Great heart Guide" is always with him. He speaks, he acts, as moved by the Holy Ghost. St. Paul is ted to the impression of this point by the false notion that might be so easily taken up the notion that only great gifts and talents are under the presidency ofthe Spirit; that he bears no immediate and precise relation to the common life. The question of practical concern for each one of us is this How much of daffy life can we recognize as being in God"s lead, and under the Spirit"s presidency? In answer we may say
I THE SPECIAL THINGS OF A MAN"S LIFE ARE IN THE SPIRIT"S LEAD. This may be opened by dwelling on:
1. The special things of personal experience.
2. Of Christian employment and use of gifts.
3. Of relationship and opportunity.
4. Of confession and witness, as in the case of apostles and martyrs.
II THE COMMON AND LITTLE THINGS OF A MAN"S LIFE ARE IN THE SPIRIT"S LEAD. The "three fourths of life which is made up of conduct." Our sayings, our doings in home and in business. Every act which can express character is of interest to the sanctifying Spirit, and may be done, should be done, in his leadings and inspirations. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have…
1Co_12:1-31
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
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Spiritual gifts
The particular gifts to which St. Paul was referring were not exactly as a whole like anything that is to be witnessed in the Church now. They produced effects which challenged the attention of the eye and the ear, and were calculated to fire the imagination. St. Paul mentions nine of these gifts. Of these the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom and prophecy, were such as might be found on no inconsiderable scale at the present day diffused in the Church of Christ. The word of wisdom would seem to be an eminent power of apprehending revealed truth in its relations towards the general field of human thought and human knowledge--as we should say, of apprehending it philosophically. The word of knowledge implies an insight into the several departments of revealed truth, and into their mutual relations towards each other; while prophecy means not simply prediction of the future, but especially the power of stating truth and duty clearly and forcibly to others. And the gift of faith here mentioned would he probably something distinct from the faith of ordinary believers--an extraordinary illumination of the believing soul, making God and the world unseen so vividly present to it that all obstacles to duty seem for the time straightway to vanish. This, too, is to be found in some gifted Christians in all ages of the Church. The five other gifts are at least less ordinary. There were Christians at Corinth who had the gift of healings, and others a more extended gift of working miracles; cases, these, plainly, in which the fire of the Holy Ghost, possessing, enlightening, warming the believing soul, made itself felt through the soul and body of the believer upon surrounding nature, and produced effects for which no natural causes that were known would account. Others, again, had the gift of discerning spirits--something deeper, that is, than any insight into character, although analogous to this great and uncommon gift. A power they had of seeing in other souls the exact endowment with which the Holy Ghost had furnished them--what in them was really the work of grace--what only the counterfeit of nature. Others, again, spoke with tongues--probably, as at Pentecost, in foreign languages, sometimes with a view to missionary work among the strangers who were to be found about the port and in the streets of Corinth; probably also, and more frequently still, in a mystic language to which no known human tongue corresponded, yet in which an entranced and illuminated soul might at times alone be able to express itself. Others, again, had the gift of interpreting tongues--:probably the mystic language of devotion, which, but for the gifted interpreter, would have died away upon the ear of the audience without leaving even an idea behind. It was natural that the exercise of such endowments as these should have led to a great deal of discussion at Corinth, where the subject was continually and practically brought before the eyes and ears of Christians. Questions were eagerly asked; they were often hastily and erroneously answered. They were at last referred to the apostle. St. Paul answers these questions, and in doing so he lays down principles of permanent and vital importance. First, every single gift, he says, even the very least, is important, because all come from a single source--the Divine and eternal Spirit living and working in the Church of Christ. Secondly, he rules that the gifts do differ in importance, and that their importance is to be measured by their practical value to the soul and to the Church of Christ. On this account he decides that the gift of tongues which excited such extraordinary ,enthusiasm at Corinth is really a less important gift than the relatively quiet and tame gift of teaching or prophecy, simply because the latter is of greater service to others--of greater service to the Church. Thirdly, he will not allow that the possession of any gift whatever ought to make the possessor an object of jealousy. Being a gift it implies no sort of merit in the possessor at all, but only in the giver. It is given, too, not for the advantage, not for the credit of the possessor of it, but simply for the good of the Church at large. No gift, accordingly, could be possessed by the heathen outside the Church who cursed the blessed name of Jesus; and no gift rendered its possessor independent of others in the holy body, or could be wholly monopolised for the advantage of the possessor. The eye could not possibly say to the foot, I have no need of thee. And, lastly, all these gifts were inferior to those which were shared by all Christians, even the very humblest in a state of grace--love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, especially the graces of faith, of hope, of charity. Especially were they inferior to the last and greatest of these, the grace of charity--the love of God for His own blessed sake because He is what He is; the love of man in and for God. The importance of this knowledge to us at the present day appears to me to be undeniable, for we live at a time when men are disposed to ignore the very existence of the spiritual world--the presence and action of the Holy Comforter upon the souls of men. This is, perhaps, partly a reaction from some fanatical ideas about His work which were to be found here and there in a past generation; but it is much more largely due, I apprehend, to the immense place which the material universe holds in the thoughts and especially in the imaginations of the present generation. We have explored the realm of matter; we have subjugated it; we have made it at once our friend and our slave in ways undreamt of by our forefathers. Beneath all material splendour, even the greatest, there is at bottom an aching void, because man was made for something higher and nobler than matter--because he cannot find his real satisfaction in matter. He was made for God, and all that reminds man of his real destiny--yes, I will say it, of his true nobility--has a claim upon his ear and upon his heart that cannot be permanently ignored. And when the apostle cries, Concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant, he touches a chord to which man sooner or later responds, because in his deepest self man is, and knows himself to be, a spirit. His real self is a deeper and more central thing than can be touched by these merely outward surroundings; and therefore man cannot permanently, even in this very metropolis of the worlds material civilisation, forget that higher gifts than any which matter can furnish him are really within his reach, and that he does not well to be ignorant of them. But then some who know that something higher than matter is their true aim and portion do not always fix their eye upon the really spiritual. They mistake intellect for spirit. But mans reason and thought is but an instrument of his deepest self--of his indestructible personal being. Spiritual gifts are higher, far, than merely intellectual gifts. The latter imply nothing as to the moral excellence of the inmost being itself. Voltaires brilliancy was undeniable, but who would exchange solid peace of soul for a power of making the epigrams which delighted Paris, but which could not bring one hour of true rest or happiness to their gifted author? Do I say that material or intellectual gifts are worthless? God forbid! They have, too, come from Him. His gifts to the old heathen world, its astonishing cultivation of reason, of fancy, of language, its vast and varied efforts in the way of constructive enterprise, its burning passion, its abundant genius for art, its vigorous talent for administration and for government, were and are still worthy as coming from Him. Even although these gifts were frequently, or, rather, almost as a matter of course, misused, debased, by the pervading presence of sin, they were in themselves admirable, and we do well to honour and admire them if only because of their Author. And all that He has given in addition to the modern world, outside the kingdom of His Son, and independently of it--our material and intellectual progress in all its departments--is matter not for depreciation, still less for secret fear, but for thankful and generous acknowledgment, if only we remember that there are higher gifts beyond; that, when our architects, our merchants, our engineers, our historians, our poets, our metaphysicians, have done their best, there still remains a sublimer sphere from which an apostle whispers, Concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Doubtless we here touch, as so often in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, upon mystery--that is to say, upon a truth of the reality of which we are convinced, but the full account and reason of which is, in our present state of being and knowledge, beyond us. Who shall attempt to picture, much less to describe, the process whereby He, the Eternal, the Uncreated, overshadows, enwraps, penetrates, moulds, changes, burns, our finite and created spirits, bathing them, if we will, through and through with His light and with His warmth, endowing them with powers which, according to the original terms of their natural structure, are altogether strange to them, fitting them by anticipation here, amid the scenes of sense and time, for a higher and a better world? Who indeed shall say, since who knows enough of the nature and intrinsic capacities of spirit to attempt the description? From age to age the gifts of the Spirit may vary in their form; substantially they are the same to the very end of time; and, next to the atoning death of Jesus Christ and the power of His blood to cleanse our sins, there is no fact of equal practical importance to human beings who are living and must die. In conclusion, one or two practical considerations. Now these words furnish us with a guide to the true idea of education, with a test and criterion of some current educational theories. When I hear of schemes of education which are only schemes for packing the mind full of facts, and which include among those facts almost everything except what bears upon that one subject which it is of most importance for a human being to know, a voice from above sounds in my ears, Concerning spiritual gifts, brethren of this generation, I would not have you ignorant. What will it profit to have measured and weighed out the whole realm of matter--to have explored and studied all the achievements of human thought; if, after all, Gods gifts to the soul--His gifts of a new birth, of a real redemption, of a new insight into truth, of a robe wherein one day the soul may appear even before Him in His sanctity and in His justice without trembling and without confusion--if these are altogether ignored? So, too, in the sentence of the apostle I see a rule for forming friendship. Perhaps before the idea of a universal brotherhood in Christ had dawned upon the conscience of the world, a single sincere attachment between two human beings had a significance which we to-day can with difficulty appreciate. But, at any rate, the ancients were right in estimating very highly the moral importance of friendship; for a friend--and there is scarcely a truth which a young man ought more carefully to lay to heart--a friend at once reflects and moulds character. His influence penetrates in a thousand ways into the recesses of thought and of feeling. He leaves his mark there, most assuredly. He is a help or a hindrance; he is a blessing or a curse, as the case may be. What is his real character? What are the qualities of his heart? What, properly speaking, are his spiritual endowments? What is his amount of faith in the unseen--of hope in an eternal future--of love of God and of man? And, lastly, here is a rule for all steady and systematic efforts at self-improvement. Let us make the most of the means of grace, as they are termed, while we may. Of the certificated channels through which these gifts must reach us--of prayer, first of all, of the Divine Scriptures, of the holy sacraments--life is too short, my brethren, to allow any man to know or to do everything. There is much of which we may safely, and even profitably, be ignorant; but as immortal beings we dare not ignore, we dare not neglect, the gifts which the eternal Spirit bestows upon us here that hereafter they may robe us in a happy immortality. (Canon Liddon.)
Concerning spiritual gifts
1. This Epistle is well fitted to disabuse our minds of the idea that the primitive Church was in all respects superior to the Church of our own day. We turn page after page and find little but contention, errors, immorality, etc.
2. At this point, however, the primitive Church is differentiated from our own, and it would have been surprising had the revolution which Christianity introduced not been accompanied by abnormal manifestation. The new Divine life, suddenly poured into human nature, stirred it to unusual power. People who yesterday could only condole with their sick friends, found today that they could impart to them vital energy. Men brought up in idolatry and ignorance suddenly found their minds filled with new and stimulating ideas which they felt impelled to impart.
3. The Spirit of Christ does not produce these manifestations now because--
(1) They are no longer required. When you sow a plot you stick twigs round it that the unseen plant may not be trodden down, but when the plants have become as tall as the twigs, then these are useless. So miracles helped the young Churchs growth; but she has now become sufficiently visible and understood to need them no more.
(2) The disturbances produced by the first impact of these new Christian forces could not be expected to continue. New political or social ideas suddenly possessing a people, as at the French Revolution, inspire with an energy which cannot be normal.
4. Nothing could be more natural than that these gifts should be overrated. They came to be prized for their own sake, and, as usual, what was useful could not compete with what was surprising.
5. Paul now explains the object of these gifts and the principle of their distribution.
(1) He reminds them that their previous history sufficiently explained their need of instruction (1Co_12:1-2). The first thing needed to guide them, therefore, was a criterion by which they could judge whether so-called manifestations of the Spirit are genuine or spurious (1Co_12:3). Very early men were found in the Church who could not reconcile themselves to the accursed death of Christ. They believed in His gospel, miracles, kingdom, but the Crucifixion was a stumbling-block. And so they held that the Divine Logos descended upon Jesus at His baptism, but abandoned Him before the Crucifixion. This degradation of Jesus was not to be tolerated, and to own His lordship was the test of a mans Christianity. And this is the only sure test to-day. No wonderful works he may accomplish prove his possession of Christs Spirit (Mat_7:22-23).
(2) And as to the gifts themselves, they should be no cause of discord, for they have everything in common: they have their source in God; they are for Christs service; they are forms of the same Spirit (1Co_12:4-6).
(3) The new life assumed various forms and sufficed for all mans needs. As the sun in spring develops each seed according to its own special character, so with this new spiritual force. Christian influence does not clip all men after one pattern like trees in an avenue, but causes each to grow according to his own individuality, one with the rugged irregularity of the oak, another with the orderly richness of the plane.
6. That society is an organism similar to the human body, is not an exclusively Christian idea. It was a common Stoic doctrine, and in the earliest days of Rome Menenius Agrippa uttered his fable which Shakespeare has helped to make famous. But although this comparison is not new, it is now being more seriously and scientifically examined and pushed to its legitimate conclusion. Paul suggests--
I. That the unity of Christians is a vital unity (1Co_12:13). This unity is not a mechanical unity, as of shot in a bag; nor a forced unity, as of wild beasts in a menagerie; nor a unity of mere accidental juxtaposition, as of passengers in a train. But as the life of the human body maintains all the various members and nourishes them to a well-proportioned and harmonious growth, so is it in the body of Christ.
II. That the efficiency of the body depends upon the multiplicity and variety of its members (1Co_12:17; 1Co_12:19). The lowest forms of life have either no distinct organs or very few; but the higher we ascend the more numerous and distinctly differentiated are the organs. The same law holds good of society. Among uncivilised tribes each man is his own farmer or huntsman, and his own priest, butcher, cook, and clothier. But as men become civilised the various wants of society are supplied by different individuals, and every function is specialised. The same law necessarily holds true of the body of Christ. In a society in which Christianity is just beginning to take root, it may fall to one man to do the work of the whole Christian body, etc. But as it advances towards a perfect condition its functions and organs become as multifarious and distinct as the organs of the human body. Every member therefore has something to contribute to its good and to the work it does. And it is for him to discover what his Christian instincts lead him to. The eye does not need to be told it is for seeing, or the hand that it is for grasping. And where there is true Christian life, it matters not what the member of Christs body be, it will find its function, even though that function is new in the Churchs experience.
III. That as there is to be no slothful self-disparagement in the body of Christ, so must there be no depreciation of other people (1Co_12:21). When zealous people discover new methods, they forthwith despise the normal ecclesiastical system that has stood the test and is stamped with the approval of centuries. One method cannot regenerate and Christianise the world any more than one member can do the whole work of the body. Paul goes even further, and reminds us that the feeble parts of the body are the more necessary; the heart, the brain, the lungs, etc., are more necessary than the hand or the foot, the loss of which no doubt cripples, but does not kill. So in the Church it is the hidden souls who, by their prayers and domestic godliness, maintain the whole body in health and enable more conspicuously gifted members to do their part. Contempt for any member of the body of Christ is most unseemly and sinful.
IV. That the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, and not for the glorification of the individual. However beautiful any feature of a face may be, it is hideous apart from its position; so is the Christian who attracts attention to himself and does not subordinate his gift to the advantage of the whole body of Christ. If in the human body any member is not subservient to the one central will, that is recognised as disease: St. Virus dance. If any member ceases to obey the central will, paralysis is indicated. And equally so is disease indicated wherever a Christian seeks his own ends or his own glorification, and not the advantage of the whole body. (M. Doris, D.D.)
Of spiritual gifts
1. The ancient prophets had clearly predicted that the Messianic period should be attended by a remarkable effusion of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord, before His crucifixion, promised to send the Holy Ghost (Joh_14:1-31., etc.), and after His resurrection He said, These signs shall follow them that believe, etc. (Mar_16:17-18; cf. Act_1:5). On the day of Pentecost these promises and prophecies were literally fulfilled.
2. The peculiarity of the new dispensation consisted--
(1) In the general diffusion of these gifts. They were extended to all classes--
(2) In their wonderful diversity.
3. Under circumstances so extraordinary it was unavoidable that many disorders should arise.
(1) Some claimed to be the organs of the Spirit, who were deluded or impostors.
(2) Some were dissatisfied with their gifts, and envied those whom they regarded as more highly favoured.
(3) Others were inflated, and made an ostentatious display of their powers.
(4) Many persons were desirous to exercise their gifts at the same time.
4. To the correction of these evils the apostle now devotes himself. Note--
I. The criterion by which they might decide whether those who pretended to be the organs of the Spirit were really under His influence. Do they blaspheme Christ or do they worship Him? If they recognise Jesus as Lord, then they are under the influence of the Holy Ghost (1Co_12:1-3).
II. These gifts, whether viewed as graces of the Spirit, or as forms of ministering to Christ, or the effects of Gods power, are but different manifestations of the Holy Ghost, and are all intended for the edification of the Church (1Co_12:4-7).
III. Their arrangement.
1. The word of wisdom and the word of knowledge.
2. Faith, the gift of healing, the power of working miracles, prophesying, and the discerning of spirits.
3. The gift of tongues and their interpretation (1Co_12:8-10).
IV. They are not only the fruits of the spirit, but are distributed according to His sovereign will (1Co_12:11).
V. There is in this matter a striking analogy between the Church and the human body. For--
1. As the body is one because animated by one spirit, so the Church is one because of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
2. As the unity of life in the body is manifested in a diversity of organs and members, so is the indwelling of the Spirit by a diversity of gifts and offices.
