Therefore I make
known to you
that no one speaking
by the
Spirit of God called
Jesus accursed,
and no one can say
that Jesus is Lord
except by the Holy
Spirit.
There are diversities
of gifts,
but that same Spirit.
There are differences
of ministries,
but the same Lord.
And there are
diversities of activities,
but is the same God
who works in all.
1 Corinthians 12: 3
-- 6
The New
Testament by the power of inspiration coming from the Holy Spirit to certain
men had yet to be completed therefore God gave special miraculous manifestation
of the Holy Spirit to help the churches and to guide them in the truth. Why would this be so necessary? First, and foremost there were only 12 apostles
and the churches were far apart.
Therefore, ideas could not travel very fast as the communication and
transportation was very slow making it easy for the churches to be overrun with
false teachers who were making all kinds of false claims. And yet had no actual written records, as to
actual facts and apparently, the Corinthian church had a wonderful and
brilliant display of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. One such gift that would be important for this major commercial
center would be the ability to speak to people of foreign languages, therefore,
the gift of being able to speak in foreign languages as that which occurred on
the day of Pentecost would be necessary for this city and for the Christian to
spread the gospel. This gift of being
able to speak in various languages although not having been educated in both
languages was something that was very popular with the Corinthians and many
wanted this gift. Not if a brother or
was too stand up and speak in a language that he had never studied that would
be plain evidence that he was under the direct control of the Holy Spirit. As good as this was it also could be misused for often many people would look up to such a person and hold that person
high on a pedestal. Others who had this
gift, or attempted to have this gift, was doing so so that they could get honor
out of it for themselves. Now these
gifts of the Spirit, those various gifts, were natural in some cases, and in
some cases supernatural. The discussion
that Paul will continue as we will find in Chapter 13 is that of relative value
of those various gifts and this in what we call the love chapter is set forth. Paul sets forth concerning those spiritual
gifts and the extraordinary powers received from the Holy Spirit wrote so that
they would not ignorant of their origin or use. They came from God, and were to be used for Him. It is important and of great use for all
religious practice to have a right information. That right information must come from the holy Scriptures and not
from some purported by those who attempt to introduce false practices. Gifted men make bad work, who either do not
know, or do not advert to the nature and right use of the gifts with which they
are endowed. Paul had just introduced
in the verse two that some were and some are carried away to dumb idols. It is interesting to note that he uses this
to set forth that if one is not speaking the truth are only calling Jesus
Christ, accursed. Therefore, that
person is not speaking by the Spirit of God for only if one has the Spirit of
God can say that Jesus is Lord. In the
early Church many people were led astray in their search, and their practice of
Christianity, to seek for the supernatural as though if they had this
supernatural they would truly be accepted by God. This problem wove in and out of the church from its beginning and
in the last 200 years, and especially in the present, there are those who seek
to teach more about this supernatural than about Jesus Christ. Albeit, that often those who are teaching
others to follow the supernatural and to obtain the supernatural clothing in
the words of Jesus Christ but Jesus Christ is not held high in importance,
rather supernatural works. How do I
know? I often speak with those in the
School of the Supernatural talked by Bethel Church of Redding. And all they are attempting to do is to seek
out those who are hurting, or in some need, whether it be physical or mental
and then to somehow be able to pray that God would heal them and I have found
that in almost every case they don't even have the Bible or speak of the
Gospel. I've often asked them where is
their Bible? What other question is why
are you doing that which God has not commanded? We have never been commanded to go about praying for those who
are not even interested in Christianity:
"I pray for them. I do not pray
for the world but for those who You have given Me, for they are Yours"
(John 17: 9), as these are the words of our Savior Jesus Christ when He
prayed to His father just before going to the garden of Gethsemane. We are to become the very image of Jesus
Christ here upon earth in all things we do and say. It is when we are not doing so that we are actually calling Jesus
Christ accursed. How? Because we are not speaking under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, rather, we are speaking that which is more than
likely formed from our worldview that has been formed often from our
eschatological opinion.
To
understand about God giving special and miraculous gifts and how they were in
or to be used is important if we are truly desiring to follow our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore we will
continue to look at Scripture and find out exactly what it was that Paul was
attempting to teach the Corinthian and us.
Your profits have seen for you
false and
deceptive visions,
they have not uncovered your iniquity,
to bring
back your captives,
but have envisioned for you
false
prophecies and delusions.
Lamentations 2: 14
Pour out your heart before God
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