1 Corinthians 12:1-11

This passage occurs in the RCL's year C passages; it also occurs as one of the last passages in the Narrative Lectionary's Year 2 cycle.  In the Narrative Lectionary it is partitioned as 1 Corinthians 12:1-13
 
Summary
Much has been written about spiritual gifts.  A few brief reflections/directions for preaching:
- Everyone has gifts.  For those that think they have no spiritual gift, ask them if they can confess Jesus as Lord.  If so, then they have spiritual gifts!
- Gifts are to work together. (The Greek suggests this in vs 1-11; the rest of chapter 12 makes this abundantly clear)
- Gifts are for others, although how far outside of the church spiritual gifts go is a long and complicated debate.
- Faith (and love) are gifts, nothing we can do to earn them.


Key Words and Grammar Items:
πνευματικος ("spiritual", 12:1) The first word here for "Spiritual Gifts" is "pneumatikos," an adjective that means spiritual. It is transformed into a noun here (technical note: by the placement of the definite article before it). But the word "gift" is not used. In fact, the word for gift later on is "charisma." So really, this should just read: "Concerning the spiritual things."  If you translate this as spiritual gifts then, in some ways, you are suggesting that all things spiritual are gifts!

εθνη ("Gentiles", 12:2) The translators render "ethne" here as "pagans" instead of "gentiles." A reminder of the tension, inherent in 1st century Christianity, between Jews and Gentiles.  To be non- Jewish was to be an "ethne" (and ethnic) and not part of God's family!

ειδωλα (plural form  of "idols", 12:2)  Although there are some examples of true worship to statues, generally idols function a bit different in our culture than in 1st century paganism.  However, we still have idols!  We may not have a temple with a large marble statue of Venus or Pluto in our towns, but definitely still worship the idols of beauty and money!

Grammatically, this sentence is really odd and I've even read that it is considered a manuscript error because it reads so strangely.  The NRSV nicely puts it, "however you were led." Paul uses the "αν" marker to show contingency and then uses two verbs: you were led, leading away. A poetic way to say: Whatever the heck road they led you on.

διακονια ("ministry" or "service", 12:5)  This word is becoming increasingly difficult to translate.  It has a non-religious origin, deriving from a waiter who serves.  More generally it can to mean service; the New Testament certainly uses it as a term for serving others.  For the church over the centuries the word has been picked up by a whole group of people who have dedicated their life to service (Deacons and related terms).  Part of the challenge in translating the word is inherent in the tensions around service (the concept and not the word).  Service can mean formal providing but it can also mean outpouring of mercy; furthermore, how the service conveyed by this term in the New Testament connected to the Word, proclamation and the Church?  In short, to translate διακονια as "ministry" makes it "churchy" something that it was not originally; to translate this as "service" derives it, perhaps, of the religious meaning Paul and others wish to imply.

This particular passage highlights the challenge of translating this word.  Luther's German, Tyndale and the KJV translate this not as "service" but as "office" or "administration."  While this translation seems to make service overly formal, it opens up the door for profound thinking about vocation -- each of our "offices" in life is an opportunity for serving others.  With this translation of διακονια as "office" Luther captures Paul's dynamic and far-reaching sense of the breadth of God's gifts.  Whether this is a fair translation is up for debate.  But no doubt Luther clearly connects vocation, even secular vocation, to spiritual gifts and service to the Lord.

ενεργεω ("energιζε", 12:6) The translations move in all sorts of directions here, but the word underneath all the working/doing by God is "energy."  This is perhaps a nice connection into people's lives -- from where does our energy come to survive the treadmill called life?

συμφερον ("good", 12:7) The English translators tend to add the word "common" before "good"; Paul's term "sympheron" is more neutral, as in "profitable" or "beneficial"; furthermore, it does not necessarily mean "common" and the word "common" is not in the Greek.  When this word appears elsewhere in Scripture, including its almost identical usage in Hebrews 12:10, it is not translated as "common good."  What then gives them permission to translate it as the "common good"? 

Well...here is my conjecture.  The word is a combination of two words συμ meaning "with" (the "n" in συν becomes an "μ") and  φερον meaning "bear" as in bearing fruit (John 15).  This word means then "bear together" or "produce together."  These gifts were given for the mutual harvesting of gifts!

