Lessons #425 and 426
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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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Spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:7-11)
… 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
Recall the message of 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 that we have been considering is that There are several spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit gave for the benefit of the church. Pursuant to this message we have considered eight spiritual gifts. The eighth that we considered in our last study is the gift of tongues as in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:10 different kinds of tongues or literally kinds of tongues. Because of the difficulty associated with the interpretation of the gift, we spent considerable time dealing with it. We stated that “tongue” here refers both a foreign language and a spiritual language, depending on the situation when the Holy Spirit grants the manifestation of the gift of speaking in tongues. Consequently, we stated that the gift refers to the special ability the Holy Spirit gives an individual to speak a language the individual has never known that may or may not be known by the hearers. The gift does not necessarily mean that the language spoken be intelligible to the audience only that they realize it is not their language. Our reason for stating that those who hear the one with gift of tongues exercise it may not understand the speaker is because of the ninth spiritual gift mentioned that is our concern in today’s study.
The ninth spiritual gift Apostle Paul mentioned in the passage we are studying is related to interpretation of the exercise of gift of tongues as we read in the last phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:10 and to still another the interpretation of tongues. Before we comment further on this phrase, we should point out that without this gift of interpretation of tongues the gift of speaking in tongues would not be beneficial to a local church. This is the reason the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul instructs that the gift of speaking in tongues should not be exercised if there is no one with the gift of interpretation of tongues in the congregation to interpret what the one with the gift of tongues utters as we read in 1 Corinthians 14:27–28:
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God.
Returning to the last phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:10 and to still another the interpretation of tongues, we still want to emphasize that while the phrase to still another is intended to tell us that not every spiritual gift is given to each believer but that does not mean that a believer could not have more than one spiritual gift. The apostles certainly had more than one spiritual gift. Take for example, Apostle Paul himself. He had the gift of healing as demonstrated in the healing of a crippled man in Lystra, as we read in Acts 14:8–10:
8 In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
Apostle Paul had the gift of miracles as evident in the blinding of Elymas, the sorcerer, as we may gather from Acts 13:9–11:
9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11 Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
Apostle Paul had the gift of prophecy as evident in his prophetic utterances recorded in his epistles. For example, he states what the Holy Spirit says will occur in the future from the time he wrote as we read in 1 Timothy 4:1–3:
1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.
Similar prophetic utterance is given in 2 Timothy 3:1–5:
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
Apostle Paul had the gift of speaking in tongues as he stated in 1 Corinthians 14:18:
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
We have cited a few examples of the many spiritual gifts of the apostle that prove that a believer could have more than one spiritual gift. Of course, a person may argue that the example we used involved an apostle and so would not apply to any other believer. If so, let me use an example of a believer that was not an apostle to demonstrate the point. The example is Philip who was chosen as one of the seven administrators of the early church that certainly had at least three spiritual gifts. He had the gift of evangelism because not only was he involved in evangelism, but he was described as an evangelist in Acts 21:8:
Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven.
Philip also had the gift of miracles and gift of healing as he demonstrated during his evangelist work in Samaria, according to Acts 8:6–8:
6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
Someone may question, how we are certain that the Philip in this passage is Philip the evangelist and not one of the apostles of Jesus Christ mentioned in Matthew 10:2–4:
2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
We are certain that the Philip that preached in Samaria was not an apostle of Jesus Christ in the sense of the Twelve. This is because no apostle left Jerusalem following the first wave of persecution that took place after Stephen’s death, as stated in Acts 8:1:
And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
Furthermore, if the Philip that went to Samaria was an apostle of Jesus Christ, then it would have been strange for the church to send two apostles to Samaria to confirm the work of Philip, as indicated in Acts 8:14:
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.
We stated that Philip had at least three spiritual gifts because the three we mentioned are clear from the record in Acts about him. However, we believe that he also had the gift of administration being one of the seven administrators of the early church as stated in Acts 6:5–6:
5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
Hence, Philip illustrates that a believer other than an apostle could have more than one spiritual gift. That aside, Apostle Paul implies also that a person could have more than one spiritual gift because he instructs a person who speaks in tongue to request to have the ability to interpret what the person says as we read in 1 Corinthians 14:13:
For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says.
