I Corinthians 12:1  Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
2  Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
3  Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
4  Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

God is a good God. He wants us to know Him. He is TRUTH. Those who are saved need to be fed the Truth. In my few short years, I have seen many changes in the religious scene. I have not seen many good changes. In my own life, I am thankful for God’s mercy to me. He saved me at age 20. He showed me the importance of truth but I was slow in following Him as I should have. I struggled for 15 years before I finally saw the importance of building my life firmly on the Word of God. I had tried to do that previously, but my involvement in New Evangelicalism hindered me from moving forward as I needed to. During those years I did not know of any better churches than the ones we attended. The Bible School I went to was the best I knew of at that time. I knew there were problems there, but I did not know where else to go.
It was during those Bible School years that I was introduced to some good men from the United States. I did not meet any of them at that time. I wrote to some of them, but never received a reply from them. In spite of these challenges, God continued to work on my heart and after a few more years, He brought me into contact with a weak Independent Fundamental Baptist pastor who told me of some others in Canada. That was when I eventually moved our family out of New Evangelicalism and into the Independent Fundamental Baptist camp. Over the years in this camp I noticed one particular flaw that I could not justify, and that moved me to decide that I was an Independent Baptist. The term “Fundamental” seemed to limit the Scriptures to cover certain fundamentals, but not all fundamentals.
The greatest factor that God used to draw me closer to where He wants all His children to be is the Word of God. I read God’s Word and since I was saved, the Holy Spirit was opening my spiritual eyes to see that what I was reading did not add up to what I was hearing in the churches we attended. I was seeking truth and so we attended several different churches, looking for the truth. Every true child of God needs to understand that our final authority is God’s Word. We need to believe in Its’ authority in all things. It is important to examine what a man teaches by God’s Word. That is what the Bereans did and that is what every true child of God should do all the time.
I have not arrived. I am still learning, but I am convinced that the Word of God is to be taken literally for the most part and that it is the infallible record of what God wants us to know. When I speak of the Word of God, I refer to the King James Bible for the English speaking world. It is interesting how God has worked through the years. During the Old Testament era the dominant language became the Hebrew language. There were other nations who spoke different languages. However, any nation that had to do with Israel, learned the Hebrew language. God placed the land of Israel in a central location so that trade moved through Jerusalem to other parts of the world. His purpose was that all nations would know Him as they should have encountered godliness in Jerusalem. Israel failed Him and He punished them for that. Even the Babylonians, whom God sent to punish Judah, had learned Hebrew. They could understand and speak the language fluently enough to be able to address the Jews regarding their impending fall.
In the New Testament era the dominant language was Greek. The Greek empire had been a strong empire and when the Roman empire took over, it kept the Greek language as the main language. Again, there were other languages as well, but the dominant one was Greek. Over time, the dominant language of the world has become English. There are French speaking people in Canada who do not like to accept that fact and they have successfully forced this country to be “bilingual”. That has not been a benefit for us, but that is where we are at. The world can communicate enough in English to be able to conduct trade in that language. The WEF, a wicked world organization can communicate its evil plans in English. The U.N., another wicked organization can also communicate in English. The Gospel can also go into many countries in English. Yes, other nations prefer to hear things in their language. They understand it better in their own language. However, English is the dominant language of the world.
Thus it is significant to know that God has preserved His Word more prominently for mankind in the English language. He chose the King James Bible as the Authorized Word of God in English. That is obvious to anyone who honestly studies that matter.
If we want to know the truth, we need to use the TRUTH. The church in Corinth was behaving as though they were ignorant of the truth in their time, but they had enough of the truth to know better than what they were doing. They knew the Greek language, thus the problem was not a language barrier. The problem was their hearts.
In chapters 12-14, Paul was directed to address the abuses of the Holy Spirit at that time. Those abuses have continued on in every generation since that time. We can know what those abuses are because we have the sure Word of God.