Lastly, a Trinitiarian argument:
I believe that 12:11 this is the strongest statement in the NT that God is Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is said here to "ενεργεω" (energize) the activities, "διαιρεω" (distribute) the activities, which he "βουλεμαι" wills.  Paul locates the will of God in the Holy Spirit!  Moreover, in verse 7, the distributions are done by God who energies them. Same thing!

*** I hadn't realized I had done a post on this passage in 2016.  So I re-did one in 2025.  Interestingly, I looked at some different sources but come back to some similar themes.  In 2028, I will sync these up!

πνευματικος (meaning "spiritual", 12:1)  This word is often translated as "spiritual gifts," but Paul simply refers here to "spiritual things."  That these "spiritual things" are "gifts" comes in later in the passage. Worth considering

• Spiritual, within a Western post-enlightenment culture, often means private.  However, as Paul describes them in 1 Corinthians 12, the gifts are God are not simply about the individual.  
• Paul writes you cannot confess Κυριος Ιησους (meaning "Jesus is Lord", 12:3) unless you are in the Spirit.  This phrase, transliterated as "Kyrios Christos", certainly was political.  The alternative confession was "Κυριος Καίσαρος (Caesar)."  (Notice how similar the phrases are!)  Confessing Jesus as Lord meant declaring that Caesar was NOT your Lord.  In fact, Christians were later killed because they would not confess Κυριος Καίσαρος.  While the spiritual may indeed be personal, it is not necessarily private.
• συμφέρον ("carrying together" or "advantageous", 12:7)  Paul says that these spiritual things are given for the "συμφέρον."  The word literally means "carry together" which came to mean "advantageous."  The gifts you have been given are literally for the "carrying together" of the whole!  The Holy Post podcast was recently reflecting on the Los Angeles wildfires and the way in which society trusts neither the government nor businesses to pick up the pieces after the disaster.  How might the church be called into such a moment but also such a cultural context to deliver the gifts of God for the whole?
• Gifts, in all cultures, are complex.
• The word in verse 5 for gifts is literally χάρισμα - literally "charisma."  When we think of charisma, we think of something that of benefit for the person who has it.  This is likely our mindset with gifts, namely, they are beneficial for us.  But as Paul points out a few verses later, the gifts we have been given are not simply for our own benefit, but the good of the whole.  This may not have been truly a radical thought for the ancient Greek mind -- what is likely pushing the boundaries for the ancient Greco-Roman thought patterns likely found in Corinth is that wealthy and powerful Christians owed this kind of exchange of gifts with the poorer members of the church, who were not in their household (or even tribe!).
• Gifts often come with an expectation of return behavior.  While this is true in the US - "there is no free lunch" it was especially true in the ancient world.  As scholar Tazuko Angela van Berkel writes,
•  Greek ethical thought is on the whole more preoccupied with reciprocity as a model for other-benefiting behaviour than altruism. “Balanced reciprocity” refers to exchanges that assume an equal or equivalent return within a finite, often specified, period of time. Such exchanges do not create long-term relationships, because “debts” are immediately cancelled out. Rather, they preserve or restore balance.  Oxford Classic Research Dictionary, accessed Jan 15, 2025. 
• Paul's insight may be that we have no responsibility for reciprocity with our gifts from God.  I don't think so.  I think it is rather that we cannot repay God for what God has given us, so we are called to share this heavenly gift with others, especially those within the congregation.  In the case of ancient Corinth, this would have pressed the followers of Christ to a very uncomfortable point because this congregation included neighbors from across the tracks.

To put it another way, Paul's conception of spiritual gifts (πνευματικος) serves a communitarian rather than individualist aim.  This rubbed Paul's people the wrong way.  How might Paul challenge us today?  My sense is that the Paul's challenge to share with others in the congregation is in itself a good thing, but for many of us, we exist in a more homogenous content than ancient Corinth.  Does this mean our spiritual gifts are for use outside of the congregation?  On the one hand yes, but Paul clearly grounds his thinking, not simply in altruism, but the building up of a community.