1 Corinthians 12:7-11 - Gifts of the Spirit

The fundamental feature of the gifts is that they are given for the common good. It does not matter which gift or gifts you have, God has given it to you in order to help others.

Paul then mentions nine different gifts. This list should not be viewed as exclusive, ie the only nine gifts that there are. In other places in the Bible other gifts are mentioned. The first two to be mentioned are wisdom and knowledge. We see both of these in operation in the life of Jesus. He demonstrated tremendous wisdom in dealing with the attacks of the religious leaders, and showed insight into the lives of people, such as the women at the well (John 4). In Acts there were points when people predicted famines. The Spirit enables us to see through situations, to see a solution or a response where none seems possible. There are also times when He will give us knowledge that we could not otherwise have had. We have the knowledge because God has revealed it to us.

Faith, healing, and miracles are then mentioned. Now all have faith, otherwise we are not saved, but the faith here is not "saving faith". Rather it is special faith in a particular situation that God will do a certain thing. For instance at the Red Sea everyone else thought they were doomed, but Moses had faith in God. At the same time God gave him the power to do signs and wonders. 

Discernment of spirits, prophecy, tongues and interpretation are then mentioned. Discernment is the ability to distinguish between good and bad, between the Holy Spirit and other spirits. Sometimes the difference in blindingly obvious, as in the examples Paul gives at the start of the chapter, but at others satan appears as an angel of light, and deeper wisdom is required. Prophecy, tongues and interpretation will be dealt with in much more detail later on.

Whatever the gift, it is given by the Holy Spirit, and is given according to His choosing. There is no room for human pride.

1 Corinthians 12: 1-6 - Many gifts, one Spirit

Paul now turns to spiritual gifts. Now we need to remember that some of the pagan worship many of them would have been experienced before would have involved ecstatic acts of various sorts, perhaps going crazy at a rave is a good way to think of it. Now that they had received the Holy Spirit the gifts they received involved tongues and prophecy (the two which receive most attention from Paul in chapters 12 and 14). A key part of the fruit of the spirit is self-control, but they would have come from a background of lack of control (not much different to today!). So they needed to be taught proper use of the gifts, and that they are not a matter of losing control. In particular, not every urging comes from God! So if someone felt the urge to cry out "Jesus be cursed" they can be absolutely sure that it is not the Holy Spirit who is giving them that urge and they should resist it. Conversely things that lead to Jesus being honoured and glorified do come from the Holy Spirit.

Paul then moves to proper use of the gifts. The underlying principle is that there are different gifts, but all come from the same Spirit, and all are given to serve the same Lord. We can easily get concerned about our status, or look at what I can do. Or start feeling down because I cannot do something. This is evidence that we are looking at things in the wrong way. The gifts are given by God through the Holy Spirit to help us serve the Lord, not to puff anyone up, or show that one person is more favoured than another.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 - The Lord's Supper

Paul pulls no punches, there meetings did more harm than good. Meetings are not a good in themselves! Sometimes we judge people by how many meetings they go to, this is nonsense.

At the meetings in Corinth there were divisions among them. We are meant to come before God in unity. Verse 19 is almost certainly said with a degree of irony. They went along thinking how great they were, and that they were better than people in a different group (eg those who followed Apollos over those who followed Paul).

When we meet together we need to be focused on the Lord above all else. 

There was something seriously wrong with there hearts. The Lord's supper instead of being a commemoration of the cross and resurrection was an orgy of food and drink. We come to the Lord in humility, or we do not come at all. We need to take this very seriously for it is so easy for us to get puffed up in some way.

Paul then gives teaching on what the Lord's Supper is meant to be about. First, it is based on what Jesus did at the Last Supper. The bread and wine are to remind us of His body offered up on the cross, and His blood shed upon the cross. Sometimes people have said that the Lord's Supper is just like a normal meal, but this is not so. The food is not the focus, remembering what our Lord did for us is the focus.

So if we take the bread and wine in a contemptuous manner we bring judgement upon ourselves. We need to look at the cross, and recognise our utter dependence upon the grace and mercy of God. None of us can have any pride. We have a choice we can let Christ judge us, or we can repent and be free. 

Note also that Paul attributes the sickness of some to their attitude to the Lord's Supper. What we do can have physical consequences.