3. As the very idea of the body as an organisation supposes this diversity in unity, the same is true in regard to the Church.
4. As in the body the members are mutually dependent, and no one exists for itself alone, so also in the Church.
5. As in the body the position and function of each member are determined by God, so also these gifts are distributed according to the good pleasure of their Author.
6. In the body the least attractive parts are those which are indispensable to its existence, and so in the Church it is not the most attractive gifts which are the most useful.
VI. Inferences from this analogy.
1. Every one should be contented with the gift which he has received just as the hand and the foot are contented with their position and office in the body.
2. There should be no exaltation of one member of the Church because of his gifts.
3. There must be mutual sympathy between the members of the Church, as there is between the members of the body. One cannot suffer without all the others suffering with it. No one lives, or acts, or feels for itself alone, but each in all the rest (1Co_12:12-27). Conclusion: What the apostle had said with regard to these spiritual gifts, applies in all its force to the various offices of the Church, which are the organs through which the gifts of the Spirit are exercised (1Co_12:28-31). (C. Hodge, D.D.)
Spiritual gifts
I. The distribution of spiritual gifts.
1. The distribution is as varied as that of bodily and earthly gifts.
(1) One penetrates into the depths of the wisdom of God in nature, history, human life, and in the plan of salvation.
(2) Another communicates the sum of human knowledge in books or by speech.
(3) To another there is given a special spiritual power which is able to sustain him under the most trying circumstances.
(4) Or there are gifts of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues. Our own time is not wanting in spiritual gifts. Think of the spirit of investigation, and of the multitude of singers, preachers, leaders, and praying men. No village is too small in which may not be found a trace of spiritual gifts.
2. There are gifts enough, but no one person possesses them all. Hence all man-worship is entirely out of place. No self-exaltation is permissible. Every one has his limitations, which he cannot transcend without paying the penalty. And hence all discontent at our time and art is also out of order.
3. Every one has some kind of a gift. Often there creeps over us a feeling of gloom in view of more glorious gifts and greater successes on the part of others. But in Gods sight humility and fidelity are of more avail than glory and splendour. Employ, then, thine own gifts without envy and without hindrance. He that cannot construct a magnificent park can plant roses in his little family garden.
II. The right use of spiritual gifts.
1. There are diversities of gifts, but what is the Spirit whence they come and which they serve? The greater the gifts the greater the responsibility; a Saul becomes a Paul, but how many have reversed this course!
2. There are differences of administrations.
3. There are diversities of operations.
4. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. (K. Gerok, D.D.)
Spiritual gifts and inspiration
I. The apostle lays down a broad general principle respecting spiritual inspiration (1Co_12:3).
1. This made the broad separation between the, Church and the world, and is far above all distinctions as to gifts. It is far more important to ascertain that a man is a Christian than what sort of Christian he is (1Co_12:4-6). In what we differ from the world and not in what we differ from other Christians consists our distinction in the sight of God. Does baptism teach of a difference between Christians (1Co_12:13)? There are varieties, but they are all of the selfsame Spirit.
2. Let us bring this home personally. What is it that waked up the energies of these Corinthians most? Was it that which stimulated the apostle at Athens (Act_17:16)? or was it rather the difference between party and party? What is it that wakes up the polemical energies of this day? Is it opposition to evil, or is it opposition to some doctrine held by other Christians? Were half the energy spent in trampling down sin which is spent in religious controversy, the kingdom of God will soon be established in this world; but if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
II. The place and value assigned by St. Paul to differences of spiritual gifts.
1. These differences are the very conditions of Christian unity. The distinction between a society and an association is that artificial association binds man to man on the principle of similarity, while natural society binds men together in diversity. The idea of the Church presented in the Bible is that of a family which is not a union of similarity, for the father differs from the mother, etc., and yet together they form a most blessed type of unity.
2. St. Paul carries on this principle, and draws out of it special personal duties; he says that gifts are granted to iudividuals for the sake of the whole Church. After this he applies the principle to--
(1) Those possessed of inferior gifts. These are--
(a) Not to envy. Observe here the difference between the Christian doctrine of unity and equality, and the worlds doctrine of levelling all to one standard. The intention of God is not that the rude hand should have the delicacy of the eye, or the foot power of the brain, but to proclaim the real equality of each in mutual sympathy and love.
(b) Not to despond. There are few temptations more common to ardent spirits than to repine at their lot, believing that in some other situation they could serve God better. St. Paul says that it is the duty of every such man to try to be himself, to do his own duty; for here in this world we are nothing apart from its strange and curious clockwork; and if each man had the spirit of the Cross it would not matter to him whether he were doing the work of the mainspring or of one of the inferior parts.
(2) Those gifted with higher powers. These duties were--
(a) Humility. They were not to despise those who were inferior. As with the natural body the rudest parts are the most useful, and the delicate parts require most care, so is it with the body politic; the meanest trades are those with which we can least dispense.
(b) Sympathy (1Co_12:26). How little, during eighteen hundred years, have the hearts of men been got to beat together! Nor can we say that this is the fault of the capitalists and the masters only, it is the fault of the servants and dependents also. (F. W. Robertson, M.A.)
The work of the Spirit in modern life
What the apostle saw the Divine Spirit doing on the limited area of the early Church, we can see Him doing at large in modern civilised society. Wherever the minds of men are kindled into activity, redeeming them from the thraldom of merely animal existence, there the inspiration of the Divine Spirit is at work. Of this the grandest forms are--
I. The satisfaction of the passionate desire filling so many hearts, eagerly asking, what is true? For that is equivalent to, What is Divine? What is it that really represents to us Gods thought and way of working?
1. This gift of the Spirit of truth is condemned by the worldly-minded, because it leads men to question what seems settled.
2. Men under the inspiration of this Spirit are not all impelled into the same departments of inquiry.
(1) One man goes off upon the scientific track and wants to know the truth about the outboard universe.
(2) Others again, feeling that mountains and rivers and animals can tell them little about the most entrancing matter, turn to ask, What is the nature of God and His relation to man? That which inspires this question is the voice of the great Father saying within us, Seek ye My face.
II. The revelation of beauty.
1. The faculty which perceives the beautiful, wrought on by the Divine Spirit, was never so generally active as at the present day.
(1) One of the most remarkable developments of the human mind is its recent awaking to the beauty and poetry of the external nature. The elder poets and painters did not go to nature for the inspiration of their masterpieces, but to man and to mythology. People travel in thousands over seas and continents to see a grand waterfall, or a sublime range of mountains.
(2) Musical thought and feeling again has never attained to such wonderful expression, and in the whole history of the world we have never heard such bursts of glorious song as we have heard from Bach, Handel, etc.
2. I know that neither poetry, nor painting, nor music, will of themselves renew a mans moral nature; but if you can inspire along with the love of truth and goodness a love of the grand and the beautiful, you have done a great deal to assist the more direct religious influences.
3. The day will come when religion shall be more closely associated with its natural friends of culture and art, and in combination shalt consecrate the family life and drive out the demon of intemperance.
III. The gift of goodness or beneficence.
1. Gifts of healing were among the spiritual gifts, and we must surely reckon them amongst the most precious gifts vouchsafed to modern days. Human life is besieged by a whole army of diseases and dangers, both of mind and body, so that he who gives his whole mind and energy to prevent, or to heal them, is a gift of God to the sufferer. When every medical man shall become a deep student of his art, seeking for all the new light which God sends, untrammelled by the traditions merely of his profession, he will become a faithful minister of that Spirit who has called him to His Divine work, and an unspeakable blessing to society.
2. Government is another item. This, whether local or imperial, must be regarded as one of the greatest of modern boons. Any one who helps to govern a city well, to promote the health and security of its inhabitants, even though he may get scant gratitude for his services, is as clearly a minister of God as he who preaches the gospel. And any man who helps to govern a nation well, who seeks to lead a people on by just laws and wise policy, stands in the front rank among Gods eminent servants. The prosperity of a whole nation depends upon such men being at the helm of the national ship.
3. Gifts of speech have become ours in a far more wonderful way than those of the Apostolic Church. The universe has become vocal, and the distant sun and planets are full of speech, telling us something of their own tale. The buried monuments of extinct empires have arisen to tell us the story of their history. Languages which were spoken in the grey dawn of the world speak to us again through the labours of scholars who have wrought at ill-requited work. Nearly all the speech and dialects now spoken in the wide world have been mastered and made intelligible to us. The eastern world speaks to the western as easily as two persons conversing in the same room, and the telegraph girdles the globe with fiery thought and flashing speech. And consider how the channels of communication from mind to mind are multiplied in all civilised communities. There is the greatest of all modern miracles--the daily newspaper, and it would be endless to speak of the books and periodicals that are printed in all departments of inquiry or imagination. And then consider how God has gifted some men with the powers of speech as orators. Think what this modern English tongue becomes in their use of it--flexible, rich, majestic, for the expression of every variety of thought and feeling. (C. Short, M.A.)
The unity of the Christian Church is its diversity
1. There are various believers, but one faith (1Co_12:1-3).
2. There are various ordinances, but one Ordainer (1Co_12:4-6).
3. There are various operations, but one work (1Co_12:7-11). (Pastor Pfeiffer.)
The Christly assembly
Every member of this community--
I. Has passed through a radical change (1Co_12:1-2).
1. This is a change from the spirit of the Gentiles or the world to the Spirit of Christ--the most radical change that can take place in a man.
2. This is described--
(1) Negatively. No man who has experienced it has anything irreverent or profane in his spirit towards Christ (1Co_12:3).
(2) Positively (1Co_12:3). Can say, not of course merely the words, for all could easily do that, but with the heart and life.
3. This is the production of the Holy Ghost. No man is a member of the true Church who has not come under the control of the Spirit of Christ. There are such who are found in no Church, and there may be Curches where no such are found. All such, however, wherever found, belong to the Church of the firstborn written in heaven.
II. Has received special endowments from God (1Co_12:4-12).
1. These may be divided into--
(1) Those of intellect. Wisdom, knowledge, etc.
(2) Those of faith, operating faith in words, deeds, and discernment.
(3) Those of langunge. Tongues, speaking and interpreting.
2. Now all responsible men have--
(1) Intellect of some kind and amount.
(2) Faith of some sort. Man has an instinctive tendency to believe, hence his credulity is proverbial. And he is necessitated to believe: he could not carry on the business of life without faith.
(3) A language of some kind or other.
3. The man who has come into possession of the Christly Spirit and purpose, and is thus a member of the genuine Church, will receive--
(1) A new force and elevation of intellect.
(2) A new object and energy of faith.
(3) A new style and emphasis of expression, a new tongue.
4. This great variety of endowments reveals--
(1) The sovereignty of the Spirit. Why did He bestow any at all? Still more, why so different to different men? The only answer is because it pleased Him so to do. He worked all things after the counsel of His own will.
(2) His affluence. He is the inexhaustible Fountain, not only of all life, but of all spiritual endowments.
(3) His benevolence. All these varied endowments are for profit.
5. Since all our endowments are the free gifts of God, there is no reason for those of the humblest to be dissatisfied, nor for those who have the most splendid to be exultant.
III. Should regard these endowments as parts of a vital whole, ie., of the body of Christ. As the soul resides in, directs, and reveals itself in the body, so Christ in the true Church (1Co_12:12, etc.). Great is the variety in the various faculties, organs, and parts of the human body. Some are larger and more comely than others, but each, even the most insignificant and uncomely, are equally essential (1Co_12:22, etc.). How preposterous would it be for one part of the body to contend with another for importance and supremacy! Yet not more absurd than for one member of a Church to contend with another. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 1–3. Spiritual gifts. The supernatural gifts bestowed in the…
1–3. Spiritual gifts. The supernatural gifts bestowed in the early church by the Spirit. These were especially needful, before the church had the New Testament as a guide, and in the inauguration of Christianity.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain 1Co_12:1.—Gifts is a translators’ supplement; right in fact, as…
CRITICAL NOTES
1Co_12:1.—Gifts is a translators’ supplement; right in fact, as 1Co_12:4-11 show; slightly too precise in word. Almost certainly neuter, and so very general, “spiritual things.” Another of the topics laid before Paul for his discussion and guiding instructions.
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1Co_12:2. Dumb.—In contrast with the “tongues,” which were, in the mind of the Corinthians, the most striking and choice charism of the Spirit; denying also to the idol, and attributing implicitly to the “demon” (1Co_10:19-20) the “oracles” of heathenism [possibly the diabolic correlatives of the “tongues” and of “inspiration”], Hab_2:19; “dumb” also standing for the whole impotence and nothingness of the heathen idolatries, Isa_44:9-17; Isa_46:5-7; and particularly Psa_115:4-7; in brief. Led.—A personal leading; as in 1Co_10:19-20; Eph_2:2 sq., etc. And, in a lower degree, by priestly or governmental authority, or by national and ancestral custom. Contrast the “leading” of the Spirit, Rom_8:14; Gal_5:18, and the intelligent, personal choice of Christ required and supposed in Christianity.
1Co_12:3.—“So then you may distinguish the voice of the Spirit from the voice of the evil spirit—the mere idol has no voice—by this test.” Observe “anathema.” In the synagogue this would be heard, “Jesus” being the simple personal name of the “Man of Nazareth” naturally employed by Jews. The Gentile denials of their Lord at the bidding or leading of demons took another form, that of participating in the heathen feasts (1Co_10:14-22). This test under another aspect appears in 1Jn_4:2-3. But beyond this was a special “gift” of “discerning of spirits” (1Co_12:10). Lord.—“Verbum solenne in LXX. for Hebrew Jehovah” (Evans). So, in effect, but in reverse order, 1Jn_5:1. Also Mat_16:17 (Peter’s confession).
1Co_12:4.—Subject to this one unvarying characteristic and test of the Spirit’s presence and work in a man, there is “variety and distribution” of “gifts,” “manifestations” which reveal the presence of “the same Spirit” of God.
1. Observe (as R.V.) “diversities” in each case; same word.
2. Observe the Trinitarian form of the passage; the “practical and experimental,” as always, moulded over, and clothing, a skeleton of Trinitarian theology.
1Co_12:5. Administrations.—Human “ministrations,” “forms of service” (not official only), under the same Captain of the Army, the same Head of the House, the same King over the Redemption-realm.
1Co_12:6.—“Workings” for “operations.” “The effects, results, outward manifestations of the same inworking power.… The practical exhibitions of that power” (Ellicott).
1Co_12:7.—Not his personal profit, only or chiefly.
1Co_12:8-10.—Note
1. More accurately, the changing prepositions “through,” “according to,” “in”. The Spirit “is the channel through which they come, the standard with which they agree, the element in which they are possessed and used” (Beet). Also “three series,—intellectual gifts (1Co_12:8), gifts conspicuously miraculous (1Co_12:9-10 a), gifts connected with ‘tongues’ (1Co_12:10 b)” (Beet). Note
2. Wisdom, more general, practical, discursive and argumentative; Knowledge, more restricted, theoretic or scientific, something more intuitive, e.g. as in Paul and John respectively (Stanley). Note
3. The “word” characterised by and specially the vehicle of, “wisdom” or “knowledge.” Note
4. Faith.—For miracle-working, as 1Co_13:2. Good case in Act_3:16 : “His Name, through faith in His Name, hath made this man strong.” Note
5. Prophecy.—See Appended Note. So also for “tongues.”
1Co_12:11.—Observe the activity and will here attributed to the Holy Ghost, and the “sovereignty” with which He apportions His “gifts.”
THE BODY PARABLE
1Co_12:12. Christ.—The Great Unit in all God’s thought and purpose in the history of Redemption. So Gal_3:16. Not the personal Christ, but the “Christ mystical.”
1Co_12:13.—Observe again the prepositions “in,” “into,” [“of;” query, recalling, 1Co_10:4? Also Evans would translate, “were drenched with,” denying any reference, in this third clause, to baptism]. “Into” might, grammatically, only mean “unto” or “for,” i.e. of the aim or purpose of baptism; whether more is found in the word depends upon a man’s whole reading and interpretation of New Testament teaching upon the topic. Cf. Gal_3:27-28.
1Co_12:14-17.—Beet points out that the members—not merely the lowest, but those next to the highest—compare themselves, as men do, with others resembling, though superior to themselves. “I am not of the body” is said in the spirit of wounded vanity which fancies it has a grievance, and exaggerates it: “By the look of things I am not reckoned in the body,” and then flings itself out of fellowship: “Well then, I won’t be!” One (kind of) member, 1Co_12:14, and so 1Co_12:19-20.
1Co_12:18.—Cf. with 1Co_12:11; here the sovereign will is that of “God.” [Different words for will; this the fundamental, original determination underlying all the order of the world.]
1Co_12:22.—Many “necessary” members are incapable of self-defence (Beet). “Those more delicate portions of our bodily structure, external or internal, which, compared with the more obviously active and energetic members of the body, might seem to be somewhat feeble” (Ellicott). But Paul is designedly indefinite in his reference.
1Co_12:23.—“Alluding to the almost universal instinct of fitness or of decency which has dictated, on the one hand, the use of ornaments, on the other hand, the necessity of clothing” (Stanley).
1Co_12:25.—Expository again of the simple, original meaning of “schism” (1Co_1:10; 1Co_11:18). There is a conveyance of working inward upon the Body and its welfare, as well as upward upon the Head and His honour and will.
