1 Corinthians 12

1 Corinthians 12:1-31

THE SEVERAL GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT 1 Corinthians 12 THE First Epistle to the Corinthians is a wonderful combination of the greater doctrines of Scripture and plain suggestions for practical living. The better way to study a book is to begin where it begins and end where it ends; but my experience in the study of the First Epistle to the Corinthians has introduced another method. Years ago, the fifteenth chapter of this Epistle riveted my attention and resulted in certain thoughts to be recorded later in this volume. Looking backward, from the standpoint of that study, I saw stretching through the previous chapters of this Book a most fruitful field, and so in study I reversed the Epistle and moved back to the fourteenth, then the thirteenth, and now the twelfth. However, I publish progressively. I want in this chapter to present the twelfth, or, “The Several Gifts of the Spirit”, and later the thirteenth chapter, or, “The Superior Gift of the Holy Spirit”, and so on to the end. It is not difficult to see the relationship that these chapters sustain each to the other: The Several Gifts of the Spirit, The Superior Gift of the Spirit, and The Smallest Gift of the Spirit.In presenting “The Several Gifts of the Spirit” Paul introduces his discussion after this manner:“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. “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” (1 Corinthians 12:1-3). This is a plain reference to the perfect change which had been accomplished in them, turning them from dead idols to the living Christ.In order to the development of that life, His gifts must be bestowed, and in so doing, the Apostle speaks of A Diversity in the Manifestation of the Gifts, A Unity in the Administration of Gifts, and Utility in the Application of the Gifts. IN “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. “And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. “And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). The Holy Ghost is the Author of spiritual gifts. “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; “To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; “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: “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will” (1 Corinthians 12:8-11). If one takes pains to run through the Word he will discover this claim of inspiration everywhere confirmed. The true minister has been made such by the Holy Ghost, hence the injunction, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own Blood” (Acts 20:28). The Evangelist was called and commissioned by the same Spirit. “The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them” (Acts 13:2). One cannot teach except it be “in the Spirit”; nor pray effectively except it be “by the Spirit”; nor sing acceptably except it be “in the Spirit”.Sometimes one says of a successful Christian, “He is a man of many natural abilities”, when the truer explanation would be, “He has received many gifts from the Spirit”.The Holy Ghost bestows gifts for a purpose. “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal”. No parent could ever take more pleasure in witnessing the physical and moral development of his own child than the Holy Ghost has in seeing those begotten of Him “grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord”. This is a logical necessity of the twofold fact that having begotten them He loves them, and their growth is His gladness; and it is also unto the glory of Christ.In the Westminster Catechism the question is asked, “What is the chief end of man?” and answered, “To glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.” But if one asked, “What is the chief end of the Holy Ghost?” the answer is, “To glorify Jesus Christ”. And there is no way in which the Spirit can do that better than by bestowing gifts upon His own, and that such is His mission in the Church is made plain by the promise of Jesus,“Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all Truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. “He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 16:13-14). The Holy Spirit imparts gifts in the execution of a plan. The glorifying of Christ is nothing short of the goal for the Holy Ghost. There are a great many people who are constantly praying for the power of the Spirit, who ought rather to pray for a vision of the plan of the Spirit that they might fall into the place of His appointment, and fill the same. This praying for the bestowment of power upon one when he has no conception of the Divine plan, no plain duties to be instantly performed, is a pointless prayer and can never be answered. The story is told that in a prayer meeting an intelligent and Scripturally instructed deacon listened to a brother crying out in excited language for ‘Tower! Power!” As he went on shouting but the one word, as the reporter put it, “He tore passion to tatters”, and the good deacon could endure no more, and so broke in on the petition, “Tain’t power you need, brother; its idees.” And above all things else does one need to get the Divine idea—the Spirit-framed plan, that his life may be fitted to it; and then, God can and will impart power.The value of Bible study is at this very point.

The more often one looks into the Sacred pages the more clearly will he see that Christ came to accomplish a definite thing, and that every gift of the Spirit looks to that very end. Some one has said: “The near view of things must ever be disappointing.

The pigments are too thick upon the canvas, the grain of the wood is too coarse, the roar of the organ pipes is too great. There seems to be nothing but paint, nothing but wood, nothing but noise. The more distant view gives one a better perspective.” Truly has it been remarked that “Jesus Christ had the long look”. He saw His work as an architect sees a building. The plan stood out before a stone was laid. The photograph of it was before His mind’s eye. Every detail had received careful attention. And when He sees His work he moves grandly toward the definite end of the world’s redemption, hence His statement, “Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God”.UNITY IN “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. “For by 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. “For the body is not one member, but many. “If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? “And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? “If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. “And if they were all one member, where were the body? “But now are they many members, yet but one body. “And 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. “Nay, much more 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 honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. “For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. “Now ye are the Body of Christ, and members in particular. “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” (1 Corinthians 12:12-28). The Spirit of Christ administers the body of Christ—the Church. This is both a natural and supernatural administration. It is natural that the Spirit should administer the body. It is so in the material world! The moment in which a man’s spirit does not administer his physical life, death begins! If a partial paralysis has come upon you so that the foot will not answer to the spirit, it becomes a dead weight; or if the hand will not obey the mandates of the same, it hangs lifeless at one’s side.

