Lessons #409 and 410
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Essential knowledge about spiritual matters (1 Cor 12:1-3)
1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Apostle Paul has been systematically dealing with various subjects of concern to the Corinthians regarding worship, beginning in the eleventh chapter where he considered the matters of head covering and the Lord’s Supper. In the twelfth chapter, the apostle considered matters relating to the Holy Spirit in worship. Most commentators take the view that the major theme of the chapter is spiritual gifts. However, we take the view that the chapter is concerned with matters related to the Holy Spirit. Our reason for this approach is that there are five issues the apostle addressed that are related to the Holy Spirit. The first is the essential knowledge about spiritual matters in verses 1 to 3. The second concerns the distributions related to spiritual matters in verses 4 to 6. The third is spiritual gifts discussed in verses 7 to 11. The fourth is the matter of unity in diversity in the church of Christ that the apostle discoursed in verses 12 to 26. The fifth concern is some specified offices in the church of Christ described in verses 27 to 31.
Be that as it may, we know that the apostle is concerned with a subject matter different from the Lord’s Supper that was the last subject he discoursed in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 because he began verse 1 of the twelfth chapter with the phrase in the NIV Now about. The Greek phrase so translated in 1 Corinthian 12:1 in the NIV is one that the apostle used six times in his first epistle to the Corinthians to indicate a change in subject matter or to introduce an aspect of a subject matter that is a subset of the major subject or to link materials that although do not relate to the same general topic but are related in the sense that they form closely linked teachings. In his first usage of the Greek phrase translated now for in the NIV of 1 Corinthians 7:1, it was to introduce the subject of marriage that he discoursed in detailed in that chapter. In the second usage of the Greek phrase in the same seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians, the apostle used it to introduce the subset of the matter of dealing with virgins in the larger context of his teaching about marriage, as we read in 1 Corinthians 7:25:
Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
In the third usage of the Greek phrase in verse 1 of the eighth chapter of 1 Corinthians, the apostle used it to introduce the concern of the Corinthians about eating of food offered to idols. This fourth time in 1 Corinthians 12:1, the apostle used the Greek phrase to link matters related to the Holy Spirit as they pertain to worship that he began its discussion in the eleventh chapter. It is also the case that the apostle was responding to questions asked regarding spiritual matters.
We are sure the apostle is concerned with matters related to the Holy Spirit in the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians because of the first phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:1 Now about spiritual gifts. Literally, the Greek reads Now/but about the spiritual. The literal translation begins with the word “now” or “but” because the apostle used a Greek particle (de) that is routinely translated “but” to reflect a contrast between clauses but when a simple connective is desired, without contrast being clearly implied, it may be translated “and,” and in certain occurrences the particle may be left untranslated as is the case with our verse in such English versions as the CEV and the NJB. Although the particle is often translated “but” in the English as it is done in our verse in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) when there is a perceived contrast between two clauses, but it has other meanings such as “now,” “then,” “and,” “so” when it is used to link segments of a narrative. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:1, the Greek particle is used to indicate a change in topic in which case it may be left untranslated, or it may be translated “now” to indicate the concept of continuity of the subject matter of worship that the apostle began to consider in the eleventh chapter. This aside, the concern of the apostle is given in the phrase of the NIV about spiritual gifts or literally about the spiritual because of the Greek word used.
The word “spiritual” we used in the literal translation is translated from a Greek word (pneumatikos) that means either “belonging to the Spirit” or “determined by the Spirit.” As an adjective the word means “spiritual” as it is used to describe the drink involved in the Lord’s Supper as we read in 1 Corinthians 10:4:
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
But when the word functions as a noun in the neuter gender in the plural with a Greek definite article the word means “spiritual things/matters.” It is in this sense that the word is used in Apostle Paul’s argument that as an apostle he should be supported by those who have been blessed spiritually by his ministry as we read in 1 Corinthians 9:11:
If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?
The clause If we have sown spiritual seed among you is literally If we have sown spiritual things among you. It is in the sense of “spiritual matters” that the apostle used the word to indicate that Gentiles owe sharing their material blessings with the Jews because the Jews through the Apostles have shared their spiritual blessings with them as stated in Romans 15:27:
They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.
The phrase Jews’ spiritual blessings is literally their spiritual things. In 1 Corinthians 12:1, the Greek phrase may literally read “of the spiritual things.” The literal Greek is then taken to mean “spiritual gifts” probably because of similar phrase is used by the apostle later where the context suggests he meant spiritual gifts, that is, in 1 Corinthians 14:1:
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.
