2 Corinthians 1

KingComments

‹ Chapter 0 2 Corinthians — All Chapters Chapter 2 ›

2 Corinthians 1:1

The Gifts of the Spirit

1 Corinthians 12:8. There is no man who can convey a certain gift to another person. The source, the origin of all the gifts is not found in a man, but in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives and distributes. The gifts come from Him. Thereby the Holy Spirit considers the natural abilities of the believer.

A beautiful illustration of that you find in Matthew 25 (Matthew 25:15). In the parable of the talents the Lord Jesus is telling there, He compares Himself with a man who went abroad and gives talents to his slaves. These talents represent the gifts each person receives to work with. You see that there is a distinction in the number of talents that each person receives, just as there is a distinction in the gift that each person receives from the Spirit.

Then you read further that these talents are given “each according to his own ability”. That refers to the natural abilities that each person is born with. As long as a person is not converted, he uses that natural ability for himself, to his own glory. After his conversion he can use that natural ability to serve the Lord, while he constantly ought to be alert not to take the credit for using his abilities.

A person, who is naturally capable to put something well into words, might receive the gift from the Spirit to serve others with the Word. A person who is caring and considerate will receive in many cases a pastoral gift from the Spirit. There are many examples like that, whereby the spiritual gift is related to the natural ability. In most cases it happens like that.

I can hardly imagine that, if you have no ability to work with children, you will receive a task to do children’s work. Nevertheless, in this respect we should not try to control the freedom of the Spirit in distributing to whom He wants. I believe that you might have a gift, which, according to your feeling, doesn’t directly connect to your natural capabilities. I know of someone who thought that he had no ability to work among children. However, once he began this work, it became apparent that he, on the contrary, could deal very well with children. By opening up yourself to His guidance you will discover which gift you have.

The gifts that are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, are not a complete list of all gifts. It is important to pay attention to the sequence of these gifts. Paul summarizes the gifts according to their importance for the edification of the church. The Corinthians were proud of the so-called miracle [literally: works of power] gifts, especially speaking in tongues, which they held in high esteem. However, Paul doesn’t start with the gifts that impress people, but puts speaking in tongues and their interpretation at the bottom of the list. In chapter 14 he will deal with speaking in tongues in great detail and will clarify that this gift is not that important as the Corinthians thought it was.

The first gift that he mentions is “the word of wisdom”. In the church there may be situations, where it is not always clear what ought to be done. Wisdom is then the only way to deal with it. The definition of wisdom is the capability to discern between good and evil and then to choose the good. Someone with this gift will then be able to tell the church what to do.

Another person has “the word of knowledge”. The believers of the church need to learn God’s thoughts, otherwise they will operate on their own understanding and the church will lose its character as a church of God. You can gain knowledge by being zealous in studying God’s Word.

1 Corinthians 12:9-10. “Faith” is another gift. It is about a gift to a believer here; thus, it cannot refer to the saving faith. The saving faith is not a gift that is given to only a few. A believer who has the gift of faith, will always firmly trust in what God has said in relation to a certain task He has given, in spite of how many obstacles may come his way, while others have long since dropped out.

The “gifts of healings” and the “effecting of miracles [literally: works of power]” served to confirm the Word of God (Mark 16:20; Hebrews 2:3-4).

“Prophecy” is the gift to pass on God’s thoughts concerning the church, with regard to the present and the future. The basis of prophecy will always be the Word of God and will never contradict it. Therefore prophecy will never be based on speculation or imagination, but will always be testable to the Bible. In chapter 14 this gift is compared with the gift of speaking in tongues.

Another person may have the gift of “distinguishing of spirits”. You may relate this to what happens in the church. A person with this gift will be able to discern whether something comes from the Holy Spirit or comes from demons. In the last section you have seen that it is often quite difficult to determine from which source a certain message comes.

Speaking in “tongues” was important in case a stranger joins the gathering of the church. When such a person would suddenly hear a person speaking about God and the Lord Jesus in his own language, that could be his salvation for eternity, when he may be converted. The “interpretation of tongues” was necessary with a view to the church because otherwise people would not understand anything about what is said. After all, the gifts were given to the profit of the whole. As it is said, in chapter 14 Paul deals in great detail with speaking in tongues in church.

1 Corinthians 12:11. You see that there are many various gifts and yet there is still a unity. That’s because one and the same Spirit works all these things. He distributes to each one individually as He wills. He determines which place each person has in the body. No theological training can work this. Only the Holy Spirit determines that.

One more thing. You can learn from the last three words of 1 Corinthians 12:11 that the Holy Spirit is God, for in 1 Corinthians 12:18 the same thing is said about God. Thus He is a Person, and surely a Divine Person, and not just an influence or a power, for only a person has a will.

1 Corinthians 12:12. In this verse an example of a body is given to clarify what is previously said about the diversities of the gifts. A body has a couple of characteristics. Two of them are brought forward here. First, a body forms a unity. Second, a body consists of a number of different members.

You might then expect it to be written: so also is the church. After all it is about the church. However, it is said “so also is Christ”. This makes it clear that Christ and the church are one. What goes for the church also goes for Christ.

This is what Saul, who is later called Paul, has already faced when he is still a persecutor of the church. In Acts 9 is told that, while he is on his journey to Damascus to bring the disciples of the Lord bound to Jerusalem, a voice from heaven says to him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). By persecuting the church he, in fact, persecuted Christ in heaven. In such a unity Christ is with His own on earth.

1 Corinthians 12:13. All members of the church form together the one church. Each member of the body has its own function. It is about the unity of the body and about the many members, in which Christ is seen on earth. As a member of the body your origins or social status are insignificant, “for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body”.