Anyway, the apostle states in 1 Corinthians 12:11 and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
The word “interpretation” is translated from a Greek noun (hermēneia) that appears twice in the Greek NT; in our passage and in 1 Corinthians 14:26 where it is also translated “interpretation.” The word refers to “translation ability,” that is, the ability to interpret a language not one’s own. The Greek noun is related to a Greek verb (hermēneuō) with two related meanings. The word may mean “to explain, to interpret,” that is, to help someone understand a subject or a matter by making it plain as it is used to describe what Jesus Christ did to His disciples after His resurrection as it pertains to the Scripture regarding Him as we read in Luke 24:27:
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Another meaning is “to translate,” that is to render words from one language to another as it is used to give the meaning of the name Cephas in John 1:42:
And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
The meanings of the Greek verb enable us to understand that the gift of interpretation of tongues is the gift that is concerned with translating or explaining what one with gift of tongues uttered so that others will understand what is said. We are saying that the gift of interpretation of tongues functions differently depending on the nature of the tongue spoken. If “tongue” refers to a known human language that the audience or the speaker does not know, then the gift of interpretation of tongues functions in a way to translate what was said in a foreign language to the language of the audience so that they would understand what the one with gift of tongues uttered. If, however, the “tongue” is of spiritual nature or ecstatic utterance then the gift of interpretation of tongues functions in a way to explain or make intelligible to the congregation the message conveyed by the one who spoke in tongues.
The mention of the ninth gift as that of interpretation of the gift of tongues ends the apostle’s longest list of spiritual gifts in his first epistle to the Corinthians, but as we indicated the list the apostle gave is not exhaustive. Most of the gifts he listed in this twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians involve those that are spectacular in that they are those many would recognize as indeed spiritual gifts but there are other spiritual gifts that do not involve the spectacular. They are often the gifts that are quietly applied. Take for example, the apostle mentioned the gifts of help and administration in his second list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:28:
And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.
This verse notwithstanding, the apostle listed majority of the kind of spiritual gifts that are not usually spectacular in its exercise in his epistle to the Romans in a passage we cited at the beginning of this section of 1 Corinthians 12, that is, Romans 12:6–8:
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Be that as it may, there is a sense that we can say that the apostle after listing the nine spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 returns to what he said regarding individual, spiritual gift believers receive that he introduced in verse 7. But that is not all, he summed up what he said about the nature of spiritual gifts with additional information regarding how each recipient of a spiritual gift comes to possess it. We say this because the apostle begins verse 11 with the same Greek particle (de) used in 1 Corinthians 12:7 that may be used to connect one clause to another, either to express contrast or simple continuation but in certain occurrences the marker may be left untranslated as adopted here by some English versions, such as, the NIV that did not translate our Greek particle. Although it is often translated “but” in the English 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. It can also be used to indicate transition to something new. In our verse, the Greek particle is subject to two possible interpretations. It can be used to state a contrast with the translation “but” as done in some of our English versions, such as the NASB and the TEV, among others, regarding verse 11. The use of the meaning “but” as some interpret it is to show the contrast between the many gifts and the single source for them all. Another possible interpretation is that the particle is used to resume the thought the apostle started in verse 7 in which case it may not be translated. It is difficult to decide which of these the apostle meant. This notwithstanding, one thing that is clear is that the apostle summed up what he has been saying about spiritual gifts and their source that he presented in verses 4 to 10 an added information as how each believer comes to possess them.
