1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
It seems that in the church there may have been people who claimed to be in the Spirit of God yet they would curse the name of Jesus. Paul corrects this by saying that no one in the Spirit of God would say such a thing, neither can no one say that Jesus is Lord unless they have the Holy Spirit within them. Our dependency on knowing God is through God and not through our own effort.
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
Paul makes it clear that although there are different gifts, service, and works to God that are presented amongst the believers, it is the same Holy Spirit that does all these things. Paul probably had to tell them this because of their past in which they worshipped false idols of different gifting. Instead Paul says that God is one, and all these gifts are from the same God not many different gods.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
Paul gives an account of the different types of gifts from the Holy Spirit for the good of the church. Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. The Holy Spirit gives these gifts to each of the believers to whom He chooses to give the gifts to. So not everyone may have the same gifts, some may very well have more than one gift, and its possible that all may have the same gift. It is all dependent on God but the emphasis of this passage is that all these powerful gifts are given by the same Holy Spirit and not many different gods.
Filed under: 1 Corinthians, Apostle Paul, Bible study, Christianity, corinthians, God, Jesus, New testatment, Scripture
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