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1 Corinthians 12:7
7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
When he says, 'to each is given', Paul has in mind here every single member of the Church of Christ -- that is, all those who share in the gift of the Holy Spirit through life-giving faith in the Savior. The underlying premise here is that the Spirit is not a power, but a Person. *He* is given to each member of the Church, and in the local churches the Spirit is the One whose presence assures growth, unity, true intercession, power and protection from all evil. And yet we must realize that God has made it so that all members of the local church work for that unity together -- the strong working with the weak, the wise with the foolish. The Corinthian church had seemed to consider the Spirit merely as a power wielded within a person's life measured by signs, miracles, or passionate corporate worship. Yet however anointed their corporate worship might have seemed, the church was under a spell of spiritual pride. The result was a gradation of members from the least apparently gifted to the most. Paul reminds them that the spiritual gifts are never an end, but are a means to building up the Church -- and the Spirit is not a power for our own glory but rather a Person given to us so that we may become like the One God who was manifested to us in the flesh in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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