By the way, because of the Greek construction involved in the Greek phrase “of the spiritual things” it could also be interpreted as “those who possess spiritual gifts.” Anyway, it seems to us that although the meaning “spiritual gifts” is correct, but it is probably that the apostle wanted us to understand the word as covering spiritual matters not only spiritual gifts although that was the overwhelming concern of the Corinthians. I mean the apostle probably had in mind both spiritual gifts and spiritual persons. Of course, the apostle was also thinking of the persons of Godhead as part of spiritual matters. We say this because of what the apostle wrote in the first six verses of the twelfth chapter that we will get to shortly as well as the matter of diversity in the body of Christ he mentioned in our chapter.
In any case, the concern of the Corinthians Apostle Paul addressed in the first three verses is the general issue of matters that relate to the Holy Spirit as it concerns not only spiritual gifts but whatever role of the Holy Spirit in the worship of believers that they might be concerned. In dealing with the concerns of the Corinthians, the apostle first focused on the importance of knowledge that is necessary to deal with spiritual matters in general. The reason we assert that the apostle is concerned with knowledge is because it is the subject he mentions directly or indirectly in each of the three verses we are considering. In directly, the apostle mentioned knowledge negatively using the word “ignorant” in verse 1. Knowledge is conveyed directly in verse 2 with the word “know” while knowledge is implied in the Greek of the word translated “tell” in verse 3. The point is that the apostle is concerned with knowledge the Corinthians should have regarding spiritual matters. Therefore, we believe that the message he intends to convey in the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 12 is this: You should be well informed about spiritual matters to avoid any spiritual deception. This message will be evident as we examine the passage before us.
Those addressed about matters that are related to the Holy Spirit are believers in Corinth and so to all believers in Christ. This is because of the word brothers in verse 1. The word “brothers” is translated from a Greek word (adelphos) that has several meanings in the Greek. It could mean brother in the sense of a male person from the same mother as the referenced person. It is in this sense that the word is used by Apostle Paul to reference James as from the same mother as Jesus in His humanity in Galatians 1:19:
I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.
The word may mean “a believer” as that is the sense of the word “brother” in 1 Corinthians 5:11:
But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
The clause anyone who calls himself a brother should be understood as one who claims to be a believer. Hence the word “brother” is the same as “believer.” Thus, it is not surprising that the translators of the NIV translated the Greek word as “believers” in 1 Corinthians 6:5:
I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?
The phrase between believers is literally between his brothers. In keeping with this understanding, the word may mean “brother” in the sense of one who has the same beliefs with the one that uses the word, irrespective of gender, that is, the word refers to “a fellow believer.” It is in this sense of one who shares the same faith and so belongs to a specific Christian community, that is, a “fellow believer” that Apostle Paul used the word to describe Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25:
But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.
It is in this sense of fellow believers, regardless of gender, that Apostle Paul used it in his final greetings to the Ephesian church in Ephesians 6:23:
Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The peace the apostle wished on “the brothers” could not possibly apply to only male members of the church in Ephesus. Therefore, the word “brothers” has the sense of “brothers and sisters in Christ” here in Ephesians 6:23. It is in this sense that the word is used in 1 Corinthians 12:1. The point is that when Apostle Paul used the word brothers in 1 Corinthians 12:1, he addressed all believers in Corinth regardless of their gender. Thus, what the apostle states in what follow in the rest of the chapter are directed to believers in Christ regardless of their geographical location or even the time in which they live on this planet. The teaching that follows then is for the universal church of Christ on this planet.
Teaching in general is intended to dispel ignorance, especially as it regards spiritual matters or matters related to the Holy Spirit. Thus, every pastor of a local church should be concerned constantly with dispelling ignorance that exits among believers through the teaching of various doctrines of the Christian faith. This we learn from Apostle Paul’s desire for the Corinthians and so all believers to have knowledge of matters that concern the Holy Spirit. However, he expressed that desire negatively in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 12:1 I do not want you to be ignorant. This sentence may also be translated “I do not want you not to know,”
Apostle Paul’s declaration should remind all pastors of the importance of having strong desire to ensure that their congregations should be well taught in the word of God to avoid ignorance in spiritual matters. We say this firstly, because of the word “not” is translated from a Greek word (ou) that is an objective negative, denying the reality of alleged fact fully and absolutely in contrast to another Greek negative (mē) that is a subjective negative, implying a conditional and hypothetical negation. Thus, the apostle states strongly what he does not desire for the Corinthians and so for the church universal. Secondly, the word “want” is translated from a Greek verb (thelō) that may mean “to wish to have, desire, want,” that is, to have a desire for something as Apostle Paul used it to describe what he wanted Roman believers to do, as stated in Romans 16:19:
Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
The word may mean to have something in mind for oneself and so means “to purpose, will, wish, decide.” It is with the meaning “to wish” that Apostle Paul used it in his question to the Galatians of desiring to be enslaved to what they had been freed from in Galatians 4:9:
But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
The word may mean to take pleasure in something in view of its being desirable and so means “to enjoy, like, take pleasure in something” as Apostle Paul used it to describe false individuals in Colossae that took pleasure in false humility and in the worship of angels in Colossians 2:18:
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
The word may mean “to have an opinion,” “to think something to be so,” that is, “to maintain” something that is contrary to the true state of affairs as it is used to describe false teachers whose opinion is described in 2 Peter 3:5:
But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
The clause they deliberately forget is literally in maintaining this it escapes them. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:1, the sense of the word is “to feel or to have desire for something” or “to want strongly.” Thus, the apostle has a strong desire for the Corinthians not to be ignorant of matters related to the Holy Spirit, so he states I do not want you to be ignorant.
