NOTES for Co1 12:4-6
Many were said and written about the religious ministries. Many were also written about grace, the gifts of the Spirit, vocations to the ministry and other similar things. But very often, is spoken about grace separately, separately about the gifts of the Spirit, and separately about the ministries. Paul, as seen, connects them all together. And it is not surprising: because it is really about the same reality, about the breath of God, which pervades the Kingdom and which penetrates into the heart of every inhabitant of this Kingdom.
It happens sometimes to hear and to read that grace or the Holy Spirit form the basis of the spiritual life of the Christian, every member of the church has them, but here is, the ministry is already something special, it is only given to the elected. Sometimes people go even further and say that even grace is inherent not to all Christians, that to be carrier and, let’s say, "the distributor" of grace is a special ministry, etc. But, if Christianity still is not a certain new "religion of the Kingdom", but life in the Kingdom, such as Jesus Himself established it, then it becomes obvious that there can not be by definition graceless and unspiritual Christians. "Graceless Christian" is an oxymoron, and " the unspiritual Christian" - too. Because the breath of God, if we talk about the life in the Kingdom, penetrates the whole man, it is actually the environment of the Kingdom.
As it is impossible for the air not penetrate inside the man living on Earth, and for man not to live without that air penetrating inside, the same in the heart of the inhabitant of the Kingdom it is impossible not to penetrate the breath of God, and man himself can’t live without this breath. Only such a life, in fact could be called Christianity in the proper sense of the word. But life does not suppose simply a breath, but also other activities, and the life of the Kingdom is not an exception. There are of course moments or just special cases, when man can only breathe, and that can be even considered as an achievement.
But in such case it is necessary to speak about a very critical state, perhaps, even dying. In a normal case, the man, in addition to breathing, is usually even occupied by a certain activity that is important for God and for the Kingdom. That is what in fact should be called "a Christian ministry ", and call “Christian vocation” the moment, when God tells the man living in the Kingdom, what exactly he should do, as a resident of the Kingdom. It is not surprising that for the Apostle, all these things are interconnected: indeed they are all different parts of the same life. The life of the Kingdom.