Paul began here by addressing the matter of spiritual gifts. In verse 2 he was addressing the Gentiles in the church. According to this, the majority of the saints in Corinth were Gentiles. Prior to their salvation they had been carried away by “dumb idols”. The term “dumb idols” referred to the fact that the idols could not speak and they were meaningless. There was no value to them. Any supposed teaching of the idols came from the idol worshippers, and not from the idols. This was contrasted by the fact that what Paul taught came from God. God was not a figment of Paul’s imagination. He was and is the Creator of all things.
The Corinthians were not innocent, but they had foolishly chosen to allow the false religion of idolatry to sweep them along. Paul also stated they were led that way. They chose the wrong leaders and allowed themselves to be led the wrong way.
We all follow someone. We noted that in chapter 11. There Paul wrote that the saints needed to follow him as he followed Christ. The teaching here was continuing with that in mind. The saints had been saved and thus they were no longer to be led by idolaters.
Verse 3 is another verse that is misunderstood and abused. There are many people who claim that Jesus is Lord, but they are not being led by the Holy Ghost in their lives. We know from the Gospels and the book of Acts that the devils would speak the truth about Jesus and the apostles at times. God can direct His enemies to speak the truth at times. We also know that Jesus and the apostles did not allow the devils to continue to declare the truth. God does not want people to be deceived. He wants people to follow a true man of God, not some false teacher who might make a true statement here or there.
One of the abuses that Paul would address would be the wrong teaching regarding tongues. In the Bible tongues are languages known to men. God first brought tongues into being in Genesis 11. He spoke about tongues in chapter 10, but chapter 11 shows us why He brought tongues into the world. Tongues were languages then and have remained that way ever since. God gave tongues, not as a gift but as a judgment. Tongues has never been a blessing. The miraculous use of tongues was given to the apostles in Acts 2 and a few other times in the book of Acts. Every time the use of tongues was mentioned there, there were unbelieving Jews present. The Jewish believers needed to see and know that salvation was the same for all people.
Apparently, there was someone in the church in Corinth who had spoken in a foreign language and had called Jesus accursed. Paul was reminding the saints that no born again Christian would ever call Jesus accursed. The Spirit of God would never lead anyone to defy the Lord Jesus Christ. No one would ever say Jesus Christ is Lord, except by being led the the same Spirit.
As we mentioned, the devil will try to fool people by using words that will draw the “ignorant” to follow him rather than the truth. A person that is truly calling Jesus, Lord is one that is led by the Holy Spirit. The Greek word translated as “Lord” speaks of the supremacy of Jesus Christ. There are many people who claim that Jesus is Lord, but they are not subject to Him. They are deceivers and not led by the Holy Spirit. It is extremely simplistic to accept anyone who claims to believe that Jesus is Lord, to be a saved person. Throughout the Bible we read that words without actions do not please God. We will see further in this passage that having Jesus as Lord will affect our attitude toward spiritual gifts.
The church in Corinth was a deeply divided church. They were a power hungry group of people and they were fighting over who their “power broker” should be. They distorted who Peter, Apollos, Jesus and Paul were. Those three men and Jesus were not interested in playing their ungodly game. Paul was sent to straighten them out on this abusive attitude.
This attitude was expressing itself in the ungodly divisions due to their carnal nature and thus wrong understanding of the spiritual gifts.
In verse 4 Paul stated that there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. The Holy Spirit was not dividing the saints. Their wrong ideas were dividing them and the apostle Paul would teach them the truth about this important matter. True saints will be drawn together by the Truth. False professors will be satisfied with compromise.
The local church is to be the pillar and ground of the Truth. Today is the Lord’s Day. Each reader needs to be sure to go to a good, Bible-believing church today. Don’t go by your feelings. Seek the Truth. If that is what you are after, God will lead you to a good church. As I mentioned in my brief testimony at the opening of this devotional, He did that for me and He does that for every true saint. He wants His children to be grounded in the truth. We are praying that each one would submit to His will and know His peace and blessing today.
Pastor Bartel