It is just possible, then, for the Spirit to administer a part of the body and not all of it; and that is the explanation of the partial success of some Christians and the comparative failure of many churches. A writer says, “Two believers in Jesus sit side by side in the same sanctuary, being members of the same church.

They may dwell in the same house, and eat at the same table, but there is a difference between them. The Spirit of God dwells in both of them. In the one case, however, He occupies only a single chamber, while in the other the whole heart has been opened for His incoming.”The same truth obtains with reference to churches, and that part of the life, whether in the individual or in the church, that is not Spirit-possessed, is paralyzed and becomes not only a dead weight upon the living powers, but oftentimes an utter impediment to progress. There is an ancient Chinese legend which tells of the three great religious teachers of the Celestial Empire holding sorrowful conference in their heavenly abode, looking with profound regret upon the degeneracy of their people, and mourning that their life work seemed such a failure. At last they determined to return to the earth in order to find some one suitable to send forth on their mission. They came in their wanderings upon an old man sitting at a fountain.

He talked to them so wisely and so earnestly of the great concerns which they had at heart, that they unanimously concluded that he was the very man for whom they were seeking. But when they proposed the mission to him he replied, “Only the upper portion of my body is of flesh and blood, the lower part is of stone.

I can talk upon virtue and good works, but I can not rise from my seat to perform any of them.” The illustration applies itself. When Jesus sent by the hand of His servant John, His message to the seven Churches of Asia, He found at Ephesus a folk once famed for good works, but who had fallen away from their first love, and suffering some paralysis of power in consequence; at Pergamos, a company of believers who had held fast His name in spite of many martyrdoms, but who had surrendered to the customs of the world about them, and thereby impeded their progress; and at Thyatira, men and women famed for love and faith and ministry and patience, and above all for many works, but some of whom had been seduced by the false prophetess Jezebel, and surrendered their power in consequence; and at Sardis, a people who had a name to live and were dead. One cannot help wondering what Christ thinks of the membership of His present-day church, and how much of paralysis He beholds in the same. A body that can be perfectly administered by the Spirit is the one of utmost energy and power, and the same truth obtains with reference to the Body of Christ. God forbid that we should be like the man at the fountain, sentient in the head but stone at feet, because the life had not been fully surrendered to the administration of the Spirit.Each member of the body should be subject to His authority. It is a natural and wonderfully suggestive fact that physical disease provides the most perfect illustration of all spiritual distempers.

There is known to modern science one form of sickness which renders the various members of the body independent of each other in their movements, and converts them into apparent rebels against the presiding spirit of man, and that is locomotor ataxia. The result is not only uncertainty of movement but utter confusion.

Unquestionably there is a spiritual locomotor ataxia and it results wherever any member of the Body of Christ refuses to answer to the presidency of the Spirit; and the more the multitude of the members that become thus disobedient, the more torn and distracted becomes “the Church of God”—which is “the Body of Christ”; and the more impossible its religious progress. Years since, I was severely criticised for attributing a schism in a church to Satan’s activity; and yet, to take any other ground would be to charge the Spirit Himself with confusion, which to a Scripture-instructed man is impossible. As physical disease is the devil’s work for destroying the human body, so it is his work even to impede the progress or paralyze the powers of the Church of God. A. J. Gordon never said a truer thing than when he remarked, “Whether the authority of this one ruling sovereign, the Holy Ghost, be recognized or ignored, determines whether the Church shall be an anarchy or a unity; a synagogue of lawless ones, or the temple of the living God.

Would one desire to find the clue to the great apostasy whose dark eclipse now covers two-thirds of nominal Christendom, here it is, the rule and authority of the Holy Spirit ignored in the churches.” The man, therefore, who finds himself unable to join in hearty accord with the majority, ought either to know beyond all question that he is Spirit-led, or else to instantly surrender, that Christ’s Body may be rightfully administered; and the feet not be found fighting against the head; or the ear contending with the eye, for to the Church it is written, “Now ye are the Body of Christ, and members in particular”.The Holy Spirit’s administration insures the cooperation of church members. My neighbor pastor, in an address delivered in this church, used that clear-cut and easily to be comprehended illustration of the ancient galleys, and told how the oarsmen were separated from one another by partitions over which they could not see.

