Saint Paul's Epistle

4 ³ There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; 5 there are different forms of service but the same Lord; 6 there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. 7 To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression 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 mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.

During the years 53 to 57 AD, Paul spent his time in Ephesus writing his epistle, 1 Corinthians. An epistle is a letter written by Paul intended for one individual or a group of individuals. Ephesus is a city that is located across the Agean Sea from Corinth. Paul wrote this particular epistle to the Christians of Corinth. A specific topic discussed in 1 Corinthians is the Spiritual Gifts. In this passage Paul claims that there are many spiritual gifts. Throughout the passage, Paul is concerned with the harmony of the community of Corinth. In his writings, he stresses the diversity of spiritual expressions and actions. This spiritual gift is given to everyone for a "common good" (Beardslee 1088). Paul is a great man and very influential. Within the writings to the Corinthians, Paul is trying to help the community with any problems that they might have by answering their questions.

Saint Paul the Apostle, also known as Saul of Tarsus, has been the most influential person in Christianity, next to Jesus of course (Brown 422), even though it is argued whether Paul is more influential than Jesus (McNamer). Paul was born sometime between the years of 5 to 10 AD. There is information found in Acts showing that Paul was a citizen of Tarsus, but there is no proof as to where he was born. Paul received his early education in Tarsus, which is known for its learning. He was exposed to Greek thought and culture while in Tarsus. He then had more education in Jerusalem (McNamer). It was claimed that Paul was very educated, given that he was taught by a man by the name of Gamaliel I, the Elder (Brown 425). After being educated by Gamaliel, Paul was ready to move on towards his next goal, becoming a promising young lawyer (McNamer). He describes himself as a Hebrew and a Pharisee (Brown 425). He continued to preach the Gospel up until his death (McNamer).

According to Brown, Paul persecuted the church of God. He even tried to destroy it. It was believed that Paul's persecution was due to his zeal, not to him being a very observant Pharisee. (Brown 426). According to Acts, Paul did many things to oppose Jesus before the conversion process (Acts 26:9). Yet, after the persecution process, Paul claims to have seen Jesus, even though there is no given fact that he actually met, or even saw, Jesus. (Brown 425). While Paul was traveling to Demascus, a light appeared around him, "he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'" Paul was not sure of who or where this voice was. So he questioned the voice and found out that it was Jesus. He nor the men he was traveling with could believe it. "Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing." (Acts 9:4-8). However, Paul believes that in seeing Jesus, he is now a true apostle (Brown 427).

Acts 18 tells about Paul coming to Corinth he established the Corinthian Community. Upon leaving Corinth he traveled to Ephesus. While in Ephesus, 50 - 52 AD, Paul seemed to have difficulties with some of the things happening. The Corinthian community had been troubled over so many issues; some of which Paul did not write about. There was no proof written in Acts that shows the struggles that the community was facing (Brown 432). The Corinthians had so many questions for Paul. In way of answering these questions, he wrote them down in his letters. These letters to the Corinthians are "infamous" for the use of strong words on marriage and sexual morality (McNamer). Paul's role for this community was to help them to fight through their struggles and become more united as Christians. According to McNamer, the gifts will be useful, and "[Paul] tells the Corinthians that their gifts are not for one's own use but for the good of all" (3).

Corinth was founded in the 10^th Century BCE. It had been the richest port and the largest city in ancient Greece and was the residence of the Roman governor. At the time that Paul visited Corinth, it was looking its best. It was "the most beautiful, modern and industrious city of its size in Greece" (Engles 279). Corinth gained a nickname, "Wealthy Corinth," because of its location where it sits on a narrow strip that connects Greece's mainland and the Peloponnese (280). The religion in Corinth was of "many Gods" and "many Lords" (1 Cor. 8:5).

The Corinthians had many struggles throughout their community. Some of these struggles include: a man sleeping with his stepmother; eating food that is sacrificed to idols. They had problems with the celebration to the Eucharist, how to pray, and the behavior of a woman who did not dress properly (McNamer 3). Paul offered many suggestions to the Corinthians about how to deal with these situations. He suggested to the women to wear a hat to cover up their hair; therefore, a Christian woman will not be mistaken for a "naughty lady" (3).

