Daily Bread – June 16, 2022 (The Fifth Day – Genesis 1:20-23) 1 Corinthians 12:1 – Now concerning the spiritual, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. The Spiritual Paul sets forth in this chapter and in chapter 14 very specific details of how the saints should function in the context of the Church. In Paul’s opening statements to the Corinthians, he testified that they were not lacking in any of the ‘charismata’ (gifts) (1 Corinthians 1:7). Now, Paul speaks of a realm called “the spiritual” that extends beyond the ‘charismata’. The ‘pneumatikos’ (the spiritual) is a word that is synonymous with the Kingdom of God, and incorporates everything the Spirit of God is doing. Of the 27 times that this word is found in the New Testament, Paul uses it 26 times to express the operation of the Holy Spirit through the saints – in signs and wonders, or to express that which belongs to the realms of God’s glory. The first time that Paul uses this word is in Romans 1:11. He used it to express the need that those at Rome had in order to be established in the things of the Kingdom. The impartation Paul referred to may well have been the ability to understand how to yield to this realm of glory. The first time he used this word in his letter to the Corinthians, he described how he ministered; and used it in contrast to the realm of the natural (1 Corinthians 2:13). Paul contrasts the spiritual ‘pneumatikos’, which is the realm of God, to the natural ‘psuchikos’, which is the realm of men. The ‘pneumatikos’ is a realm that speaks of far more than just gifts, but extends into every dimension of interacting with God. The same contrast between the spiritual and the natural is made in 1 Corinthians 15:44-46. And finally, both Jude and James defined that which is of the natural realm (psuchikos) as that which does not have the Spirit (Jude 1:19; James 3:15). Many translations of the Bible add a word that does not exist in any Greek manuscripts: “gifts.” To include this word actually narrows the focus from a broader application of “the spiritual.” The spiritual is the realm of the Spirit, including all of the activities of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual refers to everything pertaining to the Kingdom of God – the realm in which God and all of His Heavenly hosts function. The gifts of the Spirit are only a part of this realm in which the fruits of the Spirit must also be included. Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
Daily Bread 6/16/2022
