NOTES for Co1 12:1-11

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.