NOTES for Co1 12:4-6

Paul mentions one of the chief qualities of Christian life: the continuous action in the life of each Christian of God's breath, the Holy Spirit. As is clear from the apostle's words, neither spirit nor grace exists "in general" or is given just like that, just in case, "so that it is there." The point is always relations between a person and God, a person and Christ. And the dynamic of these relations is such that full communion between a person and Christ is possible only when it is included in the context of the relations that unite Christ Himself with His Heavenly Father.

If a person is aware of his relations with God, God can reveal to him and help him recognize the reality of His relations with His Son, and then the person understands who Christ is in God's eyes. If this awareness is absent, then in Christ a person will see only an ordinary human being like himself. But if awareness has come, if God has revealed to a person the spiritual dynamic of which Paul speaks, then his whole life, if the person is consistent in what concerns the spiritual path, is included in it and determined by it. Then everything a person has in life, as well as everything he does, becomes part of this dynamic and is determined by it. The person begins, as Christians usually say, to "live according to the Spirit." It is not enough, as some people think, simply to sanctify what one already has or what one already does. It is not enough because by sanctification people often understand a kind of offering to God of what one already has, whether property, talents and abilities, knowledge, or some activity, as people usually say, "for the glory of God."

But in such cases the matter is usually something the person chooses for himself, if we are speaking of activity, or something he himself has acquired or received from God for himself, if we are speaking of knowledge, talents, and abilities. The person remains with what is his own and offers this own thing to God. The apostle has something else in mind: he speaks of what exists only in the context of the spiritual dynamic that determines a person's relations with God and with Christ, and is derived from this dynamic. Here it is not the person who offers God what he has, but God who offers the person what he will need for service. At first glance this difference can appear formal, but in reality it is precisely here that the question is decided: who will determine a person's life, the person himself or God through Christ, who alone can open for a person the road into the Kingdom.