Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. I Corinthians 14:12 We all have received some teaching on this subject of spiritual matters in I Corinthians. I will be covering it again, but from a different viewpoint. That doesn t make me right and others wrong, because the Bible is so deep and has so many facets, one cannot possibly teach everything in one teaching. The Word of God is like a gem which flashes different sparkles of light as we change our perspective. We will be looking at this section from an intermediate standpoint, not from a beginner s viewpoint. I Corinthians 12:1-2 God wants us to know about these things in particular. The Corinthians used to worship the Greek pantheon of Gods. That explains the repetition of the same in this section. The Greek word for Spiritual gifts is pneumatikos which means spiritual matters. Not all the things discussed here are going to be gifts. I Corinthians 12:3 Speaking by the spirit of God The phrase in the spirit is the key to understanding this verse. If you do a phrase study of in the spirit throughout the New Testament, you ll see that it means to do something by means of one of the manifestations of holy spirit. 25 So I Corinthians 12:3 must be referring to a speaking manifestation, that is, speaking in tongues. For example: Luke 2:26,27 Luke 4:1 Mark 12:36 John 4:23,24 I Corinthians 14:2 Revelation 1:10 Jude 20 Ephesians 6:18 Word of knowledge Word of wisdom and word of knowledge Word of knowledge The worship manifestations Speaking in tongues Word of knowledge Speaking in tongues Speaking in tongues I also must digress for a moment to discuss Ephesians 6:18 where it says praying with all prayer that is that Greek idiom: all the kinds of prayer. 25 This is the actual prepositional phrase in the spirit in the Greek text, not just a translation of the dative case which also could be rendered in the spirit. See also Matthew 12:28; 22:43; Mark 2:8; 12:36; Luke 1:17; Romans 9:1; 14:17; 15:16, 19; I Corinthians 6:11; 12:3,8,9; Ephesians 6:18; Revelation 21:10 25
Matthew 6:9-13 The Lord s Prayer lists the categories. 26 Then it says watching thereunto with all perseverance. That s how to do intercession. We watch thereunto what we are praying for, claiming a positive mind picture. So if you let your mind wander, it reverts back to prayer and praise. How come you don t fall asleep when you utilize speaking in tongues as the refreshing like Isaiah 28:11,12 says? How come you don t get invigorated when you are claiming it for the rest? Because speaking in tongues operates according to free will. It has all those functions. You freely choose which one you want to operate. Jude 20 also says that speaking in tongues edifies us. Actually all the manifestations edify. But we cannot do all the manifestations all the time. The only one that you can do all the time is tongues. So it is the foundational exercise that gives us the most reps. I Corinthians 12:3 Why does he need to tell us this unless the language is not known? I Corinthians 12:4-7 The same is repeated because of the Greek pantheon. Each god did a different manifestation. The true God gives all. new birth Gifts charisma gifts of grace { gift ministries gifts of healings Administrations diakonia horizontal services our adeptnesses: ministries Operations energ!ma energizings the different effects produced I Corinthians 12:7 is not talking about gifts. It is talking about manifestations. To show how gifts, ministries, energizations, and manifestations differ from one another could be a complex task. But the connective words easily guide us through it. We need to understand what is being contrasted as indicated by the word, but. And there are repetitions of the words, same and diversities, which clearly help to mark out the contrasts. 26 Prayers of praise, for the needs of the ministry, prayers of power (for ministering), for daily needs, for forgiveness, to escape temptation, for protection from evil. We can do most of these via speaking in tongues except the 5 th one, prayers for forgiveness, because I John 1:9 says we have to confess, homologe!, which is a confession from the heart (which must be in your own language ). 26
Connective words in I Corinthians 12:4-11 4 in addition Now there are diversities of gifts, in contrast but the same Spirit. 5 in addition and there are differences of administrations, in contrast but the same Lord. 6 in addition and there are diversities of operations, in contrast but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 7 in contrast But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8 In explanation for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another {divers} kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 in contrast but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally (his own) as he will. Chart #3 The buts in verses 4-6 are contrasting differences with the same. What is the but in verse 7 contrasting? The manifestations with the other spiritual matters, gifts, ministries, and energizations. How do they differ? Manifestations are given to every man, but the others are not given to every man for they have differences. The connective word, but, tells us to look for a contrast and the repetition of the word differences calls our attention to what is being contrasted. What is the but in verse 11 contrasting? The gifts, ministries, and energizations are as God wills, but the manifestations are as man wills. This makes it so clear! God energizes all the spiritual matters, but men by their free will decide if they will work the manifestations. They were given all of them for their profit. I Corinthians 12:12-27 A double analogy 27 27 The Double Analogy in I Corinthians 12:12-27, Nessle, Jon, (a position paper for the 82-83 Corps night teachings), 1983 and Cummins, Walter, The Way Magazine, Jan-Feb 1984. 27