1Co_12:27.—Not merely “a body,” but “the body of Christ”; organic to Him as a man’s body is organic to him. (See Separate Homily.) In particular.—Rare expression, only here and in 1Co_13:9-10; 1Co_13:12. Choose between
(1) “Members of this imperfect earthly half of the one earthly-heavenly Church” (Evans); and, as most,
(2) “Each one of you made a member with his several part and function.” I.e. “Collectively the body; individually, the limbs” (Stanley).
1Co_12:28.—“First,” “secondarily,” etc., order not merely of enumeration, but of dignity; great “drop” at “then.” Two exceptional “orders” respectively begin and close the list: “apostles,” “tongues.” “Teachers,” who spoke without the exceptional and direct impulse of the “prophet” [moreover, the prophet declares new truth; the teacher expounds and applies truth already given], and without the ecstasy of the “tongue”-gifted men. “Helps,” vague, but perhaps doing such service as visiting the sick, etc.; “governments,” perhaps practical tact and faculty for administration of affairs and the management and direction of men, whilst not excelling as “teachers” or “miracle-workers.”
1Co_12:29-30.—Notice the insertion of “workers of.” Interpret.—Q.d. the “tongues” in which the others “spoke.” “Tongues” last, not to indicate Paul’s estimate of the gift as distinctly opposite to that of the Corinthians, but as being, as it were, an exceptional gift appended to the ordinary list.
1Co_12:31. Best.—“Greater” (; new reading); i.e. the more noble and useful amongst the foregoing list (1Co_14:1). But there is something better than the best, and this too, as the gifts were not, even in richly endowed Corinth, for all. More excellent.—Found also in Rom_7:13; 2Co_1:8; 2Co_4:17 (strengthened); Gal_1:13; cf. 1Co_4:7, 1Co_12:7.
HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.—Whole Chapter
The topics here may be grouped around four words:—
A. The Diversity of gifts and offices.
B. The Unity of the body.
C. The Dependence of member upon member.
D. The Serviceableness of each member to the whole body.
A. Diversity.—
1. The abundance of the gifts bestowed upon the Corinthian Church was matter of thankful wonder even to Paul (1Co_1:5). But the variety is as wonderful. It may be that in this chapter we have a generalised description of The Church and its endowments, rather than an exact sketch of this Church in particular. Yet with all abatements, the impression does remain that beyond most of the early Churches Corinth was a miniature of the greater Body in the completeness with which it exhibited in its midst every type of gift and character. Gifts distributed over many other Churches are all at least “sampled” in Corinth. “The body is not one kind of member, but many” (1Co_12:14).
2. There is no mechanical reproduction of any one type of member; they are not made and endowed to do one thing only, and all the same one thing. That is not God’s method; that is not the habit of Life. Wherever He works, wherever It is, there is variety. “As like as two peas in a pod;” but two peas lying side by side in their narrow green bed are not mechanical copies of each other. They are individual, even though the differences may be minute. There are no duplicate faces; no absolutely correspondent sides of the same face; no exactly symmetrical halves and lobes of bodies or of organs; no pair of leaves exactly balance each other as a “pair.” Ruskin, in his Modern Painters, has engraved a diagrammatic drawing of the scheme of ramification of a forest tree. It has a beauty; there is a beauty about the careful and exact work of a machine, and about the logically consequential correspondence of part with part, and the development of part from part. But no tree ever grew with such mechanically exact bifurcation of branches, or with such rigorous completeness and balance of parts. It is, as he calls it, a tree “drawn by a Clerk of the Works.” It is not the artist’s tree, nor the Creator’s tree, nor the living tree. However it may be, there is always diversity touching even the nearest correspondence. In the diversity of organ, and office, and function, in a body, and of member, and office, and function, in “The Body of Christ,” we have only a particular instance of the working out of one of God’s ruling “ideas” in nature. It is “a law” which holds good “in the natural and the spiritual world,” both. In the Body, men and women are “members in particular” (1Co_12:27); each having his own work, each made on his own pattern. “Gifts;” the “ministrations” of this man or that; the “workings” of the same underlying power of God in this or that Christian;—“diversity” is stamped on them all (1Co_12:4-6). Nor does the application of the principle end as between class and class. Within the same class, all “apostles,” or all “prophets,” or all “helps,” or “governments,” or “tongues,” vary. No two apostles ever do the same work. [No two evangelists have given us the same gospel; each is individualised very strongly.] No two “teachers” ever caught and presented identically the same aspect of the whole round of truth.
3. There is order in the diversity, “first,” “second,” “thirdly,” “after that,” “then.” The apostle’s office was unique; the prophet’s office was passing away while men heard Paul speak of it; the tongues are silent; the miracle is done. But in the shorter list that remains the ranking is significant. “Teaching” heads the diminished enumeration; and yet what more necessary gift does the God Who “sets every man in the Church as it hath pleased Him,” and Whose Spirit in like manner “divides to every man severally as He will,” ever bestow upon a Church, than the men who have “helps, governments”? So long as human hearts are perverse, and their judgments fallible, and that too in different directions; the more the growth of the work of the Church forces “division of labour” upon those who are responsible for its welfare and its success; so long and the more will the man be in demand who can organise work, who can hit the right time for doing or beginning it, who is both master of broad schemes and is not overwhelmed with the small details of execution, who can rightly judge of character, and lay his hand exactly on the suitable human instrument, who can lead or govern men with all their variety, their touchiness, their vanity, their smallness of temper. “Helps,” “governments,”—these may rank after the supreme necessity of “teaching,” but in order they do not march far behind! And, most of all, the primacy of order is accorded to the “best gifts,” the most useful to the Church, the most honouring to the Master.
4. Nothing is more necessary to recognise than that the diversity is a limitation. It is of no use to be disappointed, or vexed, that the human instrument cannot always do every kind of work. It is of no use to blame, or to rate as if of lower value or fidelity, the man who is “very willing to do anything he is asked to do,” but who now and again is a disappointing, troublesome failure in some things he undertakes. Perhaps he was set to work he was not made for; he was not “set in the Body” to do that. Better to be thankful for his willing mind, and for his not infrequent usefulness or success. There are few, or no, really “all-round” men. There are no “all-round” members in a body. Also, the man himself will be saved from a morbid sensitiveness of self-reproach, by remembering that the differentiation of organ and function and power which is more and more the characteristic of more highly organised life, is a limitation in many directions, a real disqualification for many forms of service. His zeal for good may be as great, his consecration of himself to Christ as full and perfect and entire, his spirituality as deep and intense, as that of some more obviously and attractively successful member, with whom be is tempted to compare his own smaller, less obvious “results” and work. “Not one (kind of) member.” His concern is only with the whole-hearted devotion of himself, just for what he is, and for what he is not, just for what he can, and cannot, do, to the glory of Christ and the good of the Body. The Lord of the Church knows exactly where to put and use him; just where his special, if narrow, or humble qualification will be of most service, and where his limitations will be least detrimental, or not detrimental at all, to the growth of the Body and the work of Christ through It in the world. Consecration, intensity of spirituality, are in themselves an equipment for usefulness; but they will not make a foot do the work of a hand, or an ear, or an eye.
5. To remember that specialisation is limitation as well as qualification, will also save a man from, the feeling which finds expression in 1Co_12:15-17. It begins, be it noted, in a comparison of oneself with a “member” higher or more honourable; whether really so, or according to customary estimation. Possibly the comparison may at first have been the self-depreciating, needlessly condemning one just suggested in
4. But it is very apt to pass over into a fretful discontent that one is limited, and cannot do what the “hand” or “eye” can do, or win the credit they gain. The “foot” that begins by wishing it could do what the “hand” does, soon ends by murmuring that it cannot. And it is not a long step, it is one easily taken, when this disheartened disappointment lends itself to the leading of wounded vanity, to a pique which will do nothing, not even its own characteristic and intended office. “I am not the hand; I cannot do this or that which the hand does. Am I of any use in the Body? Am I really in it?” very readily is transformed into, “I am not the hand; I am no longer—I will not be—of the body.”
B. Unity.—“E pluribus unum.” All such judgments as have been suggested, even those which are honestly, humbly meant, are so many forms of self-centering. The safeguard against them, and their remedy, is to go deeper than the diversity, and see the profound, glorious unity.
I. What is it that is one?—
1. “The Body”; and, more wonderfully, “Christ.” The wife takes the husband’s name; Adam and Eve are “Adam”; the branches are, and can do, so utterly “nothing apart from Him,” Who is the very basis and source of their life, that He appropriates to Himself the name which ordinarily covers stock and branches: “I am the Vine.” Conversely, here the Head is so pre-eminent in importance amongst the components of a body—though it is no “head” apart from “the members”; cut off from it, they are so entirely without power, or will, or life; the head, moreover, so nearly completely expresses the man, that, for example, the picture of the head is taken as the picture of the man [“That is Mr. So-and so,” men say, when looking only at a bust]; that, in this Body, “Christ” covers Christ and His people,” [In Gal_5:16 His name stands alone in the covenant promise: “to thy seed—which is Christ.” But it is manifestly no boon to Him personally which is thus conveyed and assured to “Christ.” To Him indeed, but to Him only for the sake of the wider “seed,” who, with Him, and in their union with Him, are “heirs” also “according to (the tenor of) the promise,” ib. 1Co_5:2-9).]
2. That Body, that “Christ,” “The Church” when so defined and vindicated, is always “one.” It is only the imperfect human expression of, and approximation to, this “one body,” which is outwardly divided, and even rent into antagonistic confession, and “communions”—(save the mark!)
II. How is it one?—
1. “One,” “Holy,” “Catholic,” “Apostolic,” are four “notes” of the Church, found in the earlier Christian creeds. The confessional and ecclesiastical definitions of the first have been very various, ranging between widely removed extremes of theory and teaching. At the one is the theory which sees no unity where there is not connection with an historically continuous organisation, of which an essential factor is a succession of orders inherent in one special line of ministry, ordained in one special manner, and presumed to stand in direct and authorising connection with the apostles themselves. At the other stands the theory which, beyond the unity of the particular congregation, sees no oneness but that of voluntary aggregation. Midway is a compromise attempted by those who—Anglican with diocesan episcopacy or Lutheran without it—only hope for or believe in the unity of national Churches. [Governmental, Gregarious, Geographical.]
2. But, as a matter of exposition, a point of outward, manifest, historical oneness so universal as baptism with (more or less of) water in the name of the Trinity, is very subordinate even in 1Co_12:13, where the “baptism” on which the stress is laid is that “in the one Spirit.” The unifying Headship of Christ itself is not in our passage so prominent as the unifying presence, and “work,” and “manifestation,” and endowments of the Spirit of God. Ubi Spiritus ibi Ecclesia. We customarily distinguish between “gifts” and “graces”; here they are alike “spiritual (things)” (so, literally, 1Co_12:1). All, and each several one, of them bespeak the presence of the indwelling Holy Ghost. Whether “through,” or “according to,” or “in” be Paul’s carefully chosen and varied word, i.e. whether He be the channel, or the regulating and testing norm, or the very life element in which they are enjoyed; every charism, ordinary and permanent, or extraordinary, and passing with the Apostolic age, brilliant, or useful merely—every one leads upward and backward to a common Original,—One Holy Ghost. These are all evidences of His presence Who is the life—not which, but—by which the Body lives. If each member lives, it is because it shares in Him the life of the whole. He “divides” not only His gifts, but Himself, “to every man.” “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom_8:9). This Vine feels, in every tiniest twig and to the farmost tip of every finest tendril; this Body feels, in every most humble member, and most remote from the head, and to the very extremity of the last thread of each many-branching nerve; one common Life,—the Spirit of that special life which is in Christ Jesus (Rom_8:2). The Unity is a unity of the life-element in the body, a life-element which not only holds together all the components of the living organism, but which by its presence holds in check the forces of disintegration and decay, the forces which make for “Death.”
3. The “gifts” speak of a unity of Source and Giver. The “cloven tongues” of Pentecost, rightly appreciated, exhibited this, at the very outset of the new order, the dispensation of the Spirit. The painters of uncritical centuries, often deriving their traditional conception from ill-instructed ecclesiastics, have generally given us a seated company of men and women, on the head of each of whom rests a split, pointed flame like that of a lamp. Every tongue is pretty much a copy of every other,—in utter antithesis to the diversity in unity of 1Co_12:8-11. Each head has its own tongue. Almost if it had been a Holy Ghost to each, working in each an almost precisely similar gift and manifestation! Whereas the truer reading exactly expresses the fact; which the real appearance also exhibited. Over the head of the one company hung the one flame-like appearance [a Shekinah-cloud?] darting “disparted tongues as of fire,” out and down, one to each several head. [With guarded use the (very) material illustration may serve: The unity of the source of the supply of gas and water through the thousand homes of a modern municipality. The light which cheers in a sickroom in some artisan’s cottage at the poorer end, is no separate and independent—candle-like, lamp-like—illumination; it is being every moment fed from the same source, and out of the same common body of illuminating material, as are the lights which are at that moment blazing in the drawing-rooms of the wealthiest of the “West End” homes. Every house in the place “drinks into” one and the same common central water-store. The water is not “mine” or “yours”; it is “ours.”]
