1 Corinthians #23 – Weekly Study Questions
For the Common Good
1 Corinthians (CGS #23) – 12:1-11
INTRODUCTION: After the passage on communion (a.k.a. The Lord’s Supper), Paul moves on to answering a specific question the Corinthians must have asked him (“Now concerning…” in verse 1). It seems the spiritual gifts were a source of confusion and tension for the Corinthian Christians, and Paul is seeking to settle the argument. Specifically, is sounds like the Corinthians are placing more emphasis on some gifts than others, and using the presence or absence of those gifts as a pretense for devaluing the contribution of some members of their community. In other words, they’ve created a hierarchy in their community, and the “best” Christians are those who have specific spiritual gifts (and based on how much time he spends addressing it, the “highest” gift in their minds is probably speaking in tongues).
In verses 1-7, Paul provides a big picture overview of spiritual gifts and their purpose, which is summed up nicely in verse 7: “for the common good.” God loves to give good gifts to his children, including gifts of the Holy Spirit, but they shouldn’t be used for prideful purposes, like identifying who the “real” or the “best” Christians are, and shaming the rest. All spiritual gifts come from the same source, and they all have the same purpose. Christians are called to be a people who use their gifts to serve others in love, to build others up, not to puff themselves up (1 Corinthians 8:1).
But Paul starts this section by wrapping the whole debate in the context of the gospel. In verses 2-3, he reminds his readers of what they were saved from before he dives into what they were saved for. They were saved from worshiping deaf and mute idols. Ironically, the worship of those idols involved speaking for them, which is probably a major source of the confusion. Now they serve a God who speaks to them. But Paul knows that their pagan background would make it easier for them to be led astray into an unhealthy fixation on supernatural signs (especially on hearing messages from God), so he gives them a simple test: Does a person who claims to have a message from God say, “Jesus is accursed”? If so, that person does not carry a message from the Holy Spirit. Simple as that. Messages that magnify the Lordship of Jesus pass this simple test and are therefore worth hearing.
He then goes on to describe several specific gifts of the Spirit, and it can be tempting to get hung up on the details (e.g. What’s the difference between wisdom and knowledge? What are tongues in this context? How does he define prophecy? Do all of these gifts exist in the church today? If not, why not?), and those are good questions, but we have to keep a few things in mind. First, this is not a complete, comprehensive, exhaustive list of spiritual gifts. We know this because Paul lists spiritual gifts elsewhere (for example, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4, etc.), and the lists are not identical. Secondly, the text indicates that while every believer will be given gifts of the Spirit, and some of those gifts are certainly more visible than others, we should not expect every Christian to exhibit all of these gifts, or even one of them all of the time. The Holy Spirit is a Person with a will, not a blind force we can command. He does what he wants, when he wants. Our job is to listen and obey. Third, we must remember the purpose of the spiritual gifts: the common good (v.7). Not to puff ourselves up, not to win acclaim, not to compare ourselves with others; we are to use our gifts to spur each other on towards love and maturity.
Using your gifts to bless others and build up the body of Christ will honor God by manifesting the Spirit for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7).
GETTING STARTED – As you begin your group time, take time to answer this question together: In what ways do you think you’ve been spiritually gifted? What evidence of those gifts have you seen in yourself and others?
IN THE WORD – Let’s dig back into the passage. It is important to strengthen our muscles in reading God’s Word. On Sunday, we walked through the passage in the sermon. Hopefully, that helped you to see the landmarks of the passage with fresh eyes. Now, with your group, go back through it and see what God is saying to you specifically.
First, before you read the passage, take a moment to ask God’s Spirit to quiet your mind and heart and to illuminate the text to you. Second, read the passage aloud to the group. Then, follow the simple method below. (O.P.A)
Observe: Make 8-10 observations from the passage. Pay close attention to observe and note repeated words and phrases, names, places, and themes.
Principles: From your list of observations, what patterns or big ideas do you see emerging? Can you distill it down into 2-4 big idea truths?
Apply: Moving from your list of principles, it is time to apply God’s Word. Remember, we believe that God’s Word is living and active and that it can change the way we live Monday-Friday. What is one tangible way to apply a truth from your list above?
Note: Another way to approach your time together is to talk through the following questions about the article of faith we are studying that week.
- What did you hear God’s Spirit say to you through the passage this week? How does it encourage you? How does it sharpen you?
- How have you seen God at work in your life this week? Have you enjoyed him? Have you heard his voice and the leading of his Spirit? Big ways or small ways.
- How have you been blessed by the spiritual gifts of others? (They don’t have to be the exciting things included in this list!)
- Paul makes a big deal of the source of our gifts. What is it and why does that matter?
- Are there gifts that don’t require the presence of the Holy Spirit? (In other words, can non-Christians be gifted?) If so, how would those gifts differ from the gifts of the Spirit?
- Do they differ in kind? Intensity? Purpose? Or are they all the same?