Now we are going to illustrate the things of the spirit by means of two analogies to the human body. In the first, the body is like the manifestations as a group, in the second it is like the body of Christ. We can read this passage both ways, once from each standpoint. Then as we compare the viewpoints we learn more about each. There is a similar double analogy in Ephesians 5:23-27. How is a man supposed to love his wife? As Christ loved the Church. How did Christ love the Church? As a man loves his wife This double analogy is set up by the words so also is Christ and verse 13. Reading on from verse 11 it follows that from one standpoint the body is the holy spirit package that believers receive and the members are the individual manifestations working interdependently as the believers manifest them. From the other standpoint indicated by so also is Christ the body is the body of Christ and the members are the believers manifesting their long-suits and horizontal ministries. This body is likewise interdependent. I Corinthians 12:12-17 Interdependence, according to Webster s dictionary means: dependent on each other or one another; mutually dependent. I Corinthians 12:18-20 God set the members as it pleased Him. From the Body of Christ standpoint, how do we get set in our positions in the body? We must please God. How do we please Him? Hebrews 11:6 We please God by believing. So if you want to get to your place in the body, start acting upon your believing. Get moving, then just like Paul was set in his place by the effectual working of God s power, in Ephesians 3, you ll get set in the body where you should be. I Corinthians 12:21-23 The seemingly feeble parts are more necessary. If we were all leaders, who would we lead? If we were all followers, who would we follow? The eye manifestations, those which see by revelation, need the power manifestations, the hands, so they can be carried out and vice versa. The head people, the intellectual ones who know lots of the Word, need the feet people, those who are especially adept at practical application, to keep them in balance and vice versa. God balances everything out. The word honor in verse 23 is a key, because that is a rewards word. The rewards at the gathering together are going to be the great equalizer. So if anyone apparently gets more in this life, God will reward all the faithful no matter what their positions in the next and everything will balance out. I Corinthians 12:24-26 Tempered the body together God gives more abundant honor to the parts that apparently lack. And then there is that beautiful word tempered, which means to mix. There are two Greek words for mix, 28
mignumi, to mix like salt and pepper and sunkerannumi, to compound like hydrogen and oxygen to make water. When things are mixed, they retain their properties, but when they are compounded something totally new results. When we each do our part in the body what results is totally new and is beyond the mere sum of our parts! Honor is a rewards word. The rewards in the gathering together are the great equalizer. If you don t get the credit you deserve for your work now, you ll get it in the future. We don t need to be position oriented; we can be function minded. Who cares, who s at what position, that doesn t matter. We can all grow and produce fruit. I Corinthians 12:27 I Corinthians 12:28-30 This verse summarizes and moves on Long-suits in the Body The Ministries in I Corinthians 12:28-30 28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. 29 {Are} all apostles? {are} all prophets? {are} all teachers? {are} all workers of miracles? 30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? Chart #4 This chart shows the parallel structure of these verses. The underlined parts show how it alternates between ministries and manifestations. Because of this structure plus the leadin from verse 27, I am inclined to think that this section is emphasizing the functions in the body more than manifestations. That is, there are apostles, prophets and teachers, obviously ministries, and later helps and governments, again ministries. But I think that the key word is kinds in verse 28 which in the Greek means species. (This is where I got my idea for the term spiritual genetics. ) In other words, there are believers in the body whose long-suit is speaking in tongues. It is their outstanding characteristic, their species, their function. When they intercede or interpret, it s virtuoso. Similarly there are those who have adeptness in believing for miracles or ministering healing. The helps and governments are the only ministries not repeated. Interpretation of tongues is not repeated either, but from what we know about speaking in tongues, we know that it should always be interpreted when in public, so I believe that it is implied in verse 28 29
