Spiritual Gifts

Explain the chapter

Chapters 12 and 14 are some of our most beloved passages on the gifts of the Spirit. Nestled between the two, and rightly so, chapter 13 gives a righteous portrayal of love and reminds the church to temper everything they do, especially spiritual gifts, with love.

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:

(1) The baptism with the Spirit forms the body by uniting believers to Christ the risen and glorified Head, and to each other (1Cor 12:12,13). The symbol of the body thus formed is the natural, human body (1Cor 12:12), and all the analogies are freely used (1Cor 12:14-26).

(2) To each believer is given a spiritual enablement and capacity for specific service. No believer is destitute of such gift (1Cor 12:7,11,27), but in their distribution the Spirit acts in free sovereignty (1Cor 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 (1Cor 12:6,8-10,28-30), but all are equally honourable because bestowed by the same Spirit, administered under the same Lord, and energized by the same God.

Exegetes the text

Spiritual gifts were extraordinary powers bestowed in the first ages, to convince unbelievers, and to spread the gospel. Gifts and graces greatly differ. Both were freely given of God. But where grace is given, it is for the salvation of those who have it. Gifts are for the advantage and salvation of others; and there may be great gifts where there is no grace. The extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were chiefly exercised in the public assemblies, where the Corinthians seem to have made displays of them, wanting in the spirit of piety, and of Christian love. While heathens, they had not been influenced by the Spirit of Christ. No man can call Christ Lord, with believing dependence upon him, unless that faith is wrought by the Holy Ghost. No man could believe with his heart, or prove by a miracle, that Jesus was Christ, unless by the Holy Ghost. There are various gifts, and various offices to perform, but all proceed from one God, one Lord, one Spirit; that is, from the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the origin of all spiritual blessings. No man has them merely for himself. The more he profits others, the more will they turn to his own account. The gifts mentioned appear to mean exact understanding, and uttering the doctrines of the Christian religion; the knowledge of mysteries, and skill to give advice and counsel. Also the gift of healing the sick, the working of miracles, and to explain Scripture by a peculiar gift of the Spirit, and ability to speak and interpret languages. If we have any knowledge of the truth, or any power to make it known, we must give ...