4. The highest evidence of the unity of the Spirit is the common confession of the “Lordship” of “Jesus.” Even in Corinth, amongst “spiritual” men, though they be only of a “carnal” grade, there is agreement here. Here there is indeed “no schism in the body.” Every partisan of Paul or Apollos or Cephas joins heart and confession here: “Jesus Christ is Lord.” That shall one day be the confession of the whole sentient universe, in its every order of life and intelligence (Php_2:11; cf. Isa_45:23; Deu_5:8). Some shall pay it even then with an enforced submission and homage. Now many hearts will neither render the submission nor accord the homage. In the days of His humbled estate and veiled glory, the evil spirits now and again would cry out, as He drew near to them or to their human “temples,” “We know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God” (Mar_1:24; cf. “Jesus I recognise,” Act_19:15). But the full force of the statement may well amount to something less than a proclamation of His Godhead. Rate its value high as we may, it was an admission rather than a confession. It was wrung out from fear, and from the unholy recoil of evil at the very touch and presence of goodness; and it may be that it had often not a little malice in it, as an attempt to force on a premature avowal of Himself on the part of Jesus. He at least refused such testimony to Himself. (Cf. Peter’s “Depart from me, for,” etc., Luk_5:8.) A confession bursts irrepressibly forth from the reverent, trusting, adoring heart of a believer taught by the Spirit. The admission of the Galilæan demons had in the heart of it a curse. The lips said, “Thou art the Holy One of God”; the heart said, “Anathema be this Jesus!” The words here used suggest a strange scene in the little meeting-place of the Church at Corinth. “The prophets are prophesying” together (cf. 1Sa_19:20 sqq.); “a spirit” comes upon or enters into another worshipper, and he too shows all the outward accompaniments of the illapse of the prophetic Spirit. The “discerners of spirits,” with their intuitive perception [the Holy Ghost in one gift recognises Himself in every other], are perhaps absent. The new “prophet” is not at once to be “discerned” by the character of his utterances; they seem harmless, if not very profitable. But some hearts are not satisfied, and they inquire, “Wilt thou say, ‘Jesus is Lord’?” And the mask is dropped: “Lord? No! Anathema!” Or, the Christian hymn is being uplifted; the men endowed with “tongues” are glorifying in ecstatic praise God and His Christ; when suddenly a discord in the music! A scream of hate and rage cuts athwart the praise: “Jesus is Anathema!” That is no prophet whose gift is of the Spirit! It needs no special charism to “discern the spirit” in such a man. Less aggravated forms of this Jesus-hate were found then, and might be found now, in the Jewish synagogue. Here is a poor young girl who is denounced, or suspected, as a Nazarene. She is brought before the rulers of the synagogue. The test is short and simple: “Call this Jesus the Nazarene ‘Absalom’; call Him ‘The Hanged-one’ [Gallows-bird!]; call Him ‘the Bastard Branch’; curse Him; say that He is anathema!” Happy if, by some miracle of holy courage, the young heart does not quail, or if, while the lips blench with the strain of excitement, they will shape none of the accursed words. See her stand there, and at last break her silence in response to threatening, or warning, or appeal, with the cry of passionate devotion: “Jesus is Jehovah!” [How they would have got their answer, clear and sudden, from Paul of Tarsus, if conceivably they had put him to their test. “Call him ‘Anathema’!” Not anger, but conviction and love, make his voice ring out: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him—not Jesus—be anathema!” Speaking of the stories of Jesus in the Talmud, Dr. Geikie says: “Against (Him) no slander is too gross to be retailed by the Rabbis” (Life of Christ, ii. 624).] And yet more subtilly does the presence of the same aversion which may deepen into antipathy to Christ, betray itself in ordinary, decent men and women of to-day. No man who knows himself but remembers the averting of heart from Christ which made His name unwelcome, and aroused a real resentment, when His claims on heart and life were pressed with more earnestness than usual. What spirit is that? It is the fashion to exalt the character of the Man, the Teacher, the Universal Brother and Pattern, Jesus. But to accept and own practically His “Lordship”—that is another matter. To own that as a creed, indeed, did once become almost an epidemic fashion in stormy days in Constantinople, till one could hardly ask a carpenter or a shoemaker the simplest question about his trade and work without drawing forth by way of reply some fierce “Athanasian” sentence about the Trinity and the Godhead of the Son. But give the natural heart time and room to “grow” its tendencies to full blossom and fruit, remove the restraints of education and of conventional propriety or fear; men may then come to the rabid, destructive hate of Christianity and things Christian which not only disfigures the pages of some who ought to be calmly scientific writers, but which, in some times of Continental upheaval, has dared bitter words, and done black deeds, against everything of God and His Christ. How the natural heart will tolerate any religion which is content to be a mere set of opinions with no practical bearing upon life. English “good society” will play at Mahometanism, or at Buddhism—“esoteric” or other—or at Romanism or at “being High Church.” But as to taking up Christianity as a “craze”! Why, the thing insists on being lived out! Insufferable! Nor is it enough to say that this a revolt against any one particular presentation of Christianity and against its priesthood. It has in it the germ of that hatred of good as good, that hatred of God Incarnate which went at least near to ripening into the unpardonable “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost” [Mat_12:30-31; so closely connected with His sharply divisive word: “He that is not with Me is against Me!”] So, by a converse but analogous process, there is a Spirit—the Holy One—behind every real confession of the Lordship of Christ. “Flesh and blood” do not reveal this doctrine, nor reveal Him, to men. There is a knowledge of Christ which is part of the new world into which that man has passed who is himself made “a new creature” (2Co_5:16-17). The burst of revelation which came to Peter—or rather the sudden flash of insight which showed in Peter—near Cæsarea Philippi (Mat_16:16-17); the sudden, overwhelming access of knowledge which silenced all the tests and requirements that Thomas was going to propose and insist upon, and left him with only one thing to do, only one thing to say—to fall prostrate and cry, “My Lord and my God!” [which is the manifest, (and if the word be permissible) the artistic, climax to the Gospel of John;—the confession of John the Baptist and of Nathanael, in chap. 1, lead up, through a succession of confessions, to this of Thomas, the last, most definite, most full, in its recognition of Christ as Lord];—these are distinctly grace,—“spiritual things” (1Co_12:1). The “faith” of 1Co_12:9 is indeed pretty certainly shown by its companion “gifts” to be miracle-working faith (cf. under Critical Notes). Yet it is only one phase, one operative presentation, of a larger “faith,” of which in every sense it is true that it is “by the same Spirit.” In 1Co_12:9 it is a Hand thrust into the unseen, “spiritual” world and grasping there the God from Whom it draws power for mighty works. But it is also, and more widely, true that it is an Eye to whose gaze all that world stands unveiled, “naked and open” as we are to the gaze of God. It begins already “to know even as we are known” (1Co_13:11). And the opened Eye is one of the gifts of the Spirit through Whose quickening men already “pass from Death unto Life.” Life has come into Death; the dead eye now lives and can see. Hence John’s close association of being “born of God” with “believing that Jesus is the Christ.” Or, as he gives it in varying statements: “Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” Or, again: “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God” (1Jn_5:1; 1Jn_5:5; 1Jn_4:15). No merely doctrinal “confession” or “faith” satisfies such statements. The stoutest and most orthodox champion of the Godhead of Jesus, whether against old Socinian, or later Unitarian, or modern Naturalistic, may, nevertheless, be no man “born of God.” Orthodoxy and Regeneration in such vital association make “orthodoxy” something far higher, deeper, than a matter of creed. The only man who knows a Divine Christ is the man who is “in Christ.” Other men may master the sections in the “Handbooks of Theology,” the “Institutes,” or the like, headed “Divinity of Christ”; they may become past-masters in the controversial literature of the topic; they may know completely the accustomed collection and formulation of the scattered and often inferential data, which, when marshalled in due order, are the basis of the doctrine; they may be expert of fence in dealing with the difficulties and the criticisms of the objector; weighing Scripture statements for, and the passages which in Scripture itself seem to be against; they may come up to the assured intellectual position that Revelation makes “Jesus Lord.” But even then they do not know Him; the belief which intellect has built up, intellect may destroy; the argumentative balance may by new considerations be made to turn against the doctrine; the Lordshíp of Jesus is only rooted in the surface stratum of their manhood; a storm of sceptical attack may uproot it. The spiritual man does not undervalue the arguments; they are most likely the ladder by which he climbed to the level of a true faith. They made him ready to believe. But he has now a direct intuition of Jesus as Lord, which he shares with ten thousand others, most of whom know nothing, nor can know, of the arguments. The same Spirit Whose indwelling in Him makes him live, makes the regenerate man know Christ and His Lordship. [Cf. another case of apparent connection of “salvation” with the acceptance of an historical proposition: “God raised Him from the dead;” and of a theological dogma: “I confess Jesus as Lord” (Rom_10:9). Of course “with the heart” makes all the difference. As here] the truth accepted into the creed also passes into, and is assimilated and reproduced in, the experience. The inward, spiritual life echoes and reproduces the outward, historical, Christian verity. Christ’s development of God’s word “in the Bush” (Mat_22:32) brought out the profoundly fundamental truth that for God to say “I am Abraham’s God,” involved a natural capability of such a relation which is unshared by the brute creation, and which argued a soul not “dead and done with”; and further implied an actual, spiritual covenant relationship between God and the man. So for a man to say in any real sense, “Jesus is Jehovah,” he must have come a long way to have reached that point, and the truth must now carry him a long way further. To him “to live” must be, in fact, “Christ.” It will mean such a trust, such an habitual dependence, such a new principle of covenanted, faithful obedience, as the heart only renders to God when it has become “a new heart.” And it comes as a new revelation, (to speak inexactly) a fresh disclosure, to each man who comes to the saving knowledge of the truth. The man who knows Jesus his “Lord” knows also that he never said it or believed it to any practical intent until he learned it as a sinner “by the teaching of the Spirit of God.” The Spirit’s work is to testify of Christ. He is the great Preacher of Christ. He has but the one theme—Christ. And He has wrought in the Church of Christ, in all the ages and races and communions, a wonderful unity in the testimony, “Jesus is Lord”! The voice of the much-divided Church is one here!
5. Theology, more theology, always theology, underneath all the facts and teachings about the spiritual life! The theology may be presented by itself, as the skeleton may be dissected out from the body, and exhibited alone. But it is a hard, ugly thing; as the theology which is the “bony” frame giving shape and strength to 1Co_12:4-6, may be made to seem. Underneath the most noble form, underneath the most beautiful face, are a skeleton and a grinning skull. So we may not have the verses and their teaching, we may not have the experimental unity, without the Trinity. [Good example this of Pauline passages which assume the “Dogma,” and are Trinitarian in underlying, essential structure. Usually the Trinity is barely seen in the New Testament except in connection with Redemption.] “The Spirit,” “the Lord,” “God.” Here again there is order in the equality; there is diversity in the unity. It is not overpressing the suggestion of analogy between the Unity of the Godhead and the Unity of the Body: “That they may be one, even as we are one” (Joh_17:22). “All the capacities come from one Spirit; the different kinds of service are for the same Master; and the different results are produced by the same First Cause” (Beet). From one Source; under one Ruler; all, ultimately, through one God. It is the unity of streams which all derive precisely similar waters from the one fountain; of troops of different arms and training, fitted for different service, under the orders and fulfilling the plan of the same Captain; or of many classes of servants under the same great Master of the house; of living ones whose life and all its activities come from the vivifying, inworking hand of the one Living God. At how many points are the many units summed up; at how many points of rapport do the diversified hosts of the Christian army find themselves in contact, one host. The unity goes down to the springs of the very principle of Life, for the Body and for the individual member; it mounts up to the One Lord Christ, towards Whom every heart, every face, every life, converges, with adoration paid to Him “as to God” [said Pliny’s letter]; it broadens out until it takes into its holy compass and round all who in grace and gifts manifest the presence of the same Holy Ghost, all who serve for the love of the same Lord, all in whom stirs the same life of God. Blind they who “cannot see the wood for the trees,” who cannot see The Church for looking at the Churches! Can they not verify the “manifestations” of the same Spirit? or ascertain that the “ministrations” are for and under the same Christ? Can they question whether the energy, in this and that Church or man so absolutely identical in all its effects, is of the same God?
C. Dependence.—Interdependence—“No need of thee!” (1Co_12:21). That is not the voice of any component of the Body; it is not the intelligent voice of any member of a body. It sins against the very idea of an organism. And the Church is not an aggregation merely, like some chance heap of stones. It is not even an orderly structure merely, like a temple. The aggregation and order are those of an organic structure, those of a living organism. Put the statue of a man and a living man side by side, the very man (say) whose features and form and stature are copied, to the last degree of accurate correspondence. The one is made up of crystals, the other of living cells. How great the difference in the unity thus in each case set up. It may be mechanically an easier task to rend asunder cell from cell than crystal from crystal; more easy to damage the union and the unity of life than that of mere aggregation, though of the closest. [Against outward assault, the highly developed ecclesiastical, historic Church system is no doubt stronger in resisting power than the Church unity, whose one bond is an inner, vital one. The always dead, marble form persists unaltered for ever; the dead, cell-built form, which once was living, disintegrates with accelerating rapidity, from the moment the life departs.] But notice how the unity ends, as it began, with the mere contact of neighbour with neighbour. Each crystal of the statue-form is self-contained and perfect in itself: “I have no need of thee.” It receives nothing from, it gives nothing to, the next crystal on every side of it. It is nothing to the next, except that it happens to be next. As there are “Churches” whose unity has shrunk to little more than this, a unity of aggregation within the same four walls, for worship or for the enjoyment of some one preacher who happens to catch the ear of them all; or to a still more attenuated unity of bare registration upon the same Church roll. Paul’s frequent illustration of a temple is a little better. Upper stones are borne by those beneath them, and in their turn help to keep these in place, whilst also supporting others above themselves. Stone may lean against stone, and be upheld. But this “give and take” of support is mechanical, and it is all. It falls far short of that interchange of sympathy and help between the parts of a body, and between adjacent cells in the same organism, which makes the figure of “a body” so nearly perfect for the purpose of the Spirit’s teaching about the interdependence of the members of The Body. “God hath set the members in the body,” and in The Body, that member may help, and be helped by, member. An independence which should refuse to give anything to another, or should attempt to hold itself aloof in self-centered, self-contained, self-sufficing fulness of life, is utterly alien from His idea. Such “Christians” could never make a Church. [A selfish absorbency which will take all that the Church, or any member, can give, and yet forgets, or indolently neglects, to give to any in return, is equally alien to the idea.] Independency and selfish, parasitic dependency, stand equally condemned by the very principle of a body. Every single member has something to give me, which I need from him; every single member may demand from me all I have which can serve him. The debt of member to member is often very closely brought home to the heart, by some relation of circumstances which binds together a couple such as would have been supposed to be hopelessly incongruous opposites, in age, in social standing, or education, or mental calibre. Every Church can show its happy examples of the gladly acknowledged obligation of the rich master to his godly servant’s prayers and character; of the educated man’s manifold debt to the unlettered but saintly, Christian neighbour, with whom some “happy accident” in the providence of God has somewhat closely associated him. On the other hand, there are found not a few homely men and women, with good sense enough very thankfully to draw inspiration and help from the evident firmness of belief and from the cultured godliness of some educated Christian whom they know. It is pride, not gratitude, which is restless under this sense of indebtedness. The grateful, cheerful acknowledgment, “I have need of thee,” is politically, socially, as well as in the Church, the saving law of all happy corporate, organised life. The association and the reciprocal helpfulness are indeed much wider than the simple couplet “I … thee.” Member does often help member, in charming examples of direct and close personal association. There is often a tenderness and a beauty, which are in themselves a strength and a help, about this more easily and vividly realised help of individual to individual, which, when the relation is rather that of one to a great Whole, is lost, or is hardly so powerful a motive or bond. When, man to man, “the members have the same care one for another”; when the Christian is drawn to, and helps, some particular fellow-Christian; it is gloriously, and very practically, true that he is helping the whole Church. Few hearts can embrace “The Church”; but we can “love the brother whom we have seen.” Yet each may remember that the Whole does depend in some degree upon the One. No member but really puts something of value into the grand common stock, whilst in turn it is helped from the common store. Thus Dependence passes over into—
D. Serviceableness.—Indeed, it has been difficult under C. not to anticipate D.
1. A man’s gift is not his own, alone or chiefly. He is graced and gifted most of all for the sake of the common good and the common growth. The ideal of the Body’s increase is not the independent and isolated growth of member and member, however perfect, each by itself working out its own development. Conceivably a hand might grow whilst its fellow-hand, or the foot, might linger at infantile strength or weakness. But such irregularly distributed growth might really disturb, not only the harmony, but the very unity of the body. No; the ideal is, “Till we all come—pari passu—to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”; i.e. each member sharing in, keeping pace with, the development of the whole, till Head and Members stand forth one Body, one “perfect Man,” every part harmoniously and completely developed to manhood’s scale of size and strength (Eph_4:13). Toward this tends all the variety and distribution of the “spiritual (things)” of 1Co_12:1. It is designed for this. What one member is or has, or can do or be, or, under the training and discipline of the Spirit of God, can develop and can become,—all that is for the sake of all the rest. We may be sure it was pure instinct, however guided and organised, which originated the brief-lived community of goods in the sub-Pentecostal days in Jerusalem. The right heart of the “member” does not need schooling into this sharing of all the “good things” with which he himself is endowed. The very possession of any ability or faculty which can be laid under contribution for the welfare of a fellow-Christian or the Church, is in itself a claim for its use. The fitness for office is a call to undertake office. A hand ought to be doing a hand’s work. “To profit withal” must not be misunderstood (1Co_12:7). As matter of exegesis the “profit” thought of by St. Paul is the profit of the whole, not of the man himself. This latter is true, and is closely linked with the former. (God always does make duty to others and to Himself to go hand in hand with blessing to the man himself.) For his own sake, certainly, should a man strive to be at his best, his best, the fullest development of which he is capable,—eye, hand, foot, whatever be his place and capacity in the body. The men in the Parable of the Talents profit, with equal fidelity and with proportionate success, by the talents entrusted to them. But they are simply salient instances sufficient to illustrate the Lord’s principle. As a matter of fact, there will be many varying arrangements and gradations of faithfulness and increase. Five talents will sometimes only bring two, or even one, to the Master. Or, as in the complementary Parable of the Pounds, one talent may win two or even five. Each “member” should be growing to his best. He should be at his best for his own life’s sake. But what Paul here says, is that he should be at his best for Christ and for the body. Talent, faculty, unimproved or only half cultivated, is a sin against that law of serviceableness which lies at the very root of the idea of “His Body, the Church.” “Stir up the gift of God that is in thee,” is not an advice for Timothy only (2Ti_1:6). A gift is a fire which needs feeding and “poking”; God kindles it, but the man must guard and stir up the holy fire; not merely or most that his own life may be warmed and cheered by the blaze, but that “the Body” may be blessed by the gift that is in him. The possession is obligation. A Christian man may not deliberate or choose whether he will or will not give himself to serve his Lord and the Church. In what way he can, in that way he ought. He was made what he is, that he may be serviceable. He will receive his reward. The health of each several member is but a particular instance of the healthy life-condition of the whole body. If the whole man be in poor health, the hand is feeble, the foot begins to fail. As the man recovers, so under all ordinary conditions the foot or hand or eye renews its vigour. The most frequent form of the interdependence, as was shown above, is that which is mediate, through the body’s well-being as a whole; to which the part contributes, and out of which it receives its supply of blessing. So then, he that is at his best for the sake of the Body has his reward; he is at his best for himself. If, therefore, a man would get the utmost of advantage from the Divine institute, a Church, let him do his utmost of service, and be at his best of spiritual health, for the Church. But, once more, it is not merely interest; it is obligation. The body lives and grows by the active serviceableness of every member, whatever some aberrant member may do. The body never says to a member, “I have no need of thee.” “What am I? Hand, or eye, or foot, or ear, or what? What can I do for the Body? ‘Nothing?’ No; I am ‘set in the body’ with my own small capacity for something; I am not ‘of no use.’ Let the body, let the Head Himself, command me, and claim me, even me.” “Even me;” this leads up to 1Co_12:22-25. Ruskin has written his “Unto this last.” These verses are, in the political economy of the Church’s own life and social order, the Spirit’s “Unto this last.” We have—
2. The law of the least honourable; their real honour and their real obligation.—
(1) “Less honourable” is only by comparison true, and by accommodation. In the holy innocence of Eden all the body’s life was honourable and holy. In the holy fellowship of “the Body of Christ” there is no member who is not honourable. Holiness and helpfulness, to the full of the capacity and opportunity—these are real honour. Poverty, or ignorance, or humble capabilities are no dishonour; these may set some lower in the scale, but they are degrees of nobility, all of them. The honour upon the Head runs down to the skirts of His raiment. One needs not to force Paul’s analogy into minute and even unseemly detail, but his general drift is clear. The face may be left bare in its beauty or its rugged strength; it can take care for itself. But many another part needs defence and covering. There are men conspicuous in the Body, of conspicuous gifts; they show full in every eye. No fear but that they will be known and honoured. There, in them, the Body has its outlook upon the world; through them it communicates with the world. But for one, two, ten, such, there are the score, the hundred, the mass, of less-obtrusive gifts and position, never likely to attract much attention, or to win much applause, even from their fellows in the Body; and there are passive and quasi-internal, normally hidden, “organs” in the Body Itself. Delicate, sensitive, easily hurt, incapable of self-defence, they need the shield of the stronger membership. There are feet and hands which must oft do rougher, laborious offices in the many-sided work of the Church, or even the drudgery of the carrying of the rest to the field of their “more honourable” toil. They can do no thinking, or organising, or governing; they must do the obeying and the executing of the orders of the “comely” and “honourable” parts. Or, like ear and eye, they can utter nothing, can originate nothing, they are silent and receptive; they can “do nothing,” they are apt to say, nothing but receive light and sound for the guidance, the warning, the comfort of the rest. “Less honourable,” perhaps, but still “honourable.” They are of the body; they are in the body for its service. That is their honour. The body needs them.
(2) They are necessary. Indeed, perhaps one might push the figure so far as to say “indispensably necessary.” Certainly, in the actual physical structure, there are some small organs whose use is obscure; but he would be a bold, rash physiologist who should pronounce them superfluous, any smallest of them. Whilst we have been slowly and laboriously learning the function of this organ and the use of that part, they have been quietly doing their work and fulfilling their function, vindicating themselves as “wanted” in the whole economy of life. As certainly in the Body of Christ there are no dispensable members. The Body might live and grow, of course, without any one of them. But it would, pro tanto, be with an impoverished life. No member “of least account” (1Co_6:4) in the Church can withdraw his help and contribution, without making the Church the poorer. Happy that Church and its officers who know how to prize the service and worth of those “least honourable”! They cannot fill the pulpit, but they can sustain the preacher with sympathy and prayer. They cannot do much towards replenishing the treasury, but their devotion, their steady, year-in-year-out attention to their own little bit of work is an inspiration, or perhaps a rebuke, to the large givers and the prominent office-holders. They can create “an atmosphere” in whose sweet and healthy peace pastors and leaders and “workers” can pursue their tasks with hope and vigour. How much does “The Church,” in the largest sense, owe to its poor, to its pensioners, to the sick who can only suffer and pray, to the veterans who linger—not “lag superfluous”—upon the busy stage, where they can no longer play their active part, but where their very “style” is a formative tradition for the younger generation? These “less honourable” cannot do the fighting; they make no contribution to Apologetics. But they have been an “Apology for the Christian Religion” not easily ignored, less easily gainsaid or silenced. Written in no book, but exhibited in humble, “humdrum” lives. Without them the apologist defends Christianity in vain! How often life seems to have retreated to these hidden and humble members of the body, its last stronghold and safe asylum through days of widespread sickness or of epidemic worldliness! How often the quick spiritual “ears” have detected approaching mischief, which the bold, clear “eyes” ignored or disbelieved! There are a great host of members in the body who give it its sympathies, its sensibility, its heart; as there are many more who give, or who conduct and execute its plans and work. It were a hard, perhaps cruel, mighty machine without those; it were a weak, ineffectual thing without these. All are necessary; but the “least honourable” who are and who do that which brings little notice, and less public thanks and honour, are not “least necessary.” Happy and wise the Church which takes care not only for the defence and sustenance of such, but which puts upon retiring worth, upon humble godliness, upon sanctified routine workers, “more abundant honour.” On the whole topic it may be noted that when Menenius Agrippa availed himself of the figure of the Belly and the Members, to bring the Plebeians who had seceded to Mons Sacer (B.C. 494) into a humour to treat with the Patricians of the little Roman State; and when Plato illustrates a thought akin to that of our 1Co_12:26 by the community of the whole body in the pain of the wound given to a finger; they are on the track of one of the great thoughts—the archetypal ideas—of God in His ordering of Creation. Nor have these two, or St. Paul, any claim to have “discovered” the significant serviceableness of the figure of a human body to teach the laws of all “social life.” There would be as many such “discoveries,” as in any age, or race, or school there were thinking men. It is a particular case of the great principle, that the ultimate reason why things are what they are, and as they are, and not other and otherwise, is revealed to us as,—“Christ.” “All things were created in Him.” All the great thoughts of God have been perfectly spoken from the first in that “Word of God.” But these so aptly parabolic physical facts of the natural world, are partial, prelusive, and, so to speak, stammering utterances of these same ideas. The great trunk lines of idea and purpose in Creation all converge upon, all lead up to, all meet in, Christ. They are but returning to their point of origin: “Of Him,” originally, they are “unto Him” finally. Creation is full of Man from its earliest, geological antiquity onwards, upwards; and full of the Man (Hebrews 2) in Whom the ideal and history and destiny of Mankind are alone perfectly exhibited. The body’s highest function and purpose is to “speak concerning Christ and His Church” (Eph_5:32).
SEPARATE HOMILIES
1Co_12:3. Jesus the Lord.
I. This singular declaration as to the essential evidence upon which Christianity rests belongs to the earliest records of our faith.—It was delivered at a time when the religion of Jesus was making its first attempts to convert men. Humanly speaking, it could not have been pronounced a success or a failure. Its Author had disappeared from earth about thirty-three years; and notwithstanding its swift propagation, and the unusual fervency and faithfulness of its disciples, the annals of sects would have cautioned a mere historian not too confidently to pronounce upon the ascending fortunes and future reign even of a religion so vastly superior to all other schools of theology and morals. Suppose Christianity, during the first two or three centuries, had failed.… I can then imagine that its champions, perceiving that their system could never be sustained by ordinary historic canons, would affect to despise such literal standards, and appeal to the convenient authorities of the supernatural. This, indeed, has been the course of several false religions; they have begun in myths, when life was simple and reason imperfect and credulous; but as the age became educated they evaded historic scrutiny by disclaiming history, and rested their claims for acceptance upon inspiration and revelation. The realm of the supernatural has been the inaccessible retreat of the priesthood. But the doctrines of our faith are not the accumulations of after thoughts, for the relief of priestly exigency. They were laid down once for all in the beginning of the Church, when that Church was an untried institute; and first and foremost among them was the Godhead of Jesus as a dogma based upon the evidence of inspiration.
II. The man Jesus, the Son of Mary, who lived in Palestine for thirty-three years; who acted as a man in connection with men, as a brother in the family of a house, as a human being in the functions of need and in the exigencies of distress; who at last died from the violence of murderous men; … is the Lord.… [Paul] meant all that was included in the Jehovah of the Old Testament.…
III. This tremendous truth … cannot be accepted without Divine help.—No man … can state it as the natural conviction of his judgment. The truth has a history, and yet history is not sufficient to demonstrate it. If it were clearly historic, it would never be disputed. When you tell me that Jesus Christ was born and lived in Palestine, and taught disciples, and died, I understand you; for you have narrated what appears to be a natural event. But when you tell me that Jesus is the Great God, … [and the Creator of all He saw and ate and used], … you transport me out from the sphere of intelligible statement and testimony into wonderland. I hear, but I understand not.… I do not mean that the Godhead of Christ is naturally inconceivable, or that the dogma itself shocks or violates my sense of what is possible, but simply that the doctrine is above me. I cannot reconcile it with the laws and impressions of nature as I know them. Say that Jesus was a man; … I will go to greater lengths of admiration than any other man ever commanded, for the greatest power earth has ever known or will know; but it must be human power. I can say he shall fill the domain alike of genius, science, empire; but I cannot say that Jesus is God unless you add some other power to my mind, or stimulate to unnatural intensity the powers I have. St. Paul affirms that no man can.… The history of controversy has repeated it in every age. It is echoed in every treatise of modern theological discussion. The intellectual spirit of the day is plainly in sympathy with it. No man in the merely natural circle of his attainments and convictions can say that Jesus is the Lord. Modern philosophers maintain this … as if it had been left to them to discover; whereas Paul asserted it from the first. They tell us that the Incarnation is to the last degree unintelligible; that they prefer holding fast to what they know, to floating about in depths of mystic speculation. This jealous adherence to fact and distrust of faith, which is sometimes put forth as the latest scientific judgment upon the claims of Christianity, dates as far back as St. Paul; and he has described this temper of mind with as much candour and accuracy as if he had been a philosopher himself: “The natural man,” etc. (1Co_2:14).
IV. The evidence by which this grand truth is affirmed … is the internal persuasion of the Holy Ghost.—Here we speak in parables to them that are without. The first step towards this confession is the conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost. I do not mean … of evil, wickedness, wrong. A man may be assured of these without any supernatural influence whatever; but a conviction of sin, of transgression against God’s law, of liability to eternal death—no man can feel this unless the personal presence of God is brought home to him; and this cannot be except through the revelation of the Holy Ghost. The misery following such a conviction will make a man strive against it, and learn by bitter failures his perfect helplessness. He seeks rest, a place of firmness for his feet; but the ground gives way; he “sinks in deep mire.” Preach Jesus to a man, with his guilt arrayed in terrors and his fears alarmed, with his self-despair and his eager cries for help, he not only sees no difficulty in accepting the Godhead of Christ, but he grasps it as the only truth that can give him comfort. A teacher of God can instruct him; a servant of God can intercede for him; an angel of God may minister with him: but the Son of God must save him. An inferior Christ would be nearer to him in rank, but a man Christ or an angel Christ would not be so near in sympathy as the Jehovah Christ. The soul bereaved of human help [finds] this the promise which lightens up her widowhood: “Thy Maker is thy husband.” That which makes Jesus our final resting-place is His Godhead; it is His equality with the Father which gives His blood an omnipotent potency as an atonement, which makes His priesthood irresistible and eternal, His presence illimitable.
V. How easy for those whom the Holy Ghost has convinced of sin, who under the tyranny of its power have imagined what a counter-power that must be which could redeem us from it, to admit that Jesus is God.… It is still all mystery to us; and yet it seems natural, as if it could not but have been. It wears a familiar face. like the mysterious world of nature around us, which, because we are part of it, looks very homely to us.… With our eyes open and our hearts touched by the revealing Spirit, we feel that we belong to the Gospel world; we are the active and intelligent recipients of its laws and blessings. Its stupendous wonders, although far distant from our comprehension, seem almost close to us in the clear atmosphere of a fellow-sympathy. They are ours, and we are theirs. The incarnation of God is the inscrutable event of the universe. And yet we have seen it with our eyes; we have looked upon, and our hands have handled it; our very children sing about it as if they understood it perfectly.—Abridged from report of a sermon by E. E. Jenkins, M.A.
1Co_12:27. The Body of Christ.
Observe, not merely, “Ye are a body”; though that has been the burden of the chapter. The give and take of support, and sympathy, and service, between part and part; the interdependence of part and part for life and growth; the diversity of capacity and function, all contributing to the welfare of the whole and of each part; all have been dwelt upon fully. All are as true of any organised society, any corporate life, as of the Church of Christ. But this is only what the members are to each other. Here Paul goes further. “Ye are a body; ye are Christ’s body; ye are a Body united to Him; ye are a body for Him; ye furnish Him with an instrument analogous to your own. What your body is to, and for, you; that ye are to, and for, Christ.” Most simply, then—
I. To us a body is the link between us and the outer world.—It mediates between the immaterial part in us and the material existences outside us. The immaterial in one man communicates with the immaterial in another through their two bodies. [If there be a “trans- or extra-corporeity of mind,” it is so obscure a fact as not yet to serve much in even an analogical way of imparting truth.] Such analogies may not be pressed far, but hold good thus far: We influence the outer world through the instrumentality of our bodily part; the outer world is known to us and affects us largely through the organs and sensations of our body. In somewhat similar fashion is Christ pleased that His Church should be a Body for Him, mediating between Him and the World. In one particular also the World reaches Him through His Body. Take this latter first.
(1) “Why persecutest thou Me?”—not “My people.” Saul reaches further, deeper, than he thought, as he “hales men and women to prison,” or “consents to” the stoning of Stephen, “persecuting the Way unto the death.” Not the hand or foot alone is touched or wounded; the Head is hurt; Christ feels the pain. The sufferings of the martyrs are the “afflictions of Christ” in a remarkable passage (Col_1:24; cf. 1Pe_4:13); as though [in opposition to “began to do and to teach,” if that be the accepted meaning, Act_1:1] Christ not only continued to do and to teach, but also to suffer, after “the day in which He was taken up.” As though His earthly life of a few years and His Church’s life of many centuries were one life, and one history, both of work and persecution; the centuries a continuation, an extension, of the thirty years; He assuming to Himself all the pain, as well as the toil and the success, of the Church’s life. The first Adam and his race fell as one; the second Adam and the new race of those who are “in Him” rise as one; they suffer as one. The old doctrine of (so-called) federal headship, or (in the modern phrase) the solidarity of successive generations, is an attempt to express particular phases of the great principles underlying this: “Touch a Christian, burn him, wrong him, persecute or hate him, you touch, burn, wrong, persecute, hate, Christ.” Let persecutor and persecuted remember that He is to be taken into the account.
(2) With freer use of the analogy, it may be said Christ reaches the world through His Body, through the activities of His Church. Whether man can act upon man and upon matter otherwise than though the body’s powers and organs, may be open to discussion upon carefully gathered evidence. There is no doubt that Christ can, and does. There is a sovereignty about times of visitation to Churches and to nations and generations; Christ sends forth wide influence, when the Church has asked little, done less, or herself been a Body out of health, too feeble to effect, or to initiate, anything. He is independent of His Body, as we are not of ours. Yet He does not only make large use of this His organ and instrument, but was largely pleased to make His work depend upon, and be conditioned by, and executed through, the activities of His people. As the body is organic to the man, so the Church is organic to Christ. Every member of a body is under the control of the will of the man. So the indwelling Christ rules in, as well as over, every member of His body. Humanly speaking, if the Church is not active, the world goes unreached, unsaved. Its activities are His, and are the usual and ordinary ones through which He expresses and effects His will and purpose in the salvation of the world.
II. Hence
1. The responsibility lying upon the Church always to be at its best of spiritual force and health, a fitting, serviceable instrument always ready to the will of the Head.
2. A ready test is provided, distinguishing between right and wrong activities of His Church. In what enterprises should it engage,—and in what not? What work should it, or should it not, undertake or be led into? Can the enterprise, the work, the activity, whether in fact or in proposal, be conceivably attributed to Christ Himself, and identified with Him? Could it be His activity? Within the limit thus to be traced out, activities and work are permissible. It may be a matter for further temporary or prudential limitation, whether the whole liberty shall be availed of; whether, e.g., all such social, humanitarian, philanthropic forms of service to man, as are perfectly conceivable as Christ’s own, shall be formally undertaken as part of the organised activities of a particular Church, or of The Church. There may be reasons rooted in the facts of fallen human nature, it may be part of the inevitable defect of the reality from an ideal condition of things, why, e.g., a Church “cannot,” without injury to its distinctively “spiritual” life or work, embark in any extended plan for the better housing of the poor, or in a great effort to purify the popular amusements, or itself to purvey purer ones. [If Christian men and women undertake such work, outside the machinery and organisations of their own particular Church or congregation, “The Church which is His Body” is really doing it.] It is palpably incongruous that some forms of amusement and of money-raising should be attached to the Church and its enterprises; they could not conceivably be attributed to Christ; they cannot be the action of His Body.
3. On the other hand, the principle makes some forms of activity obligatory upon the Church, and upon the Churches. E.g. can anything else be supposed but that Christ should desire His Gospel carried to the heathen, and to all lands where, if in name it is proclaimed, it has no real regenerating power upon society or upon individuals? The obligation of Missions, “Home and Foreign,” upon the Church of Christ can never be an open question. He must desire it; His Body is not revealing, or expressing, Him if it is not actively, aggressively “missionary.”
4. No doubt some deep connection between character and bodily form. Between character and face there is obviously often no little relation. An artist knows—without accepting the follies of palmistry—that there is character, the character, individuality, in the hands. By no means unimportant in his portrait. Perhaps an ideal corporeity would with perfect correspondence express the man, and men might know each other by their form. [Note, the “form of God”; and the old philosophic meaning and use of “form.”] However that be, it is no speculation that Christ’s Body, and every part of it, should express Him. There are, happily, Christian men and women in whom every one, who comes into contact with them, feels he has come into close contact with, has seen, Christ. The obligation not to misrepresent Him, the obligation to represent Him, lies upon the Church, because it is His Body. Hearts are asking, the world is asking, “We would see Jesus.” It ought to be possible to say, “Look at His Body.”
III. This relation to Christ differentiates the Church from all other corporations.—
1. It is not merely one amongst many societies and organised associations of the same order. No doubt He Who is the Ruler of human society and its every movement, takes care that no form of association between man and man but has the control of His hand. It subserves His purposes. It has a real relation to Him. But this corporation is unique. It has a unique relation to Him. He has assumed it into union with Himself. He is “Head over all things” for His body’s sake. “He is the Head of the Church.” Himself dwells in every member, as (to speak with caution) the man dwells in every organ, part, cell, of his body. It is a spiritual corporation.
2. An available test is in this provided, as to the legitimacy or otherwise, of methods for securing its growth and increase. “Can Christ and His Body, Christ in His Body, be conceived of as securing, e.g., numerical increase by the method actually practised, or proposed?” Growth in numbers, wealth, social status, political influence, may or may not be matters of rejoicing. They, and their causes, and methods, need bringing to the bar of a fine “spiritual” instinct, and trying there. They may be the very methods for a purely human society or enterprise; but can they be the methods of Christ and His Body?
