The third per­son of the Triu­ne God is the Holy Ghost, which is the Spi­rit of God the Fat­her and Je­sus Christ. When Je­sus was gat­he­red to­get­her with his dis­cip­les for the last time, he pro­mi­sed to send the Holy Spi­rit to his own, for strength and com­fort (John 14:26).

The ce­leb­ra­ti­on of the out­pou­ring of the Holy Spi­rit is Pen­te­cost. Pen­te­cost is the third lar­gest Chris­ti­an ce­leb­ra­ti­on af­ter Christ­mas and Eas­ter. Pen­te­cost oc­curs 50 days af­ter Eas­ter. The Acts of the Apost­les de­picts how the Holy Ghost des­cen­ded as a fie­ry flame over Je­sus’ own when they were gat­he­red to­get­her on Pen­te­cos­tal Day (Acts 2:1-4).

Paul as God’s mes­sen­ger

Apost­le Paul vi­si­ted the cong­re­ga­ti­on of Co­rinth on one of his mis­si­on trips. He was there for about one and a half ye­ars to­tal. In this way, the cong­re­ga­ti­on be­ca­me fa­mi­li­ar and dear to Paul. Soon the cong­re­ga­ti­on star­ted to dis­cuss about the Holy Spi­rit and its ef­fects. But not all the talk and ac­ti­vi­ty was const­ruc­ti­ve. Paul ap­p­ro­ac­hes the cong­re­ga­ti­on through his let­ter and wis­hes to te­ach his breth­ren with God-gi­ven wis­dom. He ex­horts them to keep minds uni­ted, warns of un­god­ly wors­hi­ping, and gi­ves inst­ruc­ti­on in the cor­rect way to hold the Lord’s com­mu­ni­on. He spe­aks cle­ar­ly of the gifts of the Holy Spi­rit and their sig­ni­fi­can­ce.

The Holy Spi­rit af­fects wit­hin the cong­re­ga­ti­on. With its po­wer, the gos­pel is proc­lai­med. The Holy Spi­rit’s po­wer pro­tects the cong­re­ga­ti­on mem­bers to re­main in the cor­rect faith, as God’s child­ren.

Al­so, amongst God’s child­ren in Co­rinth, the gifts and ef­fects of the Holy Spi­rit could be seen in many ways: “But the ma­ni­fes­ta­ti­on of the Spi­rit is gi­ven to eve­ry man to pro­fit wit­hal” (1 Cor. 12:7). With the help of gifts, the cong­re­ga­ti­on is ser­ved. They are me­ant to cla­ri­fy Christ’s re­demp­ti­on work, not to lift one’s own sta­ti­on or be a re­a­son for bo­as­ting. They are al­so not the me­rit of any spe­ci­fic cong­re­ga­ti­on mem­ber. The let­ter’s re­min­der is im­por­tant: “But all these wor­keth that one and the self­sa­me Spi­rit, di­vi­ding to eve­ry man se­ve­ral­ly as he will” (1 Cor. 12:11).

God’s Spi­rit and an­ti-Christ’s spi­rit

Both the Holy Spi­rit’s po­wer and the po­wer of God’s op­po­nent are ef­fec­ti­ve in our world. That po­wer of the ene­my of souls tempts us. Of­ten we may feel that be­lie­ving pe­op­le are es­pe­ci­al­ly sing­led out by the ene­my of souls. John spe­aks in his let­ter of the spi­rit of the an­ti-Christ – the spi­rit that de­nies Je­sus (1 John 4:2-3). In his let­ter to the Co­rint­hi­ans, Paul cla­ri­fies this is­sue. On­ly through the ef­fect of God’s Spi­rit can the con­fes­si­on from our he­arts and lips ec­ho: Je­sus is Lord.

Paul knew the cong­re­ga­ti­on mem­bers of Co­rinth. He re­minds them of how when they were in pa­ga­nism, this po­wer of the op­po­nent of God drove them to ser­ve mute idols. Ne­vert­he­less, even to­day the child of God can ex­pe­rien­ce being in the con­ti­nuo­us ca­re­ta­king of the Holy Spi­rit’s li­ving word and po­wer in God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on.

Grace gifts and tasks

The He­a­ven­ly Fat­her has de­alt dif­fe­rent kinds of grace gifts to His cong­re­ga­ti­on for the com­mon good. There are many dif­fe­rent kinds, but the Spi­rit is the same. There are al­so many ser­vi­ce tasks, but the Lord is the same (1 Cor. 12:4-5). Paul wri­tes to the Ro­man Chris­ti­ans: “Ha­ving then gifts dif­fe­ring ac­cor­ding to the grace that is gi­ven to us, whet­her prop­he­cy, let us prop­he­sy ac­cor­ding to the pro­por­ti­on of faith; Or mi­nist­ry, let us wait on our mi­nis­te­ring: or he that te­ac­heth, on te­ac­hing; or he that ex­hor­teth, on ex­hor­ta­ti­on” (Rom 12:6-8).

God has equip­ped us with dif­fe­rent ty­pes of gifts. To some brot­hers and sis­ters, He has gi­ven the gift of te­ac­hing. Ot­hers have the gifts of lis­te­ning and en­cou­ra­ging. Spe­a­kers are equip­ped with dif­fe­rent kinds of gifts. Some have been gi­ven the gift of pra­ying on be­half of ot­hers. Ot­hers have the abi­li­ty to ser­ve with prac­ti­cal gifts such as re­mo­de­ling pla­ces of wors­hip or coo­king food. All the mem­bers of the cong­re­ga­ti­on are nee­ded for the com­mon good and brin­ging forth the word of the gos­pel (Eph. 4:12).

Even we child­ren of God in cur­rent ti­mes have many gifts. With these gifts we do the work of God’s king­dom so that as many as pos­sib­le could find the grace God in their he­arts. The glory for this work be­longs to God, the gi­ver of these gifts. The most im­por­tant and gre­a­test gift is eter­nal life. We own this gift by grace, through faith and Christ’s re­demp­ti­on work.

Text: Juha Sep­pä­lä

Trans­la­ti­on: An­ge­la Hän­ni­nen

Sour­ce: Sii­o­nin Lä­he­tys­leh­ti 9/2014

Teks­tis­sä kä­si­tel­lään seu­raa­vaa raa­ma­tun­koh­taa: 1 Cor. 12:1-11

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­liit­tees­sä 6.5.2015.