Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Corinthians 12:10

"and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discernings of spirits; to another [divers] kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of tongues:" — 1 Corinthians 12:10 (ASV)

Paul goes on to declare that many spiritual gifts are given by the Spirit for the total good or profit of his church. Different gifts are given to different people —not all have the same gift (cf. 12:29–30). The gifts given to each person are clearly intended to be used for the common good.

The gifts listed begin with the most important one—the ability to express the message of God’s wisdom in the Gospel of Christ. The second is the ability to communicate with knowledge of God’s way of salvation by the Spirit. The gift of “faith” (GK 4411) does not refer to one’s initial trust in Christ for salvation but to deeper expressions of faith, such as undergoing hardships and martyrdom; hence it can be rendered “faithfulness.” The next two gifts—the outwardly demonstrable ones of healings and miracles—belong together and were particularly applicable to the ministry of Paul and the other apostles (Acts 19:11–12; Acts 28:7–9; 2 Corinthians 12:12). The mention of the gift of prophecy anticipates ch. 14 and seems to include an ability to give insights into, and to convey the deeper meanings of, God’s redemptive program in his Word. It is to be distinguished from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16) given the apostles and their associates to prophesy in setting forth God’s truth in Scripture. Paul separates the apostles’ office from that of prophets in 12:28, where the prophetic office is listed between that of the apostles and the teachers and does not include in it, in this period of church development, the miracle-working function listed separately in 12:29.

By the gift of distinguishing between spirits (v.10b), Paul must be indicating a distinct ability beyond that which the apostle John calls on Christians in general to exercise . The ability to speak in different kinds of “tongues” (GK 1185) has been taken to mean speaking in ecstatic, humanly unintelligible utterances, possibly similar to the ecstatic speech exhibited in pagan Greek Dionysiac expressions. In the light of Ac 2:4ff., however, where it is said that the Holy Spirit gave the Christians on Pentecost the ability to speak with different languages, we are safe to say that the ability mentioned here is the ability to speak unlearned languages.

Many have attempted to differentiate between the tongues-speaking at Pentecost in Ac 2 and that in 1Colossians 12–14. A list of these differences, together with responses, is as follows: