Gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12

November 25, 2018

Article by Ben Frostad

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(Ruach HaKodesh, Session 10a)

 

This session of the Ruach HaKodesh series examines Paul’s discussion of the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Paul wrote this section of his epistle in response to a question that the Corinthian believers had asked him. In his response, Paul seeks to clarify some misunderstandings the Corinthians had about the gifts of the Spirit. This episode (part 1) looks at Paul’s argument in chapter 12 as he makes the following points:

• The most overpowering is not necessarily the most spiritual
• We should avoid a narrow view of spirituality that overemphasizes certain gifts
• Spiritual empowerment is a gift of grace, not a reward for effort
• We should avoid valuing gifts for what they do for the recipient rather than or more than for what they do for the community
• We cannot separate Yeshua from the Spirit; we must not relegate Yeshua to beginner level while seeing the Spirit as a deeper level of spirituality, nor see the Spirit as leading “beyond Yeshua” rather than precisely to him.^[1]This and the preceding points derived from Frederick Dale Bruner, A Theology of the Holy Spirit (Eerdmans, 1970), pp. 290-291.
• We have no right to say that our giftedness is either superior or inferior to another believer’s giftedness.
• We are not all gifted the same. God has gifted each of us, and we are all important.

For an outline of all the sessions in this series, click on this link. To subscribe to this podcast, click here.

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