The verbal phrase to be ignorant is translated from a Greek word (agnoeō) that may mean “to fail to understand” that is, “not to understand” as it is used to describe the inability of the disciples to comprehend what the Lord Jesus said about His betrayal into the hands of men as, we read in Luke 9:45:
But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
The word may mean “to be unaware” as the word is used in Romans 1:13:
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.
The word may mean “to be uninformed” about something as in 2 Corinthians 1:8:
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:1, the sense of the word is “to be lacking in knowledge about something,” that is, “to be uninformed about something.” Apostle Paul does not want the Corinthians to be uniformed about something that will affect their spiritual progress. As we have indicated, although the apostle used the negative statement I do not want you to be ignorant, what he meant is that he strongly desires for the Corinthians to have information regarding matters that relate to the Holy Spirit. In other words, the apostle wants to dispel any ignorance or misunderstanding that exists among the Corinthians in matters related to the Holy Spirit. Consequently, some of our English versions translated the sentence in a positive way. For example, the NJB reads I want you to be quite certain while the TEV reads I want you to know the truth. This aside, because the statement of the apostle is concerned with dispelling ignorance, let me briefly review the doctrine of ignorance that we studied in the tenth chapter.
Ignorance refers to a state of lack of knowledge that is quite often the root cause of our failures in trying to live our lives as Christians. Indeed, there is nothing more deadly in spiritual life as ignorance. Because of this statement, we spent time in a previous study to consider the subject of ignorance. It is not my intention to review the entire doctrine of ignorance that we have considered but because of its relevance in the passage of our current study, let me refresh your mind about the reasons and consequences of ignorance in the spiritual realm that we studied in the past.
Reasons for ignorance
We indicated that we are concerned with ignorance as it relates to God and His word. Bearing this in mind, we can state that the first reason for ignorance is the fall of humankind to sin. In other words, we can trace ignorance to the fall of humankind. When Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately entered a state in which they hid from God, as stated in Genesis 3:8:
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
The hiding of Adam and Eve from God revealed a basic ignorance of God. The Lord had interacted with them prior to the fall. We do not know the form by which He appeared to them, but they certainly knew of His presence when He comes to them. They would have realized that God sees them wherever they were in the Garden of Eden but once they sinned, they lost that basic understanding of the omnipresence of God and so of the nature of God, so to say. Hence, the fall is responsible for human being’s ignorance of God. In effect, sin darkened human’s understanding so we do not have an adequate knowledge of God or seek to know Him as implied by the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul in Romans 3:9–11:
9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
The apostle indicates that no one understands God’s truth or what is right. This is because of sin that controls humans. If we do not understand because of the effect of sin, then it is proper to assert that the fall into sin became the beginning point of ignorance of God and His person among humans. Since the fall, sin has continued to darken human understanding as it relates to God. This is implied in a passage we will cite also later in this study; I am referring to Ephesians 4:18:
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
Anyway, the first reason for ignorance is the fall of humanity into sin.
