A Great Assortment

“Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of YAHVEH will curse Yeshua and no one can say Yeshua is Adonai, except by Ruach HaKodesh. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Adonai. YAHVEH works in different ways, but it is the same YAHVEH who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles and another, the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of YAHVEH or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 

It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. (1 Corinthians 12: 1-11) (Also read Isaiah 62: 1-5; Psalm 36: 5-10; John 2: 1-11) I am blessed in this season of my ministry to be exposed to a number of congregations. Some are tall steeple churches with impressive facilities, growing numbers and vast resources. Other churches are less fortunate. They struggle to pay the utility bills, provide for staff and maintain their property. On the surface, these two congregational profiles could not be more different. Yet although in many ways they are strikingly different, they are also remarkably similar. Both are YAHVEH’s Church attempting to serve Him in their context. Each type of church reminds me again of how wonderful our YAHVEH is and how He has assembled within the Church all of the gifts that we need. In each setting, YAHVEH does something remarkable and mysterious; He provides the gifts and people to accomplish His work. I can think of churches with very limited financial resources that still seem to find ways to maintain their witness within the community. YAHVEH gives them the right people with the right gifts for that moment. I have seen this truth evidenced so consistently through the years that I now know it is not coincidental. YAHVEH provides for His Church.

I.) It is astonishing that the church to which Paul directed these words existed at all. There was the presence of competing spirits in the house of Adonai. The church at Corinth is widely recognized as one that was highly dysfunctional and misguided. Of all the congregational atrocities referenced in the Bible, none was more perplexing than that of unbridled human emotion. Evidently, this phenomenon was at the heart of the outbursts and the disruptions that so deeply plagued the congregation. Rather than allowing the Spirit of YAHVEH to direct and empower the church, the spirit of human emotion and chaos prevailed. Paul’s directive insisted that the church seek clarity of conviction and purpose. At the heart of Paul’s argument was a simple premise: those empowered and directed by the Spirit of YAHVEH are those who confess Yeshua HaMashiach as Adonai (12: 1-3). The church at Corinth was being summoned back to its primary loyalty and allegiance. The conflict had manifested itself in such hideous ways. None is more evident than the theological chaos that evidently led some to be confused about the person of Yeshua HaMashiach. Thus Paul clearly reprimands and urges the church to recognize that in the midst of competing spirits and ideologies, there is but one Spirit within the Body of HaMashiach.

II.) One of the clear issues at stake in Corinth involved the matter of spiritual gifts. With a developing understanding of the work of the Spirit within the believer, some evidently believed that their gifts were superior to those of others. Paul then lists the great assortment of gifts that YAHVEH invests in the midst of His church (12: 4-10). By listing this great assortment, Paul seeks to remind the church that gifts are not endowed for personal benefit but rather for the “common good” (12:7). These gifts are to empower the church to do YAHVEH’s work in the world. All the gifts are of value and importance. No one is to think that his or her gift is of greater value than that of others. It is for that reason that Paul articulates the importance of the body over the individual. The individual gifts are doled out for the benefit of the greater good. Spiritual gifts are not for personal benefit; they are by YAHVEH and or YAHVEH.

III.) The gifts, though assorted and unique, originate from one source, the Spirit of YAHVEH (12:11). This is where the church at Corinth was so badly misguided. Although they evidently tried to do so, there were no way they could muster godly power out of their human strength and initiative. The power in the church belongs to YAHVEH and that power is evidenced through the great assortment of gifts He invests therein, but also through how He then uses those gifts to His glory. The church at Corinth, not unlike many today, mistakenly confused human emotions with YAHVEH’s Spirit. The result was gross corruption, horrific sin and a blatant disregard for the things of YAHVEH. One would think that after more than two thousand years, we would have learned our lesson from the Corinthian debacle. YAHVEH’s Spirit grants us power, not prestige. It is not about us . . . it never was and it never will be.