I Corinthians 12:5  And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6  And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
7  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8  For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9  To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10  To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
11  But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

In verse 5 Paul continued to lay the Biblical foundation for spiritual gifts. God does not give the same spiritual gift to every saint. However, all the gifts are designed to benefit each other. All the spiritual gifts are from the same Lord.
In verse 6 Paul spoke of the operations of the gifts. Again there is the need to remember that the same God is in charge of the operation of every gift. There will be no excess in the gifts. There is also no hierarchy of the gifts. No one gift is greater than some other gift. The church in Corinth did not believe that at this time, but they needed to understand this.
In verse 7 Paul spoke of the manifestation of the Spirit in the use of the gifts. The same Holy Spirit was in charge of the gifts and their purpose was to be a blessing to all. The gifts were not designed to elevate certain people to a higher level than others.
We need to keep in mind that at the time of Paul’s writing of this letter the Scriptures were not completed. From the time of Pentecost in Acts 2 until about A.D. 54 there was no written New Testament Scriptures. The New Testament was completed in about A.D. 96 with the completion of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Beyond those facts, there was no distribution of the Scriptures like we have today. Any portions that were spread around were just that, they were portions.
During the time when the Scriptures were not completed, God gave certain individuals the ability to exercise certain ‘temporary’ gifts. These gifts would only be necessary until the Scriptures were complete. I Corinthians 13:8-10 points this out. During this time frame there were carnal Christians who wanted to pretend that they had certain gifts, but they were frauds. In Acts 8 Peter rebuked a certain Simon who wanted to purchase the power of the Holy Ghost. He was untaught and looking to profit through fraudulent means. God’s Word is not for profit. Fraudulent use of God’s Word is also not acceptable. Corruption of the work of the Holy Spirit was soundly rejected in the book of Acts as well as in I Corinthians. The church in Corinth was teachable and they learned from the sound teaching of the apostle Paul. Today, the Charismatics and their many “friends” take pride in their excesses. Most of them are unsaved and love the praise of men. A few are saved, but extremely carnal. A few will repent and get right with God. Most are content to continue to build their ungodly empires. They care nothing for the souls of men, but they certainly love their money.
Back in our text, in verse 8 Paul mentioned some of the gifts of the Spirit. He mentioned the gift of the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Obviously these were two distinct gifts. The wisdom and knowledge spoken of here was not the general wisdom and knowledge that all saints have access to. The apostles had this wisdom and knowledge. God gave them insight into things that the average saint would not have. There were a few others like Agabus who was given the wisdom to know that the apostle Paul was going to be arrested when he arrived in Jerusalem. These were two temporary gifts that were needed at that time to complete the Scriptures. They were also given by God to specific individuals to prove their message was of God. We have no need for those gifts today because the Scriptures are complete. Further to that, men like Kenneth Copeland who claim to have this special wisdom and knowledge prove themselves to be liars. God’s wisdom is not guesswork.
I am not a follower of Kenneth Copeland or his ilk. I know some people who do follow men like that. He makes much noise but no truth comes out of his mouth. He is heaping up wrath against the day of judgment. I would not want to be in his shoes. It is sad that so many people show respect for frauds like that.
In verse 9 two other temporary gifts are mentioned. These are the gifts of faith and healing. Every born again Christian is saved by faith in God’s promise of salvation through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul exercised this special faith on several occasions. One such occasion was when he was on that ship that was about to be broken up as it ran aground on the way to Rome. He took food and blessed it and ate it and encouraged all the others to eat as well. He assured them that no one was going to lose their life, but the ship was going to be wrecked. He believed God and he passed that knowledge on to the rest on that ship, even though the ship master and others had not believed him prior to that point.
Paul was also given the ability to heal people as a sign that he was a true apostle. No man has that gift today. God can still heal today. He does so for His glory. There are many frauds out there who claim to be able to heal others but they are deceivers. The apostles never went around and advertised their healing power. They went around preaching the Gospel and God gave them the ability to do signs and wonders to authenticate their ministry. Today, we can authenticate a preacher by examining what they say by the sure Word of God. If we do that, we will not be deceived by the frauds.
In verse 10 there are a few more temporary gifts mentioned. All of these gifts would come to an end with the completion of the Scriptures. This is very evident through the faithful study of God’s Word. We will see this further as we move through these chapters.
In verse 11 we are again reminded that it is the same Spirit that works in each one of these gifts. He gives the gifts as He sees fit. No one needed to pray for these gifts. They were given to glorify God and not for show. They were not given to make the apostles rich. Those who claim these powers today charge to “perform” before others. They are frauds. The apostle Paul was not a wealthy man. He relied on the gifts of others to provide for his daily needs. At times he went hungry because others were not obedient to God’s will. He was rich in Christ in that he had eternal life. That is worth more than all the wealth this world has to offer.
It is important for us today to take God’s Word as THE WORD OF GOD. God does not give suggestions. He does not give opinions. God’s Word is right and It is absolute. It is rare today to find people who actually believe that God’s Word is absolute. The natural man wants wiggle room. Satan offered wiggle room to Eve in Genesis 3. Adam chose to accept that lie and plunged humanity into sin.
God is laying the foundation here for spiritual gifts. They are not open for man to manipulate in any way he sees fit. They are given by God, through the Holy Spirit. They are prescribed and they must not be altered. Those who want to alter them, are wrong. Those who love the Lord need to follow Him absolutely. Where we, those who are saved, go wrong, we must confess that as sin and get back to God’s Word. Today, and for many years, there has been a tolerance for corruption. This is not a new problem. It began with the fall of Adam. God has shown man that His way is absolute and right. God raised up prophets in the Old Testament era. In the New Testament era, He set aside Israel and established churches to be the “pillar and ground of the truth”. In the New Testament God warns of the failure of local churches. Jesus addressed 7 local churches in the first century. There were problems there and there have been problems in every generation. Every person needs to examine what he or she believes based on the Word of God. We cannot blindly accept what is being done and assume it is all good. God’s Word is our “governor”. The Holy Spirit indwells every true child of God, however He does not teach anything contrary to the Word of God. The true child of God must be submissive to the true God. If we are, it will be evident by our walk in accordance with the Word of God.
Pastor Bartel