A second reason for ignorance is failure to learn about God and His word. A person who fails to learn is in a very pitiful state. This assertion is implied in what is written in Proverbs 19:27:
Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
There is always hope for those who learn in any area but more importantly in the spiritual area of life. That it is failure to learn that leads to ignorance is proven right with the spiritual condition of Israel in the time of most of their kings after David. Israel repeatedly fell into idolatry and its related practices because they were no longer knowledgeable about what is the Law, or they were ignorant of the content of the Law. The ignorance of the people of Israel in the time of their kings was evident in the surprise and response of King Josiah after the book of the Law was discovered and read to him, according to 2 Kings 22:8–13:
8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. 11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. 12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: 13 “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD’s anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”
The knowledge of what is in the book of the Law led to the spiritual awakening of the time of Josiah. Thus, we can state that when there is no learning, people fall into ignorance. This truth is also confirmed in the charge of Yahweh to Israel through Prophet Hosea in Hosea 4:6:
my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
Israel’s lack of knowledge is the same as being ignorant of God’s word that would enable them to develop the right relationship with their God instead of being involved in idolatry. Furthermore, they rejected whatever is taught to them, hence the destruction Yahweh brought on Israel. The point is that a second reason for ignorance is failure on the part of people to learn the word of God. We are today facing great ignorance of the word of God because believers are failing to learn the word of God. Of course, I am convinced that we are witnessing a fulfillment of what Yahweh communicated through Prophet Amos in Amos 8:11:
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
The famine of hearing the words of God includes lack of teaching of the word of God and obedience to it that we are facing today. Many believers do not want to be taught the word of God in detail and accurately; consequently, we have few teachers of God’s word. This is in keeping with what the Holy Spirit conveyed through Apostle Paul about people in the later days, as we read in 2 Timothy 4:3–4:
3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Many believers do not want to be taught the truth of God’s word. It is because of this situation that there is a general ignorance of the word of God among many Christians. Some are content to live in their prejudices and superstitions than to be taught the word of God. The truth is that when people refuse to learn the word of God then ignorance of God’s word reigns supreme.
A third reason for ignorance is related to the first which is because of the specific sin of bitterness or hatred. If you have bitterness and hatred in the soul, then it will be difficult to remove ignorance in a person’s life. That ignorance goes with bitterness of the soul is what the psalmist alludes to in Psalm 73:21-22:
21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, 22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
The psalmist because of his bitterness or even hatred of the wicked because of their apparent prosperity was in a stated he did not know God’s character as he questioned in his mind why the wicked would prosper and the righteous suffer. Without bitterness, he might have thought otherwise but bitterness enhanced his ignorance of God’s character. Many people, because of the bitterness in their soul are not willing to expose themselves to truth. Anyway, hatred or bitterness of soul would keep a person ignorant of God’s word, especially if a person hates the teacher of God’s word. Thus, a third reason for ignorance of God’s word is the specific sin of bitterness or hatred directed towards a teacher of God’s word.
A fourth reason for ignorance is lack of humility or pride or fear that causes a person that hears something the individual does not understand to fail to ask questions for clarification. This reason was particularly true of the disciples of our Lord Jesus that on several occasions they heard Him declare about His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. They did not understand Him but because of fear refused to ask questions, so they remained in their ignorance. A good example of this fact is recorded for us in Mark 9:31-32:
31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
You see, the disciples did not understand our Lord’s prediction about His death and resurrection, but because of fear they remained ignorant. This is the problem with many of us. We become so arrogant that we are afraid to let people know that we are ignorant. The way I see it, there is nothing shameful about admitting that one does not know something. It is worse to pretend to know when in fact a person is ignorant. Anyone willing to remove ignorance must be ready to humble self. We are very ignorant in many ways but that does not mean that we should like it, only that it shows that we are human beings with limited knowledge. We should remember this when we deal with others. You may have knowledge in a particular area and be very ignorant in others. This should help us to be patient to answer questions people ask who are ignorant of the subject in which we possess knowledge. When I used to teach in the university, there were three important rules I enforced in my classes that I tell the students the very first day of class of a semester. These rules were: no lateness; no talking in class; and no laughing at another student because of a question he/she asked. I was particularly concerned about this last rule because many students out of fear of being ridiculed would not ask questions. My point is that if you do not know and do not ask questions then this is the worst condition a person can be in. The best thing you should do if you hear information that is not clear to you is to ask questions to clear up any ignorance you may have. Daniel when he received information from an angel that he did not understand, he asked question for clarification as we read in Daniel 12:8–10:
8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?” 9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
The Ethiopian eunuch did not understand what he read from the book of Isaiah and was not afraid to admit he did not understand so he sought help from Philip the evangelist, as recorded for us in Acts 8:30–31:
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Anyway, we contend that lack of humility or pride or fear could lead to ignorance even after a person hears information. This brings us to consider the consequences of ignorance.
Consequences of ignorance
Ignorance has serious consequences, but we mention three consequences or dangers of it in the spiritual realm. First, ignorance can lead a person to become a religious fanatic. This is implied in the statement of Proverbs 19:2:
It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.