I Corinthians 12:31 The two ways of getting what is needed We can earnestly desire the best gifts. What does it mean by that? We just covered just a few verses earlier that the weaker members are more necessary and the uncomely parts versus the comely. So how could it now talk about best gifts? I think that the best gifts here are whatever gift is needed at the time. How do we become a healer when healing is needed? There are two ways: We can earnestly desire to be energized in that way or we can walk in love as I Corinthians 13 says. I Corinthians 13:1-3 The I verses - I or my occurs in Greek 15 times. (No ego.) I Corinthians 13:4-7 Think of these with reference to the body and to manifestations I Corinthians 13 is in a context. We must understand that to overcome the decoupage effect which inclines believers to laud these verses independent of their context. For example, it says, charity, agap!, envieth not. In this context that means that we are not walking in love if we envy someone else s horizontal ministry or adeptness at working a manifestation. We can earnestly desire it, but to take that desire further into envy is out of bounds. Similarly, vaunteth not itself applied in this context means that we are not to make our functions out to be more than they really are. Instead, our fruits should commend us, not our mouths. Don t tell us about what class you ve had. Show us your class! This contextual inference makes this section ring anew with deeper insight! It says that the love of God suffereth long. I think that is fantastic in light of the context. Why? God may give a leader a glimpse of what potential is in a particular believer, or He may do that for a parent for their child. So then what should be done with that little bit of the word of knowledge? It requires a faithful use of the manifestation of believing to ultimately bring it to pass. The same is true for teachers. God gives a little glimmer of light and then it is up to the teacher to develop it, see its practical application and then teach and encourage all the way through to fruition. That will take lots of longsuffering, because along the way we ll need to deal with people s shortcomings. If you just blow up because you re so impatient and violate free will by intimidating and commanding instead of encouraging and nurturing, you ll get some results. But they ll be counterfeit because even if what you were promoting is really true, if you conform people to it instead of letting them transform themselves, it will be false and it will not last. This is also true for ye who are spiritual in Galatians 6:1. If we are going to successfully restore another believer we cannot be tempted by shortcuts. We must do it right! In light of the body and the manifestations, those who love will not be puffed up because they have knowledge, position, or because they have ability. That s about the quickest way to kill anything genuine that I know of. It is great that we have been blessed with ability or have risen to some position, but we must remember who gave it to us. We weren t so wonderful that we deserved it, else we wouldn t have needed a savior If you are so spectacular, my advice is serve diligently, wade in and get your hands dirty, take your ministry to those who really need it, don t sequester yourself in an ivory tower and surround yourself with yes men. Jesus didn t. He rose up 12 apostles and it wasn t easy, but he loved them unto the end. 30
The words thinketh no evil also have been misunderstood and warped into a ridiculous practice where anyone who speaks anything negative is often muzzled. The renewed mind is not a form of denial. The word thinketh is logizomai which means to think everything through logically, weighing both the pro and con and then coming to a logical conclusion. So in order to come to a proper conclusion one must consider both negatives and positives. The issue is not that any negatives are brought up, but that after all has been considered, that the decision one makes should not be evil! I Corinthians 13:8-13 The love of God never fails. It is unconditional. The when-now-then repetition in these verses clarifies that the manifestations will be ours until they are replaced by something greater. That clearly will be at the Gathering Together when we will see him face to face and know even as we re known. Just like the body of Christ flourishes in a climate of genuine love, the manifestations work best in the same. If we walk in love in the body and need a healer, a healer will arise from our midst. If we need a miracle, one who will work it will arise. It may not be someone who has that long-suit, but if we walk in love, God will somehow energize it and after all is said and done and we look back, we ll see that the result was beyond the mere sum of our parts! We ll all rejoice together as the one member is honored, and we ll all be honored with them. We all will know and they ll know too that it was not possible without all of us working together. There is faith, and there is hope and there is the love of God. All three are majestic. All three are essential. All three are life giving, activating and motivating. But the super-preeminent-overaboundingly-precious thing, the greatest of all is love. And we have a wellspring of it within us! At this time if you have 3 or more manifesting believers, you may have the Recievers Session number 2 - see the Appendix: Receivers Session Guide for details. 31