HOMILETIC SUGGESTIONS
1Co_12:20. A Living Unity requires:—
I. The combination of many members.
II. The harmonious arrangement of parts.
III. The inspiration of one Spirit.
IV. Co-operation for one common end.—[J. L.]
1Co_12:22-25. Observe:—
I. Life in its many forms is a system of compensations.
II. These compensations are wisely and equitably balanced.
III. Are designed to promote contentment, harmony, mutual care.—[J. L.]
1Co_12:31. “Something better than ‘Best.’ ”
[Not very accurate: “best” is really “greater.” So “covet” is “desire earnestly.” See this word in noteworthy contrast with “love” in 1Co_13:4, its bad side there being put foremost. It may be studied in Act_7:9; 1Co_14:1; 1Co_14:39; 2Co_11:2; Gal_4:17-18 (with a playing upon its Janus-like ambiguity of meaning); Jas_4:2; Rev_3:19.] The whole verse is well paraphrased in the resuming verse, 1Co_14:1. Two contrasts:—
I. “Gifts” and “way.”—Respectively accidents of life, these; exceptional; given to the few. The “way” is for all, for all time; it is the very path of life. Love, even in the natural sense, is the one thing which makes life worth living. It is the life of life. A loveless life, with all natural endowments highly cultivated with all social accessories which are usually accounted desirable, to the true, whole, healthy manhood, is Death.
II. “Covet” and “follow after” (1Co_14:1).—A passionate wooing; a quiet, persistently faithful wooing. The one is apt to be “jealous” as well as “zealous”; envious rather than emulous of the gifts of others. The other welcomes all, and makes room for all.
III. Love, without gifts, will, in the long-run, do more than gifts without love.
APPENDED NOTES
It may be convenient for the Bible-class to have the New Testament material about Prophets and Prophecy at one view.
(a) Spoken of in Eph_2:20; Eph_4:11; 1Co_12:28.
(b) John and Christ ante-Pentecostal “prophets.” After Pentecost given to many (Act_2:17-18; Act_8:17; Act_19:6; Act_10:44-46; Act_11:4-5). Individual cases are: [Barnabas (Act_4:36, connecting παράκλησις with “paraclete”); Stephen (Act_6:5; Act_6:10; Act_6:15);] Agabus (Act_11:28; Act_21:10); Silas and Judas (Act_15:32); Manaen and Lucius of Cyrene (Act_13:1); [Timothy, “a man of God” (1Ti_6:11);] Philip’s daughters (Act_21:8); Saul (Act_13:1, though some in this list may only be “teachers”). Met with in Churches.—Thessalonica (1Th_5:20; where the gift was perhaps at a discount and “despised” as not so striking and showy as, say, “tongues”); Corinth (12, 14); Rome, as yet unvisited by any apostle (1Co_12:6); Ephesus (1Co_4:11).
(c) Nature of gift exemplified in New Testament.—A predictive power: famine in days of Claudius (Act_11:27-30), [Act_20:23]; Act_21:4 [disciples elevated into prophets for the occasion, like so many in the regal period in the Old Testament]; Act_21:10-14; [1Ti_4:1]. Knowledge of distant future to encourage the Church under present trial: 2Pe_1:16, etc.; Act_13:9-12; Act_2:9-10 is a quasi-prophetic utterance founded on Isa_64:4, etc.
(d) Indicated in Luk_11:49 (“prophetsand apostles”); Mat_23:34; Mat_23:37; (1Th_2:15; Jas_5:10; Rev_20:9).
(e) Suggested in Rom_16:25; Eph_3:5.
(f) False prophets speaking under demoniac agency: 1Co_12:3; Col_2:18; 1Ti_4:1; 1Jn_4:1-3.
(g) To be tested by the “analogy of faith” (Rom_12:6); or as in 1Co_12:3, or 1Jn_4:1-2; prophets may “judge” prophets (1Co_14:29); the true gift is under a prophet’s control, and is no mere uncontrollable maniac possession.
(h) Add to (c), which in itself would give a very incomplete view of prophecy:—
Prediction was only an accident of Prophecy; it might be there; or it might not, as it happened. Some prophetic books of the Bible manifestly contain many prophecies—many more predict but seldom. The prophecy which, for example, in these Corinthian Epistles we see in lingering survival in the Christian Church, is hardly prediction at all. More often it would be better described as specially inspired preaching. What Christians in Corinth needed was not so much an unveiling of the future, though this had its helpfulness, and is exemplified in many cases noticed in the list above given, but rather an authoritative statement of the mind and will of God for their guidance in the present. They needed Preachers rather than Seers of the Future. So, in fact, all the prophets, Old Testament and New Testament alike, were first of all, and most of all, preachers declaring “present truth” to the men of their own time. It might happen, and in point of fact generally did happen, that this present truth was also eternal truth. Their message was then one for every age, and was put upon permanent record, especially when the word of the prophet was part of the ever-growing disclosure of and preparation for the Advent of a Redeemer. Then, further, their teaching was often illustrated by or conveyed in significant Facts. These might be facts of their own day, in which case the prophets became inspired chroniclers and historians, recording, and often commenting upon, what was even then becoming the Past. But they wrote history didactically; they delivered a message from God through the vehicle of history. Sometimes, and particularly when they were contributing to the divinely authentic account of Redemption, its purpose and historical development, their message could not be completely illustrated or delivered without bringing in the facts of the Future, and then they uttered predictions. But the prediction was also didactic in its purpose. When fulfilled, the predictions become credentials of the men and of the Book which contained their utterances. But the crowning utility of predicted facts is for teaching, and pre-eminently for teaching something new about Christ and His Redemption work. It was teaching by divinely anticipated History. Silas, e.g., as a prophet has his Old Testament counterparts in the many in the “schools of the prophets” who did their work and delivered their message of God’s truth without predicting at all. In Act_21:4 are simple disciples elevated, for the occasion, into prophets, in close correspondence with the not few examples, particularly frequent in the books of Kings and Chronicles, of men on whom once, and once only, in their life there came down the Spirit of prophecy,—predictive prophets for the occasion, and for that only. In fact, the “prophets” and the “prophecy” of the New Testament must not be studied apart from those of the Old Testament; they are one continuous fact. But as we see it in the later pages of the Bible, it is a good illustration of the “law” that, however great may be the dispensation change at any point, God does not pass from “age” to “age” in history per saltum and abruptly. Between one “age” and the next, however revolutionary may be the change made, there are overlapping, persistent, lingering facts, for a time surviving the “age” of which they were specially characteristic. We see the line and the date of demarcation between Judaism and Christianity; the day of Pentecost is the definite beginning of the Christian Church. But this stands prefaced on the one side by the transitional three years’ ministry of Christ, and followed on the other by a few years during which the Jewish Temple and ritual linger on, dying and effete it is true, but hiding from the eyes of the contemporaries of the great change of “ages” the full significance of much that was taking place around them. In like manner Old Testament prophecy for a time lingers on, overlapping into Christianity, with its fuller gift of the Spirit. As the corpus of redemption facts and of redemption doctrine hastens to its completion, the office of the prophet [and Inspiration and Miracle also, in their proper definition and limitation as parts of and accompaniments of the Revelation of Redemption] is ceasing to be required. The “teacher” is more and more being left in possession of the field. “The apostles and prophets” are made the foundation of the Church, or its lowest courses of masonry resting on the Foundation, because the “prophets” were the one feature of the new order which most conspicuously linked it with the old to which the Jewish converts had belonged (Eph_2:20).]
1. As to the Gift of Tongues, our chief data are: (a) Mar_16:17, “They shall speak with [new;? the reading] tongues.” (b) Act_2:1-13. (c) Act_10:46, “They of the circumcision … with Peter … heard them (i.e. Cornelius and the rest) speak with tongues, and magnify God.” (d) Act_19:6, When Paul laid his hands on the Johannean disciples at Ephesus, “they spake with tongues and prophesied.” (e) 1 Corinthians 12, 14.
2. If in (a) “new” be retained, then there would appear to be some, but not much, support given to the idea of the Greek fathers that the gift was one of new linguistic powers. The Old Testament quotation in 1Co_14:21 may look in the same direction (but see Critical Notes there). In (b) there is clearly a distinction between the first outburst of “other (N.B. this) tongues” (1Co_12:4), and the address of Peter, which may well have been in Aramaic. After (b) there is no semblance of evidence of any added linguistic powers being given or needed. Greek and Aramaic would carry the Christian teachers almost anywhere. In Act_14:11 Paul seems not to have used the “speech of Lycaonia,” nor perhaps to have understood the people until their acts showed their meaning.
3. The work, not of instruction, but of adoration, prayer, praise, seems in every case to have been the employment of the gift. Paul evidently relied on “prophesying” (1Co_14:1) and “teaching” as means of producing conviction. “Tongues” were only for “a sign,” to attract, and impress, the attention of the unbelieving world (1Co_14:22).
4. “Interpretation of the tongues” was, perhaps, from the nature of the case, in Acts 2 no “spiritual gift.” At Corinth it ordinarily required to be so, whether they were “tongues of men,” which happened to be unknown to the Corinthians, or “tongues of angels,” sounding like (incoherent?) noises, and belonging to no earthly dialect.
5. The word “tongue” (γλῶττα) decides nothing as to the nature of the gift, though in Act_2:8 it does seem equivalent to “language” (διάλεκτος). Also the same word is used (Act_2:4; Act_2:14) both of the speech of the gifted ones and of the address of Peter. In the 70 it is used (in 1Ch_25:1; Eze_13:9) for “a musical, oracular intonation” (Smith, Bible Dict.). Some of the external accompaniments of the gift are suggested by the word “mad” (1Co_14:23); and by a comparison of Act_2:13, “filled with new wine,” with Eph_5:18.]
[Stanley thus well combines the particulars contained in 12, 14, etc: “It was a trance or ecstasy, which, in moments of great religious fervour, especially at the moment of conversion, seized the early believers; and this fervour vented itself in expressions of thanksgiving, in fragments of psalmody or hymnody (? this) or prayer, which to the speaker himself conveyed an irresistible sense of communion with God, and to the bystander an impression of some extraordinary manifestation of power, but not necessarily any instruction or teaching, and sometimes even having the appearance of wild excitement, like that of madness or intoxication. It was a most emphatic sign to each individual believer that a power mightier than his own was come into the world” (Stanley, p. 257).]
“Schism” and “Heresy.”—“There are some important principles which are now generally accepted. These two violations of unity generally go together: the “heresy” being self-willed choice of private interpretation in opposition to Scripture, and the “schism” the following of a party. Few schisms can be named which have not been the result of doctrinal error; few leading heresies which have not issued in schisms. Here, however, there is a distinction. Heresy can never be perpetuated; but the result of schisms may. Ecclesiastical schism may be taken up by Divine wisdom into the development of the kingdom of Christ; having been in fact not schism in the sight of God, or soon losing the taint. Apparent schism may be the only cure of heresy. Many minor heresies may co-exist with holding the Head. But where, on the one hand, there is such infidel subtraction from the truth, or, on the other, such superstitious addition to it, as neutralise the fundamentals, separation may be inevitable and lawful.… Schism may be the sin of the community left as well as of the community leaving. But all this rises to the higher principle that the Spirit is the Giver of life corporate as well as individual. He quickeneth whom He will. The body is more than its raiment. Any such act of the sovereign Spirit must aim at the more effectual growth of the Church. He thus prevents unity from degenerating into stagnant uniformity.… Lastly, whenever the Spirit thus goes out of His way to divide existing Churches, He never fails to authenticate His own act; as Paul among the apostles was able to authenticate his vocation and work. As to heresy or self-willed and needless schism it is still one of the works of the flesh (Gal_5:19), condemned of itself.” (Pope.)]
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 1, 2. He now proceeds to expound to them…
SPIRITUAL GIFTS
1, 2. He now proceeds to expound to them elaborately the grand theme of spiritual gifts, marking a very decisive transition from the disciplinary to the educational phase of his magisterial office.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain 1Co 12:1
1Co 12:1
I. No man can even profess Christianity without the help of the Holy Spirit. It is something even to profess to be a Christian, to make a clear statement even of doctrinal truths which have entered very deeply into the heart. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." The mere convictions of our intellects are not in our own power. The strongest arguments might not convince a man, unless the Holy Spirit of God was at hand to add force to the argument, and to enable the man, by spiritual help, to say that Jesus is the Lord.
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II. If we believe our creeds and the doctrine of Whit Sunday, we shall, all through our lives, recognise the presence and working and power of the Holy Spirit of God; but then, if we are to have any real conviction of this spiritual operation amongst the people of God for the salvation of souls, how must our thoughts be occupied? Not with the things seen and temporal, but with the things unseen, which are eternal. He who would be able to realise the working of the Spirit of God must endeavour not only to think of spiritual gifts, but of the spiritual world. It is a proverb among the Germans that beyond the hills are people living. Men are apt to suppose that in the narrow valley in which they pass their days all life and activity is concentrated; but beyond the hills, where the sun sets, there are other nations full of life and spirit; and his mind is cramped and confined who thinks only of the narrow district in which he lives. Far beyond all material creation, there is a spiritual world, where God the Father dwells, and where the Lord Jesus Christ is on His right hand. And do we not feel and know that all the highest impulses of our souls come direct from the spiritual world, and that the Lord who died for us fulfils in every honest Christian heart the promise which He gave, making all good men to become better, through the working of the Holy Spirit of God?
A. C. Tait, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 1.
References: 1Co 12:1.—Church of England Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 81; H. P. Liddon, Church Sermons, vol. ii., p. 321. 1Co 12:1-31.—F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians, p. 168.
1Co 12:3
A Test of True Inspiration.
It is not easy at first to understand St. Paul’s object in this passage. He seems to be laying down, first of all, a truism about which there can be no discussion whatever, and next, a proposition as to the truth of which there is apparently very large room for question. St. Paul himself is conscious that he is saying something which might not at first sight approve itself to his readers, or which, at the least, requires their careful attention. The phrase "I give you to understand" is one of those turns of speech which he employs when he wishes to stir the minds of men to an unusual effort.
I. "No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed." There were Corinthians who claimed to speak on the prompting of the Spirit, and who, when in a state of ecstasy, exclaimed, "Accursed be Jesus." These Corinthians were almost certainly Jews who had mixed a great deal with Christians, and who had caught something of the enthusiasm which was created within the Church by the presence of the extraordinary gifts vouchsafed to it. In this sentence we have a warning, first, against a false liberalism, and, secondly, we have a warning against thinking too much of religious passions. Just as the prophets in the synagogue said "Jesus is accursed," so the Christians meeting in the house of Justus cried "Jesus is the Lord."
II. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Why is this? Why cannot a man recognise the divinity of Jesus by the exercise of his natural faculties, and when he has recognised it say that he has done so? Why must the Holy Spirit intervene to teach this any more than other kinds of truth? The reason is twofold. It is found partly in the understanding of man and partly in his will. (1) The will has an intelligent instinct of its own. We believe, at least to a great extent, that which we wish to believe; and we wish to believe, most of us, that which will not cost us much in the way of effort or in the way of endurance. We wish this and no more, always supposing us to be left to ourselves with the average human nature and instinct which our first father has bequeathed to us. The Holy Spirit must intervene so far as to restore freedom to the human will, thereby preventing its mischievous action upon the understanding. The greater the practical demands of a given truth the more needed is the high impartiality of the will; and, therefore, in no case is it more necessary than in that of believing our Lord’s divinity, which, when it is really believed, leads to so much and demands so much. (2) A second reason is found in the understanding. If a man was to rise above the prejudices of the time—if he was to see what those words, those acts, that character really meant—if he was to understand how the Cross was as much a revelation of Divine love as the Transfiguration was a revelation of Divine glory, he must have been guided by a more than human teacher; he must have been taught by the Spirit to say, "Jesus is the Lord."
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 1116.
I. The Jews resisted the light of the Holy Ghost and His grace soliciting them from without; Christians, if they reject that same truth, reject Him as teaching within also. The Jews had the condemnation that they rejected truth which they might have known; Christians have that much sorer condemnation that they reject truth already known and attested by those whom they once knew to have come from God. Light, against which the eyes have been often closed, will still not unseldom, in God’s mercy, reach the eyes which shut themselves against it; very rare is it that the eyes will open to see the truth which they once saw and rejected.
II. Let us guard the truth, not as lords over it, to adapt it, as a Lesbian rule, to all the passing phases of human opinion or conjecture, but as itself the unerring eternal rule, to which all human opinion, when corrected by God-enlightened reason, the mirror of the wisdom of God must conform. Christianity being the offspring not of human, but of Divine wisdom, its life also is Divine, maintained, alike in the world and in each heart, by the Lord and Giver of life, God the Holy Ghost. This being so, then the most stupendous and central unwisdom of our day must be the ignorant ignoring of Him who is our light and life. Our generation is so busy with matter that it can afford no time for spirit. What is spiritual seems to it unreal, because "beyond the grasp of eye and hand." Men are so busy with their researches, so certain of the process, that it does not occur to them to think that their foregone conclusion may be wrong, that they may be following an earthly meteor hovering round morasses, instead of the clear light of truth, set by God to rule over day and night.