Ignorance and zeal can be a deadly combination. An ignorant religious person is an extremely dangerous person. For you see, such a person is convinced that he is right, and others are wrong. There is no flexibility to allow such a person to recognize that it is possible that his views could be wrong even when he thinks that the Bible supports him or other religious book that religious people rely on as source of their authority. Because an ignorant person has zeal that person is convinced that he/she is right, so the individual is willing to harm others by justifying his/her action. This was the case with Apostle Paul prior to his salvation as he recounts later after his conversion in 1 Timothy 1:13:
Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
The apostle was convinced he was fighting to maintain the traditions of his fathers’ instead of the truth. Consequently, he had no qualms persecuting believers in Christ.
Second, ignorance can lead to blasphemy. When we think of blasphemy, we should think not only the reviling God but violation of His character. So, a believer who acts in ignorance to indicate, for example, that God is not all powerful has in fact blasphemed. Let me illustrate. When we worry, we are in effect blaspheming because we are saying to God that we have encountered a problem that He is not capable of handling. This thinking is a result of ignorance of the true omnipotent God and the promise of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 6:25:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
For the unbeliever, however, his blasphemy is mostly that of speaking ill of God and things that he does not understand. This is the reason Peter describes evil men who do not understand God as being blasphemous in 2 Peter 2:12:
But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
Third, and the deadliest consequence of ignorance is eternal destruction as stated, for example, in 2 Thessalonians 1:8–9:
8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.
Eternal destruction comes because a person does not know that salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ as stated in Acts 4:12:
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
A person who does not know that salvation is obtained through faith in Jesus Christ seeks to establish right relationship or the personal righteousness through works because the person does not know that righteousness is obtained through faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, Apostle Paul could speak of those who are trying to establish right standing with God by their own works as ignorant of how to obtain God’s righteousness by faith as he referenced in Romans 10:3:
Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
It is because of ignorance of what Christ has done for us on the cross and a person’s effort to establish relationship with God on the individual’s works that are included in the darkening of a person’s understanding Apostle Paul used to describe those who are alienated from God in the passage we cited previously, that is, Ephesians 4:18:
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
There is no doubt that ignorance has the disastrous consequence of eternal separation from God for the unbeliever, but it still has an unpleasant consequence for a believer. Ignorance of truth on the part of a believer leads to living a lifestyle that is incompatible with truth. As a believer lives that kind of lifestyle, the person remains without the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is the situation with many Christians; ignorance keeps them from recognizing that they are not controlled by the Holy Spirit because of their lifestyles. This was the concern of Apostle Peter in his epistle that he cautioned believers not to live a lifestyle of ignorance in 1 Peter 1:14:
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
It is not only that ignorance leads to wrong lifestyle for a believer, but it also causes such a person to live in slavery to Satan as it pertains fear of death as the human author of Hebrews stated in Hebrew 2:14-15:
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-- that is, the devil—15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Anyway, we should recognize that ignorance has disastrous consequences on both unbelievers and believers and so we should do everything in our power to dispel ignorance in spiritual matters. This, of course, does not come overnight; it requires years and years of learning the word of God. Even then, we will not completely eliminate ignorance in spiritual matters, but we can minimize it through devoted study of God’s word.
Elimination of ignorance about spiritual matters as related to the Holy Spirit enables a believer to avoid any kind of deception regarding the Holy Spirit and His ministry in the church of Christ. It is this fact that the apostle intended to convey to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12:2 although it does not appear to be the case, but we will argue that unless that is the intention of the apostle then verse 2 is a needless declaration.
Anyway, the apostle began verse 2 with sentence You know. The form of the Greek word in the plural translated You know is one Apostle Paul used more times in his first epistle to the Corinthians than any other of his epistles. You see, the apostle used the Greek form translated You know twenty-seven times in his epistles but twelve of these in his first epistle to the Corinthians. Of course, ten of these usages are in the form of question to remind the Corinthians of something they should have known either because of what he taught them or because of their previous experience. For example, he reminded the Corinthians that the Holy Spirit resides in them individually and corporately although through a question as we read in 1 Corinthians 6:19:
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
The question assumes the apostle had taught them this truth about their relationship with the Holy Spirit. He also appealed to what they knew through their experience as Corinthians as it relates to athletic competitions in 1 Corinthians 9:24:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
The Corinthians were aware of what the apostle stated regarding runners because they have observed individuals who participated in various races. So, his question, although rhetorical, assumes something that they know for certain. The interesting thing is that, as we have stated, the apostle used the form of Greek word translated You know ten times in a question format but in our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:2 he deviated from his pattern of using a question. Instead, he used a positive statement. Why is that? Well, we are out of time so next week we will answer it. However, let me remind you of the message of the section we are studying which is: You should be well informed about spiritual matters to avoid any spiritual deception.