As many as two hundred of them were used to man these great triremes, and no one could see his fellow. But their strokes were in perfect time and in such absolute harmony that they often drove the nose of the vessel into an approaching one with such velocity as to send it crashing through its timbers, cutting it sheer asunder, and driving it to the bottom of the deep. How was this perfect unity of action accomplished? By the director who stood at the rear of the vessel, baton in hand, and every oarsman answered to the time as he beat the same. Being in unison with the director, every stroke fell together, and their cooperation was perfect and their power almost invincible. It is an illustration for the Church of God. Show me one that is Spirit-administered and I will show you one that drives ahead against the enemy; and one that wins constant victories over men.UTILITY OF “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. “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? “Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? “But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet skew I unto you a more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:28-31). These gifts represent God’s grace to the Church.One often marvels how Christ dared indulge such expectations of the little company that formed the embryo Church. The explanation is found in that He knew what the gifts of the Spirit were to be, and how invincible the Church would become through those same gifts. He saw Peter—not a cringing coward, denying with cursing and swearing, but rather after the Spirit had come upon him— a veritable giant in old Jerusalem, a man who would have courage enough to face crowds of criminals and charge them with their bloody deeds, and unction enough to convict them of sin and send them to their knees. He knew the day was just at hand when apostle and prophet, and teacher and miracle worker, and healing, and helps, and governments, and tongues, were each and every one to appear in the Church of God—gifts of Divine grace; and that the world would stand amazed before it, marvel, cringe, confess and be converted!I belong to the company of those who believe that every solitary one of these gifts are the possible possession of the Church of the twentieth century, provided it be a Church of Christ. There is no duplication of the twelve Apostles, but there is a succession in office in the character of men and women who are willing to be “sent” by the Spirit, and equipped of the same Holy One. There is no duplication of a prophet in the form of a foreteller; but there is in the person of the “forth-teller”.

Teachers have characterized all times; miracles have marked every time and made remarkable every church that truly believed God; gifts of healing have, all through the centuries, told the story of true succession—and they are telling it now as never before; “helps, governments and diversities of tongues”, are still bestowed by the grace of God upon those who are willing to pay the price of putting out the world and inviting in the Spirit.There are some people who marvel that these things are so. They know nothing about them.

The explanation is in one of two directions. It is not promised to any man that he shall have all the gifts, and not even any one of them is proffered, except on certain spiritual conditions, up to which not all measure. People wondered why Jenny Lind sang as she did, and marvelled at her wonderful spiritual life, in view of the fact that women so situated are commonly lax in religion, if not lacking in morals. But the explanation is not far to seek. She went upon the stage for a short season and every appearance was a triumph, and a pecuniary reward was piled at her feet; but suddenly she ceased from it all. An English friend who found her on the steps of a bathing machine on the sand, with a Swedish Bible on her lap, looking first at it and then at the glory of the waves, and finally to the far-off glory of the sunset, said to her, “Oh, Madame Goldsmith, how was it that you ever came to abandon the stage when you were having such wonderful success?” “Because”, she answered in a quiet way, “it made me think less of this”, touching the Bible on her knees, “and nothing at all of that”, as she swept her hand over the sea, “or of that”, and she pointed to the glory of the setting sun. “What else could I do?” Ah, she knew the difference between the life of a frivolous existence and a life of plan and power, and she put the first aside that she might enjoy the second; and if we ever come into the enjoyment of the same, it will be by a kindred sacrifice.Not all may be apostles; all may not be prophets; all may not be teachers; all may not be workers of miracles; all may not have the gift of healing; all may not speak with tongues!But, each one can desire earnestly the greater gifts.

God will bestow them according to His own pleasure, and His larger knowledge of how you or I will employ them when once they have been given. I believe that with the coming of the end of this age, every one of the gifts mentioned in this twelfth chapter of Corinthians will flame forth in Christ’s followers.

What is to be yours? What will be mine? This is certainly a practical question, and I am inclined to think an entirely pertinent one. Oh, how we need apostles—men and women willing to be sent. How we need prophets—men and women willing to tell forth what God has done for them. How we need teachers to instruct them in the Scripture! How we need healing when all about us men and women are enduring sickness and dying before their time! How we need interpreters when, on every side, there are men and women making claim to tongues which none can understand!

It is written in the tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet”, but here Grace speaks against Law and permits us to covet the best gifts. Would God we loved Him enough to pay the price of the privilege, that life might be no longer stony and dead, but sentient and active. I know of no words with which to conclude this appeal, that expresses more perfectly my own desire, than those of the great Isaac Watts:“Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, With all thy quickening power, Kindle a flame of sacred love In these cold hearts of ours. “Look! how we grovel here below, Fond of these earthly toys; Our souls can neither fly nor go To reach eternal joys. “In vain we tune our formal songs; In vain we strive to rise; Hosannas languish on our tongues, And our devotion dies. “Dear Lord, and shall we ever live At this poor dying rate, Our love so faint, so cold to thee, And Thine to us so great? “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, With all Thy quickening power; Come, shed abroad a Saviours love, And that shall kindle ours.”