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Gifts from the Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Good News Translation (GNT)
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1 Now, concerning what you wrote about the
gifts from the Holy Spirit. I want you to know
the truth about them, my friends.
2 You know that while you were still heathen,
you were led astray in many ways
to the worship of lifeless idols.
3 I want you to know that no one who is led by
God's Spirit can say "A curse on Jesus!" and
no one can confess "Jesus is Lord," without
being guided by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but
the same Spirit gives them.
5 There are different ways of serving, but the
same Lord is served.
6 There are different abilities to perform service,
but the same God gives ability to all for their
particular service.
7 The Spirit's presence is shown in some way in
each person for the good of all.
8 The Spirit gives one person a message full of
wisdom, while to another person the same
Spirit gives a message full of knowledge.
9 One and the same Spirit gives faith to
one person, while to another person he gives
the power to heal.
10 The Spirit gives one person the power to work
miracles; to another, the gift of speaking God's
message; and to yet another, the ability to tell
the difference between gifts that come from
the Spirit and those that do not.
To one person he gives the ability to speak in
strange tongues, and to another he gives the
ability to explain what is said.
11 But it is one and the same Spirit who does all
this; as he wishes, he gives a different gift
to each person.
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Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union
Gifts from the Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
We come now to another problem for the Corinthian church: the use of spiritual gifts.
The Corinthians thought they had arrived, spiritually speaking; but their worship had become disorderly and self-centred, with an unhealthy focus on spiritual gifts.
Paul begins his corrective to their behaviour by focusing on two aspects of the Spirit's work: making possible the confession 'Jesus is Lord'
(v 3) and the diversity of gifts given by the Spirit (vs 4-11).
First, 'Jesus is Lord' is the most basic Christian confession, but for some of us such a statement belies the cost that the earliest Christians had to pay for making it and the cost that many today have to make in stating it.
This is a radical confession that declares one's allegiance and that states that all other deities with their demands for allegiance are not Lord.
Second, there is a diversity of gifts.
In several of his letters Paul gives various lists
of spiritual gifts (see Romans 12:3-8;
Ephesians 4:7-13), so we should not take this list (vs 4-11) as comprehensive but as representative of the Spirit's gifts.
They are not given because of merit, length of Christian service or maturity - nor primarily for the individual's benefit - but because the Spirit generously gives gifts in order to build up the community (v 7).
The tragedy is that the issue of spiritual gifts still divides the church today, and yet God has given these gifts to build up the life of the church.
We stunt the church's growth and an individual's growth in Christ if we prevent certain gifts being exercised.
Let's allow God, by his Spirit, to demonstrate his 'grace in action in the Christian community' through the use of his gifts.
They have been given for the 'common good'
(v 7).
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