To Each, A Gift of the Spirit Is Given—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost Sunday (1 Corinthians 12:3b-13)
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| Peter Koenig, "Pentecost" |
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 New Revised Standard VersionUpdated Edition
3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, 5 and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
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When
the Council of Nicaea met in 325 CE, it created a creedal statement that
addressed the question of God’s triune nature. Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit
received short shrift. It wasn’t until another council met at Constantinople in
381 that the established church addressed the identity of the Holy Spirit. Even
then, the Spirit was largely placed on the back burner, except when movements,
like the Montanists in the ancient world or the Pentecostals of the modern age,
popped up to emphasize the work of the Spirit. Otherwise, the Spirit largely
operated in the shadow of the second member of the Trinity. The one Sunday in
the year that the Holy Spirit gets emphasized is Pentecost Sunday, which is
often celebrated as the church’s birthday. While it is the day that the
promised Spirit descended on the church (Acts 2:1-13), even then we tend to shy
away from emphasizing the ministry of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised
would empower the witness of the church (Acts 1:8). Perhaps the reason the
church has deemphasized the Holy Spirit is that when the Spirit moves, things
happen. In fact, they often happen outside the control of the institution. That
is dangerous, or so many think.
Since
this is Pentecost Sunday, the church is invited to wrestle with the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. The Gospel reading comes from John 20:19-23, which tells how
Jesus appeared to the disciples on Easter evening, at which time Jesus breathed
the Holy Spirit into them, giving them the power to forgive sins (or not). Of
course, there is the reading from Acts 2, which details the events of Pentecost
Sunday, including the descent of the Spirit. According to Luke, when the Spirit
descended on the community that had been waiting for the Spirit to come and
empower their witness, the Spirit came into the room like the rush of a mighty
wind, while tongues of fire rested on each member of the community, who were
gifted with the ability to proclaim the gospel in unknown languages, such that
the pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost (Feast of
Weeks) heard the gospel in their own languages. That led to Peter’s sermon and
the baptism of 3,000 persons. However, my focus in this reflection is on the
reading from 1 Corinthians 12, where we hear a word about how the Spirit
operates in the community of faith, gifting the people so they can edify one
another.
When it comes to the church in
Corinth, it was a mess. Paul wrote at least two letters, probably more, seeking
to deal with the unruly nature of this congregation. I’ve always said they
offer a case study of what not to do as a church. These letters also remind us
that the primitive church was not perfect! One thing that seems clear is that
this congregation affirmed the promise of the Spirit but misunderstood the
point of the Spirit’s ministry in the church. They operated as many moderns do,
with an individualist and a hierarchical view of the Spirit’s ministry,
focusing on their spiritual benefits at the expense of the community. Thus,
Paul spends three chapters, including the famous word about the nature of love,
dealing with the problems created by this community. While this is true, I
believe we can learn a lot about the ministry of the Holy Spirit by attending
to this word from Paul.
The
lectionary selection begins with the second half of verse 3, but we might want
to attend to the opening verses of chapter 12. Once again, Paul signals that he
is going to address another topic. The Greek words that signal this new topic
are peri de (Now Concerning). What Paul wants to talk about are
spiritual things or spiritual people, though the NRSVUE, and many other
translations speak of “spiritual gifts.” The Greek word here is pneumatikos,
which can be translated in a variety of ways. But it seems that Paul is
addressing a question on the part of the Corinthians concerning a broader
category, to which Paul brings into the conversation spiritual gifts (charismata).
We see Paul’s concerns revealed in the next statement. When it comes to
spiritual things, he doesn’t want them to be uninformed. After all, when they
were “pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.”
Paul doesn’t want them to confuse the things of the Holy Spirit with the things
connected to other kinds of spiritualities, epitomized by idols. In addition,
those who speak by the Spirit of God never say, “Jesus be cursed.” At the same
time, no one declares “Jesus is Lord” except by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. This verse suggests that something odd was taking place that involved
cursing Jesus. In other words, be careful with how you engage with various
kinds of spiritualities. Of course, this opens up another conversation about
how we might participate in interfaith events, something I have been actively
involved in for many years. Perhaps in our context, we might want to consider
other expressions that we might deem idolatry, such as blessing the golden
statue of the President of the United States.
The
reading from 1 Corinthians 12 focuses on spiritual things. It sits within a
larger discussion that runs from 1 Corinthians 12 to 14. Sitting in the middle
of this three-chapter section is 1 Corinthians 13, the famous chapter on love.
While 1 Corinthians 13 is often read at weddings, the point of the chapter is
that the way the church operates, spiritually, should be guided by love.
