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NOTES for Co1 12:3

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3 Wherefore 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.
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Speaking about the fact that nobody will call Jesus "Lord", Paul means of course confessing Him Messiah. As we see, in this case the apostle expressed a little differently the same idea, which rings in the words of the Savior which say that nobody will come to Him, if he is not attracted by His Heavenly Father. Indeed, Jesus was not so similar to the Messiah of the traditional representations of the people during His earthly ministry, but His Kingdom turned out so much far from what waited the leaders of the Pharisaic movement, and the rabbis scholars, that to recognize in Him the Messiah was possible only having given up completely all the national and religious traditions. Such a spiritual effort for man is possible only by a special all time revelation, without which one will not really see the Messiah in Jesus. God's breath has to touch the heart of man so that he can say as Peter: "you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God". But indeed, the same Peter did not seen immediately in His master the Messiah, although at the moment, when his confession rang, he already succeeded to stay near Him more than a day. As we see, in order to accept Jesus not simply as a Prophet and Master, but as the Messiah and the Son of God, it is necessary to pass a defined spiritual way. And this way can completely pass somewhere next to Jesus, maybe very near to Him and near His Church. It is in particular of such "walking beside" that appear the converts, the most spiritually prepared for Christian life: because their decisions are not usually precipitated or without thinking. And of course God Himself with His breath touches the heart of such people, bringing them closer to the Kingdom and to the One, Who brought the Kingdom to the world. Such people are led by the spirit of God, and will never of course say anything bad on Jesus of Nazareth, even if they will not see in Him the Messiah. Because they are these "pure hearts", of which the Savior said that they "will see God".

Other notes

 
For Co1 12:1-11
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
3 Wherefore 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.
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To 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:
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
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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.

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For Co1 12:1-11
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
3 Wherefore 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.
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To 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:
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
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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.

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