Throughout Corinth there was some controversy about what the actual term "spiritual gifts" means. In order to correct disorders that had taken place in the Corinthian church about the questioning of spiritual gifts, Paul wrote the passage, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. This passage was especially with "regard to the envy and strife over the relative importance of various gifts." There is diversity within the unity of the churches because the "gifts" were distributed differently and were not given to the same Christians. Paul refers to the trinity very strongly, by using "the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God" in verses 4-6 (Coffman). This passage can be broken down and defined within each verse. Each verse has its own significant meaning that allows it to answer any questions that the Corinthians might have.

It is known that there are many different versions of the bible, and each contains different usages of words, yet they still have the same general meaning. For example the New American Bible uses the word "different" in verse four, but Coffman uses the word "diversities." The word diversities can be found in no other place except for the New Testament. He derived this word from charismatic, which is also another form for grace, thus, telling the reader that these gifts were "grace-gifts" (Coffman). Another difference in word choice between these two is that the New American Bible describes the gifts as "spiritual gifts," but Coffman just uses "gifts." The significance in using "spiritual gifts" is that it stresses the fact that these gifts are derived solely from the Spirit. There are two important characteristics of these "spiritual gifts." First, "there is one Spirit who is the source of all gifts and empowerment; therefore, any manifestation of the Spirit ought to be a sign and source of unity. Secondly, the gifts of the Spirit differ and are bestowed on individuals in different forms but are always for the 'common good'" (Bowe 1249). Coffman explains this verse to mean that the apostle, Paul, refers to the supernatural endowment of Christians as gifts because this was the name that they were foretold under.

Verse 5 is simply allowing the Corinthians to realize that another gift God could have given to the Christians is the gift of service to the Lord and to the community. Service in this verse is an indication of service to the Christian community such as serving tables (NIV Study Bible). Coffman uses ministrations in place of services.

Given that the Corinthian Christians were provided with different gifts, this prevented them from becoming unite as a community. In their eyes, there is one true God, and this God was "unity". This verse, verse 6, was "written with a view of restructuring the broken unity" (Coffman). Also in this verse the word "workings" is used. According the NIV Study Bible, "workings" is found to mean the power of operation which produces obvious results.

Verse 7 reads, "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal." The "charismatic gifts" were utilized and chosen for "self-promotion". They were given to benefit others (Coffman). Here, Coffman is trying to say that these gifts were thoughtfully distributed, so that, they will help everyone equally. Starting in verse 8, Paul begins to mention the "miraculous gifts" given to the Corinthians. The two in this verse are the gift of wisdom and the gift of knowledge. Wisdom is mention first because it "was first chronologically and first in importance" (Coffman). Wisdom is defined as "serious intellectual pursuit of knowledge about the world and its rules of order and the dynamics behind its mysterious operations." It also helps them to better understand "themselves in relation to their human nature and to God the creator" (Boadt 1382). On the other hand, the gift of knowledge was given to the "superior order of the prophets, among who were Barnabas, Stephen and Paul" (Coffman).

In addition to wisdom and knowledge, there are two other miraculous gifts listed in verse 9. These gifts are faith and healing. All Christians have the "faith to meet a specific need with the body of Christ" and Christians may heal "different kinds of illnesses and cure then in the various ways God heals them" (NIV Study Bible).

Finally the last five miraculous gifts are mentioned in verse 10; mighty deeds, prophecy, discernments of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues (NAB). The gift of mighty deeds is also known as miracles. According the NIV Study Bible, miracles are events of those who have experience and/or witnessed actions that show God's power at work. The gift of prophecy can also be known as being a prophet. A prophet is "a religious intermediary whose function is to carry messages back and forth between human beings and the deity (Overholt 1088). The gift of discernment of spirits is to provide the church through assistance with distinguishing the truth from false information. The church needs help because some prophecies come from evil spirits (NIV Study Bible). The gift of tongues according to Irwin means the "unlearned languages spoken under the influence of the Holy Spirit" (1320). It can also be used to pass the word of God onto others. Lastly, the interpretation of the tongues is the key to the whole passage. According to Coffman, "someone was required to interpret what was being said". All nine gifts, 1) wisdom; (2) knowledge; (3) faith; (4) healing; (5) miracles; (6) prophecy; (7) discernments of spirits; (8) tongues; and (9) interpretation of tongues, were said to have completely disappeared at the end of the apostolic age (Coffman). Some could argue today that these gifts still exist, yet they are not as noticeable.

