Divisions Over Spiritual Gifts

Most of the time, assemblies of persons desiring to worship Almighty God will be filled with those who had been introduced to God by attending an assembly with their parents and grand-parents. However, some may be in attendance who never knew much concerning God and spiritual things. Now they are present desiring to fit into the group as one family of believers.

In Corinth, Paul is met with a mixed group desiring to become one family of God. Some members were raised with a law of righteousness designed by God for his people, Jewish; the others, Gentiles, Paul speaks to them saying, Eph. 2:12. 12 .. at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:, Their understanding concerning righteousness and spiritual things must have been skewed and very often misunderstood. However, the inspiration of the knowledge of God was upon them; just like a new convert today who was not raised in a religious setting and now has come to a knowledge of the truth. They are zealous to be soul-savers of their newly found religion. They greatly desire to fit in and join in the teaching of others.

This situation set up a new form of division among the assembly at Corinth; just as it does in modern times. The difficulty was determining who was really inspired with gifts from the Holy Spirit to shed light upon the whole assembly. Everyone who felt they were inspired by the Spirit wanted their time to speak. However, each was receiving different spiritual gifts. Some gifts were more desirable than others. It puts some in front of the whole assembly more than it does others. Those who had the more desired gifts were seen most often in public assemblies and appeared more popular in the assembly. To a puffed up (self conceited) person, one desiring the attention, this was a problem; it bruised their ego. Now more divisive forces are causing additional turmoil.

The members did not understand that these gifts were all important; equally important. They were each given to the assembly at Corinth for the edification of the whole group. Each gift was distributed by the Holy Spirit as it was directed by God upon the members at Corinth. This is found as well in all congregations of the church of God. Each gift was given to the most qualified by God to distribute the gift for the enrichment of the entire assembly.

Realizing the nature of the early development of the Christian religion, some gifts were of a more miraculous nature and only necessary for a short period of time until the whole assembly of God, worldwide, had the conviction and knowledge necessary for salvation by the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus Christ, son of the living God. The scrolls teaching righteousness of God were held by the Jewish people. Because of their persecution, the Jewish peoples were scattered among the many nations and perhaps lost their scrolls or they were confiscated. Either way, the scrolls were few, and not readable by all because of language barriers.

To the converts who had not the knowledge of God as the Jewish nation, some spiritual gifts required a distributor with greater knowledge and restraint of the use of the gift. Therefore, not each recipient received the gift they may have desired. God knew how each gift would be handled by the recipient who received certain gifts. It is from here Apostle Paul begins his dialog to correct the Gentiles. 1 Cor. 12:2. 2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. But, Paul did not desire them to be or remain ignorant. Vs. 1. I would not have you ignorant. As believers behaving righteously, we should not desire anyone to be ignorant, nor ourselves be ignorant of God’s Spiritual matters. Thus, all are in need of instruction on all matters Godly and Spiritual.

The Apostle goes further and desires all to know, no man can speak of Jesus recognizing him as Lord except they be led by the Spirit of God. vs. 3. 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. Each member must realize they were arguing over trivial matters because of their ignorance of the spiritual inspirations they felt they obtained. Their suffering was not from the foundation of their belief, each one was led by the Spirit to recognize Jesus as Lord. This was their common ground. Their suffering was ignorance, covetousness, and personality. For anyone to speak of Jesus as Lord, this knowledge was given unto them by the Holy Ghost; the Spirit of God. Righteousness has begun in their heart. The door to salvation has been opened. With that door opened, it is a direct invitation for Satan to subvert the knowledge which that soul receives and accepts. (causing divisions) It is the personality of the ignorant which Satan exploits. The ignorant do not have the experience of transforming their minds unto righteous behavior in the assemblies of God. They are the most vulnerable. Each person must be on guard of Satan’s vices to not get caught in his schemes. The antidote for this behavior is knowledge; allowing God his time with your soul through Bible knowledge and discussion by the whole assembly–we call it Bible School today and by diligent study with the aid of the Holy Spirit’s guidance.