You can read the text here.
The next topic Paul tackles, still with an eye towards unity, is spiritual gifts. The opening is a bit enigmatic, but at the core Paul wants to make clear the basic dichotomy of the Christian life compared to their former lives as pagans. It's about where one stands in relation to Jesus, whether one submits to his lordship or rejects it. The gifts given by the Spirit will be similarly identifiable, they will be Christomorphic.[1] Also, to set the stage for later discussion, Paul makes clear that their God is a living God who can speak for himself. He does not need humans to speak for him and hence possessing showy speaking gifts does not make one more necessary or of higher status.[2] In a nutshell, do the "gifts" one possesses point towards Jesus or towards oneself?
God has given the church a variety of gifts. They all have the same source, the Spirit, and the same giver, God. He activates them as he sees fit. There is no indication in the text that in the ensuing list of gifts that Paul has in mind offices or that individuals necessarily permanently possess these gifts. God gives them to whom he will when he will for as long as he will, with one purpose in mind, the common good.
Paul then marches through a variety of gifts.[3] These appear to be a sampling of the gifts given by the Spirit. Given upcoming chapters some of them were selected due to their (over)prominence at Corinth. The Spirit certainly can work through God's people in natural ways just as much as supernatural. One of Paul's main concerns seems to be minimizing the importance of tongues, hence its position at the bottom of the list. There is extensive debate on the precise nature of tongues. The two most likely options are that it refers to human languages that the speaker does not know, or, more likely in my opinion, the language of the unconscious, and only intelligible to God (and to one to whom he grants the ability to interpret).[4]
Paul concludes reminding them that there is only one source for all of these gifts, the Spirit of God who gives as he will. All gifts are then presumably necessary and no one is superior to another on the basis of the gifts they possess.
----------------------------------------------------
[1] To use Thiselton's phrase.
[2] See the extended discussion in Thiselton.
[3] I am not going to spend time detailing each. Thiselton's commentary is very thorough in that regard and I point you there. One thing to keep in mind when thinking about these gifts is that they are not necessarily supernatural in the way they work, even if granted supernaturally.
[4] Ciampa and Rosner take the former position and Thiselton the latter.
The next topic Paul tackles, still with an eye towards unity, is spiritual gifts. The opening is a bit enigmatic, but at the core Paul wants to make clear the basic dichotomy of the Christian life compared to their former lives as pagans. It's about where one stands in relation to Jesus, whether one submits to his lordship or rejects it. The gifts given by the Spirit will be similarly identifiable, they will be Christomorphic.[1] Also, to set the stage for later discussion, Paul makes clear that their God is a living God who can speak for himself. He does not need humans to speak for him and hence possessing showy speaking gifts does not make one more necessary or of higher status.[2] In a nutshell, do the "gifts" one possesses point towards Jesus or towards oneself?
God has given the church a variety of gifts. They all have the same source, the Spirit, and the same giver, God. He activates them as he sees fit. There is no indication in the text that in the ensuing list of gifts that Paul has in mind offices or that individuals necessarily permanently possess these gifts. God gives them to whom he will when he will for as long as he will, with one purpose in mind, the common good.
Paul then marches through a variety of gifts.[3] These appear to be a sampling of the gifts given by the Spirit. Given upcoming chapters some of them were selected due to their (over)prominence at Corinth. The Spirit certainly can work through God's people in natural ways just as much as supernatural. One of Paul's main concerns seems to be minimizing the importance of tongues, hence its position at the bottom of the list. There is extensive debate on the precise nature of tongues. The two most likely options are that it refers to human languages that the speaker does not know, or, more likely in my opinion, the language of the unconscious, and only intelligible to God (and to one to whom he grants the ability to interpret).[4]
Paul concludes reminding them that there is only one source for all of these gifts, the Spirit of God who gives as he will. All gifts are then presumably necessary and no one is superior to another on the basis of the gifts they possess.
----------------------------------------------------
[1] To use Thiselton's phrase.
[2] See the extended discussion in Thiselton.
[3] I am not going to spend time detailing each. Thiselton's commentary is very thorough in that regard and I point you there. One thing to keep in mind when thinking about these gifts is that they are not necessarily supernatural in the way they work, even if granted supernaturally.
[4] Ciampa and Rosner take the former position and Thiselton the latter.
Comments
Post a Comment