NOTES for Co1 12:7

⁷But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

Often, when it comes for example about grace or the gifts of the Spirit, we look at both as a kind of divine energy, which is given to man, as a certain gift, for a more intense spiritual life. Sometimes, moreover, to it, is added again the understanding of the fact that the gifts of the Spirit are something significant, that God gives to man for the resolution of certain tasks, set by the very God. With such an understanding, it turns out that God in the form of spiritual gift gives to His servant certain necessary tool for the accomplishment of the work which is entrusted to him. Certainly, such a relation towards the gifts of the Spirit is in a certain degree just, and it absolutely has the right to exist. But does this exhaust all the depth of the gift of God as a spiritual phenomenon? For, with such an approach, the gift of God, the gift of the Spirit is seen, as something isolated, concerning only God and the person, to whom the gift was given.

Of course, if to speak about a work entrusted to man by God, it is necessary to recognize that it always concerns not only the servant himself, but also other people, at least, in the church, to which belongs this servant. But it is necessary to speak not only about it. Because every gift of the Spirit belongs not only to a concrete church community, but also the whole Church, being a part of this Kingdom, of which the inhabitants are each Christian, of course, if not Christian by name only.

And the gifts of the Spirit are given to man, particularly as an inhabitant of the Kingdom, in the context of those relationships between him and God, between him and Christ, between him and the other Christians, who are also part of this kingdom. Even certain earthly gifts make sense only in case the one, who receives them, does not interrupt the relationship with the one to whom he received these gifts. And in the Kingdom, no gift in itself, out of the context of the relations connecting the one, who received the gift with the One, Who offered, out of the context of the entire life of the Kingdom, will have sense.

And the grace, and the gifts of the Spirit remind righteousness, which is impossible to accumulate, which exists only in the dynamics, so that it is impossible " to set aside in reserve " the deeds of righteousness, in order to use them afterward to obtain righteousness, when the reasons for it already do not exist any more. And any gift of the Spirit remains reality only as long as remain reality the relations linking the one who receives the gift with the One, from Whom he received it. As long as he remains inhabitant of the Kingdom. For, it is impossible of tearing a piece of the Kingdom and take along with oneself. Here it is all or nothing.

Other notes

For Co1 12:1-11

¹Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

²Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

³Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

⁴Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

⁵And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

⁶And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

⁷But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

⁸For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

⁹To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

¹⁰To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

¹¹But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

In today’s passage the apostle Paul says many important things, but perhaps the most essential is his... Read more

In today’s passage the apostle Paul says many important things, but perhaps the most essential is his statement that no one can confess Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit. The literal meaning of the Greek expression in this verse is: “no one can say: Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit.”

These words occur in a characteristic context: the apostle is speaking about spiritual gifts and comparing the unfree state of ecstasy in idol worship with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were so abundant in the ancient Church. Speaking of idol worship, he uses the expression ήγεσθε άπαγόμενοι, rendered very precisely in the Slavonic translation as “being led, you were carried away.” The verb άπάγω means “to lead away, take away,” and is used in expressions such as “to take someone to prison” or “to lead away another man’s wife.” The apostle speaks of the idol worshiper’s lack of freedom, expressed above all in the fact that idol worship involves bringing a person into a particular state.

The apostle contrasts this state of unfree exaltation and derangement with a person’s submission to the authority and lordship of Jesus. Confessing Jesus as Lord is by no means a person’s state, but a stance for life that can only be chosen freely. It is precisely this confession that the apostle calls the foundational gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift that makes it possible to distinguish Christianity from everything else.

For Co1 12:1-11

¹Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

²Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

³Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

⁴Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

⁵And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

⁶And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

⁷But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

⁸For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

⁹To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

¹⁰To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

¹¹But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

Returning again to the description of the life of the Kingdom, Paul says that the Kingdom is wholly... Read more

Returning again to the description of the life of the Kingdom, Paul says that the Kingdom is wholly permeated by the breath, the Spirit, of God (vv. 4-6). And Jesus is the Messiah promised by God, through whom this Kingdom was revealed to the world, so that anyone who knows what the Kingdom is will never renounce Jesus and will not be mistaken about His ministry (v. 3). As for life in the Kingdom, it is nothing other than the result of the action of that breath of God by which the Kingdom is permeated, from the Throne to the last speck of dust. In the Kingdom there is no place where this breath is not felt, but when it touches a person it can affect him in different ways. A person changes quite really under the influence of such a touch, but the changes are each time as unique and unrepeatable as each person is unique and as God's design for each of us is unrepeatable.

From here comes the difference in gifts and callings about which the apostle writes (vv. 8-11). What they have in common is that not one of these gifts and not one of these callings can be carried out by human strength alone without God's help. In essence, the matter is not so much the possibilities and abilities of the person himself as divine-human co-creation, when God turns a person into a perfect instrument that He can use to solve tasks of which a person who does not know God's help could not even think. And only God knows how He manages to solve this task without turning the person into a blind tool and while allowing him to remain a person in all fullness. A person living in the Kingdom.

John 15:9-17

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NOTES for Co1 12:7

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