The Expression of God by Joe La Bianca

1 CORINTHIANS 12:1-7


We have seen from the last chapter that God does not kill his children to train them. Once a person is dead, the training is over. So this proves that those Christians who were sick and dying in chapter eleven were that way because the Christians that could have helped the poor around them did not discern the body. They were ignorant of the poor Christians at the fellowship and at communion, so Paul rebuked them for it.
Never believe that God trains his children by making them sick and by killing them. Today’s teaching which believes that blames God for the sad results of the sins of those selfish Christians at Corinth.
Now Paul will change the subject in chapter twelve to things of the spirit, which is another greatly misunderstood and abused teaching in the church today.
The things Paul will talk about in chapter twelve are of a non-carnal nature. They are ethereal, celestial, and heavenly. These gifts are not of the concrete earth; they are supernaturally generated. As a matter of fact, the word for “gifts” is not even in verse one of chapter twelve. So Paul is talking about things spiritual here. He did not want the Corinthians to be ignorant about the spiritual side of things, as opposed to the bad things he was just discussing in chapter eleven.

Verse 2:
When the Corinthians were “of the ethnos”, they were led astray as to spiritual things. The ethnic groups of the world are just that, of the world. They have earthly habits and worldly non-spiritual ideas about God. The word “ethnic” means “by habit”. Those of the same ethnic groups do the same things, whether good or bad.
Racism is a popular word today, but there is really no such thing. We are all of the same race. Don’t get me wrong. There is plenty of prejudice going on in America between different groups of people. This is because the melting pot mentality is gone. When you put different foods in a soup, they melt and meld together to make a great tasting meal. People are not melting anymore, so we do not meld. We are staying hard of heart, unable to combine with each other. Of course we should never entirely give up our different cultures. We should keep the best parts and lose the feelings of prejudice against the other groups. As Americans we should come together in a pot of unity.
All that being said, I’d like to point out that there is no such thing as different races. This idea comes from the theory of Evolution. This theory has some people groups to be more highly evolved than others. This false, divisive idea can be found in their early text books, and have never been disowned by many who hold to such things.
There are differences in all people groups. But more is made of one difference and less of another. The difference in skin color, for example, is due to the different levels of the skin chemical, melanin. Some people have more melanin, and they are called “black”. Some have less, and they are called “white”. But they are not black or white. They are the same, with only a different degree of this skin chemical. If someone is without melanin, he is an albino, and he is deficient of the chemical he needs to fight against skin cancer. So all this fuss is over a percentage of melanin.
It’s not the skin color that gives an ethnic group its reputation. It’s the habits, whether good, bad or indifferent. Remember that the word ethnic means habit. To judge someone based on skin color is to judge something that is amoral. This is a great mistake.
Before Christ, all ethnic groups were carried away by their ignorance of God. They were carried away and led to believe in mute idols. They worshipped images that were lifeless. Plenty of people worship super-heroes today. But they are unreal too. Eastern religions are popular today, but they have these mute idols and people are being led away all over again.

Verse 3:
No man who really understands the cross and all that Jesus has done for him can at the same time curse Jesus or hate him. You will like Jesus, love Jesus, and adore Jesus when you understand Jesus. And no one can say, believe, and/or grant that Jesus is Lord unless God has reached him by His Spirit.
If a person knows that Jesus is Lord of heaven, earth, and everything under the earth, he knows it because of the Holy Spirit.
This is not to say the Holy Spirit forces us to be saved. If He would force one person to be saved, He would force every person to be saved. Unless you think that God is a respecter of persons, which He is not. But the Holy Spirit does enable us to be saved. Yet we are the ones who choose to believe. Trust for Jesus comes from the one who trusts, not from anywhere else.

Verse 4:

We have distinct endowments from the Spirit, but we must remember that all our gifts come from the same Spirit. This means that we are all the same in the Lord, that we should never be prideful or ashamed of what we do in Christ.

Verse 5:

There are different kinds of services. We are not all the same in our administrations, but we serve the same Lord. As Christians we are all seeking to magnify Jesus, so all envy and competition are taken out of the way if we realize that we are all on the same team.

Verse 6:

There is a diversity of operations and effects in the church, but the same God of the church, who sent his Son, and who energizes us to preach the good news. The people are different, but the message is the same. One man shouts the gospel, another man speaks with gentleness, and still another works behind the scenes to organize the service. But we all must speak the same thing. These verses do not say there are many gospels, they say there is one gospel that many different people expedite.
I would like you to notice that in this passage of scripture, there is a reference to the Holy Trinity, i.e. one Spirit, one Lord, and one God.

Verse 7:

When God’s Spirit fills a person, God expresses Himself through that person to one level or another. The presence of the Holy Spirit is the gift of God through grace. When we believe the cross, many wonderful things happen. We are saved, adopted, given a new nature, and filled with the Holy Spirit. All this is by grace, through faith in Christ. No good works can cause God to be in us. Good fruit comes out when God is in us. See this difference? When we give up on ourselves and put no confidence in our works, but disown our attempts to gain salvation, only then will God express himself through us. It is God that manifests. We do not manifest. The only thing we can make apparent is sin, but God will have his showing if we believe that faith in the cross, plus nothing, is all we must do. This frees us to be real, unlike those who “try” to be like God.
Do you see how good fruit is tied to us doing nothing? Does an apple tree try to bear fruit? Doesn’t an apple tree bear fruit because it’s an apple tree? Do you see that the only way to a holy action is by human inaction? Be a vessel for God so that He can fill, and then overflow to others. Never force God’s expression, or else it will only be your expression. The manifestation of the Spirit is given. It is given. We do not work for it. God is a giver, not a debtor. Too many believe that God owes them something because of human merit.
Every man who believes the gospel will have something of God that expresses itself, whether thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. This expression of God, which is not by works but by grace, will be profitable. It will benefit the church, the world, and nations.
America is great, but not because of freedom. You can free sinners and have total chaos. America only became great because Christians were free to express the profitable nature of God on this planet. We have forgotten this, and now we see America in decline.