In summing up what the apostle has been teaching beginning in verse 4, he emphatically wanted the Corinthians and so all believers to recognize that God is the source of every spiritual gift as in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit. In the English, it may not be readily evident that the apostle is emphatic in this sentence, but the Greek enables us to recognize that that is the case because the apostle began verse 11 with Greek words translated into the English as All these. You see, the English sentence has a fairly fixed word order where the subject precedes the predicate, implying that the location of a noun in English sentence is important in communicating what is intended in the sentence. This is because English, unlike Greek, is not an inflectional language. By this we mean that it is not a language where a change in the form of a word (typically the ending) is used to express a grammatical function or attribute such as tense, mood, person, number, case, and gender. This means that if we want to say that the death of Doe was caused by Joe, we have to say Joe killed Doe since if we revise the order, we will change the meaning where Doe would then cause the death of Joe. Thus, the position of a noun in the English is important. On the other hand, the Greek is an inflectional language, so the position of a Greek word is not as important as in the English since it is the ending of a Greek noun that determines its function in a sentence. This notwithstanding, generally, in the Greek, the word emphasized will be placed first in the sentence, although occasionally, it is placed last in the sentence. Apostle Paul began verse 11 with the Greek words translated “all these” in the NIV to emphasize it. It is probably to convey this emphasis that the NIV and a handful of English versions began the verse with the phrase all these. The Greek form indicates that the phrase all these although first in the sentence is the direct object of the verb used in the sentence of verse 11 in the Greek. Thus, some English versions rendered the Greek to reflect this. Take for example, the first clause of the NASB reads But one and the same Spirit works all these things. The English reader will understand that the phrase all these things is the direct object of the verb “works” used in the NASB but would not know that the apostle emphasized the phrase. This is not the case for the Greek reader since such a person would understand that the apostle by placing the Greek phrase first in the verse intended to emphasize it. In other words, it is because the apostle began the Greek sentence with the phrase, we are considering that is the direct object of the verb he used in the first clause of verse 11 that we asserted the apostle emphasized the phrase all these of the NIV.
Anyway, what does the apostle mean in the phrase All these? In our context, All these refers to the nine spiritual gifts the apostle listed in verses 8 to 10 that are the gifts of message of wisdom, message of knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. We are carful to state that the phrase All these in the context refers to these nine spiritual gifts since what the apostle states in verse 11 that we are considering is not limited to the spiritual gifts mentioned in the context but all spiritual gifts. Nonetheless, we should recognize that the nine spiritual gifts we mentioned are not all that the phrase all these refers; it includes the various manifestations of the spiritual gifts mentioned. This is because of what the apostle had already stated in 1 Corinthians 12:6:
There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
The word “working” in this verse is translated from a Greek noun (energēma) related to a Greek verb in verse 11 that we will consider shortly.
Be that as it may, it is our assertion that Apostle Paul emphatically wanted the Corinthians and so all believers to recognize that God is the source of every spiritual gift as in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit. In effect, we are saying that all spiritual gifts are from God without distinction in the persons of the Godhead. We will justify our use of the word “God” instead of “Spirit” later but for the moment we should recognize that the Holy Spirit as God is responsible for the execution of spiritual gifts. It should not surprise anyone that we stated that the Holy Spirit is the One who executes or carries out the various demonstrations of spiritual gifts. This is because the Scripture reveals that the Holy Spirit is the member of the Triune God that executes and sustains what God the Father has planned as well as complete what the Son, the Lord Jesus began. Thus, in the OT Scripture, creation was linked to the Holy Spirit as we read in Psalm 104:30:
When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.
The Lord Jesus conveyed this truth about the Holy Spirit continuing His work in the promise of Him coming to be with the disciples and so with the church as we read in John 14:26:
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Let me justify my assertion regarding the Holy Spirit executing or continuing the work of God the Father and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation was accomplished on the cross when the Lord Jesus died for our sins but the execution of that salvation so that an unbeliever is given new life is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus stated this fact in his interaction with Nicodemus as we read in John 3:8:
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
To be born of the Spirit is to be regenerated. That aside, that being born again, or rebirth is the work of the Holy Spirit is implied by Apostle Paul in his statement in Titus 3:5:
he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
God’s plan is for us to be sanctified both in the sense of being dedicated to Him and of being in moral purity. The Holy Spirit carries this out as Apostle Paul had already conveyed to the Corinthians according to 1 Corinthians 6:11:
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
No doubt that God’s plan is for us to exhibit the character of His Son, the Lord Jesus, while He was on this planet. We could not do this but the Holy Spirit when He controls us, produces in us the characteristics of Christ described as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
You get the idea that the Holy Spirit executes the plan of God. Therefore, you should not be surprised that I stated that He is responsible for execution of spiritual gifts given to believers. Bear in mind that He is the One that provides power to witness for Christ as the Lord Jesus indicated would be the case in Acts 1:8:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
It is not only that the Holy Spirit supplies the power to be an effective witness for Jesus Christ, but we know that He is the One that brings miracles through believers as Apostle Paul testified in what he wrote in Romans 15:18–19:
18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19 by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.
