In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, Paul speaks of the gift which gives the ability to distinguish between spirits, 1 Corinthians 12:10. The word ‘spirits’ has to do with one’s character or disposition in the New Testament. It is often used of one’s attitude toward truth, John 4:23 / 1 Corinthians 5:3 / 1 Corinthians 6:17 / 1 John 4:1-2 / 1 John 4:6.
We know a man’s character, regarding truth, by what he teaches and practices. Others may claim that a false teacher’s character is good; however, God refers to his character as that of ‘error’, 1 John 4:6. The one with the gift of ‘discerning’, that is the Greek word ‘diakrisis’, is one who is able to make a separation, dissolution, a decision, judgment, regarding who is of error and who is of truth.
We must remember to try to understand these gifts in the context of the historical period during which they were exercised. 1 Corinthians 12:10, which seems so strange to us, would be perfectly understood by the people alive at the time of the writing of Paul’s letter.
For example, his readers would understand that when he writes in 1 Corinthians 14:37, about those whom he describes as ‘spiritual’, he was referring to those who were believed to be possessed by a spirit, because this was the name by which such people were known.
Also, Christians were not the only ones who believed in ‘spirit-possession’, i.e. individuals who were regarded as being under the influence of spirits that used them as their ‘instruments’.
Both Jewish and Pagan religions also had their prophets, whom they believed were under spirit control. Paul hints at this in 1 Corinthians 12:1-2. But because men recognised the existence of both good and evil spirits, it was essential to determine by which spirit a person was being ‘possessed’ and ‘controlled’.
We know that during the ministry of the Lord Himself, there were times when He encountered and dealt with people who were possessed by evil spirits. The man at Gadara, Luke 8:26-39, and the spirit-controlled son of the man who came to Jesus because, he said, the disciples could not cure the lad, Matthew 17:16. Acts 16:16-18, records the experience of Paul at Philippi, in dealing with a spirit-possessed girl.
Bruce, in his commentary, says the following.
‘In classical (Greek) literature, Apollo was particularly renowned as the source of ecstatic utterances, as on the lips of Cassandra of Troy, the priestess of Delphi or the Sibyl of Cumae (whose frenzy as she prophesied under the god’s control is vividly described by Virgil); at a humbler level the fortune-telling slave-girl of Acts 16:16 was dominated by the same kind of ’pythonic’ spirit.’
With this in mind, Paul lays down two criteria that must be used in making this judgment.
1. ‘Sanity’.
For centuries, about 500 B.C., the Greeks had flocked to temples where priests or priestesses were believed to contact and be controlled by the gods, for whom they acted as ‘mouthpieces’, as the gods spoke through them to deliver messages.
Whether it was real or faked, when these people were under the control of their gods, they foamed at the mouth, their hair streaming out, and their limbs wildly flailing, as in an epileptic fit, all of which was taken to prove that they were being ‘moved’ by the spirit of the god whom they served.
Not so the prophets of the church. They did not scream or foam at the mouth, or roll on the ground! 1 Corinthians 14:32. The Holy Spirit enlightened their minds and sharpened their vision. They did not claim that they were the Mouthpiece of God, but the Messengers of God.
2. The ascription of honour to Christ.
The well-used Christian confession of faith in New Testament times was ‘Jesus is Lord’, and, as Paul reveals in 1 Corinthians 12:3, this was the formula by which the prophets were to be judged either true or false. Bear in mind that beginning with Caesar Augustus, Roman Emperors had begun to regard themselves as ‘gods’, and everyone in the Empire was required to recognise and acknowledge this!
Citizens had to declare their loyalty to Caesar as a god by saying the words, ‘Caesarea Kyrios’, that is, ‘Caesar is Lord’. In fact, at the entrance to every Roman camp, there was an altar onto which the soldiers were expected to throw a pinch of incense in the worship of the Emperor, whilst saying those words, ‘Caesar is Lord’, and woe betides any man who failed to do so!
But when the favour with which Rome had originally looked on Christians turned into persecution, this affirmation of loyalty to Caesar was something that the Christians were also required to make, and failure to make it usually meant death.
At the same time, there was a quite different affirmation that was being freely made by both Jewish and Pagan enemies of the church. They were saying, as Paul records in 1 Corinthians 12:3, ‘Jesus is accursed’, and obviously, only the enemies of Christ would utter those words!
Furthermore, when a Christian refused to speak those words, which were taken as an acknowledgement of Caesar’s deity, their refusal was taken as a denial of his deity, and that was treason that brought the death sentence.
Thus, the distinction between the prophet inspired by the Holy Spirit and the false prophet was, in this way, easily made. The one was happy to say, ‘Jesus is Lord’, whilst the other, because he was under the influence of an evil spirit said, ‘Jesus is accursed’, 1 Corinthians 12:3.
John also writes about the importance of making this distinction in 1 John 4:1-3. One needs little imagination to understand that in a pagan world, many pretended to be possessed and controlled by the gods so that they might claim to be speaking in their names.
The significant contrast between these frenzied fakers and the calmness of the Spirit-led Christian prophets is as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 14:26-33, ‘The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets’. In other words, there was no wild abandonment in the manner in which they delivered their message. Everything was done in an orderly manner, because ‘God is not the author of confusion, but of peace’, 1 Corinthians 14:33.
A final observation, the exercise of the gift of discerning of spirits was to be used when several prophets spoke in the service, 1 Corinthians 14:29.