From that same Spirit you may now drink to properly perform your function in the body. From your own you have no power to function. Only when you allow the Holy Spirit to drench your life, so to speak, that He infuses you completely, you will be able to function in your own place in the church.

Now read 1 Corinthians 12:8-13 again.

Reflection: Who is the Holy Spirit to you? How do you experience His presence in the church?

2 Corinthians 1:2

The Members of the Body

1 Corinthians 12:14. In an appealing way, Paul is now going to use the body of man as an example to make it clear that the body of Christ, the church, is also made up of different members. By this example it also becomes clear that there are two risks to which the members of the church are exposed. One danger is that of laziness: I am nothing and not capable of doing anything; someone else have do it. Another danger is that of pride: I alone am important and can do something, I don’t need anyone. Of course these are the extremes, but I think they are quite recognizable.

The starting point for this example is: “The body is not one member, but many.” So it is about the multitude of different members that the body consists of. Perhaps needless to say: the members of the body are the individual believers, that are you personally and me personally. In fact, the thought has been expressed that the members are the different denominations but that is, of course, absolutely out of the question.

1 Corinthians 12:15-16. Now about the first danger: laziness. Just imagine, Paul says here, that a foot and an ear would say, that they are not of the body. Just look at the reason they mention for this foolish statement. They say respectively: “Because I am not a hand, … because I am not an eye.” What does this saying imply actually? That they envy another member for having that place and that they are not satisfied with their own place. That’s why they feel like they are “not [a part] of the body”. They feel like outsiders.

As absurd as this reasoning is for the human body, in that way it is absurd for the body of Christ. You cannot deny the function you have in the body, only because of the fact that you are not satisfied with the place you take in the body, can you?

Despite that, there are believers to whom this applies. They are often critical, regarding many things, but in their life you cannot find anything that is for the profit of the church. They shirk their responsibilities and live their own easy life.

They resemble the man from the parable of Matthew 25. That’s the parable I referred you to at the beginning of the previous section. The servant who received five talents, traded with those and earned five more. He made one hundred percent profit. The servant with two talents made a profit of one hundred percent as well. However, what do you read about the servant who received one talent? “I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground” (Matthew 25:25). It is apparent here that he dealt in a wrong way with his talent because he did not know his lord; he was afraid of him.

In fact he did not find it worthy to trade with and hid his talent in the ground. After all it was ‘just’ one talent, while the others had more. His lord calls him a “wicked, lazy slave” (Matthew 25:26). He was wicked and lazy. He was wicked because he called his lord a hard man and he was lazy because he did not do anything with his talent.

Do you recognize the similarity with our verses from 1 Corinthians 12? Therefore bear in mind: whatever function you may have, be satisfied with it and trade with it. You are only useful and needed for the other members of the body if you take the place God has given you. You had no influence on that.

1 Corinthians 12:17-20. “God” has given the members, each of them, a place in the body “just as He desired”. His will is always the best and the wisest. He knows exactly where someone fits best. What a monster a body would be if it would be all eye or all ear! That is not a body at all. No, each member has been put on the right place by God in the body with the purpose to serve each of the other members.

1 Corinthians 12:21. The second danger is pride. A believer who as we say ‘has a great gift’ is in danger to think that he does not need other believers. That may not happen consciously, but unconsciously. Because of the ‘great gift’ he might exalt himself. He alone knows it; he can put it into words very well. It can also happen that the other members of the church because of their laziness, love to give him that position.

Therefore, where situations are destabilized, the wrong positions strengthen each other. The lazy ones like to delegate to others, while the others like to have people who depend on them. But let this be clear: they who have a greater gift (at least what they think themselves) to function well, are dependent on those with a smaller gift (at least what they think themselves). If there is a piece of dirt in the eye, the little finger is an especially suited member to remove it.

What we consider great or small, is not the same as how God considers great and small. We often consider a gift from what we can see of it and how it impresses us. We are often more impressed by someone who is proclaiming the gospel to a full hall, than by someone who is testifying to his or her Savior with a highly blushed face toward a neighbor, a colleague or a fellow-student.

To God one thing is important and that is that we faithfully fulfill the order He gives us. He doesn’t reward to the size of the gift, but to the faithfulness with which the gift has been practiced. In Matthew 25 the reward for the man who received two talents, was as great as for the man with five talents: “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21; 23). Do you also notice that it is said here: “You were faithful with a few things”? Even the greatest gift is just few in comparison to what the Lord Jesus possesses and distributes.

1 Corinthians 12:22-23. In a human body you have members that are hidden, like the heart, kidneys and lungs. Although you do not see them, they are of crucial importance for the proper functioning of your body. In the body of Christ it is also exactly like that.

There is a story of Spurgeon, a great preacher from the nineteenth century. He always had full halls and many have become believers due to his ministry. One evening when the building was full of people again, he was asked why he was that successful. He replied to this question by suggesting the questioner follow him to another room where he would show him the ‘central heating’. When he opened the door of that room, his companion saw a number of people who were kneeling down in prayer for the sake of the gathering.

All the work that may be done for the Lord Jesus and His own is done well through prayer. Eternity will tell what has mattered more: the eloquence of a speaker or the intensive prayers that an unknown believer prayed to God on behalf of the speaker as well as the sermon and also the audience.

In the meantime you must have figured out what the importance is of this section. The members of the body are given to one another to complement each other and support one another and not to fight against each other. If one of your legs wants to go left and the other leg wants to go right, you will not move one step forward. Just try how far you can spread your legs from each other. If you’re not limber, you might end up in a painful posture. Take your own place and pay attention to where you can be of profit for others.

Now read 1 Corinthians 12:14-23 again.