The phrase of verse 19 by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit indicates the Holy Spirit is the One that enabled the apostle in his ministry of preaching the word as well as the various miracles that he performed as he went about in his ministry in different places that he preached the gospel.
We have demonstrated briefly that the Holy Spirit executes the spiritual gifts given to believers. We say this because of the sentence we are considering in 1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit. Literally, the Greek reads the one and the same Spirit produces all these things. This is because the verbal phrase are the work of is how the translators of the NIV rendered a Greek verb (energeō) that may mean “to produce” as the word is used by Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians to convey that comfort comes by endurance or that comfort produces that ability to endure in suffering according to 2 Corinthians 1:6
If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
The word may mean “to work” as Apostle Paul used the word to convey that God performed some miracles among the Galatians as we read in Galatians 3:5:
Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
The word may mean “to act,” that is, to cause something to be, as the word is used to indicate that God acts in believers to cause them both to will and to act according to His good purpose as we read in Philippians 2:13:
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
The Greek verb, as we stated previously, is related to the Greek noun (energēma) that means “a working, an activity.” That aside, in our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:11, the sense of the Greek verb is “to implement,” that is, to cause to function; to carry into effect.” This being the case, our assertion that the Holy Spirit executes the spiritual gifts believers receive is indeed correct since the apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit or literally the one and the same Spirit produces all these things. We are saying that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gift, but He does not end at that. Before any spiritual gift could function, the Holy Spirit must execute it. The implication of this is that a person’s spiritual gift would not function properly when the person is not controlled by the Holy Spirit. For example, a person with the gift of “faith” would not exercise that gift if the individual is not controlled by the Holy Spirit.
In any case, we should observe that this is the fourth time the apostle used the phrase the same Spirit. The first usage of the phrase by the apostle is after he asserted that there are diverse spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:4:
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
The second usage of the phrase the same Spirit is after mentioning the gifts of wisdom and knowledge as they pertain to God’s word or message in 1 Corinthians 12:8:
To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
The third usage of the phrase the same Spirit is following the mention of the gift of faith as we read in 1 Corinthians 12:9:
to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
The fourth usage of the phrase the same Spirit is when the apostle sums up what he has been teaching about spiritual gifts in the passage we are studying, that is, 1 Corinthians 12:11. It seems that the apostle wants to impress on us the hearers the significance of the phrase. The phrase, no doubt, is for curbing any kind of arrogance either in form of feeling superior or feeling inferior because of one’s spiritual gift. Regardless of the nature of a person’s spiritual gift, that individual must recognize that the person’s spiritual gift comes from the same source as that of the other individual whose spiritual gift may be the reason for feeling superior or inferior to another believer. Anyway, the apostle’s point is that it is the same Spirit that produces the manifestation of the spiritual gifts that he listed and so there is no room for feeling superior or inferior to other believers because of one’s spiritual gift. No one is deserving of any spiritual gift so no one should boast of a spiritual gift as if it is something meritorious when it is not.
We previously stated that Apostle Paul intended to convey that God is the source of spiritual gifts whereas the apostle used the phrase in 1 Corinthians 12:11 the same Spirit. We use the word “God” for two reasons. First, to convey that Apostle Paul indirectly stated that Holy Spirit is God. That Holy Spirit is God is established in the Scripture. Apostle Peter conveyed this truth of the Holy Spirit being God when he confronted Ananias about lying or acting deceptively regarding his gift to the church as we read in Acts 5:3–4:
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”
In verse 3 Apostle Peter said you have lied to the Holy Spirit and in verse 4 he repeated the same statement but this time he said You have not lied to men but to God. The two declarations in the two verses leave one no other conclusion but that Holy Spirit is God although Apostle Peter did not directly state that but that is what he meant. Apostle Paul also indirectly stated that the Holy Spirit is God through what he wrote earlier to the Corinthians. He informed them they are God’s temple as we read in 1 Corinthians 3:16:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
Later, in the same epistle, the apostle asserted that the body of the Corinthians is a temple of the Holy Spirit 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;
If the Corinthians are the temple of God and temple of the Holy Spirit, there is only one conclusion one can reach, which is that Holy Spirit is God. It is this indirect communication of the fact that the Holy Spirit is God that the apostle did when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit. The phrase all these, as we have noted previously, is a reference to spiritual gifts and their execution. But then, the apostle makes similar statement in the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Corinthians 12:6:
There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
The sentence the same God works all of them in all men is essentially saying the same thing as All these are the work of one and the same Spirit of 1 Corinthians 12:11. Therefore, the apostle indirectly stated that Holy Spirit is God. Second, we use the word “God” in our interpretation of verse 11 to recognize that although the Holy Spirit is the One that is primarily associated with spiritual gifts, He is not the only member of the Godhead associated with spiritual gifts. The Lord Jesus is also stated to give spiritual gifts to believers as we read in Ephesians 4:7–11:
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” 9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.