Whether one speaks in tongues or prophesies is irrelevant if one does not have
love. We should keep this in mind as we consider our reading from 1 Corinthians
12:3b-13. The stipulated reading begins with the words, “no one can say 'Jesus
is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit.” Michael Gorman comments on Paul’s point,
writing: “Believing and confessing that Jesus is Lord is not merely an
intellectual affirmation; it is a personal and public commitment to obey this
Lord; it is a promise of exclusive loyalty, a pledge of allegiance. Moreover,
this confession is not something that happens once; it is the ongoing reality
of life in Christ. And because it is so serious and so all encompassing, it can
be sustained and nurtured only by God’s grace and the support of a community of
like-minded people, a family of faithful siblings” [Gorman, 1Corinthians, pp.
309-310]. With this message in place, that to confess faith in Jesus involves a
complete commitment of one’s life to Christ, Paul can now invite us to consider
how we should live together as the body of Christ.
In
addressing questions about spiritual things, after Paul tells the Corinthians
that proclaiming Jesus as Lord serves as a pledge of allegiance to Jesus, he begins
to answer the question with a discussion of spiritual gifts. He tells them that
there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are also a variety of
services, but the same Lord. Finally, there are a variety of activities, but
the same God who activates them. While Paul never provides an explicit
trinitarian statement, this declaration about gifts, services, and activities at
the very least offers an intriguing statement that can be construed in a
trinitarian way. What we can say here is that God is at work through the Spirit
to build up and equip the community of faith. Verse 7 is key because in it Paul
declares, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common
good.” This is an important statement because it reminds us that everyone
in the church is gifted by the Spirit for a purpose, and that is the “common
good.” Spiritual gifts may end up providing edification of the self, but that’s
not the purpose. Edification of the individual comes because they participate
in the community. From there, Paul gives a list of gifts (verses 8-10) that
begins with a gift of wisdom and ends with the interpretation of tongues. When
we get to chapter 14, it is clear that one of the areas of concern, and the
reason the question gets asked, is that it appears the community prioritized speaking
in tongues. That is most likely because it was understood to be an ecstatic
utterance. At least some believed that this gift served as a marker of
spiritual superiority. By placing it in a listing of gifts, with the assumption
that one may or may not receive a particular gift, relativizes it. In chapter
14, Paul reminds the Corinthians that if they speak in tongues, they should do
so in tandem with interpretation so that the church might be edified (1 Cor. 14:1-5). For a full discussion of spiritual gifts and how they might contribute
to the life of the church, see my book Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts
for the New Great Awakening. Second Expanded Edition, (Energion
Publications, 2021).
After
Paul provides this list of gifts (he will repeat the list with a couple of
changes in verses 27-30), he reminds the readers that each of these gifts is “activated
by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the
Spirit chooses” (1 Cor. 12:11). This is important: The Spirit chooses the gift
not the individual. It also reinforces Paul’s message that there can be unity
in diversity, something he makes clear in this same chapter.
If we
move to verses twelve and thirteen, which close out our reading, we read this
in verse 12: “For just as the body is one and has many
members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is
with Christ.” In Paul’s view, the church is the body of Christ on earth. Like
the human body, the church has many members but is still one. Later in the
chapter, Paul emphasizes the connectedness of the body by reminding the community
that “when one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is
honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Cor. 12:26). We can’t all be eyes or
ears! The message here is that for the church to be whole, it needs all the
gifts that God provides the body through the Spirit.
Paul’s
final statement in this reading is found in verse 13, which wraps this discussion
by pointing us to baptism and the role it plays in uniting the community into
one body: “For in the one Spirit we were
all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made
to drink of one Spirit.” Baptism, and perhaps the Eucharist, serve to unite
each one into the one body. In making that statement, Paul gives two important
examples. Both Jews and Greeks are united in this one body through baptism. The
same is true of slaves and those who are free. These social distinctions, which
were so important for the larger community, had no bearing on life in the
church. In Galatians 3:28, which focuses on a different area of concern, Paul
adds the pairing of male and female, reminding the Galatians that gender has no
bearing on a person’s place in the realm of God. John
McClure points out in this regard that “all of the usual ways in which people
are organized by class, ethnicity, gender, social status, or education are
irrelevant within this new creation. All that is relevant is the way
that God’s gifts empower each for the common welfare of the whole” [Preaching
God’s Transforming Justice, p. 254]. So, even though the Christian
community has allowed social and cultural distinctions to divide us, Paul wants
us to know that they are not a legitimate part of what it means to be a
community that has pledged its allegiance to Jesus, through the empowering
presence of the Holy Spirit.
I close
with this word from Heidi Haverkamp: “Gifts are not a hierarchy of achievements
or a proof of faith. A gift of the Spirit is not something earned. Paul tells
the Corinthians that their spiritual lives and actions are not about personal
worthiness or effort, but pure gift: the result of the grace, desire, and
activation of the Spirit. They are simply part of who we are!” [Connections:
A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (Kindle p. 327)]. If this is true, as I believe is the case,
then let us embrace our calling to bring into service the gifts of God for the
people of God so that all might be blessed. This is especially true on the Day
of Pentecost!
Image Attribution: Koenig, Peter. Pentecost, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58542 [retrieved May 18, 2026]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.
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