1 Corinthians 11:7-16 : The glory of God and man

We get some amazing teaching here. Paul says man is the image and glory of God. Now this means that we are God's greatest creation. Since we have such an exalted position they were not to cover their head, as this would indicate that they were not the glory of God. Then he says that woman is the glory of man. Now woman was created out of man, and is the glory of man. This means that she is the one in whom man delights the most. So a Paul said a woman should cover her head to signify that she is the glory of man.

Now, as I said in yesterday's post, I don't believe that the injunction for women's head to be covered is relevant today, as it does not signify anything. However, we should pay attention to the underlying principles. 

It is equally important to take verses 6-10 together with 11,12. Some will react to verses 7,8 thinking that Paul is saying man is superior to woman, but then he immediately says in verse 11 woman is not independent of man, nor man of woman. Paul is focusing on the glory of man and woman. Just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all different, but all equally God, so man and woman are different, but are equally made in the image of God. In fact, Paul says elsewhere that in Christ there is neither male nor female. Also, man and woman should not be in conflict with each other, but should delight in each other.

We then get back to some instruction on length of hair and more on head covering. While I do not believe that we can apply this directly today, we should consider what our practices today say about what we believe. 

1 Corinthians 11:1-6 - Covering the head

Paul calls on the Corinthians to follow him as he follows Christ. We should all be examples of how to live. This does not mean we are all perfect, but there should be at least some parts of our lives where we have learnt to follow Christ, and so other people can learn from us.

Paul then turns to covering the head in worship. This passage contains some very interesting theology, and some practical guidance that gives us a problem! Let's look at the theology first.

The head of every man is Christ. This is the starting point, and is crucial. Christ is the head of every man. So far no problem, but then ... "the head of woman is man", and hackles start to rise, while others get all sort of self-righteous. It is interesting that Paul immediately follows this with "and the head of Christ is God". Paul is not saying that man is superior to woman and can get her to do whatever he likes, and she should serve his every whim. Jesus came to do the Father's will. So the man is to do Christ's will, which means he will do the Father's will also. The role of the husband is to serve the woman, and to give his life for her, just as Christ gave His life for the church (Ephesians 5:25).

Then we get the head covering business, and frankly this leaves most of us perplexed. What is he on about? Well (I am thankful to an article by Wayne Grudem for much of this info) wearing a head covering symbolised something. The possibilities are:

(1) Being in submission to her husband;

(2) Being a woman rather than a man;

(3) Being a wife, rather than unmarried;

(4) having authority to pray and prophecy in church.

To have her head shaved was a sign of disgrace, and Paul says it was the same if a woman did not have her head covered. Now wearing a head covering does not signify any of these things today, so it seems fair to say that we are not expected to observe this instruction today. However, what it symbolises is still true. Ie man is still the head of woman. We will look more at that tomorrow.

1 Corinthians 10:23-33 - Don't make unnecessary difficulties

Paul returns to an argument he used when talking about sexual morality, and now applies it generally. "Everything is permissible", some were saying, but Paul counters by saying not everything is constructive or beneficial. The motivating force should be to seek the good of others above yourself.

With regard to eating meat, then on the whole it was fine to eat anything, whether it had been offered to idols or not. If at an unbelievers house, then don't go looking for trouble, ie don't go looking for things to be "wrong". However, if the host was making a great play of the meat having been offered to an idol, then don't eat.

In today's terms we might say if someone gives you a mug with a zodiac sign on it, but makes nothing of it, then just drink the coffee and don't worry about it, it probably means nothing to the host either. However, if the person then makes a big play of horoscopes and so on, then it would be right to say something.

So Paul's guiding principle in all this is the good of others. Note also that we should be very wary about laying down little rules, all they do is cause problems.

1 Corinthians 10:15-22 - Don't play with fire

It seems evident form this section that some were participating in idol worship. Paul calls on them to take a sensible view of things. First the Lord's supper is a commemoration of the blood and body of Jesus, offered as a sacrifice on the cross. So we are taking part in the body of Christ, and we are celebrating too our unity with each other. We identify with Christ and with each other.

So if they took part in idol worship then they were uniting themselves with demons, and identifying with those who worship demons. Now idols themselves were nothing, useless bits of stone or wood, but behind them is the work of demons. The devil uses idol worship as a front to gain influence over men and women.

The Corinthians would have been so used to engaging in idol worship before they came to know Christ. Maybe they just carried on as before, maybe they didn't want to risk losing friends or standing in society. Then they rationalised their actions by the argument about idols being nothing.

In fact they were worshipping demons, and such an activity is incompatible with worshipping Christ.