It is true that Ephesians 4:11 is concerned with offices but one cannot occupy an office listed without the spiritual gift associated with the office. For example, a person cannot be a prophet without the gift of prophecy. Take another example. A person could not truly occupy the office of a teacher in the church of Christ without the spiritual gift of teaching. Anyway, the passage of Ephesians we cited indicates that Jesus Christ gave spiritual gifts to the church. Therefore, it is not wrong to state that God is the source of spiritual gifts although in 1 Corinthians, it is primarily the Holy Spirit that the apostle associated with spiritual gifts and their manifestations.
In any case, we contend that God is not only the source of spiritual gifts, but He determines who He gives it and when to do so. This we say because of the last clause of 1 Corinthians 12:11 and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. Literally, the Greek reads distributing individually to each one just as he wills.
The word “gives” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (diaireō) that means to divide and distribute to persons on the basis of certain implied distinctions or differences as the word is used in the request of the prodigal son to his father regarding receiving his own portion of inheritance as recorded in Luke 15:12:
The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:11, it has the sense of “apportion/distribute”, that is, to distribute according to a plan or set apart for a special purpose. The Greek used a present tense, implying that the action of distributing spiritual gifts by God is one that is ongoing. It has not stopped. This we can understand since individuals are continually being saved. When a person is saved God gives that individual spiritual gift(s), so it makes sense that the apostle used a present tense to indicate that the action of distributing spiritual function has not ceased. By the way, the idea of apportioning or distributing spiritual gifts here in 1 Corinthians 12:11 is similar to what is said about the Lord Jesus distributing of spiritual gifts although a different Greek verb (metron) is used in a passage we cited previously, specifically Ephesians 4:7:
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
That aside, the Holy Spirit conveys that every believer receives at least one spiritual gift from God as implied in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:11 to each one. The word “one” is translated from a Greek word (idios) that may mean “one’s own” as it is used in describing the situation in the early church when no one laid claim to his property as we read in Acts 4:32:
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
The word may mean “unique” or “something that is distinctive” as it used for the fruit of a tree in Luke 6:44:
Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.
Although the Greek word is translated “own” in this passage, but “fruit” is that which is distinctive or unique to a given tree. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:11, the word is used in the sense of “particular,” that is, unique or specific to a person. The implication is that the Lord gives every believer a spiritual gift that is unique to the individual although others would have the same gift, but it is tailored to each individual to function under such gift.
The apportioning or distributing of spiritual gifts is God’s decision alone. In effect, we have nothing to do with any spiritual gift that we have. It is this fact that is expressed in the last clause of 1 Corinthians 12:11 just as he determines. By strict interpretation, the pronoun he refers to the Holy Spirit but because we have indicated that He is God then we can say that the pronoun refers to God with specific focus in this passage on the Holy Spirit. The word “determines” is translated from a Greek word (boulomai) that may mean “to plan, to intend, to will” as Apostle Paul used it to describe his intent to visit the Corinthians, as stated in 2 Corinthians 1:15:
Because I was confident of this, I planned to visit you first so that you might benefit twice.
The word may mean “to desire, to want” as in the desire of the Holy Spirit expressed through the apostle regarding intercessory prayer in 1 Timothy 2:8:
I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:11, it has the sense of “to desire” or “to intend.” Hence, it is not a person’s desire or wish that determines the spiritual gift the person receives. It is the determination of the Sovereign God. He determines what role each believer is to play in the church of Christ. Therefore, He gives each believer the spiritual gift suitable for that individual to fulfill that function. Anyway, let me end by reminding you once more the message of 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 which is There are several spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit gave for the benefit of the church. So, you have a spiritual gift that functions under the right conditions for the benefit of the local church you belong to.
06/17//22