E. B. Pusey, University Sermons, p. 463.
References: 1Co 12:3.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 89; vol. vii., p. 84; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 3rd series, p. 29. 1Co 12:3-6.—C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons, p. 290; G. Salmon, Sermons in Trinity College, Dublin, p. 107. 1Co 12:3-7.—H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxiv., p. 155. 1Co 12:4.—E. C. Wickham. Wellington College Sermons, p. 122. 1Co 12:4, 1Co 12:5.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 204. 1Co 12:4-6.—Church of England, Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 99; R. S. Candlish, The Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers, pp. 299, 312; J. H. Thom, Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 2nd series, p. 225; E. Hatch, Church of England Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 1; T. Kelly, Pulpit Trees, p. 67. 1Co 12:4-7.—A. W. Momerie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 348; A. Barry, Cheltenham College Sermons, p. 395. 1Co 12:9.—W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxiv., p. 61. 1Co 12:11.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 45; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vi., p. 109. 1Co 12:12.—Homilist, 3rd series, vol. vii., p. 87; G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons and Addresses in Marlborough College, p. 308; J. B. Lightfoot, Church of England Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 117; E. M. Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal Religion, p. 312.
1Co 12:13
Regenerating Baptism.
As there is one Holy Ghost, so there is one only visible body of Christians which Almighty God "knows by name" and one baptism which admits men into it. This is implied in the text, which is nearly parallel to St. Paul’s words in the Ephesians: "There is one body, and one Spirit,... one baptism." But more than this is taught us in it: not only that the Holy Ghost is in the Church, and that baptism admits into it; but that the Holy Ghost admits by means of baptism, that the Holy Ghost baptizes: in other words, that each individual member receives the Holy Ghost as a preliminary step or condition or means of his being incorporated into the Church, or, in our Saviour’s words, that no one can enter, except he be regenerated in order to enter it.
I. When men refuse to admit the doctrine of baptismal regeneration in the case of infants they look about how they may defend infant baptism, which perhaps from habit, good feeling, or other causes they do not like to abandon. Surely, if we go to Scripture, the question is decided at once, for no one can deny that there is much more said in Scripture on behalf of the connection between baptism and Divine grace than about the duty of infant baptism. If the doctrine and the practice are irreconcilable—baptismal regeneration and infant baptism—let the practice which is not written in Scripture yield to the doctrine which is; and let us (if we can bear to do so) defraud infants of baptism, not baptism of its supernatural virtue. Let us go counter to tradition rather than to Scripture.
II. The partly assumed and partly real parallel of circumcision comes in fact, whether they know it or not, as a sort of refuge to those who have taken up the intermediate position between catholic doctrine and heretical practice. They avail themselves of the instance of circumcision as a proof that a divinely appointed ordinance need not convey grace, even while it admits into a state of grace. Circumcision admitted to certain privileges—to the means of grace, to teaching, and the like; baptism, they consider, does the same, and no more. The plain objection to this view is that Christ and His apostles do attach a grace to the ordinance of baptism such as is not attached in the Old Testament to circumcision—which is exactly that difference which makes the latter a mere rite, the former a sacrament; and if this be so, it is nothing to the purpose to build up an argument on the assumption that the two ordinances are precisely the same.
III. If baptism has no spiritual value, can it be intended for us Christians? If it has no regenerating power, surely they only are consistent who reject it altogether! I will boldly say it, we have nothing dead and earthly under the gospel, and we act like the Judaizing Christians of old time if we submit to anything such; therefore they only are consistent who, denying the virtue of baptism, also deny its authority as a permanent ordinance of the gospel. Either baptism is an instrument of the Holy Ghost, or it has no place in Christianity.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iii., p. 271.
References: 1Co 12:13.—Collyer, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 116. 1Co 12:14.—A. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit, p. 312. 1Co 12:14-20.—R. A. Armstrong, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxiii., p. 141. 1Co 12:14-21.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 171. 1Co 12:22.—Homilist, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 86. 1Co 12:24.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 107. 1Co 12:25-27.—L. Campbell, Some Aspects of the Christian Ideal, p. 55.
1Co 12:26
Social Responsibility.
There are three great principles which ought to govern a Christian’s thought in his estimate of a great criminal case.
I. Of these the first is, that every criminal is, to a certain extent, the product of his age, of the spirit of the society in which he has passed his life. Just as certain marshy districts and damp atmospheres are favourable to the growth of troublesome or malignant insects or diseases, so particular moods of popular feeling and opinion are as certainly favourable to the growth of crime. This is, of course, a doctrine which may be pushed too far. No criminal is simply and altogether the helpless, unconscious product of his circumstances. To suppose that would be a libel on the justice of God. But still we have contributed by remote and subtle channels to make the criminal what he is; and if we knew the true area of our responsibilities, we ought to feel that his error, his suffering, is in some sense our own. If the one member suffer, all should suffer with him.
II. And a second principle which should govern our thoughts about great crime is, that in the sight of God, the Eternal Justice, all guilt is relative to a man’s opportunities.
III. Akin to this consideration is a third, which a Christian will keep steadily in mind when he hears of a great criminal case. It is the deep sincere conviction of his own real condition as a sinner beneath the eye of God. That which was so offensive to our Lord in the Pharisees, which He rebuked so severely and so often, was the substitution of a conventional and outward test of religious excellence for an internal and true one. They did their works that they might be seen of men. Now, this corresponds to much of the religious responsibility of our day, which never really gets below the surface of life, or asks itself seriously what God is thinking moment by moment, and all that He sees not merely in the outward life, but within the precincts of the soul. When a Christian has learnt something real and accurate about himself he has no heart to be hard on others. The man who knows anything about his own heart will not suppose that the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices were sinners above all the Galileans; or that the eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell were exceptionally wicked. He knows that he has too much in common with these men to feel that. He knows that he deserves what they have experienced, though it may be for other reasons, and therefore, if they suffer, he, in his heart and mind, suffers with them, if only from the sensitive activity of his sense of justice.
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 727.
1Co 12:26
St. Paul would have the Corinthians struggle incessantly, not to create a new order for themselves, but that they might not in every act of their lives be contradicting that order to which they eventually belonged.
I. And what is that order? St. Paul takes the simplest method one can conceive for making us understand what it is. He leads us to notice obvious facts, which every one admits, and not only admits, but is compelled by the keenest experience to recognise every moment. He asks us to consider the structure of our bodies—not any secrets about them which anatomists and physiologists may know—but what every mechanic must know. He says that each of our members or limbs has a power or work of its own; that no other limb can put forth the same power or do the same work. Here surely are laws of the universe—laws concerning our own selves, which no one can reverse. The practitioner in medicines or surgery does not aspire to alter these facts. He conforms himself to them, he regulates his treatment in accordance with them.
II. Then the Apostle goes on—to do what? He goes on to speak of other facts as nearly concerning each one of us individually, as nearly concerning the whole race, about which he can appeal to the same conscience and experience, which he can submit to the same test and trial. He does not ask any special field for the proof and examination of them. He asks for no choice spot which the winds of heaven do not visit too roughly. He takes the world as he finds it. A Greek city with all its corruptions, the Roman empire with its tyranny, answer his purpose better than an Atlantis. There are members of the body politic, as certainly as there are members or limbs of the body natural. Each man is such a member or limb. Each man has a function or office assigned to him in the body politic, as the hand or foot has in the natural body. One man may as little do the work of another, as the hand can do the work of the foot. And here, too, the many members can never make us forget the one body.
III. This description of St. Paul does not presuppose perfection, but rather presupposes imperfection. The Jews had discovered the existence of a law of fellowship between human beings. They had proved that that law was liable to constant violation. They had proved that its violation brought misery upon him who was guilty of it, as well as upon those whose claim upon him he had refused to acknowledge. They had not shown how that witness of prophets respecting a Divine Word and Ruler over their nation could be actually fulfilled for the benefit of all nations; they had not shown who was the centre and head of the body with its many members; they had not shown whence could come a power strong enough to make their cohesion to each other real and practical, strong enough to overcome the tendency in each member to rend itself from the rest. It is this hiatus in the lore of past ages which St. Paul fills up when he says, "Now are ye the body of Christ, and members in particular." He had said before in this chapter, "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." All artificial significations which have been given to the Church shall perish. This signification which connects it with the natural body, which identifies it with the universal body politic, of which Christ is the Head, because He is the Head of every man, shall remain.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v., p. 263.
References: 1Co 12:26.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 133; J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. x., p. 5.
1Co 12:27
I. The Church is the body in which Christ dwells as the soul, lighting up the body with His Divine presence, the organisation of this tabernacle being the sanctified tabernacle of flesh and blood in which Christ shall dwell, from whose lips He shall speak, whose hands He shall employ, and whose feet shall bear the manhood and the influences of His life through the world around: the organisation that He shall make use of to extend the interests of His kingdom, and from which the majesty and glory of His dominion shall be extended through the neighbourhood around. Christ dwells in the Church, the Fountain of its life, the centre of its power—"that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."
II. If this be so, the Church as the body should reflect and manifest the expression of the Divine soul within. It should ever be prepared to respond to the Divine will. My action does not spring from the body, but from the mind and will within. It is from that action originates, that to which action is subordinate, and of which it is the manifestation. And so it should be with the Church as the body of Christ, ever responding to the will of the Divine Spirit within, and offering all its powers to the service, adoration, and worship of the Divine power, to which it may well be contributory, and to whose glory it shall ever be subordinate. If the Church is the body of Christ, it is to do His bidding, to accomplish His purpose, to live to His glory.
III. The Church is the body of Christ, then: (1) There is her Divine safety; (2) her Divine blessedness; (3) her Divine honour and glory; (4) the activity by which she ought to be distinguished.
J. P. Chown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 264.
The Christian Idea of Man.
I. What is the nature, the meaning of our human life? The words of the text seem to give the answer which we need. We look upon our nature, borne heavenward by splendid aspirations, crushed down by a miserable load of failures, conscious of a Divine kinsmanship, conscious of personal transgressions, and it tells us: "Ye are the body of Christ, Son of God and Son of man." We look upon our lives, fragmentary, imperfect, involved, with capacities which enjoyment cannot satisfy, with attainments which are only a shadow of our desires, and it tells us: "Ye are severally members thereof." But Divine connection is the revelation of our being, the interpretation of our partial service given to us first in the fiat of creation, given to us afresh out of the darkness and the glory of the Cross; fellowship with God, fellowship with man in God, through Christ. We feel that we are a result and a beginning; we acknowledge the power of the race, and we treasure the gift of personality. We, too, share in a larger life; but that we may do so according to the will of God we use the individuality of our own life. We are a body—"the body of Christ, and severally members thereof."
II. As Christians, we believe that the contrasts which are represented by the thoughts of the solidarity of mankind and the individuality of each single man are harmonised in the Incarnation. As Christians, we believe that social responsibility and personal responsibility belong equally to each citizen of the Divine commonwealth and correspond with the fulness of His manifold life. While we ponder the elements of our creed we realise little by little the promise which it seals of some revelation which interprets to us our nature, and our nature furnishes us also with a new rule and a new motive for action. The Christian idea of man brings us the sense of brotherhood, which is the measure of our efforts, the sense of brotherhood with the Son of man, which is their support.
Bishop Westcott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 177.
References: 1Co 12:27.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 388. 1Co 12:28.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 777. 1Co 12:31.—Homilist, 3rd series, vol. x., p. 330; Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 351; R. Tuck, Ibid., vol. xix., p. 248; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., p. 373; G. Salmon, Sermons in Trinity College, Dublin, p. 55; F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians, p. 73; R. W. Church, The Gifts of Civilisation, p. 5.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain (e) Spiritual Gifts
(e) Spiritual Gifts
In the early Church various powers, faculties, and graces were bestowed on individual Christians by the Holy Spirit. Some of these were distinctly miraculous, such as prophecy, tongues, power to work miracles; others were less extraordinary gifts, such as teaching or wisdom; or special graces of Christian character, such as love. The Apostle does not distinguish between these classes; all alike come from the same Source, and are to be exercised for the good of all. The Corinthians were inclined to overvalue the more showy gifts, especially that of tongues. Those possessing this gift were tempted to use it for mere display; those not possessing it envied these others, and undervalued their own gifts.
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St. Paul first (1 Corinthians 12) shows that all these gifts come from the same Spirit, and all alike contribute to the well-being of the Church. But love (1 Corinthians 13) surpasses them all; without it they are of no avail. Of these gifts, prophecy (i.e. inspired preaching, revelation of God's will) is better than tongues because it builds up the Church, and produces a better effect upon unbelievers (1 Corinthians 14). But the exercise of both gifts must be so regulated that all things may be done, (a) 'to edifying'; (6) 'decently and in order.'
(e) Spiritual Gifts
(i) Their Nature and Relations
1-3. The test of the Spirit's presence is the confession of Jesus as the Lord. It would seem that some members of the Church, carried away by their excitement when speaking in the congregation under the power of the Spirit, as they said, had called Jesus accursed, as if they had been unbelievers. No such utterance, says the Apostle, can proceed from any one who speaks by the Spirit.
2. Gentiles] and so ignorant of all spiritual gifts, and requiring guidance now.
3. Wherefore] i.e. because these gifts differ from any experience you had when heathens. Calleth Jesus accursed] RV 'saith, Jesus is anathema,' as unbelieving Jews would say. Jesus is the Lord] cp. Rom_10:9 (RV). This sincere confession is the essence of Christianity, and proves the presence of the Holy Spirit, the possession of a gift from Him. For a similar test cp. 1Jn_2:1-3. Prof. Stevens paraphrases thus: 'The very first thing to be understood is that the confession of Jesus Christ as Lord is the keynote of all inspired speech. The primary test of the Spirit's inspiration is: Do you acknowledge the Lordship of Christ?'
4-11. There are many gifts, but all are bestowed by one Spirit.
4, 5, 6. Spirit.. Lord.. God] The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is implied here. Administrations] RV 'ministrations'; ways in which the Lord is served. Operations] RV 'workings.' Which worketh all in all] i.e. who is the author and instigator of all these activities in all who possess them.
7. The gift by which the Spirit manifests His presence is given to each for the common good of all.
9. Faith] i.e. (probably) a great wonder-working faith (1Co_13:2; Heb_11:33).
10. Prophecy] i.e. inspired utterance of God's mind; not only 'foretelling,'but 'forth-telling': see on 1Co_14:1; Discerning of spirits] power to recognise whether a man were a true or a false prophet. Tongues.. interpretation] cp. intro. to chapter
11. As he will] Notice the personality and the freedom of the Spirit.
12-31. The Church is like the human body. It consists of many members, with different functions, but all intended to promote the good of the whole. Thus there is no room for selfish display, envy of others' gifts, contempt of one's own: cp. Rom_12:4-5; Eph_4:15-16 and the Roman fable of the belly and the members.
12, 13. Stevens paraphrases thus: 'The unity of those who possess the various gifts is analogous to the unity of the body; they are all one in Christ. Their baptism into Christ signifies their unity in Him, whatever their nationality or social condition.'
12. Are] i.e. constitute one body. So also is Christ] Christ is regarded here as the personality whose body is the Church. He is so closely connected with the Church that He is almost identified with it. He infuses His Spirit into it, and His Presence interpenetrates it. Every Christian is a member of Christ's body—head, hand, foot, eye, ear, or some other equally essential member.
13. Into one body] i.e. so as to become one body: cp. Eph_4:4. Have been all made to drink into (RV 'of') one Spirit] or, perhaps, 'been watered with one Spirit.' He has poured His gifts into us all.
15. A warning against being envious of others' gifts, negligent of our own. Is it therefore not of the body?] RV 'it is not therefore not of the body'; it does not on this account cease to belong to it.
17f. If the whole body] Just as the differences of powers and functions are a great advantage to the body, so the existence of different gifts benefits the Church. The position of each individual, his possession of this or that gift, has been ordered by God.
21. I have no need of thee] a rebuke to those who despised those not possessing their gifts.
23. Bestow more abundant honour] i.e. by clothing them.
24. No need] of clothing.
Tempered.. together] wrought all into harmony. Given more abundant honour] by implanting in men the instinct of 1Co_12:23.
25. No schism] contrast 1Co_1:10; 1Co_11:18, where see note.
26. All the members suffer with it] What is true of the human body, through the nervous connexion of all. its parts, should be true of the Church: cp. Rom_12:5.
27-31. Application. The various offices and functions in the Church, Christ's Body. These are by God's assignment; all do not possess the same gift.
27. Ye are the body of Christ] true of individual Churches, as here; and of the Church universal (Eph_1:23).
Members in particular] i.e. each in his place; RV 'severally members thereof.'
28. First apostles, etc.] cp. similar list, Eph_4:11. It is a list not so much of distinct offices as of functions and gifts, some of which may be combined in the same man. St. Paul was Apostle, prophet, teacher (Act_13:1), worked miracles, and spoke with tongues (1Co_14:18).
Apostles] commissioned witnesses of Christ's Resurrection, founders or organisers of Churches. Prophets] cp. 1Co_12:10, inspired revealers of God's mind. Teachers] who gave instruction regarding the faith and the bearing of religion upon life and conduct (1Co_12:8).
Helps] including the original work of deacons, ministration to the poor and sick.
Governments] i.e. powers of organisation and administration, including much of the work of presbyters. Tongues] are perhaps put last, because overvalued at Corinth.
