1Cor 12:1-3 - You Do and Speak As You Are

1-3 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.

The overall polemic of Paul is still treating the disorder in the Corinthian church and the doctrinal ignorance, or error, from which that disorder springs. Still on the question of public worship - of behaviour in the assembly of the saints, when they come together to honour God and to hear Christ preached.

One of the ways that the general disorder was being manifested was in the use of the gifts of the Spirit, real or claimed - particularly the verbal gifts. Paul here sets about to correct the wrong behaviours with right teaching on the matters.

He starts with a comparison. When they were pagans... that is to say, when they were lost and without hope in the world, and when they were led by carnal passions to do the will of the devil ... then they were led by something, for human beings are not autonomously free to act apart from influences that move their wills. The passions or affections rule the will. In all ages, those who love themselves above God and others unrelentingly follow fallen impulses and think corrupt thoughts, so that even their "righteousnesses" are as used tampons before a Holy God. They can do nothing else. Satan is the father of their way of life and His will and influence shows in the choices of their will.

Paul reminds them of that unhappy state in which the spiritual deadness of their lives governed the perversity of their deeds. Whether they attributed their evil to their own fallen flesh alone, or to the underlying influences that held them captive, the operative word is "astray." They were missing the mark continually. In the Corinthians’ case, they were led to worship dumb idols. It is about the leading. The main point is how straying happens to pagans - what mechanism is involved - with the purpose of explaining how Christians are different.

Christians are not different because they have some sort of libertarian free will by which they lift themselves out of that state in which they were led by their carnal affections, or the subtle deceits that Satan and his minions exercise to keep people from the truth. The Bible does not teach that sort of deliverance. Christians are delivered by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and kept by the power of God through the leading of the Holy Spirit. {Ro 8:14} That power of deliverance, past, present and future is manifested through faith.

So, whereas they, as pagans, had been led astray by various influences within and without - as Christians the one leading is the Holy Spirit. He is present in all true believers and He governs behaviours by influencing, drawing and leading God’s children to act rightly. But in the midst of this very disorganized and error-riddled community at Corinth, there were apparently some who - supposedly under some sort of "anointing" or spiritual gifting - were saying blasphemous things about the very Jesus they professed to have received. The utter absurdity of these manifestations ought not to be hard for them to miss. Those claiming to be someone, yet who manifested in such a way needed to be closely examined and rebuked.

Christians under the leading of the Holy Spirit (which all are supposed to be) simply cannot blaspheme Christ. That would be tantamount to implying that the Holy Spirit blasphemed Christ, which is to set God against Himself. It is arrant nonsense and it is dangerous behaviour. It may be that a particular Christian might be in a very sad spiritual state and let forth something wicked from his mouth - but that would hardly be a sign of being led by the Spirit. It is a case, rather, of grieving the Spirit.

Similarly, a Christian’s whole life is dedicated to God because of Christ; if he is a true saint he is "that most awe-ful thing" that the word hagios entails. Awe-ful not because of himself, but because of Who it is that is in him. He is set apart by God for holiness. So no sincere confession of Christ could come from the devil or from the old carnal nature, both of which are opposed to the spirit and to Christ, and to all that God is. And one ought to bear in mind that in the proto-church the public confession of Christ was often dangerous to life and limb.