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1 Corinthians 12:3
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Spiritual Gifts: Unity in Diversity

1 Now aconcerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant:  
2 You know athat you were Gentiles, carried away to these bdumb idols, however you were led.  
3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus1 accursed, and ano one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.  
4 aThere are1 diversities of gifts, but bthe same Spirit.  
5 aThere are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  
6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God awho works all in all.  
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:
8 for to one is given athe word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another bthe word of knowledge through the same Spirit,  
9 ato another faith by the same Spirit, to another bgifts of healings by the same Spirit,  
10 ato another the working of miracles, to another bprophecy, to another cdiscerning of spirits, to another ddifferent kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  
11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, adistributing to each one individually bas He wills.  

Unity and Diversity in One Body

12 For aas the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, bso also is Christ.  
13 For aby one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—bwhether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and chave all been made to drink into one Spirit.  
Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
<< 1 Corinthians 12:2   1 Corinthians 12:4 >>


1 Corinthians 12:3

Wherefore I give you to understand (dio gnwrizw umin). Causative idea (only in Aeschylus in old Greek) in papyri (also in sense of recognize) and N.T., from root gnw in ginwskw, to know.

Speaking in the Spirit of God (en pneumati qeou lalwn). Either sphere or instrumentality. No great distinction here between lalew (utter sounds) and legw (to say).

Jesus is anathema (anaqema Ihsouv). On distinction between anaqema (curse) and anaqhma (offering Luke 21:5) see discussion there. In LXX anaqhma means a thing devoted to God without being redeemed, doomed to destruction (Leviticus 27:28 f.; Joshua 6:17; Joshua 7:12). See I Corinthians 16:22; Galatians 1:8 f.; Romans 9:3. This blasphemous language against Jesus was mainly by the Jews (Acts 13:45; Acts 18:6). It is even possible that Paul had once tried to make Christians say Anaqema Ihsouv (Acts 26:11).

Jesus is Lord (Kuriov Ihsouv). The term Kuriov, as we have seen, is common in the LXX for God. The Romans used it freely for the emperor in the emperor worship. "Most important of all is the early establishment of a polemical parallelism between the cult of Christ and the cult of Caesar in the application of the term Kuriov, 'lord.' The new texts have here furnished quite astonishing revelations" (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 349). Inscriptions, ostraca, papyri apply the term to Roman emperors, particularly to Nero when Paul wrote this very letter (ib., p. 353f.): "One with 'Nero Kurios' quite in the manner of a formula (without article, like the 'Kurios Jesus' in I Corinthians 12:3." "The battle-cries of the spirits of error and of truth contending at Corinth" (Findlay). One is reminded of the demand made by Polycarp that he say Kuriov Caesar and how each time he replied Kuriov Ihsouv. He paid the penalty for his loyalty with his life. Lighthearted men today can say "Lord Jesus" in a flippant or even in an irreverent way, but no Jew or Gentile then said it who did not mean it.




Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing 1 Corinthians 12:3:

Acts 25:26
Romans 9:3
Romans 10:9
1 Corinthians 12:3
1 Corinthians 15:1
1 Corinthians 16:22
Galatians 1:8
Philippians 2:11
James 1:1
James 2:7
1 John 4:2
1 John 4:15
3 John 1:7
Revelation 2:13
Revelation 22:20

 

<< 1 Corinthians 12:2   1 Corinthians 12:4 >>

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