30. Interpret] i.e. the tongues (1Co_12:10).
31. Covet (RV 'desire') earnestly the best (RV 'greater') gifts] The lowest have their place, but it is right to aim at possessing the higher. And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way] RV 'a still more excellent way show I unto you,' i.e. in which to possess and use them. To have them is good, but it is still more important to use them in a spirit of love.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain [To avoid confusion in our classification of the subjects…
[To avoid confusion in our classification of the subjects handled, we have called this section a response, but it is such as to information received, rather than as to questions asked. In the early church the Spirit of God, fulfilling the predictions of prophecy ( Joe_2:28 ff.; Act_2:17-21 ), and the promise of the Lord ( Mar_16:17-18 ; Act_8:7 ), beginning on the day of Pentecost, endowed certain members with miraculous gifts. These were needful in that day: 1. They aided the evangelists and missionaries to propagate the faith in new fields with greater speed. 2. They assured weak converts that God was indeed in that church for which they had abandoned their former religions. 3. They edified the church, and gave it that body of perfect revealed truth which has been preserved and made permanent in the New Testament. But as different gifts were bestowed on different individuals, some of them became a source of pride and envy. Some who had showy gifts made a boastful display of them, and thus vaunted themselves as superior to those who had powers of a less dazzling nature; and those who had the humbler gifts envied the more richly endowed. To correct all this, Paul wrote the three chapters which follow.] Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant .
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain spiritual gifts
spiritual gifts
The word pneumatika, lit. "spirituals," i.e. matters of or from the Holy Spirit, gives the key to Chapters 12, 13, 14. Chapter 12. concerns the Spirit in relation to the body of Christ. This relation is twofold:
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(1) The baptism with the Spirit forms the body by uniting believers to Christ the risen and glorified Head, and to each other (1Co 12:12; 1Co 12:13). The symbol of the body thus formed is the natural, human body (1Co 12:12), and all the analogies are freely used (1Co 12:14-26).
(2) To each believer is given a spiritual enablement and capacity for specific service. No believer is destitute of such gift (1Co 12:7; 1Co 12:11; 1Co 12:27), but in their distribution the Spirit acts in free sovereignty (1Co 12:11). There is no room for self-choosing, and Christian service is simply the ministry of such gift as the individual may have received (cf) Rom 12:4-8. The gifts are diverse (1Co 12:6; 1Co 12:8-10; 1Co 12:28-30), but all are equally honourable because bestowed by the same Spirit, administered under the same Lord, and energized by the same God.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 2. The Body and the Members of the Body
2. The Body and the Members of the Body
CHAPTER 12
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1. Concerning spiritual manifestations and diversities of gifts. (1Co 12:1-11.)
2. The Body and its members. (1Co 12:12-31.)
In this interesting, important chapter, spiritual manifestations are first mentioned. The church is the body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in the church. And first the distinctive mark of the Spirit is stated. As heathen they had been under the control of evil spirits, who had deluded them with idolatrous worship. And these evil spirits were still active, creeping in among Christians, pretending to be the Spirit of God and counterfeiting His manifestations. It was so then and it is so now. Seducing spirits and doctrines of demons are in fullest evidence in the professing church. Satan transforms himself into an angel of light; he imitates and produces certain manifestations, as he must have done among the Corinthians; but Satan never owns Jesus as Lord. The work of the Holy Spirit is to exalt the Lord Jesus. The Spirit does not even speak of Himself, but always glorifies Christ, giving Him the right place. The evil spirits do the opposite; they degrade Him and attempt to rob Him of His glory. This they do through evil doctrines. It amounts to the same as saying “anathema” (curse) “Jesus” as Jews and Gentiles did in rejecting Jesus as Lord. No man speaking by the Spirit of God would say that. And all who own Him as Lord do so by the bidding and the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
“If the highest honor is not freely and sincerely given to the name of Jesus, its only other place is utter degradation. Between ‘anathema’ and ‘Lord’ there is no other place which it can justly occupy. The wide space which seems morally to intervene between a living and adoring faith and a deliberate and positive denial of that name, is ignored by the Spirit, in His estimate of human character, as a nullity and a deception. With Him men are either believers or unbelievers, confessors or deniers of the Lord. Now, by the Apostle’s testimony, to confess Him truly is impossible but by the Holy Ghost.”--Pridham.
The Holy Spirit, the divine Person, is on earth and manifests His power in the body of Christ, the church. The Lord Jesus having accomplished redemption, believers on His name are ransomed and cleansed by His blood, and united to Him, as His body, and the Holy Spirit dwells in each member of this body. It is through the Spirit that communion with the Head is realized and maintained. In His gifts the presence of the Spirit of God is therefore manifested in the members of the body. This is now more fully treated in this chapter. In (1Co 12:4-6 we hear of the Spirit, the Lord, and God; the same Spirit--the same Lord, and the same God. Yet there is not a division into three classes of gifts, but the same thing is seen in three relations. The diversities of gifts are by the same Spirit; through Him they are bestowed. These gifts are in relation to the Lord; they are to be used in ministries, that is, in service for the Lord, under whom and for whose glory these gifts are to be used. And the whole operations are of God, who worketh all in all. All this is of course confined to the members of the body of Christ.
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man (a true believer) for profit.” The gift bestowed upon one member is for the whole body, all are to profit by it. The possession of a gift makes the believer a debtor to the other members of Christ. Nine gifts by the same Spirit are mentioned. They are the following: The Word of Wisdom; the Word of Knowledge; Faith; the gift of Healing; the Working of Miracles; Prophecy; Discerning of spirits; tongues and interpretations of tongues.
It will be seen that the miraculous sign-gifts hold a secondary place, the last being speaking in tongues and their interpretations. The word of Wisdom stands at the head of these gifts and is followed by the word of Knowledge. They stand for the gifts to understand the deep things of God and to impart them unto others. It means a spiritual apprehension of the truth of God in all its phases and the power to communicate this truth to others. The gift of faith is a special endowment of confidence in God and His promises, which enables the possessor to lay hold on God and accomplish great things. All believers have faith and live by faith. The gift of healing and the working of miracles, were sign-gifts for the inauguration of the Christian dispensation. There is no intimation that these miraculous gifts were to continue in the church throughout this age.
In Ephesians, the highest revelation concerning the body of Christ, the permanent gifts for the edifying of the body are mentioned, but gifts of healing, working miracles or speaking in tongues are omitted. Nor is there a promise in the Word that those extraordinary gifts are to be restored by the Spirit of God to the church before the Lord comes for His saints. Signs and miracles will take place at the close of this age, but they are the lying things of Satan (2Th 2:1-17). Anything which claims to be a restoration of miraculous gifts, as it is the case among certain sects, must be looked upon with grave suspicion. Besides prophecy and the discerning of spirits (trying the spirits whether they are of God) the gift of tongues and their interpretation are mentioned. As we find later the Corinthians, in their bad spiritual state, esteemed the gift of tongues the highest; the Spirit of God, however, gives to it an inferior place. They were almost destitute of the exercise of the highest gift of wisdom and knowledge and magnified, what was for outward demonstration, because it exalted themselves.
The exercise of the gift of healing and similar gifts was never discretional. They were manifested only in their fitting season, and could only work effectually by the immediate will of God. Power is His, and always in His hands. If Trophimus was sick, the wish of Paul could not restore him. Yet the believer can come to the Lord in prayer and claim his power. Our refuge in time of need must be sought, not in God’s gifts, but in the faithfulness of the Giver.
Of much importance is (1Co 12:13: “For in one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” This refers to the formation of the body. The baptism mentioned in this verse is not water-baptism. Water baptism does not save nor can this ordinance put any one as a member into the true church, the one body. The baptism is the baptism of the Spirit. It took place on the day of Pentecost. On that day the Spirit was poured out and while He filled every believer, He also united them into one body. Then the body of Christ was formed once for all by this baptism. Since that day whenever a sinner trusts in Christ he is at once joined to that body and shares in the one Spirit. Many Christians speak of repeated baptisms by the Spirit and refer to certain experiences as being new baptisms. In the light of this verse all this is incorrect. Scripture knows only one baptism. And all believers drink of one Spirit; they are all made partakers of one and the same Spirit.
And this body which was called into existence by the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is not one member, but many. There are many members, yet but one body. And the different members in that body are dependent the one on the other, and have need of each other, just as it is in the human body. And God hath set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him. Each member has his own place with a gift, a function, which is suitable for it. Nothing in this body is left to man himself. It is His Church and God orders the place of each and of all in that body. Therefore, self-choosing is excluded. How all this is marred, if not wholly forgotten, in the professing church, is only too evident. The conditions today, the divisions in the body, the false doctrines and unscriptural practices throughout Christendom, are plainly the result of having set aside the truth concerning the one body.
And those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary. “And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our comely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need; but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.” As it is in the human body, so also is it in the body of Christ. There was to be no self-exaltation, as it undoubtedly was among the Corinthians on account of the gifts which they had so abundantly, especially the sign-gifts. They looked down upon other members who were less prominent. And this was responsible for the threatening division in the body. The blessed injunction is that the members should have the same care one for another, then there would be no schism in the body.
If one member suffers, all suffer, because they are in one body indwelt and united by the same Spirit; and if one member be honored, all rejoice with it. And this body is the body of Christ; He is the head of the body and wants to manifest Himself through His body. This is the church collectively, but the same are the members severally. The order of how God has bestowed gifts follows ((1Co 12:28). Again the gift of tongues, in which the Corinthians abounded, on account of which grave disorders and disturbances had come in, is put last.
“And the Corinthians then, as others of late, had to hear, whether they heeded or not, that those striking displays of power in which they found their childish surprise and delight, like the world without, were not the highest, that there were gifts relatively first and second and third, the last named being the very one they had been abusing to no small disorder and hindrance of edification in the assembly.”
(1Co 12:29-30 show another important principle. All cannot be apostles, prophets, leaders, workers of miracles, etc. God does not bestow all these different gifts upon one individual. They are distributed as it pleases Him, to each member as He sees fit. Ministry in the body of Christ is the exercise of a gift. The Corinthians in their puffed up condition had a selfish ambition to have all these gifts concentrated in every member.
“The Corinthians’ folly was not greater in wishing all the gifts to be in each and all the saints, than the modern theory of arrogating all, as far as public ministration goes, to a single official. The one was ignorant vanity before the truth was fully revealed in a written form; the other is more guilty presumption in presence of the acknowledged word of God, which condemns every departure from His principles, and the great fact of the one body with its many members, wherein the Holy Spirit works to glorify the Lord Jesus” (W. Kelly).
He tells them to covet earnestly the best gifts and he would show unto them a more excellent way. This more excellent way is the way of love of which we hear in the next chapter.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Of the Use and Purpose of Spiritual Gifts.
Of the Use and Purpose of Spiritual Gifts.
All spiritual gifts from God:
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v. 1. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant
v. 2. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
v. 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost.
v. 4. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
v. 5. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
v. 6. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
Other matters might be postponed until the apostle would be able to carry out his plan of visiting Corinth, but the subject broached by him in this section must be attended to at once: But about spiritual things, that is, gifts or powers, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. He wanted to teach the proper use of spiritual gifts, just as he had given them the right information about the celebration of the Lord’s Supper; for there was a certain amount of danger connected with these gifts, since they were, generally speaking, supernatural phenomena proceeding from the Spirit and belonging within His sphere. And in order to put his readers into the right relation to the admonition which he is about to make, and to keep them in the proper state of humiliation as to their absolute lack of merit in the acceptance of these gifts, he reminds them of their former heathen state: You know that Gentiles you once were, being carried away to the voiceless idols, as you were led. Two thoughts are here brought out, namely, that heathenism is an estrangement from the true God, and that it is a slavery of the lowest kind. To be led away to the worship of idols, whom the apostle characterizes as dumb, voiceless, Psa 115:5; Psa 135:16, marks the entire Gentile world. The Gentiles are carried off to this foolish, futile worship; their priests are very well aware of the fact that the claims which they advance are without foundation; but they keep the people in superstitious slavery. At the nod of their priests the ignorant heathen bowed down in worship to their dead idols, whose dumbness was a part of their nothingness, and who never returned an answer, no matter how urgent the supplication. The knowledge of their former state was such as always to make the grace of God stand out the more wonderfully by contrast in their minds.
But the Corinthians did not yet understand just how the Spirit of God did His work in their hearts, how He exerted His power. So Paul proceeds to instruct them. Therefore, in order that they may form a correct judgment of the Spirit’s operations and gifts, he informs them that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says: Jesus is accursed; and no one can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit. The spirits of falsehood and of truth were battling together at Corinth, and the battle-cry of either party is here recorded. That which was accursed or anathema, in the sense as used by the Jews, was vowed to God for destruction as under His curse. To say that anyone or anything was anathema was to pronounce the oath of execration upon the person or thing in question. The fanatic Jews made this their cry in their incessant warfare against the Christian religion, and the catchy expression was apt to be taken up by Gentile mobs when any demonstration against the Christians was set in motion. It was certain, then, from the outset that no one using this form of blasphemy could be considered as speaking by the Spirit of God; no matter what his claim in that respect, the fact remained that such a blasphemer was and must remain outside of the pale of Christendom until he changed entirely. The remark of Luther at this point is also well worth considering: "For what he here calls ’cursing Jesus’ is not only this, that a man publicly blasphemes and curses the name or person of Christ, as the godless Jews or heathen did,... but [this is done also] when any one among the Christians praises the Holy Ghost, and yet does not preach Christ correctly as the Foundation of our salvation, but neglects this and rejects it in favor of something else, with the pretext that it is derived from the Holy Ghost and is much better and more necessary than the common doctrine of the Gospel. " On the other hand, the sincere confession, Jesus is Lord, is a product of true faith, and therefore cannot be made out of any man’s reason and strength. See 1Jn 4:2 ff. It is an acknowledgment of Christ with the full consciousness of His work of redemption, as wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost. But since this public confession is the chief work of the Christian pastors, it follows that these words of the apostle apply to them with unusual force. "To call Jesus the Lord is to confess oneself His servant and to seek His honor alone, as one sent by Him or having His Word and command. For he speaks here principally of the office which preaches of Christ and brings His command. Where this ministry is in use and directs men to Christ (as to the Lord), that surely is the preaching of the Holy Ghost. Thus also this cannot be done without the Holy Ghost, that every Christian in his work or station with all seriousness call Christ his Lord, that is, conclude with certainty that he is serving Him therein."
This unity of faith and confession now bears rich fruit in "distributions of grace-gifts, services, workings": But there are distributions, diversities, varieties of gifts, yet the same Spirit; and there are varieties of ministries, yet the same Lord; and there are varieties of effects, yet the same God that works, that brings about, all in all. Here the apostle contrasts the dumb idols of the heathen with the almighty, Triune God of the Christians, the former being unable either to speak or to exert any power, the latter revealing Himself with almighty power in the Church and in the congregation of the saints. The Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father are incessantly and graciously active in the edification of the Church by means of the talents imparted to the individual Christians. All the eminent endowments, qualifications, capabilities of Christians, and peculiar to their state as Christians, whether they be those of healing, of miracles, of tongues, of prophesying, of rich Bible exposition, of edifying application of the Word, are bestowed by the Holy Ghost, of the one Spirit. And these wonderful gifts of grace are applied in the Church in the various offices and ministries, in the manifold functions and spheres of labor, Eph 4:12, but always under the direction of the one Lord, Jesus Christ, the King of the Church, and rendered to Him. It is in His interest that the Christians should use their gifts, every one without exception as Christ has dealt out to him; for only if the various gifts, in the manifold offices and stations, be used in the service of the one Lord, will the purpose of the Lord in bestowing the gifts be realized. There are thus finally various effects of the Christians’ labors, commensurate with their gifts and their position of service; but it is the one God who constantly brings about all that is necessary for the benefit of His Church, and to all true Christians He deals out from His store of gifts without ceasing. Thus the Triune God is the Fountain of all grace and power in the Church, the immediate Dispenser of every good and perfect gift. "The Spirit kindles the fire of the gifts of edification, the Son directs the rays of the ministries of edification, the Father creates the warmth of the powers of edification: in undivided essence the Triune God rules His Church; what an outrage to cause divisions in its midst!"
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul lets them know that God has given special gifts to believers. These gifts are to help the body of believers.
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I do not want you to be uninformed
This can be stated as a positive. AT: "I want you to know" (See: Double Negatives)
you were led astray to idols who could not speak, in whatever ways you were led by them
Here "led astray" is a metaphor for being persuaded to do something wrong. Being led astray to idols represents being wrongly persuaded to worship idols. The phrases "were led astray" and "you were led by them" can be stated in active form. AT: "you were persuaded in some way to worship idols who cannot speak" or "you believed lies somehow and so you worshiped idols who cannot speak" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
no one who speaks by the Spirit of God can say
Possible meanings are 1) "no Christian who has the Spirit of God in him can say" or 2) "no one who is prophesying by the power of the Spirit of God can say."
Jesus is accursed
"God will punish Jesus" or "God will make Jesus suffer"
translationWords
spirit
gift
know
pagan
astray
false god
Holy Spirit
Jesus
lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 12:1–14:40 The church at Corinth had placed too much…
12:1–14:40 The church at Corinth had placed too much emphasis on the gift of tongues (see 14:1-25, 27; cp. the lists in 12:8-10, 28, where Paul places tongues last), so Paul gives corrective advice regarding the value and use of spiritual gifts.
12:1-3 Paul introduces the topic, emphasizing the active presence of the Holy Spirit in believers.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.