There was not really any use of the Jewish customs found in the passage, yet there are a lot of words that refer to the religion. Some of these words include; prophecy, discernment, tongues, spiritual gifts, wisdom, knowledge...Paul uses these different Greek terms to identify the gifts of the Spirit (Bowe 1249), yet the word gifts does not exist in the Greek language. The actual word used is spirituals. The reason behind using the word gifts is so that the reader can understand what is really meant. These gifts can be found throughout the entire Bible, but the majority of them are found within the New Testament. One example can be found in the Acts 2: 1-4.

The point throughout this passage about God is that he has given Corinthian Christians different gifts. These gifts are distributed for the common good of all. Christians received the gifts to use them for God and to "strengthen and enlighten his body, the church" (Discovering I Corinthians125). This passage is more about a belief because the Corinthian Christians believe that God had given them the gifts to better unify the community, and this is what they were intended to do. It was important for Paul to let his audience know that they were not limited to one spiritual manifestation. Paul knew that they would need all these gifts in order to strengthen and enlighten Jesus (Discovering I Corinthians125).

This passage provides many challenges to the Christian community today. It challenges Christians to be unified as a community, by using the gifts the God has provided us with. Even though we all have been given different gifts, we are still expected to put them to great use. Once we have all used our gifts to their fullest, this will allow us to become united as one. God wants us to think about of how we could use our gifts in order to help the community. Once we have found the best way to use these gifts, he wants use them instead of ignoring them. It is important for people today to have these "miraculous gift" because they have helped them to become successful. God has given people these gifts so that they can be successful.

Whether it's then or now, Jews or Greeks, believers or non-believers, God wants everyone to be happy and successful. Upon fulfilling this want, God has provided everyone with a "miraculous gift." Some people did not understand how or why they were given these gifts, so he chose different messengers to pass the word. One of his biggest and most important messengers was Paul. In this passage, Paul was sent to help the Corinthian community become unified. At first the community struggled to be unified, but after Paul provided them with they answers to their questions, they realized that these gifts were given to restructure their unification. God not only provided these gifts to the Corinthians, but he provided to everyone to better their life. The reason is choosing this passage was because he seemed interesting when I first read it. After doing research, I found that there is a lot a meaning behind this simple passage as well as the other passages in the bible.

Works Cited

Beardslee,W.A. "1 Corinthians." Harpercollins Bible Commentary. Mays, James L. ed. Harpercollins. San Francisco. 2000. p. 1074-1092.

Boadt, Lawrence. "Wisdom." Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Ed. David Noel Freedman. Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2000. p. 1382.

Bowe, Barbara E. "Spiritual Gifts." Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Ed. David Noel Freedman. Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing COM pant. 2000. p. 1249.

Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament. Doubleday. New York. 1997

Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12." Coffman Commentaries on the Old and New Testament". . Abilene Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.

Discovering I Corinthians. Ed. Floyd W. Thatcher. Carmel New York. Guideposts Associates, Inc. 1985

Engles, D. W. "Corinth." Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Ed. David Noel Freedman. Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2000. p. 279.

The Holy Bible; New International Version. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2001.

Irwin, Brian P. "Tongues." Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Ed. David Noel Freedman. Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2000. p. 1320.

McNamer, Elizabeth. Paul: Letters From a Traveling Theologian. St. Anthony Press. Cincinnati, Oh. 1994

The New American Bible. New York, NY. Catholic Book Publish Co. 1992.

NIV Study Bible. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2002.

Overholt, Thomas W. "Prophecy." Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Ed. David Noel Freedman. Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2000. p. 1088.